The patronal festival in the local town is a long-enduring marriage of Catholic devotion and awful tat. A major service in the local cathedral is followed by old Guido being carried around the town in his extremely heavy, gilded, glass-sided coffin by a team of red-faced old buffers. The streets are full of market stalls, mostly selling junk like special cloths that absorb 100 gallons of water or 'African' art.
There is also a big funfair with garish rides and the usual collection of chromed-up old lorries, as in Blighty. All the bumper cars have a big flag, which is a nice touch. I took the photographs early this morning with not a soul about. Without people a fairground is one of the gloomiest, most depressing places on earth. A rollercoaster ride in Italian is Una Montana Russa, a Russian Mountain but no one is able to tell me why. Odd.
9 comments:
We have a similar festival in England Ron, also celebrating a Guido- surname Forks. We go about setting fire to fairgrounds and shoving toffee apples up each other.
Why is a toffee apple so called? 100% Synthetic Sugar apple might be more appropriate.
Una Montana Russa....wasn't that a hit for Jonathan King back in the 70s?
Gyppos, Ron, gyppos gyppos gypppos. Though I love their music, mind.
Isn't a toffee apple just an apple and caramelised sugar?
"We go about setting fire to fairgrounds and shoving toffee apples up each other."
I am American. Nevertheless, the above sentence proves profoundly disturbing. Perhaps I live in the wrong country!
Regards,
jb
Then there's candy floss. Great for sticking in hair. I actually find an empty fairground quite an interesting place to walk around. You bumper car stall looks in pretty good nick.
That horseshoe is upside down: the luck will run out.
Affer, the Italians always put their horseshoes the 'wrong' way up. I shall have to have a word with someone.
Who the hell buys that African art?
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