Just another Festival

Here are some friends with me, at another festival. Christina's husband sang the only English song along with many other Italian performers. That took guts!!! James is a Scottish friend in front of me, rear, Rod, right is Chris...Kevin was on stage.

The Next Generation of Racers

Today the young kids got to race on their homemade go-carts. The ages ranged from 4-10. I think the parents were more excited than the kids. This will be the next generation of racers in a few years...truly precious to watch.

The Racers

The racers are all local boys and men, ranging from 16-50, gaining speeds up to 50 km/the streets are lined with huge bales of hay to protect the racers when they wipe out, which some did. No broken bones or injuries this year. Just some injured pride.

Paciano's Formula ONE Races

This is a major production with 18 sponsors paying for all the professional lighting, video screen coverage, announcers, etc. The top ones are the starting line and the next hill along the town walls, (notice the parking lot on the left of the starting gate..been being constructed for about 6 months now!) Bottom shows one of the video screens against the medieval tower, and the last is the finish line.

The Challenges

Top L: with a hat and a nail sticking out of the top, this young man had to jump up and burst balloons containing either water or flour. Here he just got the flour./ Top R: while holding a lit candle in one hand , she had to walk bouncing the tennis ball from one end of the park and back without letting the candle blow out or dropping the ball/ Bottom L: Sergio, a good friend, started at the other end, catching the ball, tossing it over a high board, then bouncing it to this end into the pan/ bottom R: the patient of Dr House, had to catch eggs from a swinging tray, then crack them and get them into the bottle. Whoever got the most in , won...(Who thinks these up???)

Quiz Show

Here are more photos of the costumes incl the circus group and Nicolo with his Harem dancing around him.

The Quiz Show/Scassa la Grandcasa

Every year Paciano has this quiz show that requires the teams to dress up in some theme of their choice. Here we have Dr House along with his patient who had many surgeries during the show, including a leg amputated, intestines removed( sausage links) and his IV was hanging from a bottle of Chianti.. The others are either smurfs or dwarfs..not quite sure, and then the complete cast of Pinocchio incl the whale. They were judged by a panel of expats ( I was a judge the past 3 years and they changed in case I had favorites) the contestants have to either answer a question or perform some insane challenge which you will see some pics. Points are given for completing tasks and answering Q correctly and the judges must choose the best group of costumes and performances. The groups often try to bribe the judges!