The Festival Of Tulips

  I have to say, there are so many Sagre, or festivals right now, we are having a hard time choosing which ones to attend. This last weekend was the Festa del Tulipano... Festival of Tulips. I believe this was the 46th year for this one. 

  Held in nearby Castiglione del Lago, it was a big event. We drove over early, found a great place to park, and headed up the hill to the "centro storico", or historic center of town. It's a really beautiful hill town, with loads of history and the requisite fortress with walls all around.

  We decided to check out the fortress, and actually climb up to the topmost ramparts for an excellent view of the town and all the people milling about.

The awesome view of  Castiglione del Lago from the fortress ramparts.
You can see all the people in the streets for the festival.

  It was a great day...I was awed by all the decorations made with tulips and tulip petals...all around town. Really sweet and very creative. 

Tulip decorations in the colors of this particular "contrada", or neighborhood.

I just loved the subtle beauty of this simple display...

   There were several marching bands, which really brought me back to my time as a drummer in my high school marching band. There were even squads of majorettes!

One of the marching bands... 

These guys were classic..... we got a front row seat for "New York, New York"...Umbrian Style!

Another beautiful display of tulips..at the local bookstore.

   Each contrada had tents set up with food for sale. It was amazing to see what they had to offer...no, not hotdogs and potato chips. These folks had full on 3 course lunches, with antipasto, pasta course and a meat course! Dessert, too... we popped in back to see what was on the grill, and found the men of the house in action....

The BBQ Dudes. Oh, with vino, of course.

   Mainly, we just walked around town, totally enjoying the many decorations, and the music..there were really cool floats, too. All made from tulips and tulip petals.

This was in front of the local Antique store...

A lot of people just decorate their windows...

They even put out tulip petals all along the walls of the town.

   We really enjoyed all the floats. It was a fun and very hometown kind of day. I'm glad we made the effort. It was great.

One of the floats.

Detail of tulip petals on one of the floats

  It's these types of events that really give you an idea of community here. And this month there are so many! A big kite festival, a festa celebrating artichokes, and another for the wild asparagus.... I'm really glad we are here for Spring, and all it's wonderful treats.
 We are having the time of our lives!! Spring has Sprung.

 If you would like to come to Umbria, and enjoy all it has to offer, check out this great website of our friend, Katia, she is a wonderful resource for places to stay, and things to do, too:
http://www.umbriamagic.com/