Santa Rosa

Buon giorno, ragazzi.

Santa Rosa is here. After much hullabaloo what with the tornado, the leaning macchina of Santa Rosa, and many days of doubt as to whether or not there would be a procession this year, the day of the trasporto (the procession where 100 men, called facchini, carry the gigantic "thing" topped with a statue of Santa Rosa) is here. Last night we watched the corteo storico or historical parade with people wearing costumes dating from the 12th to the 19 centuries. Also in the parade were the facchini (and the mini-facchini, i.e. the kids who carried the mini-macchina around town a few days ago in another of the many events that are part of this celebration) and the relic of Santa Rosa , her heart, which resides here in town. The heart was enclosed in an ornate box covered with flowers, people, so no, we didn't get a look. The whole event was rather somber, but there was some applause for the facchini who will take part in the main event tonight. At a special dinner after the parade they all receive last rights from a local priest which is pretty intense, I think. It's about noon here on Monday and the streets are already filling with people who are staking out a good spot to watch the trasporto which happens at 9:30pm. When I went out at 9am I already saw a hundred or so people laying claim to a patch of sidewalk.

Tonight there is a pot luck dinner at school so that a few faculty and friends can watch the macchina pass by the front of the school from our windows on the second and third floor and a loggia off of the main room. I usually don't get to jazzed for things like this, but the buildup to this is impossible to ignore. I am eager to see this spectacle, and I wish you all could too. We'll try to snap a photo or take some video so that we can give you a glimpse, but I am pretty sure that this is one of those things that won't quite come off in pictures.

Anyway, Caroline is off at her first painting class in Tuscania (a nearby town), and I am waiting for Eli to wake up from his nap so that I can get out and see what's going on in town. I hope that you all are having a wonderful Labor Day. We'll try to write again soon. In the meantime look at the next post for some pics. Ciao.

p.s. Last night we went to a local festival called the "Sagra di la bistecca". Basically it was a huge bar-b-q with local beef. We had a good time, but we had to make a swift exit when Eli started getting fussy and ranting like a bum at a bus stop.