The vast majority of people want to help.

I firmly believe that both those statements are true and are even more valid in a foreign country.

My most recent experience of this involved an insect bite that wasn’t an insect bite, a pharmacist whose wife drove me to a doctor’s surgery, a doctor who didn’t change for the consult and finally that same pharmacist staying open after hours to give me the medicine I needed.

I suppose sometime I was going to encounter the need for a doctor in Abruzzo. I’ve spent a lot of time here and up until last week apart from zanzare bites I haven’t had to deal with much of a medical nature.

Last week I got a series of bites and thought nothing of them. Most disappeared after going through the itchy stage but one in particular stayed around. Not only did it stay around but it got more red and swollen daily. Coming back from a walking trip in the Majella Mountains I finally realised that maybe this red, raw, swollen area wasn’t a bite after all.

Now the location of the red, raw, swollen area was not one I wanted to shout about. It’s silly really but there are still bodily areas that I prefer not to talk about and this painful area was too close to one of them.

The people I was with realised there was something wrong though, as I was not my usual gazelle-like self bounding up the final ascent (I’m not sure when I’ve ever been “my usual gazelle-like self” but you get the picture).

So pushing embarrassment aside I explained the problem and said that I don’t know if I need a doctor or not. D, who was travelling in the car with us, told us about a pharmacist who goes well beyond the usual pill dispensing duties and has seen so many ailments he can usually tell if a doctor is needed or not. The great thing about this guy was he was nearby and open.

I arrived hoping he would understand my attempt at Italian ER-speak, recognise the problem right away, know the species of nasty insect that did this to me, and give me a miracle cure that would allow me to be fully functional the next morning.

It didn’t quite work like that. I had a discreet conversation with him (my Italian worked well) and he said he’d have to see the problem before commenting. That made perfect sense so we went into a side office and after he took a peek he said I needed a doctor and it would be best to go soon as possible as it could get worse.

I’d no idea where to find a doctor at close to 8 pm on a Friday evening and the idea of my problem getting worse didn’t really appeal so I naturally I asked where I’d find one. I wasn’t expecting much but before I knew it he’d organised his wife to bring me to a surgery that opened at 8 pm about 1 km away. He also looked serious and said “this doctor is good”; music to my ears.

We’re getting close to the end of the story at this stage. I visited the doctor, again my Italian held up (sort-of) and he prescribed antibiotics and pain killers. He said he was back there on Sunday night (yes I said Sunday night) if I needed him again but he expected I’d notice some improvement before then. As for a charge he said niente. I can’t imagine getting out of a doctor’s surgery in Ireland for less than €50.

Back to the now closed pharmacy and the pharmacist who was so helpful earlier very kindly fulfilled the prescription and sent me on my way.

The whole process took less than an hour and not only that I was told it was OK to drink a little Montepulciano d’Abruzzo while I was recovering.

I believe I have just been part of a minor medical miracle.

Post from: About Abruzzo

A Medical Drama in Abruzzo

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The Palio Delle Pupe in Cappelle Sul Tavo is definitely more spectacular. Fifteen districts compete in an event involving a procession of the dolls (le pupe) representing each area, followed by each doll dancing and exploding into a unique firework display.

Our plan on this trip to Abruzzo definitely included going to the Palio.

But as a result of a few decisions we made and a few invitations we received we decided to skip the Cappelle Sul Tavo event in favour of the festa in Loreto Aprutino.

One of the invitations that could’ve swayed us to go to Cappelle Sul Tavo came from A & S who were travelling to the Palio from close to Civitella Casanova. They were passing near Loreto Aprutino and offered to pick us up and take us with them. It was a very tempting offer and we gave it plenty of thought before declining.

I think the main reasons we decided to go to Festa dell’Assunta e di San Rocco was there was going to be one doll dancing and exploding with fireworks, so we’d get a feel for the Palio even if it was a reduced set, also several friends from Loreto Aprutino said that their festa was small but good, including a band (I’m a sucker for a band) and dancing.

Our friends that went to the Palio Delle Pupe had a great time and enjoyed some spectacular displays. They also saw some locals letting their hair down and becoming more passionate than is usual at an Abruzzo festa. That said, whenever things seemed to get a little out of hand the police were there to calm the situation without resorting to taking anyone away. This softly-softly approach was very appropriate to the inherent joy of the event.

But we didn’t see any of that. We arrived outside the church of Santa Maria in Piano at about 21:35. The band that was due to start at 21:30 was already in full swing with locals already waltzing around the car park turned dance floor.

We arrived starving. We knew we could get something to eat at the festa and decided to skip dinner in favour of whatever was available. So on arrival my primary focus was to get two porchetta panini and a couple of bottles of beer. We found a spot to sit down a little away from the dance floor but in the company of friends we’d run into when we arrived.

The pupa or doll wasn’t due to make an appearance until 23:30 so after scoffing the porchetta and quaffing baffo d’oro we wandered around taking in the atmosphere.

I took a few photos of Loreto Aprutino at night, and of the band and the locals enjoying the music. From the north side of the church you could see the fireworks display of the dolls in Cappelle Sul Tavo a few kilometres away.

The band played traditional music, waltzes, mazurcas and plenty more styles that I can’t remember. A cynic might look at the musicians, think old time ballroom dances and scoff, but they certainly knew how to play and knew what their audience wanted to hear. Everybody went away more than satisfied.

It didn’t seem to take too long for our pupa to make an appearance. I tried to get a good position so I could take photographs but barriers were erected and everyone had to stay behind them. The vigile who gently encouraged us to move to a safer position told us it was for our own safety as the fireworks are dangerous. Well nobody got hurt and everybody was impressed by the display so I think he knew what he was talking about.

From some of the images you can see the jeans of the very brave dancer who controls the doll as it moves in time to the music while firing rockets and missiles into the night sky. Not a job I’d volunteer for.

In Italian the word for doll is pupa. But I couldn’t help thinking of the English word pupa that is often used to describe an insect’s early life before it transforms into a more spectacular adult stage. Perhaps we’re not taking butterflies here but the fairly innocuous doll becomes a thing of significant and short-lived beauty after being transformed by the dancer and the fireworks.

After a year’s hibernation, it’ll all happen again next year.

Post from: About Abruzzo

A Doll’s Transformation on Ferragosto in Loreto Aprutino

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Back in spring the trees were trimmed and cleared so that they’d send all their nutrients to the best growth areas and ensure a good tasty crop.

Up early one morning I took this photograph and it made me imagine that in the early morning light, if you don’t disturb the olives and are very, very quiet, you can see the trees stretching their limbs and getting ready for a good days growth.

Some of the trees in this photograph look as though they are dancing, ballet perhaps or maybe some form of tribal sun worship.

I’m not talking about the trees to the front. They obviously knew I was there and were wary. But if you look closely at the trees in the background, those still basking in the early morning silvery light, you can see ballet poses, yoga positions and even one slightly tardy tree just thinking about touching its toes.

There’s more to Abruzzo Olive Oil than meets the eye, I think.

Post from: About Abruzzo

The Secret Life Of Trees

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Those that live in the towns and villages often have a plot of land nearby as gardens in the centro storico are hard to come by.

Yesterday morning at about 07:30 we walked out of the town following directions that brought us to a small plot of land that friends of ours use to grow their vegetables. When we got there we were a bit later than intended and most of the work had already been done.

It was a fantastic morning. The sun was still low in the sky casting long shadows and fortunately the temperature hadn’t become too hot for a bit of manual labour.

I grew up in a city and I’ve only in the last few years have started to try and grow fruit and vegetables. I’ve had a little success with tomatoes and potatoes but without the sun (our garden is in a lot of shade) you can’t get very far.

Things are different in Abruzzo. I bet even I could grow big juicy, bursting with flavour tomatoes without trying to hard. There are so many tomatoes and so many different varieties that I bet  if you dig deep enough you’ll find a tomato stratum forming the base foundation of Abruzzo.

In a relatively small plot of land our friends were growing beans, courgettes, carrots, onions, aubergines, peppers, chillies and of course tomatoes.

They let me wander around taking photographs (you can avoid a lot of work if you hold a camera) as they gathered up their tools and bounty. After I’d stuck my head through every row of vegetables I could find I helped carry crates of tomatoes back to their car.

We were warned to wear long trousers and long sleave shirts and the reason quickly be came clear. I’ve been fighting a losing battle against mosquitoes and if ever there was a place they were going to get the upper hand it was la campagna.

I’ve tried a few methods of discouraging them from biting me. None are 100% effective and many are completely useless. Yesterday morning I used my trump card. I spayed every exposed piece of flesh with DEET 50 and walked confidently into their den. The DEET spray seemed to work quite well initially, but Italian mosquitoes seem to like Irish blood and after a while they found the spots that I hadn’t covered well enough. Once these pests find an opening they’re happy to bite the same spot over and over again. I lost the battle. But it was worth it, it was a fantastic way to start the day.

I was surprised how mucky the ground was considering there wasn’t much rain. I had to use a knife to scrape off enough soil to grow a healthy bunch of carrots when we were leaving.

Later we all got together again and enjoyed a wonderful lunch of various vegetable dishes, all sourced from that small plot of land. Homemade ice cream and limoncello followed – it was the best limoncello I’ve ever tasted. “Don’t buy it from a shop” I was warned. “It’s too sweet and the lemons aren’t fresh”. Well this limoncello was fantastic.

Food doesn’t come any fresher than this!

Post from: About Abruzzo

Fresh food from the Abruzzo Countryside

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I was on my knees at the entrance to the church of Santa Maria di Recepto waiting patiently for the arrival of the ox. I was feeling proud of my ingenuity. I knew it was going to be difficult to take a really good sharp photograph of the ox on its own, without anything or anybody getting in the way. But I had a plan.

I’d decided on three approaches:

• Follow a really good local photographer as he found ideal vantage points (a little local knowledge goes a long way).
• Escape the crowd and get to the church of Santa Maria di Recepto before everyone else and grab pole position.
• Don’t rely on zooming, use a fast 50mm prime lens and get into the right positions.

Using the 50 mm prime lens on the Canon 400D was going to be a bit of a challenge. It makes it hard to take expansive shots of the crowd and the piazza but I thought t would be ideal for taking a portrait of the ox if I could get up close and personal. I was at the festival two years ago and I had plenty of wider angled shots so I was willing to make this little sacrifice.

It all really well to begin with and to tell the truth I was feeling happy about my approach. I managed to get some sharp photos of the ox and its handlers, I got some crowd pictures as they funnelled through the narrow streets and overall I thought I got better photographs than I did the last time I was at the festival.

But I wanted the killer shot, the crowning glory and I knew where I could get it. I headed for the little church early and got ready. After a while I was joined by other photographers and camera men vying for position as they placed themselves just inside the narrow entrance. It’s a small church, as small as they come, no more than a large room and I believe it is only opened once a year for the feast of San Zopito.

I waited. The crowd swelled outside. I was ready. First I heard the music from the Zampogna, a type of bagpipe being played by “the shepherds” and then came the ox. Mounting the ox far more confidently than I ever would was a young boy, dressed as a girl, with a red flower in his mouth, representing an angel. I rechecked the settings on my camera.  I wanted a portrait with a bit of depth so I set the aperture to f4.0. This was going to be great. The face of the ox and its colourful decorations would fill the frame and all distractions behind it would blur into insignificance. I was ready.

The ox approached. Its handlers were preparing for the most significant part of the ritual. The ox must genuflect in front of several churches on its journey through the town. This was a new ox. It had been trained for the procession and it seemed to be tackling the inclines of the narrow streets of Loreto Aprutino with ease.

Click, click, click, I got it! It was over so fast but I was sure I’d taken a great photo. After the ox and the procession moved on from the church I stepped outside and checked the images on my camera’s screen. Not the best way to check the quality of a photo but it can let you know if something went wrong.

Something had gone wrong. The pictures looked blurry. But I had a fast lens with a wide aperture why did this happen? And then I realised that in my excitement of being in the right place at the right time for what was going to be the most wonderful photograph I’d ever taken I had made a basic error. I wanted a sharp close-up of the ox with everything else blurring and what I got was a completely blurred image. Why? Simple really, it was basic camera shake. I never checked the shutter speed required to take the photo. It was slow enough that natural camera shake came into play. If I’d checked properly I’d have increased the ISO or opened the aperture a bit more and all would have been well. Anyone who had a basic point and click camera was likely to have a better photograph than I ended up with. Hey-ho, you live, you try, you learn! It was fun.

I hope to try again next year. 2011 is the three hundredth anniversary festival. Considering the efforts that went into the 299^th anniversary I expect the Festa di San Zopito 2011 will be even more spectacular. You’ve got plenty of notice as it’s about 10 months away.  Fireworks, traditional music, marching bands and two processions of the ox on consecutive days make the San Zopito weekend very special. Put it in your diary; it takes place on the weekend of Pentecost Sunday which I believe is 11, 12, 13 June (but you should check this).

Where does it happen?

Loreto Aprutino (PE)

Why does this festival happen?

It commemorates a special event that occurred in 1711. The remains of the Christian martyr San Zopito were being transported from the catacombs of San Callisto in Rome. As the procession passed the Collattuccio district of Loreto Aprutino a farmer, Carlo Parlione, did not pay due homage to the Saint and continued to work in the field. His ox however, got down on its knees and genuflected in front of the passing relics recognising the holiness of the Saint. Later when the procession arrived in the village a relative of the farmer suddenly recovered from an illness.

Since then the events have been re-enacted using a trained ox that passes through Loreto Aprutino genuflecting at key churches in its path. On its back is a child with a red carnation in its mouth, (a boy I believe although many references say it’s a girl) dressed in a gold-embroidered white dress, wearing a crown of flowers and holding a small umbrella. The child represents an angel and it is this angel that according to tradition makes the ox kneel down.

When does it happen?

It occurs on the weekend of Pentecost Sunday (Whitsunday). But please note that the date of Pentecost changes each year as it is tied to the date of Easter. For example Pentecost was on 24 May in 2010 but I believe it is on 12 June in 2011.

The Sunday and the Monday are the main days to see the ox and the child. The relics of San Zopito are in procession through the town on Monday the actual feast day of San Zopito.

What happens in Loreto Aprutino as part of the festival?

Well since the 2008 festival was a bit different to the 2010 festival I suspect that what happens varies depending on budget but the 2010 festival included

• the procession of the ox and child through the town in the morning of Pentecost Sunday
• the procession of the ox, the child and the relics of San Zopito in the evening of Monday
• Various bands playing in Piazza Garibaldi on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights
• A cycling race for the San Zopito trophy on Sunday afternoon
• A wonderful fireworks display to close the festival on Monday night

Anything else?

2011 – 1711 = 300!!!

Worth noting 11, 12, 13 June Pentecost 2011 I think.

Post from: About Abruzzo

The Festa di San Zopito 2010 and How I Missed the Killer Shot!

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I didn’t always feel so positive towards them. In fact there was a time I agreed whole heartedly with this quote from Sir Thomas Beecham (1879 – 1961)

Brass bands are all very well in their place – outdoors and several miles away.

But as I’ve said they’ve grown on me. They’ve grown on me so much that I almost went to the Festival Internazionale di Bande Musicali XI Edizione Giulianova back in May. The only thing that stopped me was the Cantine Aperte weekend, which clashed with Giulianova’s marching band competition. What could I do? There are so many cantine and so little time! Next year the festival in Giulianova is on from 2nd to 5th June maybe I’ll get there in 2011.

But time spent in Abruzzo is rarely a marching band free zone. On 24th May a band spent the day in Loreto Aprutino as part of the San Zopito festival. The band came from Ailano in Campania and made the 3 hour journey to Loreto Aprutino to help keep the locals, and anyone else that visited, entertained on the last day of the Festa di San Zopito.

My first real life encounter with an Italian marching band was in Cepagatti (PE) in 2007. We were on the road from Chieti (CH) to Penne (PE) and out came a traffic policeman with his hand raised for us to stop.

This was a potentially traumatic moment! It was our first time driving in Italy, trying to understand unfamiliar road signs and getting used to being on the other side of the road. Not really knowing where we were going, trying to do a crash course in map reading, attempting to avoid motorways – all these elements added up to us having broken some rule and we were about to have an Italian-English conversation that was going to be difficult.

After waiting a moment we heard the sound; a marching band was walking through the town helping to commemorate an important feast day in the town’s calendar. We’d been asked to stop to give them a chance to do their job. Once they passed we were off the hook and could continue to on our desperate journey to find our destination.

For this year’s Festa di San Zopito the band from Ailano, or to give its full title Storico Gran Concerto Banistico Cittá di Ailano, was fantastic. Under the guiding hand of Nicola Hansalik Samale (Maestro Direttore Concertatore) it delivered all day long.

It started around 08:30 when the musicians made their way through the streets to the town monument and played a salute. Later they changed their uniform and played as the relics of San Zopito passed through the town. But it was later still, at around 21:00 that they really came into their own. With Il Maestro Nicola Hansalik Samale in change they treated their audience to some bitter-sweet music by Puccini.

We all sat around the temporary bandstand in Piazza Garibaldi and listened as this wonderful band from Ailano filled the air with gorgeous sounds from one of Italy’s best composers. During the day the band had made a journey in style from military marches, to songs of praise and then finally to opera. As I sat there in the warm May night I was amazed at their skill, talent and stamina to be able deliver such a wonderful performance having started it all twelve hours earlier.

The San Zopito festival in Loreto Aprutino this year was wonderful, and on Monday 24 May the Storico Gran Concerto Banistico Cittá di Ailano helped ensure it ended in style.

Bravi!

Post from: About Abruzzo

What is a Festival without a Marching Band?

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Although they are in Italian I find the use of a dictionary can help me discover new places to visit.

D’Abruzzo: Turismo Cultura Ambiente possibly has the advantage over tesori d’Abruzzo for English speakers as it often has an article summary in English in the sidebars.

To give you an idea of what they cover here is what I discovered in the editions I picked up in May.

In the Primavera 2010 edition of D’Abruzzo: Turismo Cultura Ambiente

• The Trabocchi Coast
• The Protection of the Environment
• Walks in the Abruzzo Countryside
• The restoration  of the cathedral of San Panfilo in Sulmona
• Civita d’Antonio: its association with art school of Kristian Zahrtmann and the formation of Central and Southern Italy’s first tourist board
• Breeding of traditional sheep dogs of Abruzzo

In the aprile-giugno 2010 edition of tesori d’Abruzzo

• Benedictine craftsmanship
• Examples of Romanesque Architecture
• Creativity in Stone
• Festa dei Banderesi at Bucchianico
• The mosaics of Tornareccio

They cost about €5 and I think they are great value considering the amount of material they cover.

Being able to read Italian would allow you to get the most out of these publications. But since each article is accompanied by wonderful photos you can easily get a feel for what they’re writing about.

My only criticism, and it’s a selfish one, is that they are only published every quarter.

I should add that I’ve no association with D’Abruzzo: Turismo Cultura Ambiente or tesori d’Abruzzo; I just think they’re great magazines.

I was going to finish this post with that last sentence. I’d have completed what I set out to do by bringing these magazines to your attention for the second time. (I first wrote about them back in February 2009.)

But then I thought I can’t finish so abruptly.

So I had a quick look through my back catalogue of photos and I’ve selected six street scenes that I’m fairly certain I haven’t published before. Although they were taken in Abruzzo they are so typical they probably could have been taken anywhere in Italy.

I hope you like them.

Post from: About Abruzzo

A Little Bit Of Repetition: Scenes from a Magazine Revisited

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This large but innocent looking doll

becomes this

Why?

Because of this, Il Palio delle Pupe.

Back in May we spotted a lifesize doll standing outside the Comune offices in Cappelle Sul Tavo (PE) and apart from the external metal frame it just looked like a large pretty doll. But I asked at reception and I was told that it was part of a very important festival that happens every August 15^th in the town.

We then met Angelo Anselmi who told us a lot more about the event. He turns up as the second person being interviewed in this clip.

The competition is held annually between the fourteen districts (contrade) of Cappelle Sul Tavo.

The dolls of each of the districts are decorated in their traditional colours, someone very brave gets inside the doll, lifts it up and dances in time to traditional music.

But as you’ve seen it doesn’t end there. After displaying their dancing skills the dolls explode into a fantastic pyrotechnic display. Fireworks shoot in all directions lighting up the podium and the night sky.

This is all studiously observed by the judges who assess each districts overall performance and choose a winner. That’s a tough task for the judges I think as I’ve seen a few video clips of the entries and I they all looked spectacular. I just hope they don’t have to get too close to make their judgement.

It was last won, in 2009, by Ammond’ a la Valle whose traditional colours are giallo – nero (yellow and black).

You can read more about the Palio delle Pupe on the Cappellle Sul Tavo site.

This site dedicated to the Palio delle Pupe.

And there are plenty more clips available on YouTube.

Post from: About Abruzzo

Ferragosto: Dolls Dance and Sparks Fly in Cappelle Sul Tavo (PE)

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You’re right. I don’t do it often but I make no apology for it. I do like the vino della casa and find Abruzzo has no shortage of great tasting and very drinkable wine for little more than €1 a bottle. But sometimes you just want to splash out.

It might be because wine is so much more expensive in Ireland as shipping costs, marketing costs, the wholesale cut, the retail cut, excise duty and VAT can turn a €1 bottle of wine into €7 in less time than it takes you say in vino veritas.

If Ireland had a wine industry things would be different. But it doesn’t and although I think it is a fantastic country, I do grumble a little when I spend €14 on a  Tralcetto Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from Zaccagnini that I can get for less than €7 in supermarket in Pescara.

But somehow my mindset flips when I’m in Abruzzo. I’ll find reasons to spend more on wine than I would in Dublin. It might be because I feel that most of what I spend actually goes to the production of the wine and not to middle-men or government coffers.  Whatever the reason three times during my last visit to Abruzzo I had a special bottle of wine. Twice it was in a restaurant and once it was at dinner in a friend’s house. The wines were from different cantine, and were all very good, so I’ve listed them below in case you come across them and want to try them.

They ranged in price from €16 to €22, but I bet they can be got for less than that if you look around as two of them were bought in restaurants.

The first was a Don Bosco Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.

I’d been to the Azienda Vinicola Bosco Nestore & C. s.n.c. in Nocciano (PE) back in 2008, when I visited it as part of the Cantine Aperte weekend. On that occasion I helped myself to a couple of generous glasses from their Pan range. My nephew, who prefers beer to wine, brought a bottle home to his parents and they loved it. Mega brownie points were awarded.

But this time we were enjoying lunch in La Bilancia, a restaurant and hotel just outside Loreto Aprutino, and we felt the boat needed to be pushed out a bit further than normal; we had a bottle of the Don Bosco (approx. €20 in the restaurant).

It was wonderful, full of flavour and well structured. The official tasting notes say it has the following characteristics:

• Colour: dark ruby red with light orange nuances.
• Bouquet: intense smells of ripened red fruit and secondary spicy smells.
• Taste: full and soft, rightly tannic, fruity and spicy in mouth.

I think it was my favourite of the three wines I tried. It just seemed to be perfectly balanced and worked well with the Abruzzo lamb we ordered. That afternoon it was as if all the key ingredients, the restaurant, the food, the company and of course the wine, matched our mood perfectly.

Another excellent wine I had was the Contesa Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from the Contesa winery in Collecorvino (PE). We had this wine in a restaurant called Florano overlooking Loreto Aprutino. It wasn’t as expensive as the Don Bosco, about €16 in the restaurant and although it was very good, it didn’t quite have the same impact.

Here are the official tasting notes from the Contesa website

• Tasting: Deep ruby red colour with grenadine tints, very limpid and full-bodied. At the olfactory evaluation it appears intense, persistent, of fine quality. It has a fragrance of ripe red fruits especially of wood and jam fruits, with tones of toast cocoa and chocolate. The taste is full, round, warm, just tannic. The wine is well structured and mature.
• Food link: The wine links well with first succulent dishes succulent, with roast meat, grilled meat, and also with cheese and processed pork meat. This Montepulciano could be appreciated within 3 or more years. Serving temperature: 16/18°C

The restaurant Florano deserves a post on its own as the quality of the food is always excellent and the view of the old town of Loreto Aprutino below is beautiful. It really is a romantic spot for a special meal after sunset and as it was our anniversary we could think of no place we’d rather be.

It’s actually one of the few places I know where you can get Valentini wine. On one very, very special occasion 2 years ago we had a bottle of the Valentini Trebbiano and afterwards we were in no doubt that it was worth every cent. If you read around you pretty soon get the feeling that no other Trebbiano comes close to the quality of Valentini. The driving force of this Azienda was Eduardo Valentini and it is now guided by the hand of his son Francesco.

Here are three articles I read recently that sing the praises of Valentini:

• The Lord of the Vines By Ed McCarthy Jun 22, 2010 from Wine Review Online
• The Secretive Man Behind Italy’s Best Wine by John Mariani January 26 2010 from Bloomberg
• The Epicurean Traveler in Abruzzo part of Italy’s Adriatic Wine Road by Scott W Clemens

The third wine was from Valle Reale. I’d read that their wines were excellent so on previous visits to Abruzzo I’d looked out for them in various wine shops, but no shop I tried had any in stock. They’re based in Popoli (PE) and I thought that I might drop by as I passed on my way to or from Rome. But that didn’t work out.

But while I was in Pineto (TE) for stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia and I spotted a wine shop called Atre e Sapori d’Abruzzo at Via G. D’annunzio 64. I was delighted to discover they had one bottle of Valle Reale left. It was a riserva and it cost about €20. Taking into account the usual restaurant mark up this wine was probably the most expensive of the three.

Four of us sat down to enjoy the wine a few days later after it had been brought to its optimum temperature, decanted and left to breath for a few hours. I wouldn’t normally go to all this trouble but I was in the company of a friend who believes it is rare to get a really good bottle of wine from Abruzzo. Well it may be rare but we found another one that evening in the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo from Valle Reale.  Structure, a nice edge and a bucket load of cherries – it all came together very nicely.

At this point you might think I know something about wine.

Well guess again, this is where I prove I’m just an amateur wine critic and a dedicated wine drinker – I don’t have a note of the name of the bottle, I can’t even remember its year, I just know it was from Valle Reale!

Sorry about that. But all is not lost. It was a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t from their San Calisto range. I searched on their website but I wan’t able to find a label I recognised from their lists.

I guess I’ll just have to do more research. Hey-ho!

Post from: About Abruzzo

Looking for that Special Bottle of Wine in Abruzzo

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There’s a market there on Sundays. It’s a pretty big one that spreads all through the town.

The buildings to look out for are the castle, Torre Alex and the church of Saints Lucia and Rocco.

There are several festivals through the year and an important one is coming up. Between the 15^th and 17^th August Cepagatti celebrates its patron Saints Rocco and Lucia which includes a medieval re-enactment called Palio dei Saraceni.

Whenever I see palio I think there must be a  competition of sorts between districts, but I’ve no real idea (and I’ve tried to find out) what the Palio dei Saraceni consists of.

I was there at the end of May and it was for three reasons:

• The Sunday Market
• The paintings on the walls that tell the story of Cepagatti
• And the usual reason, I hadn’t explored the town before

The market is possibly the biggest I’ve been to so far in Abruzzo. It might be due to how it’s spread out, but I thought I saw more stalls there than I did in Atri or Sulmona. All the typical goods were on sale along with live rabbits, geese, chicks and even tiny turtles.

I’m not usually a true active participant at markets. I prefer to have a coffee or an aperitivo and watch the world shop to its heart’s content. This time I had one very important item to buy and once I’d got it, I was done. So I left P to rummage and compare and I went on to look at the rest of the town.

I knew there were paintings on the walls of some of the buildings and I wanted to have a good look at them. I hadn’t seen any around the market area but just as I turned a corner I saw this piece of graffiti:

All ospite diciamo:

Benvenuto a Cepagatti…il nostro paese è tuo…

Abbiamo raccontato il passato per capire il presente e guardare ad un future sempre migliore!

I think that’s one of the nicest greetings a guest in a strange town could get. It’s certainly better than something containing the word ultra.

Initially I thought there were only a few scenes depicted but I was wrong. Away from the market in quieter part of the town (only 100m away really) the story of Cepagatti unfolds.

The paintings are about 25 years old now and are showing signs of weathering. But as I walked around looking at key events in the history of the town I thought this is a great way to tell a story. Place it in full view, for everyone to see, everyday of the year.

In 1985, Mira Cancelli and her students created these images on the walls of Cepagatti and wrote the text that goes with them, including the greeting I discovered initially.

In 2010 I was delighted to have a chance to see and enjoy them.

Post from: About Abruzzo

Cepagatti’s walls tell its story

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