What is "Rain" in Italian????

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3:57pm
So this afternoon hiking back up to our hostel from the bus station, I asked Dr. Lees if he happened to know who the patron saint of good weather was… because we sure could have used him/her today! Before the end of this trip I think I am going to have to figure out what the Italian word for rain is because it has done nothing but rain since we got here!
Today was the festival of Saint Umberto in Gubio. So we started our morning off REALLY early and left the hostel at 6:45 in order to make it to the bus station in time to get everyone on the bus. The bus ride was about an hour of the worst stop/start, up/down, curvy, hilly roads you’ve ever driven! I tried my best to sleep so that I wouldn’t get sick but ended up fairly nauseous by the end of the trip anyway. If the trip had lasted 15 more minutes I think more than a few people would have been grabbing for the nearest trash can!
It rained and it rained and it RAINED!!!! It was cold, and wet, and slimy…. Everywhere … it truly was a miserable day. Gubio was pretty in the rain with the rain clouds hanging so low in the sky they looked like fog hanging around the mountain. The town of Gubio is literally built into the side of the hill… its city streets zig zag back and forth up the mountain with some connection “up-down” streets. There was absolutely no staying dry. Our umbrellas helped us keep our heads dry but nothing could help our feet. I was severely missing my wonderful polka-dotted rain boots at this point!!!
We first headed up the hill to the square out in front of what is kinda like the “town hall”. That square is where the festival starts.
This festival is one of the weirdest ones I will probably encounter and makes town festivals in Iowa look kinda pathetic. The town’s patron saint is Saint Umberto who’s body actually lies up at the top of the hill inside a glass box in his cathedral. The festival began something like 850 years ago as a race between different pagan Gods but has turned into a race between different Saints. So the whole town splits up into three different teams and decks their houses with banners in their saints colors. The people themselves are all dressed in white pants with shirts and scarves and hats(and today rain ponchos) that all match their saints colors. Saint Umberto’s team is Gold and Red, Saint Anthony’s team is Black and Red, and Saint Georgio’s team is Blue and Red.
The main event of this festival is the “Running of the Cherry (it’s not spelled that way but that’s what it sounds like) when a group of men from each team is chosen to race these “Cherry” or HUGE wooden pillars with a puppet of their saint through the town and up to the church of Saint Umberto at the top of the hill. The object of the race is to be the first team up to the church and to race in and try and slam the doors of the church in the faces of the next team. The race itself is actually rigged. Every year the Patron Saint of the Town, Saint Umberto is the first team to head out of the square and the streets of the town are so narrow that it is impossible for any team to pass them, so they always win. Dr. Lees said that he believes that people chose their team based on the team that their family has routed for for centuries!
Before the races starts (at 11:00am) the whole town meets together in this little town square and has this ceremony and “practice” run with the “Cherry Teams”. We got to the square plenty early so Dr. Lees could explain to us the best place for us to stand as a group so that we wouldn’t get trampled and we could try and stay together and then we had some time to wander through the rain and try and find a dry place before 11. The problem with finding a dry place to hang is that in Italy, all of the buildings are soooooooo tiny so that any store or restaurant can only hold about 5 people at most and with our purses and jackets and dripping umbrellas it was even harder to find places to go into. We huddled underneath some arch ways for breaks while we searched for a place to maybe sit down and get some coffee. We never did find a place to sit down but we did find a place to get some cheep coffee and had enough room for a large group of us to huddle in doors. This wonderful little coffee shop even had some yummy pastries and a bathroom for customers! (bathrooms are hard to come by in Italy) So we were all feeling a little better after a bathroom break, sweet pastries, and something warm to drink. (I even could feel my toes again at this point!) and we headed back to the square to see this little pre-race show.
A person has never seen so many umbrellas and rain ponchos in one place before! It did make me feel a little better that even the Italians looked as miserable as we were! A sea of umbrellas started to gather on the square and we formed a little “umbrella island” huddle together on the edge of the square. We were cold, it was wet, and there were more people than you can imagine! There were people hanging out of all of the windows on nearby buildings and everyone was body-to-body in the square! As more people entered you were pushed around and you had to just push back. (It had to have been something like an Italian Mosh Pit)
The ceremony started with bands from each group playing really awesome Italian folk music as they paraded into the square followed by the supporters from each group. (so MORE and MORE people kept piling into the square) Then the leader of the celebration (I believe it was a figure kinda like Santa Clause) came out of the town hall and lead the group in prayer from the steps of the town hall.
I was TOO SHORT to see anything so I had to get the play-by-play from the Matt and Michael who were standing behind me. I also had given up taking any pictures at this point because I couldn’t see anything anyway and I was too busy protecting myself and my bag from getting squished! So we all left it up to the boys and Tori who is taller to take some good pictures to share with the rest of us.
The next thing that happened was the three group’s leader climbed up on this big poles and were introduced. Then the “Cherry” were brought out of the town hall and carried down the steps one-by-one and stood up. Each team also carried a large pot of olive oil which they ceremoniously pour all over their team’s “Cherry” and then they threw the empty pot into the crowd where it smashed on the ground. (It is supposedly really good luck to get a piece of the pottery!) Then each of the team of guys who carry these “Cherry” picks up theirs and they start running around a flag pole in the center of the square (I could see the “Cherry” moving around in circles!) Then each of the teams starts running through town on their practice journey. (apparently people will reach out of windows as the Cherry’s run by because it is lucky to touch one of the puppets on top as they run by!) During the ceremony the crowd cheers insanely wildly whenever their team is being talked about or going by. Although it was kinda scary with all of those people and we couldn’t really understand what was going on, or see it, it CERTAINLY was AN EXPERIENCE TO REMEMBER!!!

If you want to see all of this I am trying to explain check out you tube...

We somehow managed to gather all of our group who had been separated in all of the pushing and squeezing and started to push with the crowd out of the square to find somewhere to eat. The same problem came in finding somewhere to eat, there just isn’t a place for all of us to sit or even go into. We hiked all the way back down the mountain to the outskirts of town to try and find somewhere to eat away from the crowd and stopped at a little grocery store where we could get sandwiches. (Charolette even bought our sandwiches because she thought we were all so miserable we deserved a little treat) We ate our sandwiches standing underneath some trees in the rain and discussed what we wanted to do next.

Our plan had been to go back up the mountain, watch the start of the race and these guys racing through the streets, then get in this little 2 person cable cars and go WAY up the mountain to the church at the top and watch the rest of the race up there while we got to see the church and Saint Umberto’s body, and take the 6:15 bus back to Perugia. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut it was STILL raining and we were all SO COLD and SO WET! So we finally decided that it just wasn’t worth it to get soaking wet and stay in the little cable car just to see the church. And with the rain and clouds we wouldn’t even get to see the incredible view from the mountain. So despite being disappointed at not getting to see the full race, the mountain, the church, and a mummified saint, we were awfully excited to go back home where it was dry. So instead we took the 1:45 bus back to Perugia.

Back here at the hostel we just discovered that the Men’s Glee Club Concert was moved to a different venue and back to 9:30 (why we don’t know) but now instead of being right around the corner we have about a 20-25 minute walk to get there (through the rain no doubt ) But we are bound and determined to see them!

I will surely have to right more about their concert later! But for now I am going to sit huddled in my bed trying to get my toes back to a decent temperature!

Chow!
Katelyn





12:30 am
After we all got warmed up we headed over to a little pizza place for dinner and tried some different pizzas. The one that we were the most surprised at was the “tuna and artichoke” pizza. It sounds really nasty, I’ll admit but it actually was really good! I don’t think it was quite your “out-of-the-can tuna” and the artichoke was really good too. We also had a potato pizza and a ZUCCHINI PIZZA!!!!! (YEY!)
Since the glee club concert was moved we had to walk 25 minutes through the rain and the cold JUST to go see them sing! Michael had scouted it out earlier so at least we knew where we were going. They sung in a smaller medieval cathedral. Unfortunately they didn’t get much of a crowd because of the change in venue, but we cheered them on well. (and they were excited and surprised to see us!) I got to talk a little with Jacob Thomas! After the glee club concert we hiked back to our hostel (up hill the whole way!) We met the glee club guys for drinks out at Lucy’s restaurant and sat around and I even learned how to play presidents and ass holes! You haven’t heard bar & drinking songs until you hear the UNI men’s glee club sing drinking songs in four part harmony!
Tomorrow we head to mass at Saint Lorenzo’s Cathedral down the street and then we are headed to Perugia’s Archeological Museum.

Buena Noche!

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Photos

Saint Umberto
The puppet in the window is Saint Umberto and is like the puppets they put on the top of the "Cherry's"

It's STILL RAINING!!
Huddled underneath our umbrella island. Me, Betsy, and Tori.

Me and Jacob Thomas
Fancy meeting him here in Italy!

Gubio, Italy
The view looking up the mountain at Gubio, Italy.