Bangnaia Bonfire Festival

Every year the small town of Bagnaia about five miles outside of Viterbo hosts a large bonfire festival.  The fire is around 60 feet tall when they first light it and burns for the majority of the night.  We were told by our teachers and people from around town that it was definitely worth going to even if we had to trek the ten miles roundtrip.  So we rushed around last minute to try and figure out what we had to do to get a bus out there and hopefully back.  After running around town and making our way outside the walls to the place we thought was the correct bus stop we purchased a roundtrip bus ticket and assumed positions at the bus stop.  There we met an english speaking man from Rome who told us he was a multi-lingual tour guide in Rome and assured us we were at the correct bus stop.  The times on the sign at the stop said 5 for the first stop and 525 for the second stop and then about every half hour after that.  So at five no bus... at 525 no bus... so at 545 after standing for about an hour a few friends and I decided to call it quits.  We walked to the market and I got some supplies for a risotto dinner.  We drank a few bottles of wine and I made a sausage and mushroom risotto dinner and around nine we were lucky enough to get a ride out with some locals.  Upon arriving at the fire the town was quite pleasant with a large town center with the 30 foot tall fire at that time still raging.  There was a quaint folk band serenading the crowd and the thick smell of fire smoke filled the air.  We walked around the town square and stopped in a small bar where we had to swim through the crowd of cheerful italians.  The aroma inside the bar was something like warm apple cider much comfort from the brisk night.  towards the end of the bar where we found enough room to get to the counter there was the epicenter of the smell.  A huge boiling pot of red wine and fruit sat  there and looked quite delicious.  I however just got a cup of the house wine and one of my friends got the hot brule so we could share.  After we got the drinks we went back outside to join our friends who had gotten unknown to us a huge platter of free food and wine.  Without our italian friends we would have totally missed out on the delicious thick fatty strips of pancetta and "mamma sheep" meet as they called it.  On top of the delicious meet there was bread and a huge cask of red wine.  After enjoying the food and wine the band and whole scene of the fire changed. At that point there was a lot of younger people showing up and the next band that came on was a crazy ska band with full horn section and they started to really jam hard.  All the young people close to the band started to dance and even mosh a little bit so we decided to join.  Upon entering the mass of moshing italians a kid with long curly hair swung his fist back and knocked me pretty hard in the mouth which in turn busted my lip open flooding a little creek of blood down my chin.  I had no idea due to the wine until he turned around and started to apologize I told him "va bene" its all good and resumed dancing.  That night really brightened my spirits.  To be able to connect with people via music even though you cant necessarily speak directly to them really shows the power of music and good times.