Sacro Fuoco di Sant'Antonio

Last weekend I was in La Quercia (small town outside of Viterbo) getting my hair cut. I noticed all these men piling up tons of logs in front of the church in the main square. What were those crazy Italians up to now? Was this their post-Christmas Christmas tree? I was suspicious and decided to take a photo.

Turns out they were preparing for Thursday's celebration -- really the celebration of the next town over, Bagnaia -- a massive bonfire in the center of town honoring Saint Anthony (January 16).

I happened to mention it to Max, and to my surprise, Thursday came and he wanted to go. So off to La Quercia we walked. Here are some of the photos of the town and the fire.

Max loves this. It looks like a monster attacking the church. That or a Rorschach test. Or a combo:
Roar-schach

Not sure where this came in, but there was a bagpiper playing as well.

It was like staring into the fireplace. We could have watched the flames dance all night.

The embers were beautiful -- looked like fireworks. But you definitely had to stay up-wind in order to make sure your clothes/hair didn't get burned.

when the wind would blow, the embers would curl into waves

We'll just call these my little obsession with the flames...

It was really beautiful. The colors were gorgeous and the designs looked like paintings or hand-dyed fabric.

Stay tuned for the next festival...