I went out Sunday morning to see what mayhem had ensued overnight. There was cannon fire and rifle fire echoing all around the town and I went to see what was going on.

The first thing I ran into was the Briganti flag in the piazza. When they take over during the night they always hoist their flag and remove the Italian banner. It may look messy, and it is, but it’s intentional. Disregard the scaffolding on the Comune building. the red fencing is normal in Italy around construction work. So is the hand road sign. There is a briganti on the hand sign. And there is a yellow ATTENZIONE LAVORI IN CORSO or Caution, Men at work sign.

Next we see a close up of the yellow sign. Maybe now you get the meaning?

And, in keeping with the theme, here is a work notice that they post at all construction sites here. The briganti is at the top. The name of Umbertide used to be La Fratta. And note the date: February 30, 1861. A date that doesn’t exist! Hah!

So I went off to see what all the shooting was about. I came upon a bivouac. Apparently the soldiers had camped under the Rocca and were now shooting at another group up on the ramparts. One group wore black uniforms, the ones up top wore red. I am woefully uninformed about who these groups are. I will need to ask Angelo. He may know.

They had muzzleloader rifles which definitely slowed the action down a LOT.

They brought their horses too.

And here are some of the costumed re-enactors.

Over the door it says 8th Bersaglieri. This means the 8th battalion of riflemen or sharpshooters.

So ends another Otto Cento. A fun time was had by all!