Let's face it... when I am in the US, this blog runs pretty dry. After all, a blog about Italy doesn't do too well when you are sitting at a computer in Florida. Well, that is soon to change.

On May 12, I'll be heading over again, and this time I will be there for 5 months straight. No back and forth this year like I have done the last few years. But the news gets a little better... I'm heading over there with some new high-tech toys for the blog (and the rest of the site).

I'll be bringing a new Canon Vixia HF-10 High Definition camera, as well as a new Gateway P-171XL FX with a full compliment of video editing software.

My intention is to get pretty serious with the videos this summer. I'll be doing very in depth video blogs for all of the towns we visit on tours, as well as all of the festivals and events. Considering that we already have 14 tours booked, there will be a great deal of material, so stay tuned.

See you soon!

This year wasn't my first time seeing the Chestnut Festival, but through the years, I have never made it to the Palio.  

First things first, What on earth is a ‘Palio' ?  Those who have heard the term generally know of it it in connection with the famous ‘Palio di Siena', which is a horse race.  But Palio is really  a term that can be used for any kind of competition in Italy.  The word Palio itself refers to a large banner that acts as a trophy for the winner of whatever competion is being held.  In other words, the Palio is the prize, not the contest.

Soriano's Palio, unlike that of Siena, is not a horse race.  Instead it is a half-day event that is made up of an archery competition and a jousting competition.  It is one of the main events in Soriano nel Cimino's Sagra delle Castagne (Chestnut Festival).

During the festival, the twon divides into 4 ‘contrade' districts, each with their cavalier and archer that will compete in the Palio.

The contradas are ‘San Giorgio', ‘Rocca', ‘Trinita' and ‘Papacqua'.  This year, San Giorgio swept the competition.  Luckily, Paola's family belongs to San Giorgio.  Actually, Paola's father was one of the founders for the festival, and he was the president of the San Giorgio contrada for years.  Still, I lived in the Papacqua district when I lived in Soriano, and our rentals are all in the Rocca district.  That said, I had a 75% chance shot at being connected to victory!

 The openening event of the festival is the ‘Blessing of the Cavaliers and Archers', during which the cavaliers ride (and archers walk) into the main square in a grand procession, accomanied by their districts trumpeteers and drummers, all followed by a magnificent parade of villagers in medieval dress.   They take formation in front of the catheral as a priest blesses the competitors and the opening ceremonies commence.

On the day of the Palio competition itself, thousands of people march down to the fields where the event will be held to cheer for their their respective contradas.

The even begins with a round of archery, followed by a round of jousting for rings.  Naturally, this is 2007, so the cavaliers are not jousting one on one.  Instead, they ride a course that is marked with a series of poles.  Each pole has three rings of different size.  They are scored based on how many rings they get, how big those rings are, and the speed at which they maneuvered the course.

With the second round, the archers take more distance and the cavaliers get a second shot at their remaining rings, again judged by ring count, ring size and speed.

A third and final round puts the archers at a greatly increased distance, and the cavaliers that their last run around the track in an effort for the perfect score.

When it is all done (It lasted about 5 hours), all of the scores are tallied and the contrada with the highest combined score wins this year's Palio.

From that point forward, the losers go home deflated, while the winners parade all the way back to town for an evening of extreme celebration.

The event is strongly felt in the town.  Emotions run deep.  I watched losers in tears and winners rejoice at their sumpremacy. 

I have to admit, I started out really not caring, but with all of the tension in the air leading up to the event, I found myself really excited, too. It was truly a blast!

Ask around Soriano about ‘Fosso Mulino’ (River Mill) and you will get mostly blank stares. So it is no surprise that after all of these years I had no idea that it existed. Very few people do.

One day I was out with my friend (and our contractor) Andrea D’Alessio. He asked me if I had ever been to the waterfalls. My immediate answer was YES! There is a place in Soriano with some beautiful waterfalls that few know about, and I had been there. In fact, years ago I was telling Paola about them, and she didn’t believe me until I showed her.

Anyhow, Andrea didn’t believe that I had been to ‘The waterfalls’, so he asked me to describe them. As I did, he laughed and simply explained that there were other, more breathtaking, waterfalls in Soriano. So he took me. He explained that not only was this a beautiful fork of the Tiber with awesome waterfalls, but there were the ruins of a 13th century Olive Mill. Cool!

We drove just past the Viterbo-Orte Superstrada, right at the Soriano-Bomarzo exit, and hung a left. We drove down a road which is well known as a hangout for some extremely vile looking prostitutes (another story there) and parked along a little dirt road. After exiting the car, we went down a small trail into what appeared to be complete nothingness.

At one point, I noticed beneath my feet there was some ancient concrete road, which was ribbed. Andrea explained that this was the path the mules used to cart the olives down, and the oil up.

Next I found myself in a tunnel of sorts, created by massive rocks around me, and extending about 200 feet down the hill. All the while, this ancient road ran beneath my feet.
After exiting the tunnel, immediately to my right was the river. As I walked toward it, I was struck by an absolutely beautiful set of waterfalls as I saw the water that had literally carved its passage through this ancient volcanic rock over millions of years. To say it was stunning would be an understatement.

We walked around as I cursed my lack of a spare battery for my camera. It had a little juice left in it, so I took what video I could. How could I never have known about this place?
As we crossed back to our entry point, there was an old structure in ruin. Andrea told me to look to my feet. There, sitting in the middle of this little forest was an ancient olive mill wheel.

We then entered the structure, and a few more wheels were just lying there haphazardly. Wow! What a great experience to see all of this in such an untouched state.

Such was my morning visit to what I now know of as ‘Fosso Mulino’. You won’t find it in any tour books, and you won’t find any ‘professional’ guides that can show it to you. It is just one of those hidden treasures, like Corviano, that you just have to be with the right person to see.

I’m pretty sure I will make this a tour stop with my groups that are into nature and hiking.

Things got quite busy since my last post. We had a wave of guests come to Soriano, and the annual chestnut festival ( Sagra delle Castagne ) began, which really kept me running, camera in hand.

The folks in Soriano's tourism office were kind enough to issue me an all-access press pass for all of the events, so I have tons of content (both video and photo) from the last few weeks that will take form in blog articles over the next few weeks.

So now that I am back in the US and getting over my jet lag, I'll begin...

The Flag Throwers ( Sbandieratori ) of Soriano nel Cimino

Soriano is, for the most part, divided into four districts (Contrade). When the chestnut festival begins, these districts compete in many events (Archers, Cavaliers, Parades, Medieval dinners, etc.). Additionally, each district brings a distinct group with a specific talent. For example, Soriano's swordsmen are from the ‘Rocca' district. The ‘Trinita' district brings a group of heavily trained Flag Throwers.

To be completely honest, they never impressed me in the past. I always thought it was a total non-event. I mean, big deal, right? But I hadn't seen the Flag Throwers from Soriano in years, and I was covering the festival, so I really should check it out. In fact, I actually considered if I wanted to waste my camera's battery life on the event for fear that I might end up missing something interesting later into the evening.

The event was about to begin, and I took my place in the Piazza... thinking there must be something better to do. Then I heard the drums coming from Via Santa Maria (Trinita's home street). Suddenly I saw a massive group of drummers, trumpeters, and flag throwers march into Piazza behind the Trinita Flag Carrier. Their costumes were breathtaking! Their choreography was mesmerizing! Even the drums were absolutely stunning! When the row of trumpets began to play, my jaw dropped in utter awe.

This was not the Flag Throwing group I remembered. In the past it was a small group of guys that put on a nice, but largely unspectacular performance. Wow, have they changed. Someone with great skill and vision has clearly taken over in this group. I would argue that it was the most spectacular event I saw during the festival. Maybe because my expectations were so low going in, or maybe they are just that great now.

Unfortunately, the video that accompanies this article doesn't do them justice. It doesn't even come close to capturing the grandeur of the group, nor does it reproduce even a fraction of the awesome sound they produce. Not knowing what to expect, my camera missed many of the best moments of the performance. 

Next time I have an opportunity to film them, I will try to better convey how truly awesome this group was.

 

I remember my mother telling me about her move to Southern California, and how excited she was the first time she picked an orange off a tree and ate it right there.  I was thinking, like... ok, big deal... you need to get out more!  But then again, she was from New York, and I had been born and raised in L.A.  After all, I had never seen an apple tree...  In fact, at 42 years, I still have never seen an apple tree.  Maybe I'm the one that needs to get out more.

That said, if you are reading this from Napa Valley (Hi Jac and Ami), this post might have you thinking I've been locked in a cage most of my life.  Well, that cage was walled by the confines of the 101, 405 and 118 freeways in the San Fernando Valley, and I can't stop saying to myself: ‘Dude!  I, like, fully made WINE yesterday'. 

OK, I'm going to admit that it wasn't my first time.  The first time was about 13 years ago when I happened to be here in Soriano nel Cimino during the harvest, and I helped my father in law with his private yield. 

At the time, my only point of reference in making wine was the image of Lucy rolling her pants up, stomping grapes, and screaming ‘Ohhhh Ricky'!  I quickly learned that grape stomping was actually a practice that ended about a thousand years ago when the first mechanized wine press was invented. Some towns still practiced stomping (of a small portion of their grapes) for fun and entertainment during their wine festivals, and of course THAT made far better entertainment for the ‘I Love Lucy' fans.

The ‘basket press' (Torchio in Italian), which was invented about 1,000 years ago has remained largely unchanged through the years.  Farmers throughout Italy that have their own private vineyards for personal use still use this press every year to make their wine.

Yesterday marked my second time. I went to visit Leo, Santino and Andrea.  They are actually the contractors that restored our villa, but they also have a farm with their own two acre vineyard, plus more acreage of an olive orchard, hazelnut orchard, etc.  They harvest their grapes each year, which produces an average of 1,300 liters of an excellent red.  Believe it or not, that is hardly enough to get them through the year for their own personal use!  Does that thought just drive your mind away from Lucy, and on to Otis from The Andy Griffith Show, or what?

We spent the afternoon in their cantina filling the press with the separated grapes, and watching the must (basically grape juice that will grow up to become wine) pour out.  As I watched and helped, I listened to them tell me what a true labor of love it is.  Every so often, it was time to assemble the press and start cranking away, squeezing every little bit possible out of those pesky grapes!  After all, we couldn't have a year with only 1,299 liters, could we?

In between, we would rest, eat pecorino cheese, salami and mortadella with freshly baked bread.  Of course, all the while we are either drinking the remains of last year's wine, or drinking the must straight from the press ( YUM!!! ).

It was a wonderful afternoon that I will never forget.  So much so, that we discussed expanding the vineyard for next year and dedicating a section to DiscoverSoriano's own private reserve.  We'll be planning days with our guests to share in this wonderful experience, and will set aside enough to produce roughly 300 liters of our own reserve for our guests.

Today I am off to Maurizio's farm, where he is just starting to pick his grapes.  More to come!

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I love Football (Go USC!) & Baseball (Go Dodgers!).. I'm an American after all.  But I have never been able to sink my heart into Soccer. So having spent all of these years in Italy, I've never been to a serious professional Soccer match.  I've been to the small ones, but never ‘Stadium Sized' games.  That changed yesterday.

I'll write this article aimed at people that are not up to speed in the world of European Soccer, so I ask those of you that are in the know to be patient with me.

I was invited to go to a match between AS Roma (Rome) and Juventus (Turin).  They are the Italian Soccer equivalent of the Yankees vs. the Red Sox, with Juventus being the Yankees.  You know, the team that has a huge following all over the country (and the world), not just mainly in their home town.  It was held at Rome's Olympic Stadium.

I was far more focused on the experience than the game itself.  After all, I could care less if ‘Totti must die' or not.  Still, I was there with a group of six die hard Juventus fans, who graciously shared a ‘nearly impossible to procure' ticket to the game.  Many envious people felt the ‘golden ticket' had been wasted on me.  That said, for my own personal safety I was a Juventus fan yesterday.

 

The experience began with the walk up to the stadium.  Vendors abound were selling flags, shirts, banners, towels, etc. proclaiming that ‘Juve must die' and ‘Juve I hate you', etc.  Juve is short for Juventus, in the same way that we say ‘SC' for ‘USC'.  There was no pro-Juventus paraphernalia to be found.  In fact, I noted that none of the fans wore anything pro-Juventus.  Odd, considering what a huge following they had all over the country.

After a bit, we arrived at security check #1.  Then #2, then #3.  Then a caged fortress-like area where we inserted our tickets.  Then yet another security check.  Each person was individually patted down, made to empty their pockets and bags, then checked again, and again at a series of checkpoints.  Nothing was allowed in.  There were literally thousands of police in full riot gear everywhere you looked, forming lines, ready for the worst.  I think I would have an easier time getting into the White House than the Soccer game yesterday.

 

The moment we walked through the gates, I witnessed people opening their bags and getting shirts, hats, flags, etc. out.  All Black and White... Juventus colors.  They had been afraid to wear their gear outside of the protection of the ‘Juventus Section' of the stadium.

As we walked into the stadium, I quickly learned that all of the security was outside.  It was pure chaos as we attempted to find our seats... until I learned that seat assignments have no meaning.  Everyone just crowded in wherever they could.  Aisles, stairs, etc. were all fair play for seats.

As we tried to make our way to a place where we could see the game, I suddenly heard a roar of screaming and felt the pressure of thousands of people pouncing around me, pushing me (and everyone) violently to one direction.  As I looked up, completely confused, I saw a chair flying over the big fence into the stands where I was. Thousands of people were rushing away from the area... into me.  Then another... and another.... Bottles, small objects, etc.  It was mayhem.  I noted that everyone on the other side of the fence was wearing Red and Yellow, while those on my side were wearing black and white.  I was within 20 feet of the giant divider between Juventus fans and Roma fans.  THANK GOD FOR THE MASSIVE BARRIER!

 

Riot Police stormed the area and calmed things down, after a fashion.  We continued to slowly make our way to a better place in the stadium.  Pushing and shoving to move foot by foot was the order of the day.

Once we were settled in our chosen location, one thing became utterly clear.  I was in that spot for the duration.  The stairway was completely blocked by fans and there was no way to move away from my two square feet of stadium floor.  I had skipped lunch earlier, thinking I would get a bite at the game.  HA!  A couple hours earlier I passed up an opportunity to go to th

For those of you that will be coming to Soriano for the Chestnut Festival, I thought I would post a video that shows a few of the highlights.  This video is a promotional piece by Soriano nel Cimino's Medieval Swordsmen.  While they perform at many festivals all over the world, being from Soriano, they perform at each and every festival in the town.

This video concentrates on them, but many of the video clips are taken during the Chestnut Festival (Sagra delle Castagne) over the years.   Enjoy!

 

40th Annual Chestnut Festival (Sagra delle Castagne) Schedule - 2007

Every year, during the first two weeks of October, Soriano nel Cimino hosts a festival that surrounds the chestnut harvest. This festival is done on a large scale, and attracts thousands of people from surrounding areas, including Rome. The two main events of the Sagra are the Palio and the Corteo Storico. Unfortunately

For the first time, Soriano hosted the Tuscia in Jazz Festival.  This international festival had been held in nearby Ronciglione for the past five years, but apparently that town had complained about the noise and decided they didn’t want it anymore.  The festival promoter, Italo Leali, was faced with the chore of finding a new host last year.  According to Italo, he chose Soriano for several reasons:  It has very good access to Rome, Florence and Italy’s main freeway, it has enough restaurants and hotels to support such a large festival, it has the character and ambiance essential to such a festival, and it has appropriate venues (large piazza, etc) for such a festival.  For all intents and purposes, his reasons are in sync with my own reasons for promoting Soriano: Character, Beauty, Proximity and Infrastructure.

The festival was not at all what I had expected.  I honestly thought that it would be a cute little festival with a few nights of music, headed by some local Italian jazz musicians.  Instead, it turned out to be a major International event. 

Roughly 1,400 musicians from across the globe appeared in a series of concerts every night for nearly a full month.  Some were young musicians that came to learn in the workshops or participate in competition for the Jimmy Woode prize, and some were seasoned jazz musicians that saw this as a truly international event.  Some of the bigger names included Jimmy Woode's daughter, Shawnn Monteiro, Benny Golson, Joey De Francesco, Jimmy Cobb, Buster Williams, George Cables, Bobby Durham, Jesse Davis, Giorgio Rosciglione, Gegè Munari, Eddy Palermo, Piero Odorici, Massimo Faraò and John Kinnison.
Aside from the nightly concerts, every night after midnight, Soriano’s Rotezzia Pub, a large pub that is made from a series of connecting grottos and caverns, would host the nightly jam sessions.  Here, artists would get up and perform at random until daybreak every night.

In all, it is said that 70,000 spectators came to Soriano for the concerts.  In fact, Soriano reached critical mass by the second week, when there were no more rooms available and people were renting spare bedrooms out of desperation.  Word to the wise:  Reserve early if you plan to attend in 2008.

The festival built up to a single ‘main event’ night one Saturday, when Soriano hosted its ‘Notte Bianca’  (White Night).  On this night, all stores were open until 5:00 AM, street vendors were out all night, several outdoor taverns were erected to serve grilled sausages, pasta, etc., and six stages were setup all over town to host an all-night event with 40 concerts.

All in all, this was by far the most impressive event I have ever seen in Soriano.  I’m already counting the days till next year’s festival….  It was a huge success, and will be here for at least the next five years.

 

A tradition in Italy during christmas time is the living manger.  Many towns go way beyond a simple manger scene, and produce a full scale reproduction of Bethlehem.   What makes it so special in many cases, is that they have the landscape and existing structures to really make it look and feel real.

Some towns do a better job, and others fail by comparison.  This holiday season, there are at least 15 towns doing it, and each one competes with the others to be the best.  Last year I saw the manger at the nearby town of Bassano, and thought it couldn’t possibly be outdone.  However, many people had told me that the one produced in Chia (a suburb or Soriano) is by far the best there was.

I was skeptical.  After all, the people of Soriano would naturally favor the living manger in their own suburb, and Chia is small beyond small.  How good can it be?  Still, this year I decided to check it out.

I went to Chia on December 26, thinking I really wanted to go back to Bassano.  When I stepped into their version of Jesus’ Bethlehem, I was awestruck. They had taken an area of town that was full of babbling brooks, caves, huge rock formations, etc. and literally constructed a massive production.  There must have been 500 people in full dress, each doing their unique job:  Roman soldiers, Carpenters, Blacksmiths, Baket weavers, etc. I felt as though I had been transported 2,000 years back in time.

It was so amazing, that I believe a trip from the states just to see this would be worth it.