22 Maggio - Gubbio

Last Sunday, for my day off from Ca' Mazzetto, I took the opportunity to check out Gubbio... another scenic Medieval Umbrian town.The town is very nice, they have the standard repertoire of Umbria: Il Duomo, a Rocca, lots of old churches, amazing views, nice architecture.... Gubbio even has a Roman amphitheater.

While all of the sights were very nice, the real highlight of the day was the Corsa dei Ceri. This yearly festival is one of the greatest/most random celebrations ever. The Ceri (or candles) are made of two large wooden prisms end to end with saints mounted atop, they weigh a couple hundred kilos. These pillars are then mounted to carrying boards, so that they can be lifted by groups of crazy hardy men and run all over town. The festival culminates with a race at the end of the day where the three saint topped ceri are raced through the town finishing at the top of the hill. Technically, I missed the official Ceri Marathon by a week, but the day that I was there was the junior division (ages 16-20 I believe). It was all pretty hilarious.

It was definitely a great time.