Nigel and Vicki LIVE: Festas

Many villages throughout Italy manage to have a festival day (or weekend) sometime during the year. The summer weekends can offer many choices so, provided you have transport, there are always options for attending a festa. We were lucky that our host in Sabina – Pauline – took us to two and a half. The first (the half) was at the little old village of San Polo, just down the hill from Pauline's home in San Giorgio. The reason it only qualifies as a “half” is that we got there at midday and it was all over! And it wasn’t a true festa either. A group of Roman photographers (if you don’t want the image of people in togas carrying wax tablets then think of photographers from Rome) are making a year-long study of four historic villages, including two from near us: San Polo and Tarano on the other side of where we are staying. They turn up every so often and photograph the inhabitants and the buildings. The village turned on some “scenic” activities for them including horses in the streets and opening up the wine cellars.

Maurizio (left) getting our "glasses" filled

Though we missed the main event we, with the help of an Italian friend, Maurizio, were shown around the cellars of a house where wine was being bottled. Of course we were “forced” to sample some and I’d have to classify it as somewhat agricultural. Full of flavour indeed. We were then invited into someone’s house where Maurizio was having lunch, and duly made to sit down and provided with the best lasagne we’ve ever had - apparently made by someone's elderly Mum. And plenty more farmyard red (which I’d develop quite a liking for). It wasn’t awkward at all as there must have been 20 or so people including most of the photographers. The usual wonderful hospitality we’ve found here.

At San Polo

San Polo clocktower

Italian fashion, circa 1350

Our first real festa was a visit to the town of Civitella San Paolo. We knew this was a big event when we saw people walking along the roadside before we got near. And this is serious as you never want to walk along a road in Italy unless desperate – the roads are very narrow, poorly maintained, no footpaths, and full of psychotic wannabe F1 drivers in old Fiats. They had managed to put on a park-and-ride and, for the first time in Italy, we saw people forming an orderly queue.

The old parts of the town are surrounded by a castle wall and inside the inhabitants were dressed up in medieval costumes selling traditional goods at stalls. They even had a vat of boiling water containing silk worms from which the threads were picked up and attached to a spinning wheel. The event finished with a sound-and-light spectacular depicting an event in history where the townspeople beat off invaders who supported an alternate Pope. All a bit lost on us with our lack of Italian.

Traditional board games

Citta della Pieve

Judging at the theatre

Our second big outing was to a saffron festival at Citta della Pieve. We rented an apartment in the old town with Pauline and a couple of American friends Meg and Chris. While it wasn’t a big event there was a market with stalls selling all sorts of food flavoured with local saffron, from cheeses to chocolates. Unusual for this area the walled hilltop town is made of brick, reminiscent of the east coast towns.

One highlight was a music competition featuring two teenage boys in an old theatre. The only audience was the five judges and a few onlookers like us who had sneaked into the boxes.