On December 14th in Rome, we met our first Sardine heading up the escalator from the San Giovanni Metro stop. A woman in a red jacket – from Parma and in Rome for the Sardine gathering – had a blue and yellow cardboard sign on her back with a message in rhyme, “SARDINA PARMIGIANA –…
Our family celebrates Thanksgiving here in Assisi, too, but the Sunday following the holiday. Pino needs the weekend to fulfill his role, a major one: the creation of il tacchino di Pino. For years, we’ve ordered the turkey a few days prior from Assisi’s best butcher, Francesco, who well knows “che serve a Pino per…
That huge crackling and spitting focaraccio (literally, “big ugly fire” i.e., “bonfire”) near Assisi’s massive medieval fortress, La Rocca Maggiore, is said to light the way for the arrival of La Madonna (for December 8th, feast of the Immaculate Conception). I’m not sure about that but the traditional December 7th bonfire certainly does gather together…
No, Perugia Sardines don’t swim. They protest. Le Sardine are gathering by the thousands in cities all over Italy demonstrating their opposition to Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right La Lega (the League) and former deputy prime minister (in a coalition with the Five Star party). Born as a spontaneous online movement, the “sardines” oppose…