The Lovers of Teruel and the Smooch Chain of Spain

That's a good character voice. Oh yeah, she's great. She's what does she sound like like a normal human being? The regular voice? Yeah? I mean it's been Does she even have like an accent? Like a New York accent? I was just gonna it's been well over a decade since I cared about anything about friends, And even then it was I wouldn't say caring is the word. It was of those like early days of the internet, Like, oh, an article came up for me, Oh interesting, it's about

the girl from Friends. That was That was the thing I'll read today on the internet. I wonder what I'll read tomorrow. And that was it. I did see someone tweet like they missed the stumble Upon era of the internet. Just go on the Internet and you found the weirdest ship. And it wasn't about finding anything specific, literally like I'm going to see what I run across today, And that's so true. That is a different era. There was straight up a website. I had a Bookmarcus, my homepage called

stumble Upon. I didn't think, yeah, you checked your check boxes with all your interests and it would just show you random ship. It was like, you know, the algorithm before the algorithm. Um, yeah, it was super cool and it was mostly all at least the boxes I had checked and mostly got interesting fun or funny or like cool science stuff, whatever TV video movie related thing. And now you have all the world's hatred concentrated into a four inch brick in your pocket at all times. What

a life. But not us also get us, and that offsets everything because we're not we're not about that hatred. Well, look, people don't want us to talk about murdering people anymore. I know. We did get a review they said they were very tired of hearing us wish murder upon people, and to be fair, you implied murder upon people, and I backed us off. No one wished murder on anyone. I was going to say, I think I wished murder on many people. I have certainly threatened to set building

on fire. But yeah, and maybe building, and maybe you've suggested that people were inside that belly. But I know also that there is nothing you would ever do. Um, I'm way too lazy for arsenal. I was about to inflate your compassion and your good nature, but that's the lazies. Like a comfortable beach side resort in which to write my angry letters about how everything should change, my armchair quarterbacking with the way communities are marginalized in this country.

And can I get another peniut colada? Please over here? Thank you real quick? Thank you? Where was that a dollar? Day? True? I guess the resort would be a bad place to get there's a quarter. Don't spend it all in one place. Wow, you're a terrible person in this, in this very fictional fantasy we've grafted, we can't afford a beach side vacation with pina coladas being brought to us, not even for a quarter for drink. Well, I can tell you one place I'd love a beach side vacation. And that is Spain.

Oh I love Spain. I know. The very brief, brief honeymoon alert time that we got to spend there in Barcelona was one of the coolest cities I've ever been to. Definitely, and I would I would definitely take a few weeks and just do Spain. Spain, but yeah, beautiful. And if we could jump over to Portugal, that'd be dope. Yeah, I know it needs to. I know, every time we start talking about a vacation, it just starts expand a lot of mission creep in our vacation planning. But that's

not the point. We're talking about Spain today. We've got a story that is another one that's from legend sort of, but it could be fact, it could be fiction, but it spawned a huge cultural following and it became the central tourist draw for a city in Spain. Now, this story says that in the thirteen century to teenagers from opposing families fell in love and their parents would not let them get together. This sounds familiar, right, Let it

at Romeo and Juliet. In fact, all this happened a couple of hundred years before those two crazy kids even went into Shakespeare's brain. This was Diego and Isabel of Tarwell, Spain, and you can even go visit them today. Kind we'll get to that. Let's dig into this centuries old story and hear how it led to a Guinness World record being set just a few years ago. Here, well, let's go. Hey, their friends come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some

stories to tell. There's no match making, a romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships, a lover. It might be any type of person at all, and abstract cons at a concrete wall. But if there's a story where the Second Glance show Ridiculous role Lance a production of I Heart Radio. Before we get into this story, um, I thought that it would be really fun to revisit our ridicu coon idea ridic ridicukon. We threw that idea out

at a previous episode. Several of y'all responded very enthusiastically about having some kind of fun convention with us and ridiculous news and ridiculous crime and ridiculous history all in the same Can you imagine it's it's so much ridiculousness the roof would just get blown off in a very funny way I imagine. Yeah, yeah, I'd be like foam or something absolutely exploding with foam shooting up into the sky.

Hopefully it would be something historical and loving and newsworthy and also a bit of a crime so that we could all cover it. Are the best stories. We're going to find that one for podcast crossover story that just fits them all and we're all involved, and it's chaotic podcast episode of all time, just eight people screaming at each other. We will have to make that a four

episode series. But yeah, y'all were super excited about this silly idea that we had, and um, we had also asked you to come up with fun activities that we could have at this ridicukon stuff that we could all enjoy, and y'all came through gangbusters with some good ideas. But also, like a while back, we did an episode about Hadrian and Antonus from ancient Rome and mentioned, you know, wouldn't it be fun if there was an Art Olympics, like an Olympics but for art for art. Yeah, and y'all

came through some amazing ideas for Olympics as well. Together, Yeah, exactly. They We never got to talk about those ideas. So I was like, we should just combine these because I feel like our Olympics totally works for Yeah, definitely, So I thought we could open up the letterbox and have a quick mail call. Awesome. Okay, So our first one comes from Larissa Hughes, who suggested for ridicukon a photo booth with themed world locations and we would call it

Paula Dorothy Putnam and take a trip about it. Yeah. I personally I am in love with this idea. This is perfect. I mean, y'all know Dorothy Putnam is just the coolest person in the world, and her style of like I'm upset, I'm going to take a trip halfway across the world is something I think we can all aspire to, especially you. That's that's You're like, if I had the money, I would pop out of here at any given time and I would take as many people as I could with me and tell them all to

go do something else. Um alone. But it's perfect. Backdrops from all over the world, you know, cool funny props photo booth, Get a scarf to like wind around your face, and like some cool sunglasses fan blowing. Also, I think you need to have the ship as an option to get get your picture on the steamship that Dorothy was on. And she's sort of like, you have to like sort of be like, oh, George is here, yea behaving? Well, this is perfect, this is perfect. I'm setting out this

photo booth just for myself. Yes. Larissa also that Dorothy is her favorite episode, much like me. That's one of my favorites too, and she cannot wait for the George and Amelia one, which I'm very excited to get to, very yes. So yeah. And then we combined lyricism amazing idea with some Otlympics suggestions we had gotten on Twitter. So at song Flight girls suggested couples pictionary, so the last couple to divorce or break up wins. Tell a

competitive pictionary can really be. She also suggested speed caricature and said, I don't know how this one works. I just think characters of the judges would be funny. And then I will not be judging that one. I don't need a caricature. Let me exaggerate all the things you don't like about your face than um. And also a song Flight girl said endurance ceiling painting. Can you outlast

my Colangelo? That would be incredibly difficult. I can tell you right now I cannot probably in any place probably any medium, yeah or medium. Yeah, it's science. And I mean I'm gonna lie down on my back on a scaffold and like lift a paintbrush to the ceiling and within I wouldn't say four seconds, my hand will be completely asleep. Just uh and at lady Tu got in on this, also suggesting slalomn sculpting. Yeah, no, I get it, I get it. I think stuff if I'm right here,

let me know. So you would get on your skis and you would go in patterns on the mountain to create a sculpture, right like you would use your your skis to carve away the snow until you've created you know, whatever you're on little Mount Rushmore or whatever it is you want to have very put into the side of the mountain. What would you carve in the side of a mountain in the snow with your skis with all your ski talent. Yeah, I've never been on I think

I would be lucky to create a pile. But I think it would be dope to carve like like Snoop dogg and then like one of the good evergreens would be like, oh cool, blun coming out. That's good. That's good. That's what I would try. I would try to. I would try to bring in the natural scenery into my art. That's good. That's good. What about you? What would well? Would I sculpt in the side of a mountain? You know what I would do. I would sculpt a picture

of a smaller mountain. I love that. Very meta. Yeah, I would just carve like the Paramount logo. That's because you're sponsored by Paramount. Yes, yes, to bring in the corporation Paramount. If you want to pay me five million dollars to carve your logo into the side of a mountain with my skis, I will have it ready in about three years after I get enough ski lessons in to do this. On the same tip, Lady Tigue also suggest said beach volleyball sand paintings. Yeah, very similar, I feel.

Would you put paint on the volleyball and let it fall? That's what I want to do. Yeah, that's what I would do to or like you would hit it and like the splatter would make something cool and also interpretive high jump. Now that's that would be because you would you would get off, that's the one with the stick right that you jump over those big hurdles. Uh, well that's pole vaulting. Yeah. I think the high jump is literally just how high can you jump with your own

two legs? Okay, not not hurdles necessarily, It's like you run up. Can you jump over this bar at this height just your own two little grasshopper legs? Wow? But then interpretive you would have to make some movements up there to convey some meaning. Yeah. Yeah, I like this sport. This is beautiful and amazing. I can't wait. The body would be so strong, would be like parkour, slash dance slash. No, I'm tired just thinking about it. The amount of energy

this would take, the control over your body. Finally, Angie C on Instagram suggested quote, can we have a game where you cover yourself in paint and then fling yourself into the medium of your choice big lebowski? And then can we have a game that somehow involves like the rules of curling, but make it art or maybe clean up? Because we know the real m vps of winter sports at the middle aged dad's with swiffers on the ice. Sure, like, maybe they could have a go at removing all the

glitter or something. Wow, glitter removal is an Olympic sports. I hate it. Can you imagine? Okay, I get a story to get to we we told you all we were going to tell you a story, and then we told you a completely different thing. But it was fun. I mean we had to get into that. Thank you for all those fun ideas. Thank you. I think this party is really planning itself keeping coming because it's time for us to go talk to Ben and Knoll and the other hosts and uh and get this thing going.

All right, But for today, let us journey back to centuries Spain. There is a city called tar Well in Spain that's got romance built right into its history. It is a beautiful city. It's full of Renaissance architecture. There's this aqueduct standing there that was built in the sixteenth century. There's all this other amazing history. This was the place where the first dinosaur in Spain was ever discovered, so

that's super cool. You can go see that. Of course, there's gorgeous cathedrals being popping up all over the place, including the Iglesia de San Pedro. And this church is home to a mausoleum for los Amantes de Teruel or the Lovers of Tara. Well, and this tomb is dedicated to a story from the thirteenth century. That's, like we said,

kind of Romeo and Juliesque, right. Uh. The most complete version of this story that we could find was in a book called Spanish and Busque Legends, translated and adapt did by Richard Marsh. So thank you, Richard. We got a lot of the filled in, a lot of the details from from your version of this story. The story says there were two wealthy families in Spain in the early twelve hundreds, the Demarcias, who were an old, respected family, and the Seguras, who were like the new money family.

They're doing really well in the real estate game right up starts. And of course from these two families there were two children, Diego Martinez de Marcius and Isabelle Segura, and they played together all the time as kids. They grew up running around the same parks and everything, and as they grew into teenagers, of course they fell in love. The good old friends to lovers of course, classic tale as old as time. Yeah, these were those kids everyone

knew was going to get married day. All right, They're all over each other, always together, always flirting. People probably grossed out by their PDA, you know, the teenagers. Yeah, you know, they're probably holding hands. So they're skipping through the street and they're the picture of sweetness. And one day, when they were fifteen years old, they went to Isabel's father and said, hey, obviously we want to get married.

Everybody's on board. We're like the ideal couple, the perfect example of two families overcoming their differences and getting along. Come on, perfect love story for the ages. Everyone's just waiting for this to happen, right right, Where Isabelle and Diego were like Ross and Rachel, we get two friends references in this episode. No right, we don't really watch that show. But Papa Saigoda checked the books and it turned out that the Demarcias were broken. All that old

money had dried up over the years. So he said, dot on the richest man in this town, and I got one job. That's to make you married for logistical purposes. Are not for love? So wrong, Get out of town. Nothing's happening, no marriage, okay? Are done? Well? Of course, these two they're both heartbroken and they would do anything to change his mind, like, don't matter what it would take. So Diego starts running through ideas in his head. I gotta get rich. I gotta be wealthy to impress my

girlfriend's dad. Classic another tale. As all this time he's like, I don't know, you know, he's thinking of ideas. He's like, maybe I'll get into this cryptocurrency, right, yeah, I'm making an f t out of myself. I found a self heat picks. I don't know. Maybe I'll unload all these old Pokemon cards, you know, which is big money. Back then, Um,

nothing seemed like the right answer. None of that stuff existed yet, so tradeable, right, He's like, hang on checking myself here, it's the twelve So what does everyone do in this day and age to get rich? He's thinking. He's like, oh my god, I know they go seek their fortune whatever that means. That's like what everyone does this age, right if you if I leave town for a while, I'll come back rich. That's just what happens.

It happens in all the stories, and so it's like it's like step one, go travel the world, step two, step three profits. Yeah exactly. If only that were true today, he's so rich. Well, so he tells papas to this, and he says, oh, yeah, Actually, you know what, young man, you could go join the Christian army that's assembling in Barcelona to fight the Moors. Lots of people were coming back from the wars with tons of money in their pocket, lots of jewels, land they've acquired. It was not a

bad way to get rich. But young man, if Isabel marries off before then, then you should out of luck. Sorry. You know, you can go get rich. But if you come back and she's already married, too bad. I don't care how much money you get. Well, Isabel was basically like, let me take a hand in my own future. So she said, well, actually, Daddy, I talked to God the other day and he asked me to stay a virgin

for five more years until I'm twenty years old. So there's no way in hell I'm gonna get married before then. That's God, he said it. I'm into it, And so Papa couldn't argue with that. It's God after all, and

so they all agreed on a timeline. Diego had five years exactly to go make his fortune in the wars, but not a single day longer, Papa Sigura said, you better hot put it out here tomorrow because the day after, five years from now, she's getting married to somebody, and I hope it's not you, but it was, you know whatever, at least she'll have money. So sure enough, Diego left

the next day. And during those five years, Papa Sigura was constantly trying to get Isabelle to marry somebody besides Diego. He's like, how about this real to he's rich, or this noble he's got some real assets. His face sucks, you know, so on and so forth. He's finding all these rich and noble people options for her, um, but Isabelle keeps kind of deck and engaging. Meanwhile, Marsh says that Diego did really well in the army and distinguished

himself in battle many times. He became an officer. He was eventually awarded a knighthood, contending in tons of land for his conquests. He even saved the life of a French soldier who left Diego his estate in his will, Like he thought, you leave you get some stuff. Yeah, I'll tell you what though, if you save a man's life and he leaves you everything in his will You're not going to try that hard to save his life again next time. I was just thinking that. So he's like,

I guess I should kill you now now. According to Marsha's account, some say that Diego never wrote to her because he wanted to show up with a big surprise. Just reappear one day. Look at all the money I have. Let's get married. Aren't you excited for this? But the more accepted story is that her parents intercepted all of his letters because they had someone else in mind for

her to marry. They had settled on Don Rodrigo Diazagra, who was a wealthy retired night They even told Isabel at one point that Diego had been killed in battle, damn. But of course he hadn't. He was out there doing really well and making stacks on stacks, and it was just about time for him to head home, and we'll check back in on his journey right after this. Welcome back everyone. Well, Diego had amassed a huge fortune and vast properties, and he looked at his watch. It's like, oh, ship,

I gotta get back. Almost five years are up. He's got He's got one of those five year watches. It's like a day calendar, so he's already cutting it a bit close. But it looked like if I leave now, ways says the I will be back in plenty of time before the five year period was up. But what happens to every single one of us when we're in a rush, when we're running late? Do the roads open up? Does everyone get out of your way? Is it a clear and pleasant journey to your destination? No? Not, Everything

goes wrong. And it happened for diego to As soon as he got back to his ship to sail back to Spain, this huge storm came rolling in and they had to delay their departure. So stressful, very obnoxious. He's hitting every red light. You know. There's just like some car randomly pulls out in front of him. They like pull out really fast in front of him, but then they only go twenty miles an hour, and you're like, why did you pull out dangerously in front of me?

If you're not in a hurry. Uh, you know what, it's probably happening to you if you're driving listening to this podcast right now. So he finally got back to Spain. He gets on the road to tear Well, and it looked like he was gonna show up literally five years to the day after he left, just in time. He's like, I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it. Get the hell out of my way. He's riding on his horse. He's like, I'm not picking up hitchhikers. I'm not gonna

break for school busses. I'm going. I'm crossing every train track I'm going. I'm going, I'm going back at home. Isabel was indeed being prepped for her wedding. Her parents were like completely obsessed with this John Rodrigo. They're picking out colors for the nurse three. Isabel is getting fitted for her wedding chest. They're bringing in flowers, they got food. She's probably kind of tapping her foot and looking around, like where is Diego? Diego done this dos Diego? And

Diego is writing as fast as he can. He's whipping past the countryside. When one horse gets tired, he jumps on another line. He did not stop, he just kept riding. Isabel is like making her centerpieces real slowly, very last minute. So I don't like this color of flower, I'm going to replace them all. She's thinking, Okay, you had five years dunder stock and then finally, finally, Diego arrived back and tear well. It was evening, five years to the day since he had left. He'd made it. He just

had to go find Isabel. Diego sprinted through the town to the Segura estate. He was so excited. He was going to bust in and tell her father what a wealthy man he was now, and there was no way Isabel would marry anyone but him. He heard a celebration on the lawn and he thought, oh my god, good, this is this for me? Did they know I was Did someone tell them I was coming in? And they put a party together? This is wonderful. And he bust through the gates, his arms wide, and he says, it's

a battle. I'm oh. There she was in the middle of the courtyard, slipping a little piece of wedding cake into Rodrigo's mouth. No, he was too late, but nobody recognized him. I mean, he'd been away at war for five years from fifteen to twenty, so you gotta imagine he looks quite different. He just slipped into the crowd unnoticed, and he went to find Isabel's father, and he went up to Senior Sigura and He's like, hey, asshole, what's

the deal. Uh, And the father says, whoa Oh, Diego Boom didn't recognize you there, Oh ship son, you're a day late. Too bad, so sad see you next Tuesday. Thanks for stopping by. You weren't invited. And Diego was like, no, no, no no, no, man no. It's been five years to the day since I left. I got a little calendar watch right here. I've been tearing off a day every day. You could check your receipts. It is today. And Papa

Sigura just kind of chuckles. He says, oh, wait a minute, Wait a minute, son, you started counting the day you left, my guy. We made the deal the day before that. You're the one who chose to leave the next morning. I waited until yesterday. You were late. The wedding was this morning. Bye bye, What an asshole. I al still think this is so weird because it's like, Isabel's in love with this guy. He's rich, Now, why what's the

big problem. Yeah, but it just feels like a power play more than any Oh, definitely, it definitely feels like I'm wondering if it's like, well, your family's poor, or just like I just I mean again, these are kind of rival families. I don't think they've ever really liked each other much. If you were rich, I wouldn't really want you to marry. Yeah, because it was kind of at first it was like, sorry, you're not rich, and he was like, well, what if I get rich? And

he was like, uh, something else. Probably I'll find a reason. Well. Diego was of course heartbroken and probably pretty pissed about this stupid technicality, like I am. So he did what all noble lovers do and they want to set things straight. He snuck into the girl's bedroom on our wedding night. Interesting choice, that's not it's not it's not it. Please don't sneak into a girl's bedroom. Uh. Rodrigo is in the other room, like brushing his teeth and washing his ass.

So Diego crept in and he grabs Isabel's hand and she's like, I don't know from fear of a random guy or she was like oh it's Diego. Um, but she like shoves Diego down underneath the bed and Rodrigo comes in. He goes, yes, my love, did something frighten you? And she's thinking quick and as quoted in Marsha's book. She says, quote, oh, I suddenly remembered a vow I made when I was fifteen to remain a virgin until I reached the age of twenty. And I won't be

twenty until tomorrow. So I beg you not to ask me to do what a man expects of his hide on their wedding night. She's she's a quick thinker, all right. Also she's got a little Papa sigura and the She's like, a technical technically, will be twenty ntil tomorrow. Rodrigo presumably is like, okay, here we go with the technicalities of family, his life, fine, whatever, So he flops down next to

her on the bed and he goes to sleep. As soon as he's out, she grabbed Diego out from under the bed and took him outside the room so they could talk. She's like, we got shipped to talk about. She's like, what are you doing here? You know I don't see it for five years, you don't call, you don't right, He says, what are you talking about? I wrote to you all the time. He's like, well, you didn't get on my postcards. They you know, wish you were here fighting the moors. With me. He didn't get

any of those. He said, here one that's like my love for you grows more and more. That's good. If only you had been around the cell postcards during this during this war. So she's like, asshole, I never got a single one he or postcards, no telegrams, and your clever puns. Nothing. I just, oh, wait a second, that's probably got to be why my dad every single day for the last five years has rushed out to get the mail first. He's probably sneaking away your letters so

I would never read them. And he's like, yeah, yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense. Okay, So she didn't get his letters, but still diego saying how could she marry this Don Rodrigo? Didn't she want to wait for him? You know? And I gotta say, I'm getting real Wesley from The Princess Bride vibes here. And if you ever heard me rant about The Princess Bride, I love this movie. It's one of the best movies. I've watched it a hundred times as a child. I still watch it regularly today.

But Wesley sucks, especially right up to the point where he falls down the hill and then he gets better. But he's still kind of an ass He's just very controlling. And when he shows back up in her life and he's like mad at her for for marrying, you know, some rich dude's in her mind going to take care of her. And he's like, wow, you couldn't have waited. She's like, you went off to go find your fortune and then come back mad at me, threatening to hit me.

Excuse me. That man raises his hand to a moment in that movie, and that is not okay. I don't care what kind of disguise he's putting on. It is weird for him to come back and be like, didn't you just assume I was alive out there one day would come back to you at some point. And she's like, yeah, I guess for a while, and then I was like, everyone's calling me a spinster. You're acting like I got a lot more agency than I really do, sir. It's a great movie. I love it, and Carrie always is

one of the greatest actors of our time. He's so adorable in that movie too. You can see why she's like, all right, fine, you could be an asshole for a while. Well, she pushes around the hill and it's like, you can shut up and die, and he's like, all right, as you wish. She's like, okay that hopefully that's snap him out of it. Yeah, I guess I'll throw myself down the hill to Anyway, that was a funny scene. It's a great movie. It's a great scene. My complaints are ingested.

So Diego is pulling a real Wesley here. He's really grumpy that she didn't wait for him. She's like, Buddy, I did wait for you. My parents told me you were dead, and I still waited for you. You dragged your ass and got here a day late. What do you want me to say? Yeah? And again, it's not like she has a lot of power over how her life goes. She's somebody's daughter. She doesn't own herself. I mean,

especially in medieval times. The only way she was able to get her dad to hold off on marrying her off was to go over his head to God and say, hey, Dad, your boss tells you you gotta wait. Sorr bro. He's like, well, I won't listen to you, but I will listen to what you say God told you to tell me. Anyway, Diego tries to make his case about you know, the five year countdown and when it started and the day

when he left, deal or whatever. But Isabel basically is like, I mean, that's that's great and all, but it's too bad, so sad. I'm I'm married now. I wish you'd gotten here sooner. But we just had a super official ceremony in front of my family and God and a very expensive DJ and and there's no takebacks on that. I mean, especially consider considering the religious I mean the importance of religion Catholic Spain. Okay, yeah, you couldn't. You couldn't flout.

That's all it's done. And fortunately Diego does accept that there's very little to be done at this point about this situation, but he does so in the most dramatic way possible, and he says, to her quote, I accept that it is God's will that will not be united in this life, but at least give me a kiss or I will die. Pretty coercive, it's kind of manipulative. Oh no, but my balls are so blue. If you don't kiss me, I could die. It's a lot. It's

a lot. It's it's left and it's bell. She's you know, we've seen she's pretty firm about her religion and her honor. She really cares about these things. They're very no, not abstract. For she did not I'll say, she did not make up that story about God telling her to wait five years, like she believed that. Yeah, yeah, I know I said it in kind of a mocking way, but she really did believe that. So she tells him quote, I wish that things were otherwise, my love. I understand your grief

and pain because I feel the same emotions. But now that I am married, I no longer belong to myself, and I cannot give you what belongs to my husband, not even a kiss, which is I think kind of a backwards way of looking at it. I think she loves this guy, she can give him a kiss. That's me though. Yeah, she's she got married under a different set of rules, different set of vows. You and I did. Yeah,

as like we specifically said in our vows. And if you're a long lost lover comes back in five years and you want to give him a smooch, you can do that. Go ahead, I do, I do. Yeah. I think I think our grandparents were a little weirded out by that that inclusion. Yeah, I thought modern couples, you know, but you know it was at the end of the day, it was just commitment. You know, she was committed to Rodrigo. She she promised it, and her religion and her purity,

I guess yeah, and in herself. You know, she was like, I made a choice to whatever degree I was capable of making a choice, and I am committed to that choice. Well, Diego was committed to his word too, because he loved her too much to try and break her honor in her vows. But when he turned to walk away, he took two steps and then dropped to the floor dead.

He was right, if you don't kiss me, I will die and we'll hear what was next for these lovers and how this led to a Guinness World record setting event right after this commercial break, Let's get back into it all right now. Sadly, Diego had died right in front of Isabelle of a broken heart. She cried out in anguish and she rushed to his side, and from the other room she heard Rodrigo kind of, what's going on, honey, Well,

what's up in there? Everything okay? And she ran into the room before he had a chance to come out and see Diego's body, and she wiped tears away from her eyes, and she told him quote, I dreamed that a young friend of mine had agreed to marry her lover. And she went on to tell him basically her whole story of her in Diego, except she said that it was about my friend. You know, my my friend wanted to marry this guy, and her dad told him five years you know, yeah, and then my friend married this

guy named Rodrigo. Weird coincidence, DoD Dodrigo, Don Ricardo and um. But of course, you know, she's heartbroken telling this story. She's feeling all this incredible guilt. And she ended it by saying, quote, he asked her to kiss him so that he wouldn't die of grief, but she refused because she felt it would not be right. And then he died. That's why I was crying. Tell me, Rodrigo, do you

think she did the right thing? Well, Rodrigo, who was apparently the dawn of not reading the room, uh, he laughed at her and said, quote, well, she was silly and prudish and overly cruel to the ones she loved not to give him one kiss when he was alive to save his life when she would kiss him a thousand times in her mind after he died. Oh, so, Rodrigo was like emotional, cheating, still cheating friend. Yeah, I think he's just saying like that was so dumb. Why

didn't you just kiss him? You're gonna kiss him in your head over and over again? Anyway, saved his life? Yeah, give him the smooch. What's a big deal. What's a smooch between tell your friend she was real stupid not to do that and husband, chill the fun out of Yeah. Now. Then she walked to Rodrigo outside the room and showed him Diego's body and said, quote, I am not silly

and prudish woman, but I have kept my honor. And Rodrigo is like, oh yeah, what I meant was you did the right thing, loving wife, totally shouldn't have kissed that guy. Lips belong to this guy and no one else. I hope you're not kissed him in your mind a thousand times. Now. They weren't sure what to do because you know, they figured a dead ex boyfriends in your bedroom on your wedding night. Not a good Oh yeah that was really rough for us. Right again, our boyfriend.

I know, Yeah, I didn't know what to do with him. You're like, I didn't even know you existed. So they don't know what to do with this corpse that's lying in their house, and Rodrigo decides the best course of action is to carry the body across town and lay him down on the doorstep of Diego's family's house. His family found him the next morning. Of course, they're so

grief stricken. A funeral was set for the following day at the church of San Pedro and tar Will, and everyone turned out for this war hero who had fought so hard for this big fortune. The Demarcilla family probably back on top with all this inherited wealth, and Isabelle's family, the de Saga's, being one of the leading families in town, were also seated in the front row, and they're probably

getting some serious side I from Diego's family. Yeah, right, he went off to war to impress you dead Papa Sia, and he was gone for five years. We didn't have him here, and now he shows up dead, like this is your faults. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, And isabel was

right there in the front row with her family. She had her black veil covering her tear streaked face as she sat through this long Catholic ceremony, and then Marsh writes, before anybody realized what she was doing, she walked up to the open casket, threw back her veil, and kissed Diego's dead lips so loudly that the sound echoed through the cathedral and shocked the whole town. She wrapped her arms around his body and held him tight, and her parents got up and rushed up to the casket as well.

They're like, oh my god, this is so embarrassing. What is she doing? And they tried to pull her off of him, but as they did, Isabel's body went limp. She was also dead, and Marsh points out it's common for accounts of this story to say that Isabel died from green, but he cites one version that was found in the archives of the San Pedro Church in eighteen o six, which says that in her mind, as she walked to Diego's coffin, she thought to herself, quote, I

will live no longer. I will follow your example and die husband, for you deserve that name. More. I consider the devotion you showed me to be a packed until your death and I want to repay that with my death, so that fame will make us one in the tomb. If poison and dagger fail me, grief will suffice to give me a sure death. You will see me within an hour, and I will be very happy if one gravestone will cover us both, for our souls burn with

a pure and chaste love. So that version is much more Romeo and Juliet, I mean straight up poison and a dagger in her head at least um, So that kind of suggests that she poisoned herself before she went up there, and you was like letting the poison do its work them on lips and boom, now we're together forever in paradise. These people in these stories are always very confident about the timing that poison will take. You know.

It's like I will go, I will take the poison precisely thirty six seconds before I'm where I want to die, and then I will die quickly, quietly and peacefully, which I don't think any poisons do that. Like where's the foaming at the map for all the vomiting? Right? Some of these this fairy tale poison I'm like when I when it's time for me, give me that ship, tasteless, odorless, and you're just get dead without ever knowing about it, quietly instantly. Wow, only a fool would choose the class

in front of me. Well, the families were so moved by her gesture and the love that they clearly shared for each other, And Rodrigo in fact told them everything that she had relaid to him about their story and their love for each other. So all of them, both families, even Rodrigo, agreed that these two should be buried together, and in the church ground that year of twelve seventeen,

they were buried side by side to rest together for eternity. Well, I hope Papa Sagara felt like a real dumbass, because if you had just let her wait, Yes, she would have a he would have an alive daughter who was happy and in love with her husband, who was a rich man. So when everything he wanted he would just have to deal with like the father every one year at a family reunion or something like what's the deal. Yeah, Well, you know this is where our prejudices blind us to

our best choices. Yeah, you know that's true. There you go, that's your moral Yeah story, take that with you, I don't know. Well, the story became legend, legend became myth, and for five and a half thousand years, the ring poisoned his I'm in the wrong story legend became myth, and for over two hundred and fifty years it was just an oral history passed down across Spain. But in the year fifteen seventy eight, so yeah, like two or

fifty years later, but a long time ago still. According to an article on medieval dot EU, two mummies were exhumed from beside the church, and this article says they were proven at the time to be these star crossed lovers, But the website points out quote the notary, who had also written about these lovers years before, simply claimed that he found documents witnessing to the fact that the two

mummies were the faded lovers. It's kind of like, well, I found a thing that said that, something said that something that said that something said that these were the two from the story. And yeah, and he's already writing about them, so he's already kind of got an ant like he's already interested in this story and probably wanted to find them. Well, yeah, it makes more people want to buy his version because he's got like a a

personal connection and stuff. Yeah right, and so we can suspect that this was not actually proven at all, despite him saying it was. And unfortunately science did poop this party anyway, because very recently DNA studies showed that these bodies were from the fourteen not the thirteenth century, and

not only that they were actually two males. Oh but at the time, the mummies were a big cultural hit because people believed, you know, who they were, and a play was written about the lovers just fifteen years after the bodies were exhumed, called Los Amantes, and the bodies were exhibited in the eighteen sixties. Oh, people love that stuff in the eighteen sixties. Yeah, we have a bodies exhibit that people love it. Today people still love bodies,

So quit Hayden on the past. Now, operas, plays, songs, and movies have been made out of their story. I kind of wonder if Shakespeare and maybe heard a little bit of this, and that's what inspired from a Romeo and Juliet. I don't know that speculation station Shakespeare heard it. He subliminate this damn mage. A little money of that real broke today. Um and just because these mummies were not their bodies, that doesn't really quite answer whether or

not their story is true. Um, because you know, obviously similar stories have been told for centuries, but this one might be the earliest version. James Missioner said in his ninety eight book Iberia that the Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio told practically the same story in thirteen fifty three about two Italian lovers. Okay, so this would have been like a hundred years after their story, so still way before

the bodies were dug up or anything. So early days of this story, all right, Yeah, except that Boccaccio's version had quote considerable, alacious and amusing materials, And he goes on to argue that the erotic version of the story probably came second because quote, it is difficult to find instances in which popular taste borrowed an erotic tale from a professional writer and retold it with the erotic elements missing.

Missioner gets fan thick. Okay, yeah, like they always add more sex in their versions that ever was in the original property. No one's going to take a famous author's version of a very X rated story and say, let me write a PG version of it. Like boring, who tears. I'm just going to read the raunchy one exactly. You would do it the other way around, you would do

it the other way. So it's more likely that he took the original story and added selecious sexy stuff instead of somebody taking his sexy story and taking all the goods squeezing all the juice out of my story. Not regardless, this legend is a huge part of the altar of the city of ter Well today. In nineteen five, artists one to Avelos sculpted two gorgeous tombs for the lovers. Uh,

they have their you know. It's it's like two tombs, two stone tombs, and the lid at the top of them is relief sculpture of two bodies, you know, his and hers, and they're next to each other and they're reaching out their hands. Uh they're not touching there. That's coming so close, but their hands just aren't touching. And he says that that was supposed to represent the purity of their love. I think to me, it really represents that they came so close and never really got there.

It's very very tragic. It's also reminding me of a niesta Castro and Peter because when they died, he had their tombs facing each other, that when they arose and you know, the last judgment, they would rise facing each other. Oh yeah, that's right. And then throughout the late nineties and the early two thousands, the city of Trewell worked on a wide tourism campaign with the lovers, sort of centering their strategy around this concept of Europe and love.

So it was this whole like tourism strategy and it linked t well with cities like Verona in Italy, Kroshno in Poland, herac Leon in Greece and others as all these like romance cities like this is these are the origins of love. You know this big famous love stories happening here. Let us find all those cities can do a ridiculous romance Okay, okay, Let's contact the European Union

because they're working on this altruism campaign right now. And if anybody over there works for the EU and wants to call us about doing a romance tour, please call us. We're ready, bags are packed. Please. And in two thousand five they sort of rebuilt the mausoleum around these tombs in this Church San Pedro, and so you can go see them. It's supposed to be really beautiful. I can't wait to go. These tombs are really lovely. If you look,

you can see some pictures of them. And then, in celebrating the eight hundredth anniversary of the Lovers, the city of turn Well held an event which set a Guinness World Record. And this record was for the longest kissing relay kissing kissing relay. And I guess it's because they never got to kiss. So let's let's set up a kiss chain in their honor. We can all kiss each other now. The details here are murky. I can't find exactly how it worked, and there's not a ton of

documentation of this thing. The Guinness World Record site just says that it happened. They just say it was a relay. There was one thousand and fifteen people that gathered in the city of turn Well for a kissing relay. That's all they say. I feel like they should have some more video it was come on because I'm thinking it's a relay. So you kiss someone kisses you on your left, and you turn your head and you kissed the person on your right. They turn their head, kiss, kis kiss kiss,

kiss all around in a big circle, right right. And if that's the case, probably the birthplace of the predecessor of COVID. My god, that sounds like people saying random folks. The one thousand person in that line is getting everything everyone in that line had before them. They went home and they were like, I suddenly have herpes, hepatitis, lupus.

I don't know. Well think Spain dot com writes a little bit more about it, and they say that this was just a place where all these couples got together and kissed simultaneously. But I don't know if I buy that now. They say it was all couples. Everyone could show up. It could be same sex couples, could be hetero copples, could be any pairs of people get up and kiss simultane lely, and that's how the record was set.

But I'm thinking relay means relay, right, And Plus there are other records for the most people kissing in one place from yeah, oh, also a thousand and fifteen people that split the couples. Yeah, unless the throat showed up, yeah, or one dude just kissing himself. He kissed his hands. He's like I came here hoping someone a kissed me. But I'm thinking one thousand and fifteen people got in a line. Maybe they made a cool like spiral out of it or something. That's what I would do. Can

call me this out the next one. I will happily be the first person in that line, but not the last. Okay, not the last, or honestly anywhere in the middle. Number one, number one, or nothing, human centipede. If I maybe have to be in want to be on the front, I would take number two so I could kiss two people. Okay, but that's it. I'm not going any further than number two. Okay, and I get to pick numbers one and three. You've got a lot of stipulations here. Yeah, call me you,

yes exactly, I'm ready. I'm ready. Oh my goodness. Yeah. But you know, it's a nice little, uh homage to their story in an era before we were worried about contagions so desperately. Also really makes more sense because they did never get to really kiss each other except in death or in his death, like passing a kiss along, but you never really get a kiss the one person

you want kiss. Maybe I don't know, maybe the last person in the line had to go like kiss the kiss the ghosts of Isabelle and Diego or the carried the kiss to them or something. I don't know. That's very interesting, um choice for a world record to make. I'm assuming there was no record for them to break.

I don't know. Maybe there was, well I think spain dot com says there was, but they are referring to a group of couples who all got together and kissed in the same place, and that is a whole separate record, So I don't know that there was. You know, the Guinness site does not say that they broke a record or that one has been broken since because who who in the year would line up a thousand people and

have them all kiss each other? The super spread er O. Then we're going to need to forget a lot before that can happen again. You're right, And when it does, I will be second in line. When I forget all this ship, I'll be second in line. Oh my god, I don't know if I could, if I could do that kissing relay, but also I will not allow a kissing relay at ridic coon. Yeah, we can't do that, not this year, not any year. A year. Look, what happens inside the hotel rooms at ridic Con is none

of our business. My business, but make it my business. Go ahead, shoot me an even, let me know which the room number, just in case I'm interested. Diana won't come, But yeah, probably not. It depends on the mood I guess of the day. Hey, can I go? Maybe it depends on my mood. Oh, I got you, I got you. Pretty capricious about these things. Sometimes I'm like, sure, whatever, what do I care? And then other times I'm like, I feel jealous. Yeah, same, I feel in the same way.

That's interesting for polyamorous people. I wonder if they have that too, or they're like some days they're like, I just feel jealous today. I don't know why, but I'm just feeling it normally don't care, but it's just getting to me. Or if they're just like I just don't feel that at all. I'm sure it's both. It's probably both anyway polyamorous, let me know. So, Yeah, this is such an interesting like Romeo and Juliet Fable, I hate

Papa Sagura, are Mary the guys she likes Godsake? You know, I kind of feel bad for Rodrigo though, Oh for sure. I guess he was like, cool, I got a wife, Oh we're not having sex. Well to borrows another day and then she's the next day. Rodrigo's like the most passive and pleasant character in this story. Like, Diego is worse than Rodrigo. Absolutely right. I wonder if Isabella had time to think, like, actually, Rodrigo is okay. I like Rodrigo,

you go straight up with a chance. Yeah right. Diego was straight up like if you don't kiss me, I'll die. And then she didn't kiss him, and he was like, I'll show her. I'm going to actually die. Damn. I wonder what really I mean. I guess you can really die from a heartbreak, but it feels like an automatic death from heartbreak is a little bit unusual. Did he already have like the plague or something? You know? I

don't know. In the image of my head, it's like the end of kill Bill when he just walks away and just falls down. Yeah, spoiler alert for that fourteen year old mon Yes, sorry everyone, we ruined it. Um, I hope you loved it. Yeah, if you're fascinating, I hope this is the first time you've heard this story. Um, it's definitely there's a lot of uh summaries of this legend out there, but the Richard marsh One seemed to be the most comprehensive version of the story. Um so yeah,

but it was. It's pretty cool little tale about some stock cost lovers. And then I love seeing how these legends, whether or not they were true, impact culture, you know, for centuries, for hundreds thousands of years. One day, you know, in the year thirty fifty six. Uh, they'll be celebrating this in tar Well and everyone will be like, you know, back in the day, there was this pretty cool podcast, let's talk about this legend. Let's use our let's use

our resurrection ray guns to bring them back. And then we'll come We'll be like, oh, what are we doing here, and they'll say, welcome to the future. Well, it's our present, but we assume it's your future. Um, we have free everybody gets free WiFi and healthcare still sucks, but now here in Spain, only only where you're from, and we've resurrected you so you can get back to work. Yeah.

I don't like darn start podcasting. We died to get out of this love this show could be like, podcasts are the center of our society, and we worship podcasters. Take the honorable first and second position in our kissing relay. We have eradicated all disease. So I'll be first, I'll kiss you, and then you can kiss someone else. Yeah, they'll be like, and number two for number three in the line we've resurrected the entire cast of the Avengers. I'll be like, this is great. I love this future.

This future is amazing. Would you have to start with Robert Downey Jr. Look if I had to kiss the entire cast of the Avengers, I probably would start with Robert Downey Jr. To be like, we'd have a like, we have to get this out of the way, right, And he was like, yeah, I get it all right. Uh Scar Joe, where are you? Lupisa? Is Lupiza here? Lupita? Yeah? Deny anyway, Deny any? Chris any, Chris any? Chris fine,

Chris are fine? I guess I have my my my preferred Chris is Chris Evans would probably give you a nice romantic kiss. I feel like I'm gonna make it, you know, Chris Evans, I'm gonna give you your money is where the thing is. I bet Chris Evans gives a great hug. I bet he does give great hug. I could totally see that, especially was wearing that cable net from knives out. What happened? Where are we? What are we talking about? I don't know. We're trying to

end the show. That's what we're trying to do. We gotta get out. Bail, bail, bail, get me out of here. We're going down with the aventures again. Okay, no, we're done with the story. That's amazing, fable. Tell us what you thought, Yeah, tell us what you thought about this or what where you'd like to be in that tho in person kissing me like, tell us your numbers. We'll set everyone a number. We'll line them up at Ridiculous. All worked out. As long as I'm first and elive second,

it's fine. Um yeah, you can find us, um yeah, you can email us at ridic Romance at gmail dot com. Yes, find us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Oh great, it's Eli. I'm at Diana my boom and the show is at ridick Romance And we love hearing from you. And a Ken loved all these suggestions. With Dicky kN and our Olympics and stuff coming keep on coming. We really appreciate talking to you all so so much for spending your time with us today. Yeah, we'll see you

next time. I so long friends, It's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show. Tell your friends names, uncles, and dance to listen to a show ridiculous roll nance