Focara di Novoli part 2

For the story of the Focara click on this: my write up on the Focara last year. This year I'll just give you some photos.

There's always a ton of lights for these festivals. This one I'm taking trying to get the church in the photo. If you look closely you'll see it.


This one is looking right down the heart of the lights. There's noone around because the fireworks just went off way down after the end of the lights. In a few minutes the street was packed with people heading against us. We were salmon swimming upstream until we arrived at the fire. Don't arrive just late. Arrive really late or early!


I don't remember this from last year. These wooden buckets are filled with anchovies in some strange yellow paste. The white bucket has what I think is sardines. I knew I should have taken a picture of the names because now I don't know, Marco auitemi, ti prego!!


Another photo of the yellow fish. I didn't try it. Sorry, but I had a panino of questionable meat. I didn't want to add fish to that equation.

The normal vendor you see at these festivals. Lots of nuts and dried stuff.


Another one. How much nuts and dried stuff do Italians use? He also had olives, figs, and other things....I'm always amazed at the number of people selling almost the same things.


Here we are sneaking a peak in a local restaurant. This place was FULL of smoke. There must have been a problem with their wood fired oven. It was a sweet smelling smoke but thick.

Ciao Estate!!!

Well another Saints' Festival is over and so is summer. Now some of you out there will think I’m crazy to write that, after all it was in the 90’s last week, so how can I say summer is over just because the calendar is September. Believe me I know, and so does Mother Nature. On September 1 the hot Scirocco wind from the south departed and the cool Maestrale from the northwest took its rightful place. The weather here is much more predictable than the weather of the Midwest. When the wind changes so does the season. Now I can look forward to comfortable temperatures with a chance for rain every once in while. Put away the sun tan lotion and beach towels. Bring on the long sleeve shirts and jeans jacket!
The festival in town is over. So what are the highlights you ask?
When I walked past the Monsignor on the podium he was calling out parts of the town trying to get everyone ready for ceremony when the boat parade arrives. He was saying things like “Who here is from the Sant’Elia parish? Who’s from Paradiso? Come on, I want to hear you!” I laughed because it felt like I was at rock concert.
The fireworks show actually started 10 minutes EARLY. What was up with that? I’ve never heard of starting them early.
There was no new gadget for sale this year. Last year the new gadget was these two magnets that you throw up in the air together. In the air they rub and make an annoying cricket like sound that stops when you catch them. All the kids were buying them so you heard the sound everywhere.
There's no saints fastival without "copeta". This is almonds coated in caramelized sugar. Did I say sugar? So you know why this comes first according to me...
Let's not forget the reason for fest! Here is San Teodoro riding the white horse. He's paraded around town several times but for this photo he's in the temporary gazebo in the middle of town.
Fireworks are always a hit.


Kids and their rides..


Outside my apartment Saturday night. Actually, only 14 of these cars are illegally parked. The parking madness gets worse the closer you get to the sea. That's why I love living in town. My car always has a home in the garage.

The Story of San Teodoro D'Amasea

The story of this saint is pretty cool to me. It’s lacks a lot of detail and if I’m getting something wrong then I hope Marco Ruuu will correct me. San Teodoro was a Roman soldier on a ship that sailed from Brindisi as part of the Crusades around 1210. He died in a battle in Aukat, Turkey. As the ship returned with his remains the sailors realized the Turks were chasing them and they would not escape. They decided to put his remains in small dingy and sent him adrift as they turned the ship to fight the Turks chasing them. The story says that the dingy miraculously made its way back to the harbor of Brindisi unaided.
So to mark this event, every year Brindisi has a boat parade led by a boat with the effigy of San Teodoro riding a white stallion (and a statue of San Lorenzo, the other patron saint of the town is on the boat too for some odd reason). The lead boat brings the statues into the harbor again as a reenactment of the original miraculous return in 1210. There are speeches made by important local politicians and religious folks. Then they set off the best fireworks show of the year from the Sailors Monument on the other side of the harbor. The waterfront and the steps up to the columns that mark the end of the Via Appia are PACKED with people.
The whole celebration is about 4 nights of what you see in the Youtube video link below. I guess I would be called crazy if I acted surprised to find video on Youtube. It's not great but it gives you a little of what the rides and vendors are like. My camera would make a video of about the same quality so I can’t make fun of the person that did this and if you can’t be here for the festival then it’s the next best thing.

Festival of San Teodoro

The carnival rides remind me of how I would like to take some of my Italian friends to the US. Back in Ohio I could take them to King’s Island just north of Cincinnati or Cedar Point up by Cleveland. Some of my best memories of childhood are when I was first allowed to ride “The Beast” at Kings Island and then later in my teens going there for most of the summer with a season pass. Nothing was cooler than riding in the very front of the Beast late at night.
It’s funny that I forgot about those days because people here always ask me what I did as a kid in the summer with no sea to go to. I remember now. The parents would drop us off at Kings Island and we would run wild all over the park. We hardly ever got into trouble except when we learned how to squeal the tires on the “old fashioned car ride” or when we learned that we could screw up the mechanical Smurfs by throwing pennies on their tracks until the Smurfs got stuck or…. Ahhh, the good ol’days….

Corpus Domini

I stayed home from the beach on Sunday so I could see the procession of Corpus Domini here in Brindisi. Here is a short description from the Brindisi website:
"This unique and religious ceremony takes place during the celebration of Corpus Domini, when the Bishop, riding an adorned white horse, parades the Blessed Sacrament (host) through the main streets of the City. This is in remembrance of an ancient tradition which originated in the year 1254."
For more information go to Brindisi web and check out the traditions. I was excited to see it because in years past I always missed it for some odd reason. Now I can finally say I've seen it. I was a little disappointed. They had some problems with the horse. First it wasn't white. Isn't that part of the tradition? And second, it DID NOT want to be apart of the parade so the bishop ended up walking most of the way. So there was no horse for most of the procession. I guess it's the blessing that matters and that has been done, so everything is ok. Also I can sleep better knowing that NOW I have seen every tradition that there is in Brindisi.


This is a photo when the bishop is getting ready to bless the sea and the city. Notice he's on foot now.


One of the many banners of the faithful that followed the bishop through the streets of Brindisi.