Brugnato in Fiore

    

Each year, the small Ligurian town of Brugnato [pronounced 'broon-yato'], transforms its streets into floral fan-fare. Many towns and villages across Italy will have such festivals and if you get the chance to see one, it is truly remarkable.

Festa di San Guiseppe

 

Each year on March 19 is the Festa di San Giuseppe, the patron saint of La Spezia. For the weekend leading up to the day, a large part of the city is covered with tents selling everything imaginable. I took a stroll through festival to give you a glimpse of how Italians celebrate with festivals.

 Every festival always has stands representing the different regions' typical food fare. Above, there are the cheeses of Sardinia, known for their particularly strong ricotta salata. 

Below are the bounties from Puglia, known for their olives, terralini (cracker-like rings, often flavored with fennel seed), sun-dried tomatoes, and lots of pickled items like fava beans, onions and capers.

One particular specialty are olive dolce (sweet olives), which are large, green olives that are preserved without a salty brine, just many, many changes of plain water. The result is a very bright green, firm and delicious olive that is not salty in the least bit. I had never tried these "sweet olives" before, but I really enjoyed them. 

I do have to make a comment here about Italians' use of the word dolce, or sweet--even after speaking Italian for years, being offered "sweet" olives made me expect them to be "sweet". But, just as they use the term acqua dolce for 'fresh water' (or non-salty), they use olive dolce to describe non-salty olives--not that they are actually sweet. After being teased by my in-laws and laughed at for making such a silly error, I learned my lesson!

Here we have the most popular food at the San Giuseppe festival--La Porchetta, a Tuscan tradition of a stuffed whole pig, roasted on a pit over an open flame. There were more stand and trucks with whole roasted pigs than I have ever seen in my life! I have never tried it--I'm not against it--it just tends to gross me out a little seeing the shriveled cooked head. 

The Sicily truck was quite popular with all their fried foods and ricotta desserts. 

Here we have the stand from Umbria, known for their sausages, cheeses, il cinghiale (wild boar), and most of all:

Tartufo nero or black truffles!

  
The other very popular food, found on almost every corner were these amazingly fragrant sweet chips made with anise. The machine you see above was constantly stamping out these thin wafer chips into large piles that were then bagged up still hot, fresh for the taking.

There was a little bit of everything at this festival, all kinds of trinkets, all kinds of food, 

and all kinds of desserts!

 They even had the newest novelty--Caramelle Americane (American candies).

The Jelly Belly stand was extremely popular!

But there was a lot more than just food. They had everything

from the home linen outlet stand to clothes, to hats, to house pets for the kids.

Artiginal jewelry

Hand carved olive wood

This is the area that I refer to as "infomercial row" where they have slicers and dicers, steam cleaners, magic mops and microphoned demonstrators to show off the goods!

 And more of those divinely anise scented crispy cookies.

The festival took up a large portion of the city and it was still packed with people!

Be sure to check out the Festa di San Giuseppe in La Spezia, every year during the weekend leading up to March 19.

Medievalis - Anno Domini 1226

For four days in mid-August, the medieval city of Pontremoli comes alive with their age-old ways as the host of a Medieval festival.

 

Even though Pontremoli is located in Tuscany, it is one of the most important cities of the Lunigiana, an ancient region comprising eastern Liguria and north-western Tuscany. It’s castle, Castello di Piagnaro, is also one of the restored and tourable “Castles of the Lunigiana”.

This unassuming village has quite the historical past. Pontremoli has been around for thousands of years, but it’s heyday was during medieval times when it’s central location and abundant river put in the middle of everything. 

It was a top stop for pilgrims, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Emperor Frederick II. Even Pier delle Vigne, a character in Dante’s Inferno, passed through the streets of Pontremoli, albeit in chains. 

This festival fills the narrow cobblestone streets with vendors from all walks of life. From basic antique shops to specialty handmade goods. 

Several vendors offered unique, handmade jewelry. 

 

Hand woven wool hats and scarves, including the odd, pointed hats that were seen throughout town.

These were very interesting masks, made from formed leather. They varied from simple, butterfly shaped masks to ornately decorated and painted ghoulish masks. 

One of the highlights for me was “Lo Torneo de Bandiera” or the tournament of flags. A few of the local towns gave quite a show with their band and flags. But Pontremoli was by far the best group.

The pounding beat of the drums accompanied by flutes and a vibrant display of flags flying through the air was quite enjoyable. 

Making our way to the castle was a bit of a hike, but the little alleys led to stunning views. 

The castle was a bustle with activity. They had two areas with food, wine and local artisan beer, live music and an avian demonstration.
  

They had an impressive selection from eagles to falcons to several breeds of owl, including an endangered white owl (click on the photo below for a better view).

  

 

After exploring the castle a bit, we got some traditional focaccette and headed back down to town. Even into the night the festivities were going strong. 

On Sunday, the final evening they had a big show of all the costumed participants from knights to commoners at the castle and to finish the festival, fireworks over the town.

Don’t miss next years festival!

Mediovalis Medieval Event                                                    Mid-August
Castello del Piagnaro                                                              www.medievalis.org
Pontremoli (MS)

Il Palio del Golfo

Siena is world famous for it’s annual Palio, a neighborhood horse race around the piazza. But in La Spezia, every first weekend of August for the last 86 years, they have had their own Palio. But this palio doesn’t involve racing horses—it’s a rowing race.

Siena é famosa nel mondo per il Palio che si svogle ogni anno, ma anche La Spezia da 86 anni ha il proprio Palio che si svolge nel primo weekend del mese di agosto. Ma, attenzione, questo Palio non si svolge con i cavalli perché si tratta di una regata. 

The festivities begin on Friday evening with a fashion show and parade where each Borgata, or neighborhood, presents their own handmade costumes to the theme of the year. This year, the theme is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. Costumes started with the King of Italy and Garibaldi (circa 1860), the unifier of Italy and moved across each era of fashion. 

La festa comincia venerdì sera con la sfilata nelle borgate. Ogni anno c’é una tema e quest’anno, ovviamente, era il 150° anniversario dall’unità d’Italia. I costumi che per prima hanno sfilato sono stati quelli del re d’Italia e di Garibaldi; ogni borgata ha fatto costumi di questo tipo per concorrere al premio della sfilata attenuto dal costume migliore. 

Saturday continues with technical matters in preparation for the race, like weighing the boats and checking in the rowers. Saturday night is the cenone, or big feast, where a long, continuous table is set up along an entire pedestrian street (over a block long), serving well over 100 people!

Il sabato prosegue con tutti i preparativi per la gara: pesare le barche, controllare i remi, etc.. La sera c’é il cenone per più di cento persone, tutte quelle coinvolte nel palio, e per questo viene allestito un tavolo lunghissimo che viene messo nella strada pedonale. 

Sunday is the day of the race. Each of the 13 borgate have their own colors and flags and they root for their team to row 1500 meters the fastest. Everyone lines the pier walls with their neighborhood flare displayed proudly. Just before it starts, all the boats in the area blow their horns and with a shot fired, the race begins.

La domenica c’é il palio. Le tredici borgate hanno i loro colori e le loro bandiere. Tutta la città si mette lungo il molo con indosso i colori della propria borgata per esultare la propria squadra. Prima che inizi la gara, tutte le barche nella zona suonano le trombe e con un colpo di pistola, si parte! 

Each boat must row through a makeshift slalom of buoys, going back and forth four times.

Ogni barca deve remare facendo slalom tra le boe, avanti e indietro, per quattro volte per conseguire 1500 metri totali. 

The race is not the only attraction though…

Ma la regata non é l’unica attrazione… 

There are tons of stands and tents selling food, clothes and trinkets. There is a Tuscan specialty truck with la porchetta, a whole roasted pig that is sliced into sandwiches.

C’é anche la fiera con i banchi di vestiti, souvenir, e cibi tipici. Qua c’e la porchetta Toscana. 

And there is even a Sicilian specialty truck, aptly named "Il Padrino" or 'The Godfather', with arancini, cassate, doughnuts and cannoli.

Non può mancare il banco siciliano, addirittura chiamato ‘Il Padrino’, con le arancine, cassate, spince e cannoli. 

But back to the race--as soon as the rowers make their final pass towards the finish line, all the boats in the area rush in behind them, blaring their horns. 

E certamente, tanti palloncini e lo zucchero a velo per i bambini. 

And the winner is...  Muggiano!

Quest’anno ha vinto la borgata Muggiano, una frazione nel Golfo dei Poeti. 

After the race and the festivities, the night ends with a spectacular fireworks show. I was invited to go up into the hills to a friend’s house with a view of the whole bay and watch the fireworks from afar.

Dopo il palio e tutte le festività, la notte si conclude con un spettacolo di fuochi d’artificio. Io fortunatamente ero stata invitata in una casa che gode della vista di tutta la baia ove si possono guardare i fuochi. 

Don't miss next year's Palio del Golfo!

Non mancate il Palio del Golfo l’anno prossimo…venite a La Spezia! 


Il Palio del Golfo
First weekend of August
Primo fine settimana d'agosto
La Spezia
www.paliodelgolfo.it