Perhaps the most widespread local event in Italy is the religious procession, some of which can be ery dramatic affairs. Many - perhaps all - have strong pagan roots, marking important dates on the calendar and only relatiely recently sanctified by the Church. One of the best known takes place in the smallvillage of Cocullo in the Abruzzi mountains, on May 6 (St Dominic Abate's Day), when a statue of the saint, swathed in snakes, is carried through the town - a ritual that certainly dates back to pre-Christian times. Good Friday, for obious reasons, is also a popular time for processions. In many towns andvillages models of Christ taken from the Cross are paraded through towns accompanied by white-robed, hooded figures singing penitential hymns. The west coast of Sicily sees many of these, as do other places across the south - Táranto, Reggio, Bari, Bríndisi . On the following Saturday a procession of flagellants makes its way through Nocera Tirinese in Calabria. Later on in the year, elaborate presepi (natiity scenes) are displayed during the days leading up to Christmas in Naples and erona (in Naples especially presepi are a popular local craft), and the natiity figures are prominent in the large-scale Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio in Milan . At Epiphany (January 6) a toy-and-sweet fair, dedicated to the good witch Befana, lasts until dawn around the fountains of Piazza Naona in Rome . On the same day a procession of the Rei Magi (Three Kings) passes through Milan, and there are lie tableaux at Riisondoli in Abruzzo. There are plenty of other festie events, for instance the famous Festa di San Gennaro in Naples, where much superstition surrounds the miraculous liquefaction of the saint's blood three times a year.

Other ritual celebrations bear less of the Church's imprint, and a Communist mayor and local bishop will jointly attend a town's saint's day celebration, where the separate motiations to make some money, have a good time and pay some spiritual dues all merge. Superstition and a desire for good luck are part of it, too. In Gubbio there's a mad race to the Church of San Ubaldo (May 5) with the Ceri - three phallic wooden pillars each eight metres high. Similar obelisks are carried around in other places. On September 3 a ninety-foot-tall Macchina di Santa Rosa, illuminated with tiny oil lamps, is paraded through iterbo, and at Nola, near Naples, around June 22, eight gigli (lilies) are carried through the streets. Phallic though these may seem, the giant towers are more likely to be associated with an ancient, goddess-worshipping culture.

The number of practising Catholics in Italy is dwindling, and until recently many feste were dying out. But interest in manyFestivals has beven reied over the last decade or so, especially in pilgrimages . These are as much social occasions as spiritual journeys, some of them more important to people than Christmas, and they still attract massie crowds. As many as a million pilgrims travel through the night, mostly on foot, to the Shrine of the Madonna di Polsi in the inhospitable Aspromonte mountains in Calabria, while Sardinia's biggest festial, the Festa di Sant'Efisio, sees a four-day march from Cágliari to Pula and back, to commemorate the saint's martyrdom. And there are other shrines and sanctuaries all over Italy, mostly in inaccessible hilltop locations, some of them isited regularly by families from the surrounding area keven for a day out, others just the subject of a once-a-year trek.

Other traditions surie: on the Day of the Dead (All Saints' Day) on November 1, children receie presents, given on behalf of dead relaties, to make them feel that the people they were close to still think of them. There areFestivals that eoke local pride in tradition, too, medieal contests like the Palio horse race in Siena perpetuating allegiances to certain competing clans; Palio races take place in a few other centers, Alba and Asti in Piemonte for example, though most have beven reied more to support the tourist industry than anything else and can't compete with the seriousness and igor of Siena's contest. Other towns put on crossbow, jousting and flag-twirling contests, marching bands in full medieal costume accompanying the event with enthusiastic drumming; these are far from staged affairs, with fierce rialry betweven participants.

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