CELEBRATING EPIPHANY AND LA BEFANA IN ITALY

As some of you may know, January 6th was the day of Epiphany. Epiphany means "to show or reveal". In Western churches, it remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by doing so "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King (www.crivoice.org/cyepiph). Epiphany is also the end of the Christmas season and the Twelve Days of Christmas that starts December 25th and ends on January 6th. In Italy, Epiphany also has a secular tradition involving the celebration of "La Befana". Here is a brief story of La Befana:

Italy's traditional celebration includes the tale of a witch known as La Befana who arrives on her broomstick during the night of January 5 and fills the stockings with toys and sweets for the good children and lumps of coal for the bad ones. According to the legend, the night before the Wise Men arrived at the manger they stopped at the shack of an old woman to ask directions. They invited her to come along but she replied that she was too busy. Then a shepherd asked her to join him but again she refused. Later that night, she saw a great light in the sky and decided to join the Wise Men and the shepherd bearing gifts that had belonged to her child who had died. She got lost and never found the manger.

Now La Befana flies around on her broomstick each year on the 11thnight, bringing gifts to children in hopes that she might find the Baby Jesus. Children hang their stockings on the evening of January 5 awaiting the visit of La Befana. (http://goitaly.about.com/od/festivalsandevents/a/epiphany.htm)

MEDIEVAL SIENA

Siena is said to have been founded by Senius, son of Remus, one of the two legendary founders of Rome thus Siena's emblem is the she-wolf who suckled Remus and Romulus - you'll find many statues throughout the city. The city sits over three hills with its heart the huge piazza known as Il Campo, where the Roman forum used to be. Rebuilt during the rule of the Council of Nine, a quasi-democratic group from 1287 to 1355, the nine sections of the fan-like brick pavement represent the council and symbolizes the Madonna's cloak which sheltered Siena. -DiscoverTuscany.com

Our first stop in Tuscany was to the medieval village of Siena. This is a lovely place and I highly recommend a visit here if you are in Tuscany. Unfortunately, we were only able to spend the afternoon here on our way to lodging in Florence. Siena has more to offer than I thought and we could have spent a few more hours checking out the sites, to include, the Duomo of Siena or Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. It was quite cold the day we went so we found a couple shops to purchase scarves, gloves for Angela, and a hat for Caden and Mishaela. Our visit was a couple of days after Christmas so the town was still well decorated. The streets are narrow and the shops are quaint. It was awe inspiring knowing that we were walking through a town that was hundreds of years old. The sites we did see were the Piazza Del Campo, the Palazzo Comunale (Town Hall), the Torre Del Mangia (Tower of the Eats, it is a bell tower), and the Fonte Gaia (Fountain of Joy).

Piazza Del Campo - This is the main hub of Siena and surrounded by shops, restaurants, and historic site such as the Palazzo Comunale, Torre Del Mangia, and Fonte Gaia. Twice yearly the Palio di Siena takes place. This is a historic horse race with competitors from the 17 sections of the town. Clay is spread around the ring of the Camp for the race. It is quite competitive.

Piazza Del Campo

Palazzo Comunale - Originally, this was the town hall built with red brick and white marble. Currently, it houses the civic museum. Inside the museum are many masterpieces and frescos by Sienese artists. Adjoining the Palazzo is the Torre Del Mangia. This bell tower is among the highest and oldest in Italy.

Palazzo Comunale

Fonte Gaia - This fountain was built in 1343, in celebration of eight years of engineering work that brought water to the Piazza Del Campo in 1342. The original fountain was replaced in 1419 and then again in 1858. It is an impressive and beautiful piece of art.

Fonte Gaia

VISIT TO TUSCANY

Two days after Christmas we took a trip to the Tuscany Region of Italy. We spent four days and three nights touring Tuscany. The terrain is rolling and beautifully verdant. As you progress north to Florence the area becomes more mountainous. This land is well known for wine vineyards and olive orchards. Like much of Italy, Tuscany is rich in history. It is believed that the Renaissance began in Florence (Firenze), Tuscany in the 14th century. For our first real foray in to the heart of Italy, we decided to visit Siena, Pisa, and Florence. I will break the trip down into three different posts. Each post will focus on one of each of the three cities that we visited and chronicle the sites we saw. I will try to provide some history on each of the cities and the landmarks we were so fortunate to experience.. I hope you will enjoy reading the upcoming posts on the three cities and the beauty we encountered as much as we enjoyed visiting them. Here are some photos of the countryside on our drive through Tuscany.

FIRST CHRISTMAS IN ITALY

We celebrated our first Christmas in Italy. In the morning we stayed true to tradition and had breakfast and homemade hot cocoa. We then gathered around the artificial Christmas tree (non-tradtional for us and the first artificial we have owned due to the real trees sold locally look like the poor tree on "Its a Charlie Brown Christmas"). The kids separated the gifts and we took turns opening the gifts one by one. It was nice having Caden home from boarding school. We did miss not having Annelise and the baby here. Everyone seemed to be happy with their gifts.

In the afternoon we went to our Italian neighbors for Lunch (they are depicted in the photo). They served several courses. The first was an assortment of bruschetta, fried fish, fried potato puffs, zucchini and egg plant in olive oil, olives, and prosciutto. The second course was lasagna, very good. The third course was pasta with meat, mushrooms, olive oil, and buffalo mozzarella. The fourth course was lamb, a traditional Italian meat served on Christmas. The final course was a variety of deserts, one of which is pictured. This desert is very sweet, a specialty of Naples, and made with ricotta cheese, cake, and frosting over it. The meal was very good. So good I ate myself to near sickness.

It was a good day spent with family and friends. As enjoyable as it was, we missed not being with extended family back in the states. Buon Natale!

NORMA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Angela and I took a ride to the mountain village of Norma. Norma is known for its chocolate factory and museum. The chocolate produced in the factory is rated in the top 10 of all chocolates produced in Europe (http://blog.hotelclub.com/7-delicious-chocolate-destinations-in-europe/ & http://www.ifood.tv/blog/the-top-10-chocolate-destinations-of-the-world). The tour of the museum is free. You first begin your tour with a free sample of warm liquid chocolate. The museum provides an interesting history of chocolate and its introduction from the new world to Europe by Columbus. You will also see many old artifacts used in the preparation of chocolate. At the end of the museum is a small store where you may purchase various types, sizes, and shapes of chocolate.

Norma does not offer much else in the way of entertainment. It is interesting to walk the narrow streets and view the houses built on a mountainside. The road up to Norma is narrow and winding. The views are breathtaking.

BACK ON MY FEET

I have been out of commission for the past few weeks due to surgery and recovery. I am back on my feet and ready to see the sights of Italy again. I thank my loving and nurturing wife, Angela, for nursing me back to health and Caden and Mishaela for doing the heavy lifting for me. Angela thought it was cute to get a picture of her cat in bed with me during my recovery.

AN ITALIAN FAMILY OWNED OLIVE OIL PRESS

We visited a local small, family owned, olive oil pressing plant. This is one of the most interesting things we have done here in Italy. The local farmers bring in the harvest of olives to the plant for pressing. Some sell the olives to the plant owners who will process the olives and sell the oil. Other farmers just bring in the olives for processing to use the oil for personal use. You will see various varieties of black and green olives sitting idle in large crates waiting to be pressed. This is a warm water pressing plant. The olives go from the crates to a conveyer belt and into the bins to be crushed, pulverized, and turned into oil. The final step allows the mixture of oil, water, and pulverized olives to be separated. The water and olive bits sink to the bottom and are drained while the oil floats to the top. The finished product is the first press. This is the greenest, most fragrant, and most aromatic olive oil I have ever seen.

SITES OF ROME

It would take days to see all the sites that Rome has to offer. Here are a few photos of the sites of Rome during an afternoon visit. We were fortunate to see an ancient Roman re-enactment.

HALLOWEEN IN ITALY

The Italians do not really celebrate Halloween like we do in the states. Children do not go out to trick-or-treat. In the past three years the night clubs have started having Halloween celbrations for the adults. We attended a Halloween party hosted by the Canadians. The British attended as well.

Shay was a cat and Caden was "Jim" from the Office.

MEDIEVAL TOWN OF SERMONETA

A small medieval village, not far from Rome and 30 minutes from Latina, built on the top of a rock to defend the Agro Pontino area. The Caetani family bought this castle and the surrounding estate in 1297.

Italy is surely full of cities that are rich from the architectural and historical points of view. What is not always so easy to find here are places that are still genuine and out of any touristic flows with all that goes with it. In Sermoneta one can walk on roads that have been paved during XIV century, visit the majestic Princes Caetani's castle feeling like an XIX centoury traveller.