Been in valencia for the festival to welcome spring before returning to pisticci.
It was quite spectacular. The costumes of the ladies in the large procession were overwhelmingly extravagantly gorgeous. So colourful and intricate and so many..... then also the ladies and girls all walked so upright ( might have been the clothes ) that it made them seem stately and strong. If you ever saw pictures of strong looking, beautiful Spanish women in books from the past then this was like that but multiplied.
There were fireworks going off almost 24 hours a day and I would like to come back and see the displays closer up. From where I was staying I could see the higher explosions all round the city .
Then I was lucky enough to be able to see the burning of the effigy. ( enormous figures in amazing contortions and - well you just had to see them.) At the end of my street. I think I read that there were 750 of them all over the city and they were all burned to end the festa. There were even more fireworks, loud music and plumes of black smoke in every direction.
Today am hoping to go visit the giant figure of the Madonna covered in flowers carried by the beautiful ladies in the procession.
I really think I may have to come back next year. This is a very brief description of something special that you really need to experience not read about.
