2022 in Pisticci…last night of the feste, fireworks and frisky horses….

And much more.

I’m happy with myself for making the most of this year’s feste.

On the last evening I set out about 9pm and headed for the chinese shop to buy a watch. Closely followed by a visit to the cheap jewellery stalls in the back street.

After spending a whole €3 on a watch I splashed out another €3 on a lovely colourful necklace. I was going to buy a subtle red thin one and then I saw this.

Was wearing a pair of secondhand dungarees and man’s vest from Primark which was set off with colourful wooden beads. ( interesting knotted straps created by me, as too lazy to sew.)

Then I spent some time with friends drinking prosecco and shouting at each other thanks to the band which was taking forever to tune up.

I wasn’t sure if there was a parade , but was informed it would be passing in about an hour and a half.

At this time the highly decorated carriage was at the other side of town where an auction was being held to decide who could sit in it. I think the final price paid was over twelve thousand euros.

However I decided to go home and come back later. On the way home I stopped at the ice cream shop and bought a small one . That’s this year’s ice cream. It was very nice …..

Despite hanging about at home for an hour I was still too early and there was no sign of the procession when I arrived back in the piazza. I decided to stand by the railings on the way up from

the piazza and found myself a good spot.

Eventually along came the horses. There are some beautiful black ones. As long as they keep going they are perfectly well behaved but when they have to stop and hang about they are inclined to get a bit skittish. There was a fair bit of horse dodging going on.

Kept as far back as possible….though there wasn’t much space.

Then along came the carriages with priests and other assorted people.

It was around this time that I started to feel a bit faint. It has happened before. So fairly annoyed and wobbly I had to leave my good spot and make my way through the enormous crowds filling the piazza.

I found a seat half way down the steps nearby.

Eventually I could hear loud cheering so I headed back up the steps.

It’s difficult to see but the highly decorated carriage pulled by, I think ,6 mules has just arrived.

I thought that if I could find a seat I would go and wait for the fireworks. By this time it was after midnight.

I found a seat on a wall .

There were a lot of people waiting.

If was after 1am before the fireworks began . ( I was so tired, but I had waited so long.

As usual the real thing was much, much better than photos.

It was 2am when I eventually got to bed.

This morning I woke up at 6am and thought about going back to sleep. Then I remembered my new David Hockney book and decided to get up.

To be honest I thought today would be mostly spent reading as I’d be too tired to paint, but I surprised myself by making 2 stretchers , stapling on 2 canvases which I painted a while ago and then fixing the paintings as well as painting the sides.