The 15th is a huge holiday in Italy. It’s a catholic holiday that has something to do with Mary – I forgot the details already…

So on the 14th, we headed to the beach around 11pm and met up with several of Giulia’s friends. The environment was festive. Families. Kids. Old people. Young people. Music. Dancing. Food. Drinks. Tents. Blankets. At midnight, people all run into the sea together. Giulia and I just put our feet in because it was a bit cold. After people swim for a bit, people build bonfires along the beach and everyone gathers round to dry off and warm up. The music gets louder and people celebrate. I eventually went to sleep, but we stayed til around 3am with Giulia and all her friends drinking and talking.

Now pause there. In the States, the idea of a party on the beAch makes me want to cry. I picture a bunch of completely wasted, immature, disrespectful, disgusting young people who have no courtesy for the other people around them. No families. Definitely no kids and old people. Not my scene at all.

But this was different. Italians (well the ones I was around) apparently know how to drink with class.

At 3am, I half expected to awake to an obnoxiously wasted crowd shouting and throwing up every where. Far from it. Sure there were some people who drank enough to not rember it the next day, but mostly people were still sitting quietly around with their friends and family swimming or talking or laughing or cooking. It was cool. Enjoyable. Festive. Exciting. Relaxing.

The next morning we slept in super late. We planned to go to the parade in Messina (the closest big city) in the evening, but I ended up … Getting sick … From trying to force myself to overheat for the 4th meal in a row. Since I was a kid, when my
Body says stop eating, it means stop eating. I usually listen, but I felt pressure to not offend and also to not waste food. And alas, we ended up canceling our adventure to Messina and resting.

No worries though because we ended up getting to watch the parade in Nizza (Giulia’s town of ~5,000 people).

For this parade, you start at the church. There is a mass and afterwards, people carry Mary of the asuncion out of the church following the priests and people holding signs and candles. The townspeople follow behind as the procession walks down the Main Street. There is also a band who plays music when the priests aren’t praying. From time to time, Mary will stop in front of a house (the house of someone who has requested prayer), they’ll knock loudly on some kind of device, then the priests will chant some prayers.

We followed some of the procession and then rushed ahead to Giulia’s house so I could take pictures from
The terrace as they passed by. We ran into Giulia’s neighbor, Pipo, on the way home and he explained that it’s tradition for him to have Mary stop in front of his house. We were excited since that meant extra pictures for us.

I always love being places when they have a special holiday.