721st Perdonanza Celestino

It was our last day in Italy and it wasn’t starting out to well. We had wanted to go to the beach, but weather reports were proven correct and a line of clouds was swirling up over the mountains like a horizontal tornado. 

By the time we were finished with second breakfast it was starting to sprinkle. We go Vittorio to come home with us and check our water meter. We had not considered that it had not been read in two years and that the water company was charging us estimated usage. Now Vittorio is going to take care of that and he said he will refinish our door in September. Somehow it is really bugging him. Since the beach was out of the question we drove up to Ovindali for the farmers market. The rain was a little harder and the cows were loose on the road. Many seemed to be enjoying eating apples from roadside trees. There was no market at Ovindali disproving a belief I have had for a year, but there was one in Rocca di Mesa. The rain was picking up and even with an umbrella we were getting pretty wet. I bought a few presents that I had been looking for all summer and we headed to get a coffee and pastry. Breakfast three which is ok if it is your last day. 

Another disappointing consequence of the rain was that Thursday was the 721 Anniversary of Pope Celestine’s walk from his monastery outside Sulmona through Castelvecchio on the way to Rome. Castelvecchio is the place he spent the night. He abdicated a mere three months later appalled by the corruption in Rome. He is a hero. 

Poster of events

Italian flags are tapped to each lamppost by a team of CVS volunteers 

in anticipation of the Celestino Procession.

Usually people start walking in Sulmona and as they go through each town the flame is passed to the next group. We watch the parade from our balcony after watching the participants gather by the fountain. Around three in the afternoon, the clouds cleared and it was a perfect mountain day: fresh with no humidity. 

We were also planning another “Green Night” with a Danish friend who was headed home and the CVS permanent resident Danes. In the meantime I went down to the fountain to see if I could get some good pictures. Slowly the participants arrived and there was lots to look at and friends to talk with. 

Folke Sirente

Horses

Waiting by the fountain

Coro Nuovo Armonie

The papal commission

The flame of Celestino

Guys with feathers in their hats

One Italian friend told me that he had a petorina for me. (Spelling no doubt incorrect). I kept asking him if he meant sheep cheese. MA NO! It was the thing you see me wearing in the PARADE. Yes, me! I was going to be in the 721st Pope Parade. I was so excited, but also concerned that it might be seen as irreverent for me to be wearing a banner for St. Frances when I wasn’t Catholic, Italian or even a real Castevecchian. My friend said that the friends of San Francesco was not a church organisation and basically I was ridiculous. I have been told this many times before by my daughter so I decided to take his word for it. 

Friends Franco, who gave me this opportunity, and Miriana, my new facebook friend

The addition of the Mayor's sash or as some wit said, my Ms. Universe sash.

We started up the street past our house. All traffic had been stopped so I could look lovingly on Castelvecchio at a walking pace in the road, which is smoother, and not worry about being hit by a car. Everything was so beautiful and so soon to be part of my past. The ancient castels and palaces rose above us a bright yellow ochre against the dark blue sky. Everything was washed clean by the morning storm. 

I am behind the Bocce Team dressed in orange

As we rounded the last corner into town the bells at the Church of San Francesco began to peal. This was not the recorded bells of all my years here, but the real bells swinging out to horizontal and falling backward with a shout of joy. Hundreds of people lined the streets and the piazza by the church. The eternal flame was lit and people headed into the church. I slipped out of my petorina and slipped out of this year’s history of CVS and to my friends house for dinner. 

We had roasted pork, salad and incredible potatoes cooked with onions. We drank the stirrup cup, a few too many actually and then I insisted that I had to have one more, last gelato. So back to the piazza for chocolate and strawberry. A medium! Back at home, in pyjamas all packed for our imminent  departure the door bell rings. It is the mayor and his wife. MA NO!! Again!! Get dressed, raise down two flights of stairs to receive them and a gift of confetti candies from Sulmona. Good byes, see you next year, have a safe trip and now we are on the plane. Could anywhere be more magical? I do not think so. Tonight we will be in Vermont and there is a magic to that as well. 

Arrivederci. La anno prossimo. Ciao.