+7 Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Marco Galazzi, a middle-aged man whose stern disposition masks a friendly nature, walks into the office of the Contrada Valbona, a small, unassuming space located along Urbino’s Via Mazzini that serves as the headquarters of his neighborhood association. On the walls are old black-and-white pictures of children playing, and above the entry into a kitchen hangs a banner reading Nel blu, dipinto di blu (“In blue, painted in blue”), a lyrical reference to the famous Italian song of the same name by Domenico Modugno. Upon closer inspection, however, the banner is revealed to be not a banner at all, but rather part of a kite—just one example of the articulate, three-dimensional kites that are made every year by Galazzi to be flown in the annual Festa dell’Aquilone: “The Festival of Kites.”
Held every September since 1951, the festival brings together the ten contrada, or “neighborhoods,” of Urbino to take part in a competition, and the winner is determined by who can get their kite highest off the ground while avoiding getting tangled in others’ strings. Each contrada makes about 100 kites each year, and during the festival some 500 soar through the air, gently sailing over the walled Renaissance city. Each contrada is also assigned a specific color for the festival, causing a rainbow of shapes and colors to appear in a luminous display in the sky.
Galazzi serves as the head (or capocontrada) of Contrada Valbona, one of the 10 neighborhoods that take part in the festival, which is represented by the color blue. He also serves as Valbona’s chief kite maker: He’s been making kites almost every day since he was seven, meaning Galazzi has made more than 5000 aquiloni in his lifetime.
“A kite a day keeps the doctor away,” jokes Galazzi.
Moving toward a table laden with materials such as paper, string, and sticks of wood, Galazzi prepares to demonstrate how to make a kite. He starts with a type of paper called pergamino which is imported from Germany, which he first cuts and folds into a square. Not letting anything go to waste, he uses the remaining paper to make the tails on two sides and the bottom, which helps the kite maintain its posture in the air. Using a very smooth type of wood called legno ramino, he forms what is known as the telaio, or “frame,” of the kite against the paper part, which is called the velatura, or “veil.” The telaio itself is composed of two parts, which resemble a bow and arrow (known as the archetto and freccino, respectively).
“It has to be even on both parts,” says Galazzi of the telaio. Describing the archetto, he says, “I have to then bend it to make an arch so that the length of the string [attached to each end] is the same as the central part of the kite.”
He carefully crafts each part with razor-sharp precision in order to achieve a perfect distribution of weight to ensure that the kite stays in the air. Galazzi uses a box-cutter to whittle at the legno ramino to make sure its weight is even as it forms the archetto. To test it, Galazzi balances the wood on the edge of the knife. If it doesn’t balance on its own, Galazzi will continue to work on it until it does.
Galazzi places the telaio onto the velatura to see if it aligns. “Voila! It’s perfect,” he exclaims.
While this kite is fairly standard-looking, Galazzi also makes far more elaborate ones for the festival, which he brings in to display at the contrada headquarters, placing them on the tables in upright position. One such kite is called ottopunte, or eight-point, an extravagantly made octagonal kite, the type Valbona is more likely to use for competitions. Another type, known as the Cody kite, has its origins in World War I, when it was used by the British navy as a type of parasail used for observation. Galazzi also shows off his own creation, a large star-shaped kite (which he simply refers to as “Star”) that must be held at a certain angle in order for the wind to carry it.
“All of these kites have their own unique telaio,” says Galazzi. “There are some kind of kites that don’t have any structure, but you can automatically inflate them and blow in the wind.” Larger and more complex kites can easily be disassembled to be transported, then reassembled at the chosen flying location.
Asked what draws him so much to kite-making, Galazzi’s answer is simple. “It’s in my blood,” he says. “It’s who I am.”
“A kite a day keeps the doctor away,” jokes Galazzi.
For the next festival, Galazzi plans to make a kite model of the porta entrance of the city walls that leads to Via Mazzini, near Contrada Valbona’s headquarters. Salvatore Stella, another participant at Valbona and a painting instructor at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Urbino, will also work on the porta kite. Around four years ago, he was recruited by Contrada Valbona to help design the kites. He also helps instruct others on how to properly paint and design their own kites.
“We have a different theme each year,” says Stella. “We decide it as a whole group, and then develop it together.”
In addition to the grand prize trophy for highest kite, several other prizes are given out each year, such as the Aquilone di Belezza (for most beautiful kite) Aquilone Tredimensionale (for best three-dimensional kite) and Aquilone d’Oro, or “Golden Kite” (given to the best children’s kite). While Contrada Valbona hasn’t won the grand trophy in recent years, Galazzi has won the Aquilone Tecnicale, the prize for best technical kite, for 12 years running.
The festival itself has its origins in a poem written by Giovanni Pascoli, one of the most influential poets in Italy at the end of the 19th century. Though his adult period is associated with the city of Bologna, he spent his adolescence in Urbino, where he attended the Collegio Raffaello, located in Urbino’s central Piazza della Repubblica, which today has a bust of Pascoli in its entranceway. One of his earliest poems “Aquilone,” describes sitting on a hill in Urbino, flying a kite into the air.
“Now we stand still, facing windy Urbino,” the poem goes. “From a cliff, everyone sends their comet towards the turquoise sky.”
Following the end of World War II, Urbino was beset with problems of juvenile delinquency. The Festa dell’Aquilone was started to give the youth a more peaceful way to fight. Originally, there were only five competing contrade (one of which is Valbona), but as the city expanded, the number eventually upgraded to 10, with newer contrade incorporated outside the city walls, including the oddly named Hong Kong, which got its name from building developments which resemble Chinese pagodas.
At the Fortezza Albornoz, once a fortress to keep out invaders that now serves as a park overlooking a scenic view of Urbino, I go to fly kites with Galazzi and Giovanna Luminati. Luminati, who has blonde hair that touches her shoulders and a lively smile, is one of the oldest contradaioli who partakes in the festival. While she isn’t particularly good at making kites, she assists in the rolling of the matassa, or the spool of string that’s held by the kite flyer, an exercise she says helps her wrists stay flexible as she ages.
“When I was a child, I didn’t like the kite festival because I would always lose my kite, and it was held the Sunday before school started,” says Luminati. “But as I got older, I came to enjoy it more and more. I like to be in a big mass of people. Now I act like a pirate, and try to get other kites tied up to bring them down.”
It’s a warm June day with a perfect breeze for kite flying. Galazzi and Luminati bring out some of the kites to fly. One is a standard diamond-shaped kite resembling the one made earlier, while the other is a Cody kite. It’s the first one we have more success getting into the air. On one of her first attempts, Luminati sends the diamond kite into a tree, but Galazzi is able to send it back high into the sky using little effort, turning it into a small speck with a simple tug of the string.
“It isn’t that far,” Galazzi remarks offhandedly of the distance of the kite. He notes that during the kite festival, the highest kites can reach 2500 meters (or 8200 feet) high in the sky.
“Now we stand still, facing windy Urbino,” the poem goes. “From a cliff, everyone sends their comet towards the turquoise sky.”
He then hands the matassa to me to take control of the kite. As the kite sails higher and higher in the air, I’m overcome with an almost childlike feeling of happiness. I can’t help but to break out in a wide grin. Something about flying a kite brings a wave of innocence over you, making you recall a time earlier in your life when you were carefree and unaffected by all the troubles of the world. I’m reminded of the penultimate scene of Mary Poppins, when the always-stern Mr. Banks takes his children out to fly a kite, a symbol of his transformation into a kind-hearted father.
As the kites land, Galazzi rushes to them to throw them back into the air. Despite his obvious shortness of breath in doing so, he shows no sign of wanting to stop. While he doesn’t say so, perhaps the playful nature of the kites has infected him as well.
“I think Pascoli’s poem helps us all rediscover our inner childhood.” says Luminati. “As a metaphor, I think the kite is something as you fly it in the sky, you attach a dream to it.”
Translation of interviews and other language assistance by University of Urbino student Francesca Massari. This article also appears in Urbino Now magazine’s Urbino Centro section. You can read all the magazine articles in print by ordering a copy from MagCloud.
