I know we should be used to it by now, but the ear splitting blasts from the fireworks awaken us again on the dot of nine oclock, followed shortly thereafter by the now seemingly daily ritual of the brass band parading glacially slowly down the street outside our apartment.
I decide its time to find out a bit more about all of this so its off to consult the Google machine about the feast that we appear to have landed here in the middle of. Its official title is the Feast of the Most Holy Saviour of Cefalu. The actual feast day is tomorrow, so if the cannon blasts of the past few days are only a warm up wed better invest in some ear muffs, and quickly. It celebrates the Transfiguration of Jesus, but legend has it that the day also coincides with the date that King Roger II of Sicily made his promise to God to build the Cathedral here after surviving a shipwreck. The earth shaking din we heard this morning is known officially as the shooting of the traditional nine blanks, and maybe wed better invest in those ear muffs sooner rather than later, it seems
I head out to scale the Cathedral belltowers having already forgotten about the four oclock cannon thing. Sure enough the bangs ring out again, seemingly louder than ever. We were only worried about having our sleep disturbed, but weve got off lightly. Pity any parents of youngsters or dog owners. Toddlers are screaming in their strollers pleading with mum to stop the noise, and the entire population of the towns canines is barking and howling seemingly in unison. Theres more than the odd adult looking a bit on the jumpy side as well.
As when I came into the Cathedral for a brief visit a couple of days ago, its a very distinctively Norman structure, and the frescoes above the altar are stunning, particularly the massive Christ Pantokrator depiction, which is apparently largely an Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic concept. Ive read that the views from the belltowers are excellent, and Im salivating at the prospect of taking some award winning happy snaps from up there. Hmmmm. Whoever thought it was a good idea to cover all the openings with thick fishing nets clearly
wasnt a photographer. I know its not ideal to have birds fly in and cover everything with, well bird droppings, but surely a few bits of fine fishing line would have done the job just as well. So no award winning happy snaps for me today.
We take a quick dip, and then head off to the square in front of the Cathedral to see what the feasts got in store for us tonight. The crowd builds as it gets dark, and proceedings then kick off with a brass band followed by a choir singing from the Cathedral steps.
We spot a man with a small torch on the roof of one of the buildings next to the square. Issy says she hopes hes not a sniper. There do seem to be a lot of policemen here, but I thought they were just trying to make sure the crowd didnt get mixed up with the brass band. I hope they dont know something that we dont. We look for potential places to take shelter; the table were sipping our drinks at is only made of flimsy wood, and we agree that it wouldnt provide much protection from an
assassins bullet. Torch man disappears from the roof and we start to relax slightly. A few minutes later he reappears on the Cathedral roof, and starts lighting large Roman candle fireworks set up all over the facade. The effect is stunning.
A parade sets off from the front of the Cathedral. Its led by three guys dripping with braid. One wave of the hand from any of these blokes and Im sure it would be curtains for someone. I warn Issy not to make eye contact. There seem to be a lot of local laws here, some of which I suspect were not aware of, and Im sure we must have broken at least one of them by now
