The Big Party

I've never been in a city-wide party like this before.

The Alpini (Alpines mountain warfare soldiers of the Italian Army) gather once a year and this time it's the 84th Adunata Nazionale Alpini. Why is it in Turin? You guessed it, to mark the 150th anniversary of Italy's reunification.

Every year, they invade a city in Italy for a weekend of festivities. 90,000 of them are here with lots of parades. They've been drinking and singing since yesterday. Surprisingly though, very well-behaved. Didn't see that many people drunk!

Alla, the Russian girl from school, and I managed to meet up an hour after our original meet-up time. The atmosphere in the city was incredible! Everyone smiling and singing, the streets were filled with brass bands... so much fun! We walked around for 3 hours taking it all in. I swear I've never seen this many Italian flags in my life before!

In the evening I met up with Rosa and went to Veronica's hen party. It was absolutely hilarious with so many party-people on the streets. Everyone walking pass shouted, "Auguri!" (Congratulations!) or "No lo fare!" (Don't do it!) and every now and then they'd stop and sing, "Che bella sposa! La la la la la la!" (What a beautiful bride!) to the tune of "I love you baby, and if it's quite alright..." Quite unforgettable!