Roveredo's bonfire!

I don't know if you all remember last year when I mentioned the bonfires that happen all over northern Italy. Last year we had our own bonfire, but this year some friends and I went to the community one in Roveredo, which happens to be across the street from our house. The bonfires are always on January 5th, which is the night before Epiphany, and are lit all over northern Italy to light the way for the 3 wise men looking for baby Jesus. They also burn a dummy called "vecia" which means old lady at the top of the fire. They burn her because they say she is guilty of all misfortune and mishaps from the previous year, so she must be burned. (Yep, kinda creepy.) Since Rachel's husband and Dustin had to work that night, we decided to make it a girls night. Veronica also came and I made dinner for us three. We had spinach dip and potato soup then walked over to the fire. These fires are HUGE and crazy hot. We had to stand back quite a ways. It was so much fun and I loved the smell of the fire combined with the vin brule (which is a hot wine). Afterward, we came back to our house and ate chocolate cake. DELISH!

Rachel and Veronica

Rachel and me

Getting ready to light their gas-soaked rags-on-a-stick

Lighting the bonfire

Rachel, Veronica and Me!

Vecia burning. Hope you don't have nightmares tonight. Your welcome :)

The view of the fire walking back to our house, this thing burned for days and only stopped smoking last week. The next day the air was heavy with smoke and our cars were covered in ash.