People from the Municipality of Bergamo and the Province of Bergamo in Italy successfully set a new record for the Longest hug relay in an attempt organised to support the candidacy of the Bergamo ancient Venetian Walls for inclusion in the UNESCO list of special cultural sites.
An amazing 1,250 people lined up around the 5 km perimeter of the historic monument and began hugging each other one at a time.
Official Guinness World Records adjudicator Lucia Sinigagliesi attended the very affectionate record attempt to ensure that all the rules were followed.
All hugs had to be genuine, which meant that both arms had to wrap around the other person in a close embrace. Participants then had to stay in line until the end of the attempt.
The Bergamo community wanted to publicise the 500-year-old ramparts that were built by the Republic of Venice in northern Italy and modern-day Croatia and Montenegro during the 15th and 17th centuries.
Previously, the longest hug relay consisted of 960 people and was achieved by Country Garden Holdings Company Limited (Hunan) (China) in Changsha, Hunan, China only two months earlier.
