The Corsa dei Ceri Piccoli

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The Corsa dei Ceri is one of the most ancient festivals in all of Italy; second only to Siena’s Palio in popularity. It’s a wild event that takes place on May 15th of every year, in which teams of runners race through the streets of the town carrying 700 pound carved wooden columns affixed with images of one of three saints, before ascending the steep path to the Basilica di San Ubaldo at the top of Mount Ingino.

Throughout the year the ceri rest within the Basilica di San Ubaldo. This will give you an idea of their massive size and weight.

In a brief blog post there’s no way to adequately describe the complex and arcane rules of the race, the pageantry surrounding the all-day festival, or to convey the excitement of the event, but on the second of June the townsfolk of Gubbio conduct a mini version – the Corsa dei Ceri Piccoli.

It’s mini only in the scale of the participants and the size and weight of the Ceri they carry. The Corsa dei Ceri Piccoli is designed to introduce the children of Gubbio to the traditions of their ancestors. The smaller Ceri are still heavy, the pageantry still grand, and the enthusiasm just as electric.

You might be awakened shortly after sunrise by the sound of drums beating faster and faster. You can join the corps as they march through the streets, stopping below each captain’s window, calling them down to lead their group. The crowds swell and the enormous Piazza Grande fills until it’s elbow-to-elbow.

Once the ceremonies begin things happen fast. The Ceri with their saints charge down the steps of the Palazzo dei Consoli, captains raise ceremonial ceramic jugs filled with water and smash them at the exact moment as the ceri are raised on their scaffolds and the ceraioli (the carriers) take off running.

Somehow the crowd parts to allow the race to begin. You can see the cero being carried aloft by the young ceriaoli

If you’re allergic to cuteness you’d better stay away from Gubbio on June 2nd, because there’s no escaping it – beautiful children dressed in colors representing their saints are everywhere as their proud parents cheer them on.So as not to be outdone by their teenage counterparts even the tiniest residents of Gubbio get to carry their most mini of ceri. It’ll still be a few years before they can fully participate in the Corsa dei Ceri Piccoli, but they’ll be ready. If you’d like to take in the spectacle for yourself please join us on our 2020 Sojourn to Umbria!

https://artssojourn.com/umbria-trip/

Matthew and Barbara DaubMatthew Daub is a professional artist and university professor with works in major public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. He has been leading plein air painting workshops in Italy since 1994.

In 1999, Matthew and his wife Barbara formed Arts Sojourn as “a vacation for artists and their friends.” The program is designed to appeal to artists of all levels as well as non-artists who enjoy the company of creative people in a slow travel format.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

“Which is your favourite cave”?

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This is a question we are often asked by our visitors. It’s hard to answer – each cave is unique and special in its own way. And as for “which is your favourite piece of Ice Age wall art”? – that’s just as difficult to pin down!

To narrow it down, we’re going to concentrate on Lascaux, the world famous painted (and engraved) cave system in the Vezere Valley, dubbed the “Cradle of Mankind” by the French. More specifically – Lascaux 4 – let’s take a ‘walk’ through:

Lascaux 4

Having passed through the Hall of the Bulls, you leave behind the huge aurochsen, the deer and the horses, whirling around above your head. You then pass into the Axial Diverticule, and can pay your respects to the ‘braying stag’ whose eye follows you around the cave. Leave the three red cows, orbiting the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory ‘ – as Abbe Breuil described it.

Steve explaining the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory’

Turn your back on the Chinese Horse.

Chinese Horse

Now stand still and look up to your left and also towards the bottom of the cave. On the left you will see the panel of the Large Black Bull, lying over the three yellow bulls and hiding a red cow. To the right of this confused scene is one of the masterpieces of cave art – the Galloping Horse. The artist accepted the physical restrictions of this panel, to produce one of the most imposing figures of cave art.

Stand about 3 metres uphill from this picture. The horse seems to burst out from the rock at full gallop. The artist uses a natural fold as a baseline and embraces the hollows and bumps of the panel which help with the three-dimensionality of the horse’s body – its muscles appear to writhe out from the rock, an effect strengthened by the mixing of red and black pigment. The artists’ technical control and mastery is well seen in the way the eye is drawn – even though the colouration is very dense it shows out, represented by 2 lightly painted and opposed arcs.

The artist positively embraced the constraints of this panel to paint a figure absolutely alive, capturing the essential being of a horse.

A few metres away, across the vertical hollow at the end of the cave and, in spite of (or because of) the tormented shapes of the wall, is an even greater masterpiece – the Falling Horse. This is an awesome picture by one of the most gifted artists of prehistory or any other period, at the absolute top of his – or her – form. If, as is often argued, the Falling and the Galloping Horses have been painted by the same artist at much the same time, they show extraordinary technical abilities, welcoming the difficulties of the natural framework to produce something that epitomises ‘horseness’.

As you approach from the Axial Gallery, you can only see the forequarters, when you go round the rock column on which the Falling Horse is painted, you can only see the hindquarters. At no point can you or the artist see the whole picture. Only in the artist’s mind is the complete animal present, in total proportion, scale etc. A phenomenal tour-de-force, an extraordinary display of artistic imagination and technical virtuosity. It’s boggling.

The colouration of the Falling Horse has also been done with very great care. For example, there are no gaps in the yellow ochre of the body – several coats of pigment have been sprayed from different directions to give a uniform coating of the lumps and bumps of the cave wall. Black (manganese dioxide) was sprayed for the hooves and mane. The ears and the line of the back were also picked out in black – by careful brushwork.

The Falling Horse

Something else for your struggling brain to try and grasp. These two masterpieces – among the greatest live horse pictures ever – were painted by the same genius down at the bottom of a dark, pokey, damp cave, lit only by flickering cave lamps. Try it with a few tea-lights in the cupboard under the stairs at home! This pair of paintings utterly encapsulates the soul of a horse – speed, power and grace. How typically Lascaux – a composition that operates in your brain on so many very different levels and in so many different ways.

But perhaps you’re asking “well, which is your favourite piece of wall art”? I think I would have to say it’s the ‘Falling Horse’ – I feel the fact that the artist could only see the whole image in his mind and not in reality and yet executed it so perfectly just tops the other extraordinary masterpieces, but it’s an arguable point.

Here’s a thought to ponder – “Which is your favourite piece if Ice Age Art?” – we’d love to know! And to those who haven’t yet visited, we hope you will bear these thoughts in mind when you do make the trip to this amazingly special region and let us know your thoughts at some time in the future! And, of course, we would be happy to introduce you to the stunning cave art of the Vezere Valley!

Steve and Judie Burman live in the beautiful Vezere Valley in the Dordogne region of South-West France. Together they run Caves and Castles, specialising in prehistoric Cave Art and medieval Castles Tours. You can join a small group (up to 6) 4 night/5 day Tour based 2 nights each in the medieval towns of Sarlat and Montignac-sur-Vezere or book a custom Tour for a day or more.

Professional archaeologist, Steve loves to share his passion for the ‘Cradle of Humanity.’ World famous sites such as Lascaux, the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory’ and Font de Gaume are close by. Coupled with gastronomic meals and superb wines, your Caves & Castles Tour is really special.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Playing with Olive Oil

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There’s a baby in the house. It’s my new-born olive oil course this autumn, on which you’ll find out how to get the maximum enjoyment from olive oil.

Do you have any idea how exciting it is to visit an olive mill to see and smell the new olive oil pouring out?

Preparing olives to be milled

 

And what about the flavour? If you haven’t been in Tuscany in the autumn, you will have a hard time imagining how intense and delicious it is. Then there’s the food for your eyes: those old silver-haired beings rooted on terraces retained by dry-stone walling.

Olive trees are longer-lived than the dry-stone walls which need constant attention.

 

Who will have fun learning about olive oil? Many educators focus on a particular group of people: chefs, gourmets, home cooks, dieticians, olive cultivators, olive oil vendors. They reason that each group wants to know different things, that their curiosity is confined to their own particular box.

I have a different methodology and more faith in the innate curiosity of people. I always design my courses for the person I was when I first arrived in Lucca. When it comes to olive oil, I knew nothing except that some dishes should be cooked with it. I used a supermarket brand of extra-virgin olive oil, not the cheapest and not the most expensive. I didn’t know what I wanted to know. I didn’t even know what questions to ask.

In my fifteen years in Tuscany, a whole universe of olive oil has opened up before me and yet there’s always more to discover. Just this week I visited Pietro Barachini, a propagator of olive trees. I saw the forest of tiny cuttings which would be ready for sale only after two years. Then it takes ten years or more for the tree to be in full production. Producing olive oil is not instant gratification!

Hard to imagine these tiny cuttings will one day become olive trees.

Pietro holds a one-year-old olive tree.

 

What about tasting the oil? What is that medium-priced supermarket extra-virgin olive oil missing (is it even really extra virgin)? What defects can you taste in it? Every day you have guided tastings.

First you warm the oil in your hand, then you sniff it (you can tell a lot from the smell) and finally taste.

 

You won’t become an oil judge overnight, but you’ll discover a brand new palette of flavours from the fruity tomato-leaf scented Sicilian oils to our spicy, bitter Tuscan oils. Your mind will be racing with ideas for using different oils with different ingredients. Your lessons making gelato and chocolate with olive oil will stimulate your creativity.

Extra virgin olive oil gelato

 

We also want you to know about the health-giving aspects of olive oil. They make a significant contribution to the Mediterranean diet and are another good reason to consume high quality oil.

You’ll also get answers to your practical questions, like how to find good olive oil in your own country, what the writing on the label means and how to store the oil to slow down its deterioration until next year’s new oil is available.

If you want to learn in five thrilling days what it has taken me fifteen years to find out, come on the Olive Oil: Tree to Table course this autumn. It’s taught by Elisabetta Sebastio, a professional olive oil taster and judge, sitting on panels that decide which oils will get the highly sought-after DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) each year, along with several other experts who want to pass on their knowledge at whatever level you’re at from beginner to experienced professional.

You’ll get some interesting surprises tasting oil with Elisabetta.

 

By the end you could be jumping up and down with excitement at having the tools and confidence to make your own choice of which olive oil to buy and how to use it in your home or your restaurant’s kitchen. If you sell olive oil, you’ll be able more intelligently to advise your customers. If you’re a producer, you’ll have the opportunity to talk with experts. The culture of olive oil will be in your blood.

If you have an open mind and an insatiable curiosity, ask for a booking form now: info@sapori-e-saperi.com

If you’d like to read more about olive oil, here are some of my other blogs: Olive Juice, No Olive Oil, Olive Oil is Fast Food

Erica Jarman invites you on inspiring culinary tours of life behind the scenes that you won't find in any guidebook — get to know the food artisans and craftspeople of Tuscany and Sardinia. Come join me and my Italian friends and dip into a lifestyle where lunch is more important than business. Find out more at Sapori e Saperi Adventures and follow Erica’s own adventures on her blog.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.