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chapter IX, the Festa of San Pasquale | |||
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 | When planning our trip, I noticed on a website that Sersale had about 3 festas, and one was in September. so we decided that would be a great time to go. The last weekend I was there was the festa. Saturday morning early, the piazza and many of the surrounding streets became filled with booths of vendors. The town began to buzz. My cousin, Francesco, who owns one of the bars in the Piazza informed me that he would at best sleep 3 hours a night while this fiero was in town (fair), and the town did seem to hum with activity. Saturday morning at 830 we were up and checking out the booths. There were all sorts of things. Clothing, shoes, toys, music (we bought 4 cassettes of traditional calabrese music) tools, linens, biscotti, luggage, you name it. even computer games. We dickered with some merchants, some wouldn’t budge, some would, and we bought some trinkets and biscotti. | ||
| Biscotti is a general name that covers several different types of baked products, and we got some mostaccioli (very hard cookie in fanciful shapes), scarfo, a softer type of pastry, almost like a donut or cake, with currants and a sugar coating, and "regular" biscotti. Saturday night we wanted to call home so we went to "Sport Bar" a bar in the piazza owned and operated by my very handsome cousin Francesco Grillo and his wife and children. The bar was absolutely teeming with men of all ages, who seemed to ogle me a bit more than they normally did. All were eating something that resembled the kind of chili you might buy in a bar in the USA. I asked my cousin what it was, "Spezzatino" he replied "my wife makes it. It is a special recipe that everyone eats every year at this festa." Then he asked "Do you want to try some? Come back here" He lead me into the back room and gave me a little bit (he wanted to give me a whole bowlful, but we were about to go to another home for dinner and I didn't dare go there without room for a meal!!!). It was TRIPE! well, I ate half and gave the rest to my husband when he got done making his phone call.(nose wrinkled here) | |||
 cugini
When we got back to my cousin Adrianna's house, I told her what happened and she laughed and said "My father used to go down there and buy the Spezzatino and bring it back for the family to eat. ONLY MEN eat it at the bar." So that was why I was getting all the looks. I wasn't "Supposed" to be in there. and that's also why Francesco put me in the back room!
The festa ended with a procession from the church where people walk all over the town, with a marching band.
The band was practicing early on Sunday, so we immediately became acquainted with them, and discovered that two of our young cousins were in it. So my husband asked the band director if they would pose for a photo. Soon he had the whole band lined up nicely (about 30 people) for a photo. |
|  There were several church services Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as part of the festa. Often you could hear the church bells ringing, announcing yet another service. We had to leave Sersale Sunday evening, so the plan was that after the procession, we would go. We took one last walk around town, where we met at least half the people we knew. Naturally, everyone wanted to talk to us, and some even wanted to take us to buy another cafe! When we finally got back to the Piazza, the procession was already gone. So we sadly made our last farewells and drove off to Lamezia, where our hotel room (with a fantastic shower) awaited us. | |