PANDORO, Verona's Christmas cake!

Hello,
if I should write an article about Pandoro, my beloved Veronese Christmas cake, I’d be far too impartial, that’s why I simply suggest this quick link.
Buon Appetito and Happy Christmas!
Sergio

On the 13th of December SAINT LUCIA arrives in Verona.

The Saint Lucia event is for lots of adults the best and intense child memory.
Who was Saint Lucia and how did the tradition which sees her giving presents start?
Between reality and legend we know that Lucia was a young rich girl from Syracuse, Sicily, who became martyr because she didn’t want to deny her Christian faith during the very strong Diocletian’s persecution in the IV century a.C.
Nowadays in Italy the tradition to celebrate Saint Lucia is strong in the area which once was the Venice Republic.
Here still lies her relic, stolen in 1204 in Constantinople during the forth crusade. In Venice Saint Lucia was very devoted and, once the Venice Republic concentrated more attention in the solid ground, this worship extended to the whole Veneto region.
The tradition to celebrate Saint Lucia in Veneto started around the XIII century a.C., and maybe the town where this tradition is stronger is Verona.

According to the legend in this town there was a terrible eyes epidemia, specially affecting children. The citizens decided then to do a pilgrimage barefoot till the Saint Lucia Church. But the kids, as it was very cold in December, didn’t want to go, so their parents had to convince them telling that once back home they will have found their shoes full of presents.
The miracle happened and since then the Saint Lucia party started!
Between the typical cakes of this event you can find the “Saint Lucia pastafrolle”, with different shapes: stars, horses, hearts, and the very yummy “Mandorlato”, a Veronese variation to the torrone.

In Verona Saint Lucia is celebrated for already a century with a traditional Market, which lasts 3 days till the 13th of December, and takes place in the main town square, Piazza Bra, which gets completely packaged with stands, games and sweets of any kind.
The amazing Bra Square scenery is completed every year with the Christmas Big Star that comes out from the Arena Amphitheatre, landing in the square, inviting people to visit the beautiful Christ’s Nativity Exhibition.
Have a good time with Santa Lucia!

Summer Ladin Festival in Canazei

From the 03rd to the 06th of September Canazei, Ladin village in the heart of the Dolomites Mountains, lived with great enthusiasm the traditional Festival of its Ladin culture, which this year got to its thirtieth edition.
Four happy days, folk Ladin music, dancing and balls, traditional costumes parades and typical Tirol food, all to celebrate the end of the Summer.
The peak of the Festival was on Sunday, when the Canazei streets got full of music bands and folkloric groups coming from the 4 Ladin valleys: Fassa, Badia, Gardena and Livinallongo.
The traditional Ladin people costume is very linked with Dolomites, an area which for a long time was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and its people was perfectly integrated in the Austrian life. The Ladins used to get dressed, eat, and dance like in other parts of the Empire, especially in a tight connexion with the whole Tirol region.
Nowadays the Ladins wear their traditional costumes as a kind of rite. You have to be able to wear it with a correct posture, being aware that it’s not only a dress, but that it represents an ethnic group, a language, a history.
The Ladins are a minority ethnic people and since always they need to distinguish to survive.This amazing Festival helps the 4 Ladin valleys to carry on in contact between each other, and united.

Apart from the folk music with Austrian style, in these 4 days you have the chance to try the real typical Ladin food: local ham and cheese, canederli, barley soup, smoked meat, shin, sauerkrauts, and of course polenta!
Get sure you don’t miss the yummy typical Ladin cakes: “fortaes”, fried with sugar and marmalade, and “sones”, fried with apple.
Hope you get encouraged to go to this Festival next year…
Ciao ciao
Sergio
PS- Photo Gallery 2009 (pictures courtesy of Mr.Sessa Anton).

Slow Food and "Zero kilometres" menu

It is still possible to eat healthy and in a sustainable way.
But...how?
Inspired from the “Slow Food” philosophy, which was born in Italy to fight against the modern “Fast Food” style, in Venice and its region Veneto the local agriculture association, Coldiretti, started a few years ago the "zero kilometres menu" project, an initiative to improve the consume of the agriculture products of the Veneto countryside, basically it means from the product to the final costumer in as less kilometres as possible.

Coldiretti, via a popular referendum, has implemented a system which goals are to reduce transportation expenses and environmental impact provocated by the pollution and traffic.
The basic idea is to stimulate the purchase of local and seasonal agriculture products in order to reduce the energetic consume and the carbonic anhydride linked with the transportation of aliments which have been travelling thousands of miles before arriving to our tables!!!
The "zero kilometres" initiative got an unexpected legal success: it took only four months to collect 25.000 signatures, necessary to ask the Veneto government a new law to promote food with seasonal and local origin in the public canteens (hospitals, schools, universities, old people’s homes).
The request was accepted and became regional law in July 2008.
Nowadays in Veneto more and more restaurants, ice cream shops, pubs and little markets bet on this project, committing to use and sell at least 30% of the products coming from the local country side.

In order to transform this initiative in a successful one it also takes the citizens to get involved, thinking for instance that buying kiwis from New Zealand is not sustainable for our planet, when there are very good quality kiwis in Verona, less than 100 miles from Venice.
It is necessary to recover the old habits, when people ate the products from the earth in a certain period of the year.
We think that all this is good for the travellers, who because of the local typical products get more chances to discover the history and the culture of Veneto.
Enjoy the "zero kilometres menu"!
Ciao
ItalianFeelings