Repost: Medieval Flagellation in an Italian Town

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/medieval-flagellation-in-an-italian-town/

If I could repost the picture of the boys in fairy wings, I would, because it's such a striking photograph.  Their young, slender frames are juxtaposed to the serious, solemn face of the center boy, who stares down at you with a frown and a look of importance.  Their wings are childish, similar to a Halloween costume, but everything else about them is dead serious, deeply immersed in this religious ritual.

I see Italy and I see old, crumbling buildings of a once glamorous city, a city with so much life, filled with so much passion and ideas that even now, when the modern era creeps into its canals and the physical materials of its buildlings crumble, the city still stands supported by those by-gone passions.  I want to see Italy for myself some day.