July 26 THE DAY OF THE WEDDING

Everyone of us were very excited that today Desiree and Orazio were going to get married,as you recall on my previous blog.I mentioned that the water and electricity was not a guarantee at Il Fuedo.Well when nineteen people have to take showers and get dress and suddenly there is no water and electricity you can imagine the problem. We all had to be ready to leave by eleven o'clock ,hook or crook we made it and all dressed in our Sunday best we boarded the bus an off we went to see Desiree and Orazio get married Italian style.I for got to mention that early this morning Bob and Patricia [the brides mother and father] went to where Desiree was to help her get dressed for the wedding.
It was a long way ,about 2PM we arrived went straight to the church.The church was about a quarter of a mile from where Desiree was getting dressed for her wedding.According to Italian custom ,the father of the bride walks with her to the church and presents her to her becoming groom.The church was decorated with so many flowers that it was breathtaking,all of us and a lot of the town people stood on the outside of the church viewing Deriee and her father walking from the house to the church.It was a sight to behold for an American and I was so proud of them walking the whole way the Italian way.They reached the church after fifteen minutes and the groom was waiting inside Bob made the exchange and kissed his daughter and passed her on to Orazio.The ceremony was in Italian the organist played my favorite song [AVE MARIE} it was a moving moment for all [the church was packed.When the ceremony was over the bride and groom came outside and there was a great ovation and a lot of confetti and flowers thrown at the married couple every person congratulated them.Another Italian custom arose,some body blew up a lot of balloons outside the church entrance.I saw Desiree go over and release a dozen balloons this I was told was for good luck,then some gave Orazio a sharp instrument and he started to break all the balloons[this I was told was suppose to be for good luck also.Another Italian tradition was that the bride and groom had to walk back to where the brides home and all the people at the church are suppose to walk back with her.Well almost everyone that could walked back and there were people waiting for her in the streets to shower her with confetti and flowers. The walking to church and the ceremony and the walking back was to me the highlight of this trip.

UNCLE PAT