Coming a Full Circle from Bevagna, Italy - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Sometimes, I wonder if our lives are just made of various circles. Some so big that took 10 years to complete, like the one for Niagara Falls. Fortunately, many are smaller.

In the Umbrian town of Bevagna, we met a family of four with two lovely girls. The Italian father told us that he had studied in Spain and led groups along a pilgrimage. From him, we were thrilled to learn how the word “conclave” originated in his hometown Viterbo back in the 13th century. Things like this make for the bonuses in our travel memories.

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However, in all honesty, our mind was set on experiencing the Mercato delle Gaite, during which people of Bevagna go back to the Medieval time to hold banquets, processions, and competitions between the four gaite (quarters). And, that’s the only thing we knew about this “hidden gem” in the province of Perugia.

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At the end, we concluded this a satisfying experience, being content on all things Medieval, visual, or taste, until one year later, when our travel brought us to the path way of Camino de Santiago. That’s when I remembered the gentleman’s work with Spanish Steps and the 5-star chicken coop that he built for his wife.

Isn’t life interesting in some ways?

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Italian Drama in Foligno, Italy - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Italians are no strangers to dramas. After all, opera originated in Italy in the far distant 16th centuray.

While roaming the Piazza San Domenico in Foligno before the historical parade fashioning the Baroque-era outfits, I saw dramatic stories unfolding in front of my eyes, frame after frame.

How would you caption these images if you were me?

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One clarification I thought justified to make though - when referring to drama, I was thinking more in the line of Michael Corleone and God Father kind of drama …

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… and not the high pitched OMG style.

You see what I mean?

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It's fire, It's Good Fire at Setsubun in Japan - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

Don’t panic, this is not what you think and I can explain.

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Remember the last time I shared an experience where praying, burning and bean throwing is involved in Japan? Well, I thought I’d come back to finish what I started, the burning part.

As Setsubun signifies the beginning of a year (end of winter and beginning of spring), it’s customary for people to drive away the evils and wish for good luck for the coming year. Here at the UNESCO heritage site of Shimogamo-Jinja (下鴨神社), offerings and amulets are sent, along with the flames, to the great power above, in the chanting of priests.

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What other cultures/civilizations does fire have a significant role in rituals/ceremonies? Share in the Facebook box below so we can all learn.

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