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The medieval town of Bergamo in northern Italy was preparing Sunday to beat a record for the world's biggest collective hug, a stunt by the local tourist board to publicize a heritage site.
More than 14,000 people have registered to line up around the 5-kilometre perimeter of the 500-year-old walls that surround the historic upper city of Bergamo, organizers Visit Bergamo said on their website.
The Hug of the Walls event was scheduled to start at 6 pm (1600 GMT) and last about two hours, they added.
The walls are part of defense structures built by the Republic of Venice in northern Italy and modern-day Croatia and Montenegro during the 15th and 17th centuries, which have been submitted as candidates for UNESCO World Heritage status.
Breaking up into couples, people in Bergamo are supposed to simultaneously hug for at least 10 seconds, while an official from the Guinness World Records association monitors proceedings to make sure that conditions are respected.
The record to beat was set by 10,738 people during a music festival in Ayacucho, Peru, in 2012.
Organizers aim to also achieve a second record for the longest hug relay: participants have to line up and, starting from the front, should turn around to hug their neighbour, one after the other, until the last standing person.
The current record for the longest hug relay was established in May in China by 960 people, Visit Bergamo said.
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