20.3.12

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.

3.3.12

Bar Dell'Amore


Today was a joyous occasion in the Cinque Terre and another step in providing for the people of Vernazza. It was the opening of the Bar dell'Amore, located along the Via dell'Amore, or Walkway of Love (the hiking path linking Riomaggiore with Manarola). 


With breathtaking views from every table, you can now take a relaxing break from your journey with a glass of local wine and a plate of munchies for an afternoon apperetivo, or start out the day with fresh air, clear turquoise seas, beautiful vistas of the Cinque Terre, a freshly baked muffin and a creamy cappuccino.

Buy some fresh lemons from their tree-can't get more local than that!

You may have seen this bar if you been to the Cinque Terre recently, but it has been closed for nearly three years after problems with the park officials. But because the people of Vernazza have lost their businesses, their jobs and their livelihoods, the park has been working to provide new jobs and opportunities.


Run by four friends from Vernazza and one from Riomaggiore, the Bar dell'Amore is back in business. Stefano, Chilli, Silvia, Luca and Matteo have worked hard to clean the place up and make it new and they are happy to greet their new visitors!


They have it all in this little place, so whether you want to buy a bottle of water or beer; a postcard or a guidebook; a little something to nosh on or full sandwich; a locket to add to the Wall of Love, or to enjoy one of Stefano's cocktails, make sure you make a stop at Bar dell'Amore!

--------------UPDATE-----------------

Due to the rockslide in 2012, the closure of the Via del'Amore has closed the bar. It is accessible from the Manarola station, but the building is closed.