Thursday, June 23, 2011

An Italian Tradition

Tonight I went to a bonfire for the day of San Giovanni. It was a small neighborhood gathering near the farm. I can't figure out which San Giovanni it was, nor could anyone tell me (in English or Italian, all they could say was "it's an Italian tradition"). EDIT: After a bit of research, I realize that it's the eve of St. John the Baptist. I still don't know how the bonfire figures in.

First we ate dinner where everyone got a sausage, a small piece of lamb, and maybe a small piece of pork as it became ready on the grill. The first meat wasn't ready until maybe 9:30. The rest came after that. I was thankful that Anna and I had eaten salad beforehand.

The tables were furnished with fried bread and regular bread, pecorino and smoked ricotta cheese, red wine, white wine, beer, and water. Giuseppe (that's Antonello's father) has quite a liking for Anna, so he paid for our meals. He introduced us to people and talked about Sicily with everyone who would listen.

Then some of the other guests and volunteers showed up, right before the fire was lit. We watched as this huge bonfire, with an effigy of San Giovanni (I think -- again, nobody really knew for sure what was being represented) went up in flames (relatively quickly due to the dry grass making up the majority of the fuel).

And today was market day. The huge open-air market is held in Sora every Thursday, so many of us volunteers went down around 8AM to beat the heat. I didn't really need anything, so I just walked the span of the stalls which were selling everything from pots and pans to chicks and ducks. I ended up buying a bit of goat cheese, just because I love the taste of goat cheese and it's fun to interact with people at the market.

In between these two fun events, I cleaned rooms for our new guests. I was imagining a small family as we set up beds for four people, but it was actually four gigantic Australian guys. It was just surprising to see them, because I guess we don't get to many backpacking groups. I don't know. Hopefully they appreciated the freshly-mopped floor. Now I'm going to go to bed so I can help Anna make breakfast in the morning. Buonanotte!

1 comment:

Paul said...

Happy Nativity of St. John the Baptist:) Your description of the reast sounds WONDERFUL! My thoughts and prayers are with you daily. love, Daddy

Thursday, June 23, 2011

An Italian Tradition

Tonight I went to a bonfire for the day of San Giovanni. It was a small neighborhood gathering near the farm. I can't figure out which San Giovanni it was, nor could anyone tell me (in English or Italian, all they could say was "it's an Italian tradition"). EDIT: After a bit of research, I realize that it's the eve of St. John the Baptist. I still don't know how the bonfire figures in.

First we ate dinner where everyone got a sausage, a small piece of lamb, and maybe a small piece of pork as it became ready on the grill. The first meat wasn't ready until maybe 9:30. The rest came after that. I was thankful that Anna and I had eaten salad beforehand.

The tables were furnished with fried bread and regular bread, pecorino and smoked ricotta cheese, red wine, white wine, beer, and water. Giuseppe (that's Antonello's father) has quite a liking for Anna, so he paid for our meals. He introduced us to people and talked about Sicily with everyone who would listen.

Then some of the other guests and volunteers showed up, right before the fire was lit. We watched as this huge bonfire, with an effigy of San Giovanni (I think -- again, nobody really knew for sure what was being represented) went up in flames (relatively quickly due to the dry grass making up the majority of the fuel).

And today was market day. The huge open-air market is held in Sora every Thursday, so many of us volunteers went down around 8AM to beat the heat. I didn't really need anything, so I just walked the span of the stalls which were selling everything from pots and pans to chicks and ducks. I ended up buying a bit of goat cheese, just because I love the taste of goat cheese and it's fun to interact with people at the market.

In between these two fun events, I cleaned rooms for our new guests. I was imagining a small family as we set up beds for four people, but it was actually four gigantic Australian guys. It was just surprising to see them, because I guess we don't get to many backpacking groups. I don't know. Hopefully they appreciated the freshly-mopped floor. Now I'm going to go to bed so I can help Anna make breakfast in the morning. Buonanotte!

1 comment:

Paul said...

Happy Nativity of St. John the Baptist:) Your description of the reast sounds WONDERFUL! My thoughts and prayers are with you daily. love, Daddy