Religious and traditional
festivals
Perhaps the most widespread
local event in Italy is the
religious
procession , some of
which can be very dramatic
affairs. Many - perhaps all
- have strong pagan roots,
marking important dates on
the calendar and only
relatively recently
sanctified by the Church.
One of the best known takes
place in the small village
of
Cocullo in the
Abruzzi mountains, on May 6
(St Dominic Abate's Day),
when a statue of the saint,
swathed in snakes, is
carried through the town - a
ritual that certainly dates
back to pre-Christian times.
Good Friday , for
obvious reasons, is also a
popular time for
processions. In many towns
and villages models of
Christ taken from the Cross
are paraded through towns
accompanied by white-robed,
hooded figures singing
penitential hymns. The west
coast of Sicily sees many of
these, as do other places
across the south -
Táranto,
Reggio, Bari, Bríndisi
. On the following Saturday
a procession of flagellants
makes its way through
Nocera
Tirinese in Calabria.
Later on in the year,
elaborate
presepi
(nativity scenes) are
displayed during the days
leading up to
Christmas
in
Naples and
Verona
(in Naples especially
presepi
are a popular local craft),
and the nativity figures are
prominent in the large-scale
Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio in
Milan
. At
Epiphany
(January 6) a toy-and-sweet
fair, dedicated to the good
witch Befana, lasts until
dawn around the fountains of
Piazza Navona in
Rome
. On the same day a
procession of the
Rei
Magi (Three Kings)
passes through Milan, and
there are live tableaux at
Rivisondoli
in Abruzzo. There are plenty
of other festive events, for
instance the famous Festa di
San Gennaro in
Naples
, where much superstition
surrounds the miraculous
liquefaction of the saint's
blood three times a year.
Other ritual celebrations
bear less of the Church's
imprint, and a Communist
mayor and local bishop will
jointly attend a town's
saint's day celebration,
where the separate
motivations to make some
money, have a good time and
pay some spiritual dues all
merge. Superstition and a
desire for good luck are
part of it, too. In Gubbio
there's a mad race to the
Church of San Ubaldo (May 5)
with the Ceri - three
phallic wooden pillars each
eight metres high. Similar
obelisks are carried around
in other places. On
September 3 a
ninety-foot-tall Macchina
di Santa Rosa ,
illuminated with tiny oil
lamps, is paraded through Viterbo
, and at Nola , near
Naples, around June 22,
eight gigli (lilies)
are carried through the
streets. Phallic though
these may seem, the giant
towers are more likely to be
associated with an ancient,
goddess-worshipping culture.
The number of practising
Catholics in Italy is
dwindling, and until
recently many feste
were dying out. But interest
in many festivals has been
revived over the last decade
or so, especially in pilgrimages
. These are as much social
occasions as spiritual
journeys, some of them more
important to people than
Christmas, and they still
attract massive crowds. As
many as a million pilgrims
travel through the night,
mostly on foot, to the Shrine
of the Madonna di Polsi
in the inhospitable
Aspromonte mountains in
Calabria, while Sardinia's
biggest festival, the Festa
di Sant'Efisio , sees a
four-day march from Cágliari
to Pula and back, to
commemorate the saint's
martyrdom. And there are
other shrines and
sanctuaries all over Italy,
mostly in inaccessible
hilltop locations, some of
them visited regularly by
families from the
surrounding area keen for a
day out, others just the
subject of a once-a-year
trek.
Other traditions
survive: on the Day of
the Dead (All Saints'
Day) on November 1, children
receive presents, given on
behalf of dead relatives, to
make them feel that the
people they were close to
still think of them. There
are festivals that evoke
local pride in tradition,
too, medieval contests like
the Palio horse race
in Siena perpetuating
allegiances to certain
competing clans; Palio races
take place in a few other
centres, Alba and Asti in
Piemonte for example, though
most have been revived more
to support the tourist
industry than anything else
and can't compete with the
seriousness and vigour of
Siena's contest. Other towns
put on crossbow, jousting
and flag-twirling contests,
marching bands in full
medieval costume
accompanying the event with
enthusiastic drumming; these
are far from staged affairs,
with fierce rivalry between
participants.
Festivals diary
AGRIGENTO Almond
blossom festival (March).
ALBA Giostra delle
Cento Torri, Palio and
costume parade (1st Sun in
Oct).
AMALFI
Sant'Andrea's day (June 27).
AOSTA Fiera di
Sant'Orso -
thousand-year-old fair (End
of Jan).
AREZZO Giostra del
Saracino - jousting by
knights in armour (1st Sun
in Sept).
ASCOLI PICENO
Torneo della Quintana -
jousting (1st weekend in
Aug).
ASSISI Holy Week
celebrations (Easter);
Calendimaggio spring festa
(1st week in May).
ASTI Bareback
riders from villages around
take part in Palio (3rd Sun
in Sept).
BARI Sagra di San
Nicola - pilgrims follow a
boat carrying the saint's
image for a ceremony out at
sea, in honour of the 47
sailors who saved his bones
from raiders (1st weekend in
May).
BRISIGHELLA
Medieval festival (End of
June).
CAGLIARI Sagra di
Sant Efisio - thousands of
pilgrims accompany the
saint's statue in carts, on
horseback or on foot (May
1).
CAMOGLI Sagra del
Pesce - procession of boats,
with a fish fry-up (2nd Sun
in May).
CAMPOBASSO Sagra
dei Misteri (Beginning of
June).
COCULLO Festa di
San Domenico Abate -
procession through the
village with a statue of the
saint swathed in snakes (1st
week in May).
DIANO MARINA
Festival del Mare -
fireworks (Aug 15).
DOLCEACQUA Festa
di San Sebastiano - saint's
day celebrated with a tree
covered with Communion hosts
carried through town (Jan
20).
ENNA Celebrations
for Holy Week (Easter).
FAVIGNANA La
Mattanza - ritual slaughter
of tuna (May/June).
FELTRE Medieval
Palio (1st weekend in Aug).
FLORENCE Scoppio
del Carro - firework display
in the Piazza del Duomo
(Easter Sun); Festa di San
Giovanni - fireworks and the
Gioco di Calcio Storico, a
rough-and-tumble football
game played between the four
quarters of the city in
medieval costume (June 24
& 28).
FOLIGNO Torneo
della Quintana - six hundred
medieval knights in jousting
contest (2nd weekend in
Sept).
GENOA Festa di San
Giovanni (June 24).
GUBBIO Festa dei
Ceri (May 5); Crossbow
matches against San Sepolcro
(Last Sun in May).
LA SPEZIA Rowing
contests in Palio del Golfo
(Aug).
LUCCA Torchlight
processions as part of
Luminaria di Santa Croce
(Aug 14).
LUNGRO Albanian
celebrations (Easter).
MAROSTICA Human
chess game (Every even year
2nd weekend in September)
MASSA MARITTIMA
Crossbow competition (May
24).
MILAN Mercato di
Sant'Ambrogio, also known as
O Bei! O Bei! (December).
MONTEPULCIANO
Bravio delle Botte,
barrel-rolling race preceded
by procession, drums and
flag-throwing (Last Sun in
Aug).
NAPLES Festa di
San Gennaro Gathering in the
cathedral to witness the
liquefaction of the saint's
blood (1st Sun in May, Sept
19, Dec 16).
NOCERA TIRINESE
Flagellants' procession
through the village (Easter
Sat).
NORCIA Crossbow
matches and processions
(March 20-21).
NOVOLI Bonfires in
honour of Sant'Antonio Abate
(Jan 17).
ORVIETO Corpus
Christi procession
(Mid-June).
PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI
Byzantine celebrations
(Easter and Epiphany).
PISA Luminaria -
festival of lights (June
16-17); Gioco del Ponte,
tug-of-war game over main
bridge, preceded by
historical procession (June
26); Historical regatta in
costume (July 26 & 27).
PISTOIA Giostra
dell Orso - Joust of the
Bear (July 25).
PORTO CESAREO
Luminaria - festival of
lights (Aug 22).
ROME Befana,
toy-and-sweet fair in Piazza
Navona (Jan 6 - Epiphany);
Festa de'Noantri - dancing,
songs and floats in
Trastevere's piazzas (July
16-24).
SAN MARCO IN LAMIS
Fracchie - ritual of pagan
origin in which bundles of
burning wood are hauled
through the streets (Good
Friday).
SAN SEPOLCRO
Crossbow matches against
Gubbio (2nd weekend in
Sept).
SIENA Palio in
medieval Campo (July 2 &
Aug 16).
TAGGIA Festa della
Maddalena with Dance of
Death in main piazza (Sun
nearest to July 22).
VENICE Carnevale
(Feb/March); Il Redentore -
gondola procession,
fireworks, to commemorate
the end of a
sixteenth-century plague
(3rd week in July); Regatta
(1st Sun in Sept).
VENTIMIGLIA
Regatta and processions (Aug
9-10).
VIAREGGIO
Carnevale (Feb/March).
VITERBO Procession
of the Macchina di Santa
Rosa (Sept 3).
Food festivals
Food -inspired feste
are more low-key affairs
than the religious events,
but no less enjoyable for
it, usually celebrating the
local speciality of the
region to the accompaniment
of dancing, music from a
local brass band and noisy
fireworks at the end of the
evening. There are literally
hundreds of food festivals,
sometimes advertised as sagre
, and every region has them
- look in the local papers
or ask at the tourist office
during summer and autumn and
you're bound to find
something going on. Most are
modest affairs, meant for
the locals and little
publicized - but there are a
few exceptions. In Tivoli
, near Rome, the town's
fountains run with wine on
the second Sunday in
October; the same happens in
Città della Pieve in
Umbria, in April, during the
Festa delle Fontane, and at
nearby Panicale.
Other notable events are Orvieto
's wine festival each June, Bolzano
's in the second half of
March or the beginning of
April, and the truffle fair
and Palio in Alba on
the first Sunday in October.
Generally though, the
smaller events are better,
giving you a chance to join
in the dancing and sample
the cooking.
Arts festivals
The home-town pride that
sparks off many of the food
festivals also expresses
itself in some of the arts
festivals spread across
Italy, particularly in the
central part of the country
- based in ancient
amphitheatres or other ruins
or marking the work of a
native composer, and
sometimes going on for as
long as a month. Perhaps the
most prestigious is the Venice
film festival in August and
September. Spoleto 's
summer Festival dei Due
Mondi (Festival of the Two
Worlds) is also well known,
a two-month-long event of
classical concerts, films,
ballet, street theatre and
performance art, with its
venue the open spaces of the
ancient walled town, that is
the biggest arts festival in
the country nowadays. The
Sferisterio in Macerata
in Marche and the Roman
arena in Verona are two
equally dramatic places to
hear music in the summer
months. Similarly there's
the Panatenee Pompeiane
music festival, held in the
ruins of Pompeii
during the last week of
August. Bologna 's
summer festival often tries
something different, with
live bands playing in its
medieval palace courtyards
and screenings of soap opera
or art movies in unexpected
places. Other festivals
remember a particular
composer: Puccini's music is
celebrated from the end of
July to mid-August in Torre
del Lago, near Viareggio
, Rossini's in Pésaro
from mid-August to
September. And it's worth
noting the dates of the
Italian opera season
, which begins in December
and runs through until May
or June. The principal opera
houses are La Scala in
Milan, the Teatro dell'Opera
in Rome, La Fenice in Venice
(currently closed after
fire, but there is a
temporary replacement), the
Teatro Comunale in Florence
and the Teatro San Carlo in
Naples. But there are also
other, more modest venues
that have regular
performances of opera
throughout these months.
