Shooting the Piemonte Rapids in a Cardboard Boat · Jun 16, 09:23 AM by James Martin
I think it’s pretty safe to say that wine is more popular in Piemonte than river rapids. Even as someone who spends considerable time in Tuscany, I tip my hat to Piemonte wine. It’s the best.
But Piemonte does have rushing water. And what do you do with rushing water—especially if you’re Italian and weaned on Ferrari juice? You travel down it at breakneck speeds. If you’re a real man, you go down it in a cardboard box.
It was via a tweet from @campariman that I first heard of Carton Rapid Race. Only the title is in English, but here’s the gist. You get a couple hours to build a “boat” outta cardboard, then you race it down the rapids in a time trial.
You better be thinking of your boat design. The race is the 4th and 5th of July.
Here’s a video of the thing. Just in case you think everyone in Piemonte just swirls and sniffs.
Filed in: Italy Festivals Italy Travel
Infiorata in Brugnato Video · Jun 15, 03:04 AM by James Martin
Yesterday the Infiorata del Corpus Domini was held in the Ligurian village of Brugnato, which is so pretty, even without flower carpets, that it has been named one of the borghi piu bella d’Italia.
So, we made the half hour drive out to Brugnato and took some pictures and made a video of the production of carpets made artistically with flower petals.
Enjoy the video, especially if you like flowers: Video of the Infiorata del Corpus Domini in Brugnato, Italy
Filed in: Italy Festivals Italy Travel Tips
Pisa Today - Regatta of the Maritime Republics · Jun 2, 03:20 PM by James Martin
This picture was taken during the parade preceeding the Regatta of the Maritime Republics (the best part of the whole deal). I think we should have a competition for putting words into this soldier’s mouth. My entry would be, “I hate these idiotic parades. I just wanna put all my arrows through a lot of stout-hearted men and have a beer after. Maybe two beers.”
Filed in: Italy Festivals Italy News
Food Festivals in Italy - Sapori di Fivizzano · Jun 1, 08:58 AM by James Martin
Ah, those food festivals just keep on coming. They’re one of the sweet pleasures of this almost summer in Italy.
We arrived in Fivizzano just as a storm threatened to make a windy mess of things. It was a monday—noonish—and there admittedly wasn’t much going on at the four day festival. At night the streets will be full of food and wine stands; there were covered tables where folks could eat, now empty. You could see the potential. There were a few open food stands selling wine, cheese, cured meats, and cherries.
You could also smell the smoke of a wood fire burning. We threaded our way through the medieval town, following our noses. Wood spice, a bit yeasty, got stronger as we left the city center through the remaining gate.
Aha! Focacette! Yes, flat breads cooked in a wood oven then stuffed with cheese or meat or fat (yes, that famous lardo di Colonnata, a wonderful thing when combined with hot bread, fresh out of the oven. And don’t let me hear you whining about lardo—you use butter or some even worse chemical pseudo fat concoction on yours so it’s a tie, but lardo definitely wins for flavor).
Anyway, a cool day, two focacette, one with straccino cheese and one with porchetta, a “glass” of wine and a half liter of fizzy water: €6. Feeds two. And, oh my did that warm bread, cooked just minutes before, feel good in the hands.
Afterwords we hit the stands and bought a mess o’ cheese and some wine.
Filed in: Food Italy Festivals
Sagra di Porchetta · May 3, 08:53 AM by James Martin
You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day for a sagra. And you couldn’t ask for a better food to create a festival around than porchetta.
Yes, it’s that season again, when folks gather around picnic tables and get fed huge amounts of great food in a communal setting under the shade trees of a tiny village. This sagra was special. No plastic appeared. We drank from real glass and ate off real plates, as you can see in the picture. Life is good.
And cheap. The pasta (Panzarotti with ricotta and greens inside), a helping of porchetta (slices of young wood-roasted pig stuffed with herbs and pepper) and patate fritti (ahem, “French” fries if you must, or fried potatoes), along with a big bottle of fizzy water and a piece of torta d’erbe (a local favorite pastry with greens and onions inside) cost all of €15 and I’m stuffed.
(Want to attend a sagra in Italy? Just look for the sagra signs.)
Filed in: Italy Festivals The Lunigiana
Liberation Day - Pontremoli, Italy · Apr 25, 02:15 PM by James Martin
Filed in: Living in Italy Italy Festivals
Good Friday Processions in the Lunigiana · Apr 11, 12:06 PM by James Martin
This year’s Good Friday processions seemed more subdued than they normally are, perhaps made even more somber by memories of the Abruzzo tragedy—at least in light of the passionate processions we saw in Sicily last spring.
At 8:30 pm in Aulla, the Lunigiana’s market town, the small procession started off from San Caprasio church (where the tomb of the ancient pilgrim and hermit Saint Caprasio still resides in the apse) and slowly made its way up the street, stopping at the stations of the cross.
The faithful follow the cross hoisted high, the one you see in the picture. People sing hymns softly to guitar accompaniment. At each station, the appropriate biblical tales are recounted under the dim streetlights on a chilly night in April.
Filed in: The Lunigiana Italy Festivals
Matera, Italy and Snatching Power From Elders · Mar 23, 05:08 PM by James Martin
It was an interesting fragment that just came in via twitter from travel writer and editor Larry Habegger, speaking of one of his favorite moments in the Neiman Conference on Narrative Journalism:
Julian Bond telling youth you must snatch power from elders not wait for invitation
I couldn’t help but think of Matera’s Festa della Madonna Bruna. Matera is a city in Italy’s Basilicata region. The old section of town is a bowl full of Sassi, small hovels dug out of a soft limestone basin. Matera was the impoverished setting of Carlo Levi’s Christ Stopped in Eboli and the film The Passion of the Christ. It’s a town you’ll never forget.
Every year a highly skilled artisan makes up an intricately baroque cart with the brown Madonna enthroned on it. On the night of July 2nd, the cart is slowly pulled through the historic old town, guarded by Caribinieri. You wait for hours as the car trundles through town. It’s the most boring festival in the world—and it’s televised.
Then, suddenly, around midnight, youth appear from the shadows and attack the carabinieri. All hell breaks loose. The scoundrels rip at the paper maché decorations off the cart. The police push back. A battle ensues. The youth scratch and claw until the cart is torn to shreds. We the unordained are left scratching our heads.
Locals, however, applaud.
All because the youth have snatched power from the elders, the entire point of the festival. The triumph of youth and vitality—it’s just what the doctor and Julian Bond ordered.
Read more and see some pictures: Matera’s Festa della Madonna Bruna
Filed in: Italy Festivals Italy Travel Tips