Gubbio 2015

I recently applied for a passport for the first time in my 30 years. I am a homebody and just the thought of international travel makes me want to hide under the covers for a couple hours. L, on the other hand, is a natural traveler and the times we have made trips together, he's always been calm and collected, while I quietly lose my shit. I have been working a fair amount on my anxiety and letting go of the iron grip I have on the things that make me feel safe and calm, so I felt it was time to surprise L with a document that at least represents a willingness to get on a plane to somewhere that is far enough away that I won't be able to sleep in my own bed every night.

Catholics and their phallu--candles. CANDLES. Yay St. Ubaldo!

L recently spent three weeks in Italy for work, researching Roman and Neapolitan cuisine for his new role as CDC. He visited countless towns and villages, but he was struck most by Gubbio in Perugia as a place to spend some time "eating and looking at old architecture" as he put it while we were waiting for our Uber after seeing The Book of Mormon on Saturday (it was incredible and I thank the client that made my boss travel this weekend so he could give us his tickets). He was telling me about this rickety old Medieval torture device that the town uses as a tram up the side of Mt. Inigo and how he imagined the three of us just hanging out there together. He also mentioned that he was there for the town's All Saints Day celebration and that he thinks that I would have loved it. Also, St. Ubaldo, the town's patron saint, is celebrated on his feast day (May 15) with the Corsa dei Ceri, which is like the running of the bulls, but dudes run through the streets hoisting 20-foot-tall wooden candles and race to the basilica of St. Ubaldo. It's a pretty obvious appropriation of pagan tradition and symbolism -- the candles also have urns of water on their tops and they crash down and explode during the course of the race and it is considered good luck to get splashed with some of that special candle phallus water. So there's that.

So right there in the cold, standing on Hyde Street, we made a deal that we'll make a trip to Gubbio in 2015 and that we'll ride the tram (despite my intense fear of heights), eat with abandon, and look at some really old shit (I love really old shit).

Gubbio 2015!