Yesterday was Labor Day here in Italy.  From what I’ve seen, it has a lot in common with Labor Day in the US.  It’s a day off from work and people basically use it to do things they enjoy. In Rome they have a big outdoor concert.  Quite a few people from outside of the city will ride the bus in in order to be able to attend.   

There are a few differences though between Labor Day here and there.  One thing is that the stores were closed - at least in my town.  Now, maybe in the cities or at the malls the stores were open, but here in town, everything was closed so that the workers could enjoy the day.  Bars and restaurants were open though, of course.  I don’t think there’s a single store closed in the U.S. for Labor Day anymore.
The other thing is that there are also religious festivals.  We had one here in town.  Well, it was a festival for the town of Dogliola really, and of course, the people from Palmoli join in.  The towns are small and the kids go to school together, so it’s a good time to gather around and chat with friends.
On May 1, the people from Dogliola come to Palmoli in procession to visit the Madonna of Mt. Carmel sanctuary.  Yes, that’s right; they walk the 5-6 kilometers from Dogliola to Palmoli.  They are accompanied by a band for the last stretch of the walk. The procession arrives around 11 and is then followed by a mass. 
The neighboring town of Carunchio also has a yearly festival on May 1 called the Festa della Madonna della Valle.  They also celebrate with a procession which leaves from the Chiesa del Purgatorio in the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, carrying the statue of the Madonna to the Chiesa della Valle, which is a small church nestled in the wood.  This is also about a 4 kilometer walk.  The statue then returns to the Chiesa del Purgatorio on the first Sunday in August.
If you’d like to see pictures of Dogliola and Carunchio, go to www.palmch.com/palmoli/towns.html.  If you’d like to see pictures of the Madonna of Mt. Carmel Sanctuary, go to www.palmch.com/palmoli/whattosee.html.

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Festival season is getting started with a bang.  That’s one of the things I really love about it here.  Once the weather starts getting nice, there’s usually a festival to be found somewhere.  This week it was in San Salvo – the festival of San Vitale.  It lasted for the entire week and there were various activities including an outdoor market, a sculpture contest, and an evening fair. 

Since Wednesday was a holiday here – Liberation Day to be exact, we headed down to the outdoor market.  When I first came, I was a little leary of buying things there, but then I realized that a lot of these people have shops too and go to the markets to sell.  We made a couple of purchases of course, among them strawberries – red and sweet and juicy.  Yum!

Friday night we went down to the fair even though the “big” night is Saturday.  It was your typical fair, with rides, loud music, games, and things to eat.  There are some differences though – instead of hot dogs and hamburgers, it’s porchetta, sausage panini and arrosticini.  In case you don’t know, porchetta is a whole deboned pig that is seasoned and cooked in a slow oven.  Sausage panini speak for themselves of course – grilled sausage in a crusty roll.  Arrosticini are lamb kebabs, more or less.  They’re small pieces of mutton on a stick – the pieces are much smaller than a typical kebab.  Then they’re roasted over the fire and you eat them hot and salty.  Sometimes the simplest food is the tastiest.

Of course, there are more festivals coming up.  We won’t be able to go to all of them, but we’ll definitely get to visit some.

If you’re interested in knowing what’s up next, check out my calendar at www.palmch.com/palmoli/calendar.html.

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