Luglio: Pre-Parade Procession

Ten days after our return, I'm posting the last of the 2017 Luglio blog entries.

This memory is from Sunday, July 16, the date of the annual parade—Processione Della Madonna del Carmelo a Viterbo. It originates at a church nearby and goes right by our apartment. We have a little cocktail party every year (that we have this apartment) so everyone can see it from our balcony—not the entire group of students, but staff and faculty. This year, we hesitated to gather anyone because we would be arriving home that evening, having spent the weekend in Rome. But we decided at the last minute to have a few folks over when Laura "twisted our arm" and asked if we'd be viewing.

So, upon our return home, about an hour before guests were due, arms full of groceries, we noticed the street was full of cars parked on it. This streets are usually cleared WELL before the parade, which starts at 6:30. And now it was 5:30. Alarmed that I'd read the poster wrong, I walked down to the church to check it. A bunch of guys were there so I was able to ask and they said, This year, the parade starts at 9 pm (!) because past years have been too hot at 6:30. I said, But the cars! How will they have a parade with all those cars???? They said, Oh, the cars would be gone.

The removal of the cars was, I dare say, more entertaining than the parade itself!

Almost every spot was taken up and down the whole street.

In come the traffic cops. Sporadically, people come out and move one, or they walk up to it from wherever they were, and drive away. Apparently there were signs saying these cars need to be gone by a certain time. But geez, they cut it close.