Celebrating May Festivals in Italy

Celebrating May Festivals in Italy: "

Dianne Hales is author of LA BELLA LINGUA: MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH ITALIAN, THE WORLD'S MOST ENCHANTING LANGUAGE, now available in paperback.

Le feste di maggio

May festivals

"Aprile con il fiore, maggio con il colore" Italians say, "April with its flowers, May with its colors.” The wonderful colors, sounds and flavors of Italy are on full display durings le feste (festivals) of May.

If you’re heading to Italy this month, you can cheer the drivers in the famous Mille Miglia (1000 mile) car rally, celebrate Pinocchio’s birthday in Collodi (Tuscany) or sip Chianti at the wine festival lin Montespertoli.

Here are some other not-to-be-missed festivities:

*Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, one of the oldest music festivals in Italy. This year’s program features opera, concerts, ballet and exhibitions, including Indian dance and Canadian ballet. The outdoor performances at night often end with dazzling fireworks displays, like the one in the photo above that I snapped at the festival finale in the Piazza della Signoria a few seasons ago.

While in Florence, be sure to go the city’s famous Iris Garden, open to the general public only in May. You’ll gain an entirely new appreciation for the root of Florence’s Italian name: Firenze, derived from the Latin for “to flower or blossom.”

*Giro d’Italia, the largest cycing event of the country. This year’s race covers much of the Italian peninsula, rolling from Piedmont on the northern border with France south to the Amalfi Coast, then zipping cross-country to the Adriatic Coast. From Bitonto, the Giro travels north along the Adriatic and passes through l’Aquila, the town devastated by last year’s powerful earthquake. The cyclists push on to Venezia and Monte Zoncolan near Italy’s northern border before whirring through Trentino and Lombardia and then crossing the finish line in Verona.

*Corsa dei Ceri (Race of the Candles). The stony, silent town of Gubbio in Umbria explodes into frenzied excitement every May 15. Three teams of men run up and down its steep streets carrying Ceri, gigantic wooden constructions, each weighing about a thousand pounds and bearing a statue of a saint on top.

The Ceri and the Corsa dei Matti (Race of the Crazy Ones, as it's nicknamed), may date back to the twelfth century, when Gubbio was miraculously spared from defeat at the hands of Frederick Barbarossa. Its citizens credited Sant'Ubaldo, who died on May 16, 1160, for its salvation, and the town has held a ceremony on the eve of his death since the Middle Ages. The celebration culminates with La Tavola Bona, a banquet for 700 people, including the "crazy" Ceraioli or candle-bearers.

Other options include:

*Calendimaggio, a series of medieval and Renaissance spettacoli (shows) with concerts, dances, archery, flag-waving, cross-bow displays and torch-lit processions held in Assisi in early May.

*La Barabbata, a procession in which men wear costumes and carry tools representing the traditional trades while white buffalo pull floats displaying the fruits of the trades, celebrated May 14 in Marta on the shores of Lake Bolsena.

*La Festa di San Domenico, a procession on the first Thursday in May in Cocullo in the Abruzzi highlighted by the carrying of a statue of the town's patron saint covered with live serpents.

*Sposalizio dell’Albero, the wedding of the tree, on May 8 in Vetralla in northern Lazio, in which townspeople decorate a couple of oak trees with garlands and plant new trees in a ceremony that asserts the town's domination over the forest.

*Infiorata di Noto, a huge festival with flower petal art displays and a parade in Noto, Sicily, the third weekend of May.

*Il Palio di Ferrara, a historical horse race dating from 1279, run the last Sunday in May, with events every weekend. including a procession with over 1000 people in Renaissance costumes on the Saturday night before the race.

Words and Expressions

festeggiare -- to celebrate, welcome, entertain

festaiolo -- party animal, merry maker

il festeggiato / la festeggiata -- the guest of honor

festino -- banquet, party, feast

festicciola -- get-together, gathering, small party

far festa a qualcuno -- to welcome or greet someone warmly

guastafeste -- party pooper

Dianne Hales is author of LA BELLA LINGUA: MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH ITALIAN, THE WORLD'S MOST ENCHANTING LANGUAGE, now available in paperback.