Storming a castle

I climbed up to Rocca Janula this morning. Even at 9:00 it was damned hot work. I clambered up the rocks that mark the ridgeline and checked out the views. There isn’t much left of the old walls and towers on the ridge, but large areas of the Castle have been rebuilt. When I got close to the Castle I had to climb over a fence which had a sign on its other side saying "Pericosa. Esplosivi." It doesn’t take much Italian to work that out. I had wanted to climb down via the other walls that lead to the old town, but I was overheating so just had a quick look at the Peace Monument before walking down the road.

We had been invited to Lorenzo’s again, and this time lunch was even bigger! The extended family was there so it was quite a large affair. There were pasta dishes, several meat dishes, a couple of aubergine dishes, drinks, desserts, fruit, coffee… Mio Dio, I was full to bursting. I felt like Mr Creosote. We turned down the invite to dinner and waddled home.

After a kip we did our passaggiata again, this time following the procession through town for a while. Not being especially Catholic we zipped off to the stall area again. Everyone was dressed just that little bit nicer on this main night of the festival, except me in my jandals. We waited until the fireworks at 12:30 but they didn’t happen so we went to bed. At 1:00 there was a huge bang that rattled the windows, so out of bed we hopped! It was the promised Spetaculare and it lived up to its name. The sound echoes off the hill all around Cassino so the noise was as impressive as the light. Sorry, no photos this time.