I recently discovered a village in Italy’s deep Marche region with just 1,000 residents where people regarded as ugly are rewarded and crowned.
Welcome to Piobbico, near the town of Urbino, which was central to the creation of the Renaissance idea of beauty. But Piobbico is just one of those places that nobody would ever stop to visit. Few Italians have heard of it.
It’s picturesque though, with old medieval stone dwellings, cobbled alleys, a majestic castle and a fairytale-like bridge crossing a pristine river.
And every year, it holds a contest to elect the “king of the ugly”, along with a festival of music, dancing and food. A parade of the uglies, dressed in elegant black robes and hats as if they were part of some secret society, files through the “borghetto”, the oldest part of the village.
Here in the ancient district, behind a thick wooden door that looks like the portal to another era, is the headquarters of Piobbico’s “Club of the Ugly”, which currently has 35,000 members scattered across the world, as far away as the US.
“Our goal is to combat beauty cliches and reward those who do not meet classical beauty standards: they may have a big nose, hunchback, a wooden leg, or too many kilos,” said Aluigi, who has been the club president for a decade and also runs the local bar. And in case you are wondering – no, he did not strike me as particularly ugly.
“We don’t just welcome people who may have ugly physical traits, but also anyone who has been a victim of bullying, violence and car accidents. The concept of ugliness can have various sides to it, and we don’t discriminate. But no, we don’t accept dwarves as this would mean embracing certain stereotypes of society that we reject,” he told me. Ugliness in Piobbico is a virtue, and the “uglies” are heroes.
Last year “the king of the ugly” was a tall man with a wooden leg, the result of a terrible accident. There are also “queens of the ugly”, who are often nominated. One of the club’s mottos is “beauty is a trap”. I couldn’t agree more.
The club was launched in the 1800s to help spinsters find a husband. In those days, the perception was that a woman ended up being a spinster either for her poor looks or lack of dowry. It then evolved into a national event, with popular Italian actors being nominated for their ugliness.
After I talked to Aluigi and several members of the club, it made me think of how even people who do not meet mainstream beauty standards may be beautiful in their own way. This is the message the club has been trying to get across for two centuries.
After taking a long look at me he exclaimed “you’re pretty!”. I immediately took that as an insult and quickly replied: “No I’m not.”
Being pretty can be demeaning. That’s the power of Piobbico: it leads you into a topsy-turvy world where compliments aren’t what they seem, and you begin to see other people a little differently.
“They may have a peculiar trait, a strong personality or charisma, a style, a way of moving or talking, of gesticulating, of creating positive vibes around them,” said Aluigi. “That makes the person attractive in their own way.”
Silvia Marchetti is a freelance reporter based in Rome
