...and then another horse floated by.....

Life is a little surreal here and never more so than at a feste. The noise , the crowds- its overwhelming and fantastic.
When we arrived , we were early .Stalls lined the roads and we pottered about looking at stuff and dodging the traffic which was still using the road. What amazing shoes I could have bought - if I had smaller feet. All colours, and with loads of decoration. Was particularly taken with a multicoloured strappy pair with roses all up the front.
I could have bought lots of jewelry for a euro, but there was so much it was too difficult to choose.
As it got darker, the traffic was stopped, the decorative lights came on and the crowds started to thicken. The noise gradually increased as the food trailers, all turned on their music, the fairground started up with even louder music and people shouted to and greeted friends.
We sat in the "William Wallace" courtyard. (Nothing remtely scottish about it except the name). I managed to get a glass of wine. Despite being in Italy is not always possible to just have a glass of wine , without having a meal. But a nice young man opened a bottle specially for us , so we were able to sit and watch what was going on.
It was deafening. The fairground was on the other side of the road and there was a man with stripey trousers doing a little dance to attract customers.There was a large swinging ship at the back which I very much wanted to see, but definitely not to go on. By now the street was packed with people. Between us we knew quite a few of them.
Everyone looked like they were on holiday, but most of them live here. I think its because of all the brightly coloured clothes.
Its hard to describe being there unless maybe I say it was like sensory overload.  The crowds of brightly coloured people, the feste street lighting, the flashing coloured lights from the fairground, the amazing variety of music all playing together, people shouting and screaming on the fairground rides , the smell of pork and sausages, and nuts  and then horses floating by.............

To end the evening we went to hear the band play. They were loud enough, and far enough away to drown out all the other noise. The evening for us ended as we listened to a wonderful Italian operatic song . And then another horse floated by........