ISOLA D'ELBA
CAPOLIVERI

An ancient tradition of Innamorata, the torch-light procession, ends with the challenge of the scarf, a ritual attributed to Don Domingo Cardenas.
An historical cortege walks thruogh the streets of the town. In front of the procession there is a crier and a torch-bearer followed by musicians, drummers, soldiers and the captain of the Guard. In the centre proceeds the standard-bearer of the "Knights of Innamorata, island of Elba", noblemen and women flanked by the torch-bearers illuminating the procession, they are joined, by an old fisherman that accompanies Maria, a character who is potrayed by a girl from Capoliveri.

Then follow the crews of the boats of the four wards of the castle. "The Tower, The Fort, The Bastion, The Ditch". Each ward has his captain, an old fisherman, who is accompanied by a youngster holding the flag.
They are joined by the four members of the crew, dressed with in large, white shirts, blue trousers fixed under the knee and a net on the head, they are distinguished from one another by their sashes which have different colours: The Fort blue, The Bastion red, The Ditch green, The tower yellow.On the beach the characters Don Domingo Cardenas and Isabel Martorell, the fisherman and the girls who were elected by the four wards are waiting for the victorious steersman, who retired the scarf and swims from the reef to the beach he gives the scarf to the old fisherman, who hands it to Don Domingo Cardenas.

The nobleman puts the scarf on the shoulders of the elected girl belonging to the ward won, and proclaims her the Maria of the next year. She will keep the scarf, and as tradition has it, find love.
From Capoliveri the crews reach the beach of Morcone, where they get ready for the challenge. The cortege on the other hand reaches Innamorata and searches for the two lovers. A pyrotechnic display of green fire, cues to get ready and a red one makes them start.
The boats pass the gulfs of Morcone and Pareti, in Innamorata the they reach the reef named the "scarf" and the steersman of each boat jumps in the water in order to get the scarf which Maria left on the cliff before she jumped into the sea.