Editing Pescara (section)

=== Around Pescara ===
* Spring- '''The Holy Friday Parade''' in [[Chieti]] (15 km from Pescara): friday before Easter (at 18:00) the old part of the town is crossed by a choir of about 1000 hooded men. The parade is quite impressive and it takes place since the XIX century. 
* May (first thursday)- '''The St.Dominick's parade''' (processione di San Domenico) in [[Cocullo]] (70 km west Pescara), also renowned as [http://www.festadeiserpari.it/ "la festa dei serpari"] (the snakes hunters fest). The parade takes its origin from the pagan snakes belief: even though in the centuries the parade was devoted to a Christian belief, it's a unique example in the whole european continent of a snake cult. A St. Dominick's statue all covered with living snakes is holded through the borough of Cocullo. The faithfull people approach the statue, they touch it and they pray; some hang banknotes over a colored ribbon fixed to the pedestal of the statue: they believe that as more the snakes cover the face of the Saint as worse the year after will be. During the day a lot of people go all around the village with snakes in their hands (also childreen). It's a very famous tradition that attracts about 20.000 attenders every year from all around the world. Here you can see some [http://www.giovannirinaldi.it/page/tradition/cocullo/ pics] taken by Giovanni Rinaldi.
* July and August- '''[http://www.castelbasso.it/ Castelbasso Fesival]''': Castelbasso is a small middle age village about 60 km north-west Pescara where every summer takes place a cultural festival in which the odience can visit exhibitions, theatre performances, concerts of italian and international bands. The festival is crowded and very much appreciated by local people.
* June till the end of August- the [http://www.reportageatrifestival.it/ Reportage festival in Atri] which is the main reportage festival of Italy. During the last week of June they have a lot of conferences, meetings and exhbitions about reportage and journalism. At the same time they have a huge number of art exhibitions which last for several weeks till the end of August.
* Beginnin' of Augusut- microbrewed beer festival of Castellalto (Festival delle birre artigianali). It is one of the best beer festivals of Italy and the only one where all the village is set up to host beer lovers. They serve a huge variety of draft beers and there are a lot of events about beer and you can eat good local food and you can listen good live music. It's also possible to sleep there for free (they provide a free camping) but there are also some local cs people.
* November- '''The San Valentino Wine Fest''': the 11th of November or the week-end after a wine fest takes place in [[San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore]]. San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore is a small and ancient village made of stone located just beside the Maiella National Park, on the top of a hill. It is a typical village of the inner part of the region, about 40 km west Pescara. The wine fest takes place in the the narrow streets of the old village: it is a packed street party flood by wine and music. Local people will open to visitors their private cellars where people can buy wine and food: old women will cook traditional dishes while the young people will care to sell food and wine. The whole local community is involved in the organization of the event. The wine and food will cost some money: but prices are really fair. As for the 2008 edition, the Pescara Group organizes a CS Bus. Here we have pics about the [http://picasaweb.google.it/cioepfo/SanValentino# 2008 meeting]].