Gubbio

On Sunday 15th May we took a drive to Gubbio on the advice of my cousin. There was a festival on, that promised to be both fun and bizarre so how could we resist going. It is called Corsa dei Ceri or race of the candles. OMG what a crazy day, these Italians are mad!

We started off reasonably early, before 9am and it only took us an hour to get there, it's just a little north of Perugia which was lucky as we made it just in time for the first procession. 

Before I go on there is some background you need to know. Gubbio is a very ancient city, medieval in appearance with rosy pink stone buildings. It was founded by the Umbrians around the third or forth century BC. It was a rough town to live in back then, for fun they use to stuff their clothes with horsehair and run around stoning each other until most of the other team was dead. There were also frequent wars against surrounding towns of Umbria.  One of these wars saw the miraculous intervention of its bishop, St. Ubaldo Baldassini, who secured Gubbio an overwhelming victory (1151). He died on 16th May 1160 and ever since then they have held this procession, relatively unchanged, on the eve of his death, for the last 900 years. They did use to have a candle lit procession but it has morphed into 3 giant wooden artefacts or 'ceri'. Each one is approx 5 metres high, weigh 300-400kg and these ones are over 200 years old. On top of each one is the respective Saint. For the yellow team is the Patron saint of the city, our man St. Ubaldo (protector of bricklayers), the blue team is St. George (protector of haberdashers) and the black team is St. Anthony the Abbot (protector of donkey breeders and peasants and today also of students). Yellow was definitely the predominant colour. 

We managed to find a park, not easy and walked 10 minutes to the beginning of the old city just as it was starting. There was a big square with masses of people but we made it to near the front of the line. There were blokes on horses all dressed up, brass bands and hundreds of people dressed in their respective colours, everyone wearing a red bandana and red sash as they marched behind the bands.

After about 3/4 hour they all eventually disappeared up the street. We wondered where everyone was going so we followed most of the crowd. At the top of a fairly steep Street people seemed to be heading in various directions. The climb up the street had taken the puff out of mum so she had a wee rest on a wall while we decided what to do next. Just across from us was a sign above the door that said public lift but it was guarded by a couple of men. As we were reading the big map of where everything was we concluded that we probably should be heading for the Piazze Grande which was above us. Just then a couple of women, one fairly old came up to the lift guarding men and spoke in Italian, naturally, but you could understand they were asking to go up in the lift. We called out to mum to hurry up and come over so we played the elderly mother card too and it worked! They also let us up but they were letting no one else up. At the top we came to a halt at the door leading out to the piazza as there were people pressed right up against the walls so there we stood for the next hour or so. We got a reasonable view so it wasn't bad. There were thousands upon thousands of people, some had climbed halfway up walls, hanging off balconys and even some in the bell tower, it was just incredible.

I knew the gist of the ceremony but we really had no idea of what was going on or what we were all waiting for, there was commentary but of course in Italian but you could feel the tension of the crowd. Every now and then a roar would go up as some part of the ceremony was happening. Eventually the teams came from around the corner, each one holding up a huge urn, looked like maybe terracotta? When the last team came in attention was turned to the steps of the Basilica. Then trumpets blew, the huge bell in the tower tolled and the doors opened. I can't remember all the different things that happened but I have a lot of it on video.  Anyway I think the captain of the teams came out and were greeted like rock stars, then the enormous ceri came out one by one laying horizontal. So first the yellow team came down, then the blue then the black. After that they brought the saints down. Unfortunately I thought my video was rolling for that but I had actually turned it off not on so missed that bit. 

After a while, think they must have been attaching the saints to the ceri, a huge roar went up and the crowd went nuts then came into view the ceri upright with the saints waving in the breeze. They did a few circles then they were off and racing and disappeared around the corner.

We thought it was all over until later in the afternoon so we went off to find some lunch. Then we had a little walk around the town and suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by the blue team and hurdling down the road towards us with their ceri  and St Gorge on top. They stopped right in front of us and did a little twirl then off again. Then as we walked down the road the yellow team came down the road and stopped again right in front of us. They turned their Saint to face a window high up and a old woman reached out and patted its head, then they turned 3 times and ran off. It was just amazing. Apparently they can only go about 70 meters before they have to change men around, it's so heavy and only about 10 men are holding it with the support of others around them.

As we were walking back down the road I saw a guy taking a photo of a couple of birds. We got closer and there were these two tiny, baby birds not long out of the nest, in fact they could barely fly, think they may have fallen out. They were tucked into a nook in a wall, so I went over to take a photo. Suddenly one little bird flew up and attached itself to my chest. He hung onto my shirt like a broach. I tried to put him back but he wasn't having it. Then I was the centre of attention from all these photographers. The other little bird flew out and hit the ground. A girl scooped him up and put him back just as I was putting back my bird but he wouldn't get off my hand then the second bird jumped onto my hand. I felt like St Francis!

Just as we were leaving we were followed by the blue team again and we had another show. It was such an incredible day.

Then to top it off, we are sitting in the kitchen where we were staying with the door wide open and having our daily wine with nibbles of cheese and salamis brought from Norsca when in bowls this large as life bloke speaking Italian to us like we should know what he's saying! We understood "Amanda " ( my cousin who owns this place) spoken with gusto several times but everything else we struggled with. Then Jon remembered he was the one who sold wine to her.  It was a very difficult conversation, even after I got my google translate out but we got the gist of it. He was rubbishing the wine we were drinking, disappeared for 10 mins then bought back a bottle of his sweet red that he said she loved. After another long conversation he eventually left, leaving us this bottle of wine! This place is full of surprises.