“If they’re not mad, we don’t want them” is the chant in Gubbio on May 15, the day of the Festa dei Ceri. On that day, Gubbio truly seems launched into a parallel world, where different rules apply—and to an outsider, the Eugubini may seem truly exalted, taken over by a Dionysian spirit rarely found nowadays in our globalized, digitally connected world. The deep sharing of such an ancient ritual makes the people of Gubbio truly unique (in fact, Eugubini have been the subject of studies by anthropologists and universities!).

The quirky Eugubino spirit is not one of the city’s minor traditions—quite the opposite.

The storytelling around this genius loci has grown so much that the city developed a ritual—a kind of blessing to welcome and absorb the outsider, even if just for a day: this is the meaning of the “madman’s license.”

Getting your license is very simple.
Walk three times around the Bargello Fountain (that’s the real name of the “Fountain of the Mad”) and find a local willing to splash a bit of water on you. That’s it—you’ll be baptized for life.

We are people of spirit, and such innocent madness is something we wish upon all the wise ones of humanity.
Don Origene Rogari