We travelled from Chieti to Sulmona, a small town of 24,000 nestled in amongst snow-capped mountains.

This town was built by the Romans and still has an ancient aqueduct right in the town piazza. The streets are lined with confectionery shops that make a local product called confetti. These colourful confectioneries are made from sugar coated almonds in the shape of flowers.

We ate lunch at a Michelin star resturant with very reasonable prices. It did not disappoint. The whole meal with wine, starters, mains and sides was only 60 euro.

The next morning we walked to the main piazza where they hold an Easter Sunday event every year that was first documented in 1861, but which is believed to date back to the middle ages.

The event recreates a story from the bible. To paraphrase, the backstory is that Saint Peter and Saint John go to Mary's place on Easter Sunday. They say to her "Hey Mary, you know how your son kicked the proverbial bucket two days ago?". Mary says "Yeah". Peter says "Well, turns out he is alive again". Mary says "Pull the other one. It plays jingle bells". Pete says "Nah, yeah. No joke. I swear to Jesus Dad". Mary says "OK, why doesn't he come here then?". Pete says "Sore feet". Mary says "Allrighty then, let's go see him". They're all walking along when Mary suddenly sees her son. She runs to his arms with music and doves all around.

So to reenact this scene, which I may have embellished a little, The town folk in Sulmona carry a statue of Jesus to one end of the piazza. They then carry two other statues representing Saints Peter and John to the other end of the piazza, where they meet a bunch of men carrying a statue of Mary. She is dressed in a black mourning cape. They start to walk down the piazza, doing a little sideways jig kind of move. Then all of a sudden the black cape falls off, revealing an ornate, green dress. Doves come flying out of her cape and the men carrying her statue run full pelt down the piazza to meet Jesus while the Halleluyah Chorus blasts from speakers all around the piazza and fireworks go off.

Apparently if they fall there is bad luck for the rest of the year. They have only fallen twice in memory, once just before the first world war and then just before the second world war. We are secretly hoping they don't fall this year while Trump is still president of the USA.

We waited for 2 hours for the event. Luckily the weather was mild and not raining. Perfect waiting weather in the open. The crowd was huge and we managed to be standing in the second row behind the barriers. By the time the statue of Mary came down the piazza, we were being crushed against the barrier and I had to hold my camera way over my head and just snap, hoping I was actually getting a shot. I managed to get a couple of shots, none really fantastic, but reasonable.

It was all very exciting and the whole town was abuzz for ages after, with fireworks going off and parades, marching bands, music, etc. throughout the city.

For dinner on our last night in Sulmona, we went out for pizza. We were surprised to see that here they have a french fry pizza. Yes, french fries all over a pizza. We didn't order it, but we saw a lady come in and buy a piece and then squirt tomato sauce and mayonnaise all over it.