The Santa Rosa festival

The Santa Rosa Festival is only the biggest day of the year for Viterbo and its surrounding districts.

Of course living halfway round the world, I'd never heard of such an event before until uni orientation, and so, arriving clueless and more than a little lost in the city, I was not expecting such to be immersed in such a unique and joyous celebration within days of being there.

For an outsider its a little bizarre and incomprehensible to understand. I sent a picture of the festival to my family, and my mum's husband mistakenly took the Macchina of Santa Rosa for a lit-up fountain. To clear things up for everyone back home who might be unaware that such a festival exists, much as I was eight or nine days ago, I thought I'd write down my experiences of it to try and give you a better idea just what it entails.

First of all, a little background is needed to fully understand the significance of the ceremony. Santa Rosa is the patron saint of Viterbo, known for stirring up feeling in the town centuries ago for the inhabitants to fight back against outside occupation and return to under the religious influence of the popes. She did all this before she even turned 17 and as such was banished from the town and forced to wander around the small provincial districts around it. This didn't stop her fervour and she eventually was one of the main instigators in the people rising up and expelling their conquerors. She returned to the city briefly before her death at age eighteen, and after her body was found intact after several years of burial, she was declared a saint by the Catholic church.

While the Santa Rosa seemed to originate as a festival carrying the saint's remains through the city, since the late 1600s a "Macchina" or figure of Santa Rosa has been used instead. These have increasingly gotten more and more lavish, and the current statue which is carried through the town literally towers above the city walls. Its so tall it doesn't fit in a single camera frame from on the ground, no matter how wide the zoom and from underneath you have to literally crane your neck to see the top. The Macchina is carried through the city by a group of 100 men called "Fachinni" from near the main gate to Rome to one of the churches at the far end of town, where it abides for several days before being dismantled.

With the rest of the group, I was insanely privileged to be allowed a glance over the Macchina a couple of days before the festival. From underneath it was an awe-inspiring sight, made of plaster so white it hurt your eyes to look at it even under the shade of the cloth and scaffolding which hid it from the public eye. A few days later I was wandering into the city gates to meet my friends and it was uncovered for view. The square was literally packed and even the locals had their cameras out to take it all in.

The night before the parade there was already a lot of excitement in the air. I had ordered a drink at a bar, and in broken English both the bartender and an Italian couple beside me insisted that I have rose flowers in the beverage in honour of the Saint, as was tradition.

We got to the Piazza where we were gonna spend the next 8 or so hours super early as we didn't want to miss anything by getting a bad spot, but it was already pretty full. People had already been camping out since the day before to hold their spot. "

Whilst we waited for the Santa Rosa, there was a bunch of smaller parades running in and out through the square, with flag-bearers, music and historical outfits. I took as many pictures as my camera could handle, while still being incredibly impressed with the coordination of the people involved, locking in every aspect of movement to the music played by the trumpeters and drummers. 

When the red, white and green national flags were thrown in the air, it was genuinely the most Italian thing I've seen since I've been here, and I was lucky enough to grab this shot of it.

Photos and words can't really describe what it was like on the ground though. The crowd was enormous, stifling and at times very restless. With the relatively small group of American students, I witnessed a fight break out in front of us simply over getting a better view of events, and people queuing up outside a nearby restaurant just for bottled water. We whittled the time away in a similar restless excitement asking each other random questions and talking about music. However, even that was edging on boredom near the end of the evening as we'd literally been waiting for hours, surrounded by a crowd that felt like it was collectively holding its breath for the Macchina to arrive.

And arrive it did, all of a sudden peeking out from over the top of the surrounding apartments and then rocketing into the Piazza at a pace much faster than something that big should ought to move. The lights went off in the square, and suddenly the whole crowd was on its feet, clapping, cheering and otherwise completely losing it as the Fachinni laid it to rest on the ground of the square. I took three really average photos of the whole thing before my camera also decided to completely lose it and the little battery life I had left exhausted itself trying to focus on the enormity of the whole thing.

Then the barriers went down, and the whole crowd surged forward towards the Santa Rosa. I had been standing with my friends taking a picture on my phone (the next best thing) and then all of a sudden they were gone. I was alone left to feast my eyes on the sight, surrounded by unfamiliar faces and voices, just soaking and breathing all of it in. Having rested up, the Fachinni made their way underneath the Macchina and hoisted it back into the air for the final sprint up the hill to the cathedral where it was to be laid at rest. It truly was an inspiring sight, just completely out-of-this world and breathtaking to see it all lit up in the dark. Alone, in a city a long distance from what I've known as home, I was just swept up in the feeling of the moment and for a brief moment this wasn't just their culture I was celebrating, but my own - our own.

I took some visiting Kiwi friends to the cathedral today to see the Santa Rosa. It was broad daylight and once again hard to look at for a long time without sunglasses. But my camera was working this time, so I managed to grab a few final pictures to just show the enormity and beauty of the Macchina in a little more detail.

It definitely was an introduction to Italy I wasn't quite expecting, but one I'm sure glad I was around to witness. If you're ever in the region near the beginning of September, the Santa Rosa is unmissable. Head along and let it blow your mind like it did mine!