Monte S. Maria Tiberina Festa D'Autunno 2013

For those of you visiting Umbria, Sagre (singular sagra or food festival) are an interesting experience for the visitor.  This time of year, in our part of Umbria, there are many that celebrate a particular type of food, such as chestnuts or mushrooms and then there are others that celebrate medieval times.

The town of Monte S. Maria Tiberina is not too far from Umbertide, and we took a Sunday to go explore one of the hill towns having a celebration. The basket is of chestnuts picked by Lippiano and are for sale for 5 Euros a Kg.

Italians of all ages seem to love to dress up.  Not having a word for self conscious, they don't seen to experience this emotion.  I just love how easy in their skin and their costumes they appear. They start young.

So handsome....

We ate on the terrace with a panoramic view of the valley below the hill town.  The food was of course excellent.

The fall colors are just starting to change.  We have had very warm weather for this time of year, and although it is great to have warm, sunny days, it concerns the Italians that the climate is so messed up.

All the the town people attend these fairs, including the carabiniere.

Italians have the best uniforms in the world.

Not everyone in town was allowed to enjoy the festivities.

It was not all fun and games in medieval times.  There brought out the old instruments of torture to show us how they dealt with the evil doers.

The little girl is laughing so hard that it must be her brother on the wrack!

The torture stuff creeps me out, so I didn't ask any questions about it.  You can use your imagination.

Paul demonstrated the idea in case you didn't get it.

There were also people demonstrating crafts and instructing their children about the old ways.

The results of all this hard work. The intricacy of the carving is amazing.

All in all it was visit back in time, on a beautiful Sunday in October, with our very dear friends.