TRAVEL STORY OF THE MONTH
*BIKE ACROSS ITALY*
A mare to mare journey in impeccable style hosted by a 5-star Friday Friendly Tour Company
ANDIAMO! If you're over pulling rocks from under your Thermorest, scrubbing congealed oatmeal from your MSR stove, and standing on traffic islands with a fragmented map flapping in your face, welcome to touring with all the frills by Ciclismo Classico - a Friday Friendly Tour Company. Here's an excerpt from Day 5 of the BAI tour: Festa dei Ceri, or The Race of the Candles, in Gubbio, Umbria.
-- by the Galfromdownunder
NO ONE with a personality ever rubbished a rest day on a challenging bike trip.
After much grinding uphill in the unexpectedly toasty May heat, the group rejoiced the opportunity to languish in mystical, medieval Gubbio for two nights.
Starting at 5am, what sounded like a 44 gallon drum being refashioned with a frozen leg of ham reverberated in the street below. A cacophony of cheering, bell clanging and cornet bleating followed, repeated every fifteen minutes until my alarm sounded.
 Heeeere comes the Saint ... St Ubaldo always wins, despite nearly toppling sideways atop his 600 kg 'candle'
The centuries-old Festa dei Ceri, or Candle Race, is celebrated every May 15. Ciclismo Classico times its May Bike Across Italy - Ciclismo Classico tour to coincide with a 2-night stay to witness this event first hand. According to local literature, it is .... a festival dedicated to the patron Saint of Gubbio, St Ubaldo. The origins of the festival are uncertain, some say it arose from the very ancient Umbrian rites in honor of Ceres, others from a historical event which took place in the free Communie of Gubbio around 1000 A.D.
Imagine a 'running with the bulls' scene of epic proportions, a seething crowd through which three towering ceri or 'candles', each weighing 600 kilos and topped with an effigy of a patron saint, are hoisted on stretchers and then ploughed through the twisty cobbled streets of Gubbio at a Lance-on-his-last-legs pace. The bearers are the town's strongest men dressed in red kerchiefs, white pants, and blue, black or yellow shirts, depending on which saint they are assigned to hoist.
The giant candles are actually comprised of two gothic-looking, turned wood columns stuck end on end, each hexagonal in cross section and chamfered like big fat kiddy pencils at each end. A wedge is soaked with water from three special urns to causing it to swell and lock the candle to the stretcher.
The procession starts at 5pm on May 14 and lasts all the next day, and every man, woman, child yipping chihuahua - even tourists in the know, join the fever and sport the signature red neckerchiefs over a blue, yellow or black shirt ...
Read more of this story on the Bike Friday website | Full trip report
Italy specialist Ciclismo Classico (CC, pronounced 'Cheek-LEEZ-mo') is a Boston-based company that strikes a good balance between sufficiently challenging miles and guilt-free pampered luxury. CC has been recommended by several Bike Friday customers, and principal Lauren Hefferon joined the fold by acquiring a Pocket Rocket Pro. In 2007, an Outside Magazine article "Best Trips. Ever." named CC's 'Giro del Gelato' tour as their Trip of the Year. BF Customer Evangelist Lynette Chiang reviewed the one of the company's most popular tours: Bike Across Italy. Ciclismo Classico is a Friday Friendly tour company.
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GOT STORIES LIKE THIS TO SHARE?
(Or: "I was drafting the masked man on the unicycle and then ...") Each month we send a travel story email to our worldwide family of Bike Friday customers - inspiring them to embark on their next adventure. Like to share your tale with the fold? Email your story and least one good photo of you and your Friday to BF Customer Evangelist Lynette Chiang. We assume you will let us share the story and photos in our literature unless you'd really rather we didn't - please say so. Check out past stories here. Published stories will receive something tres cool from the BF inventory. Start sorting those shots now!
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This newsletter's magic code is 1453
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