Living in Cortona feels like you’ve traveled back in time. There’s centuries old wall that surrounds the city and none of the buildings were built within the last 100 years. The streets are lined with cobblestones and the entire town is steeped in tradition. Probably the coolest thing I got to experience while I was there was the tradition of the fest day of the patron saint of the town, Santa Margherita.
Italy is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, so it was no surprise that Cortona would have and celebrate their own saint. Just walking around town you could find so many things dedicated to her, from churches to artwork. As someone raised in the Catholic faith, this was super cool because even though we celebrate saints in the United States this was on a whole different level. The highlight of all this was the actual fest day celebration which lasted all weekend. The local people from the town all dressed up in medieval clothes and put on a play of her life on the first day. I was able to recognize many people I’d seen around town participating. The second day consisted of offering candles to Santa Margherita and having an archery competition. The third day was Sunday so there were multiple services in her honor at every church in town, along with a fantastic display of all the bells ringing at once to signal the start of each service.
It was amazing to see that even after hundreds of years, this saint is still celebrated for the great things she did for Cortona and the traditions of her time are still upheld.