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| The special bread for the saint's day. |
Later we went down to the piazza to see the procession of the saint. It started an hour late. No one cared. The band gave up and went to sit in the shade. The guys who were to direct traffic stayed in the middle of the street; the cars and people took no notice of them. A woman I know a little helped me buy one of the special breads. 6 Euros, but it was to benefit the park. It is a hard round bread that is a little sweet and has anise seeds, but not too strong. The woman told me that we must eat it with salami and wine. (We took it for lunch.) Everyone was happy talking and waiting with no evidence of impatience.
Finally all the people came out of the church after mass. I thought I did not have appropriate clothes to go in the church, but this was not true. After the people came the flag, the cross, the band, the priest, his helpers, the megaphone holder and the saint.
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| The four stages of women: from left to right. Young, trying to look young, widower, and husband is still living. |
The saint was carried on poles by four sturdy men. Hanging from the poles were four of the special breads made for this day. The priest was thanking God for the bread, the fruit, life in general and blessing everywhere he passed. Many of the women of town followed the priest and then the men behind. It is the first time I have seen women walk ahead of men in Italy. We went with the procession a little ways, but it was hot and we were invited to our neighbors’ for lunch: the important meal of the day.
Two hours and 45 minutes of eating and we are home again. Jim is snoring away. We had pasta with black truffles, then veal Milano, which is a little like chicken fried steak, as well as tomatoes with oregano, and salad. This does not do the meal justice. My meat covered my entire plate and I took home 1/2 for dinner, although maybe tomorrow’s dinner. The oregano here is completely different than in America. It is not a mint. It is a little spicy like a pepper and a little lemony.Now we know why the dried oregano in our house, that is 15 years old at least, is still so strong. We also had lemoncello, aranciacello ( made from blood oranges of Scilly), nocca cello, which is made from nuts, fruit, coffee and gelato. Enrica made all of these liquors. She dried the oregano and made all of the meal, of course. She did not make the gelato, which was surprising. Salvatore found the truffles with his truffle dogs.
It is nice to have a long lunch and talk and eat and talk and eat. It gives credit to all the time it takes to make such a nice meal. Tonight there is a concert of the band, something for children, an accordion player and, because Italy is playing soccer against England tonight, there will be a large screen tv in the small piazza. I feel sorry for the accordion player. Even for me it is no contest. Possibly he will wait to play after the soccer game. That would actually be about on time for Italy. The soccer game will start on at 8:30 and it would be amazing if the concert, also scheduled for 8:30, started before 9:30 at the earliest. I wish you could see how little everyone cares about things starting late. It is just an excuse to talk and hang out. Last year our first day in Italy was the festival of San Giovanno. We only saw the band and did not know about the other festivities. I thought the band was for me. It may have really been for the saint, but they were playing for me as well.
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| Mayor of CVS, smiling for the camera. |
People are headed up the hill toward the Church of SanGiovano. It was damaged in the earthquake, but was the primary church in town and people headed back down toward San Francesca Church. The bell tower is in the distance with earthquake repairs in progress. San Giovanno is wreathed in scaffolding.
And now it is time for THE SHOES OF THE DAY!!! Imagine walking in these on cobble stones.
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