Saturday in CVS was a day long celebration of San Francesco, Sunday was a day long celebration of the Bersaglieri. There were two amazing bands who could run and play, guys on old bikes like the ones Mussolini sent young men riding off to war. Possibly the very ones. Folk Sirente was there and they preformed. It was a huge day in CVS. Lots of mayors were there and they got to do some running in hats with feathers.
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| Our great friend, Victorio |
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| Wathcing the parade |
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| Feather hat |
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| Folk Sirente |
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| Bikes from Lanciano |
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| Raising the flag at war memorial |
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| The person who made our day |
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| Here comes the parade |
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| Oklahoma size flag |
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| Our great friend, Pasquale |
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| Banners of the different towns |
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| CVS Banner |
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| Folk Sirente |
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| A near neighbor |
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| Folk Sirente |
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| Big Flag |
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| Same bikes, no brakes |
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| Our mayor on the right, Pietro, a great friend |
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| Folk Sirente |
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| Folk Sirente |
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| Fedricka, Our neighbors daugher |
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| Folk Sirente |
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| Folk Sirente |
After that we went to Sulmona for the parade prior to the jousting tournament. Sulmona had twelve prominent families and each one lived in an area called a Borga. When we walk around in Sulmona each neighborhood is marked by flags. Each of these borgas has its own trumpet and drum core and people that carry the flags. This day was even more special because people were there from other European countries such as England, Greece and the Czech republic. I am going to put a bunch of pictures up for your perusal. We drove into Sulmona with the Danes and parked the car with no problem, walked across a bridge to the old city, came to a barrier, stood there in the front row and here came the parade. It was amazing.
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| This guy looked right out of the 1400's |
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| Unusual costume |
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| Most of the drummers were women |
Then the parade ended and people started heading down the street so we went to, found a coffee place with a table in the shade and settled in. Pretty soon we heard the bands coming back from the opposite direction. We were directly across from the main viewing area with a woman telling all about it in Italian and another in English.
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| The Danes |
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| Scottish Pipers |
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| Flag throwing and catching |
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| Flag throwing and catching |
This is under the aquaduct. You can see a small view of the piazza where the jousting takes place. What they really do is try to snare rings with there lances. The horses look like thoroughbreds, not war horses. Unless you pay the big buck, this is all you can see.
It all could not have been better. I love Sulmona and it was great to be there when the entire old city was blocked off to cars; except for Fiat 500s.There were probably 25 of them parked along a street. We picked our favorites. As you can see they are little!
I am sure we have done some of the usual stuff today, but I have been chained to my computer doing portraits. Holy cow 2.5 to go. I have 21 so far. Only 1180 more people. I still don’t know exactly what the plan is for an art show.
Proof that we had coffee today.
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| The Mayor, Pietro |
Proof that I was painting today. You will have to wait to see the 1/2.
Tonight is the party for Gagliano Danes and two Americans. Tomorrow is a special dinner at Girasole with Danes, Italian, Irishman and two Americans. It is some special menu and wine tasting. It is so hard to know the prices in restaurants until you get a bill that blows your money for the week, but this is a fixed menu for 20E so we know the facts. Wednesday we get Audrey and there is something every night after that. Hopefully I can finish the 2.5 portraits before she gets here.
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