Alpini

While the loss to Torino was pretty devastating there was an upside to the weekend. The annual gathering for the Alpini was last weekend? "What the hell are the Alpini?", you are probably asking.

And I will respond by saying, "Stop being so lazy, Google it you bum". Actually as Ive mentioned it before, use wikipedia...credible source or not it got me through college.

Ok, Ok i will help out...
The Alpini are a division of the Italian military that specialize in mountain terrain combat. The are most notorious for their alpine battles in the first and second World War, but now they are known for getting together once a year and having a huge party. How big? Well the town of Bergamo is normally 100,000 people. Last weekend during the festival there were over 500,00!

Every year they pick a new city in Italy to have the celebration, the last time it was held in Bergamo was 27 years ago. I definitely picked a good year to come. The guys on my team tried to prepare me for what it was going to be like but it didn't do justice.

They (the Alpini) first started showing up on wed last week. Because there is obviously not the accommodations for an additional 400,000 people at the local Holliday Inn these guys instead used the skills they learned while roughing it in the Alps. They started setting up tents everywhere. And when i say everywhere I mean EVERYWHERE. Not just in camping sights, or even public parks...a little grassy patch on the median in the center of the road, if you weren't there by Friday you weren't gonna get it.

Of course there was a parade on Sunday morning(actually it lasted from 9am to 9pm straight with over 150,00 people), but that wasn't why these guys were here. They were here to DRINK! 6:30 in the morning throughout the town you could here their version of "Taps" being played at Evey tent congregation...this wasn't to just open your eyes but get that bottle to your lips. Keep in mind, almost all these guys are in their late 70s to 80s. LEGENDS!

The festivities went on throughout the day. The whole downtown was shut off to traffic and people walked around to all the different tents where you were always invited to sit down and have some wine or grappa, sausage and listen to an old war story. By Night it was total madness as the youth of Bergamo added to the debauchery. The whole town was RAGING. You literaly couldn't move, every square inch of downtown was taken by someone with an open bottle in hand and a smile on their face.

Surprisingly no fights or public damage...everyone just wanted to have a good time.

Bus #10