Geez, it's quite nerve-wracking writing the first blog! I couldn't quite decide where to start but I guess as good a place as any is new year and a wee bit about my hogmanay celebrations italian style!
Well, to start with, here New Year is called Capodanno and the thing to say seems to be Auguri (pronounced a-oo-goo-ree). Now this can get quite confusing as the 'Auguri' word seems to be used for all sorts of things; birthdays, Christmas or just to wish someone luck. I think the literal transalation is 'Wishes'. What made it all the more confusing was that as the fireworks were going at midnight (and the italian's love their fireworks), the 1st of January turned out to be one of the party-goers' birthday - and so followed more shouts of 'Auguri'.
Mum and Stuart were visiting for new year and we were invited to friends of Marco's for a new year feast and festa. The party was held in one of the Castelli villages surrounding Roma so off we went, the four of us, in the pre-requisite small city car that every Roman has (the city is full of Smarts, Yaris' and Micras). After getting lost a wee bit (italy isn't big on lighting street signs after it gets dark) we arrived to find the party in full swing and the antipasti out on the table. What was to follow was a 7 course buffet - Cannelloni, followed by Lasagne (apparently it's not just the same thing wrapped differently), followed by risotto with porcini mushrooms, followed by Zampone e lenticchie ( a kind of stuffed pig's leg served with lentils), then salsiccia e fagioli, miale arrosto and to finish it off some cake - for the birthday boy of course! I got as far as half of the lasagna which means I made the faux pas of not eating lentils as the first dish after midnight! Apparently this is eaten to bring you wealth in the following year - so here's to a poor 2007 then! Another tradition is that women should wear red underwear to bed on the first night of the year and the italian saying is "chi scopa a capodanno scopa tutto l'anno" (which I'm not going to translate into English). I didn't find this out until after new year and so I comfortably went to bed in my joggers and freebie t-shirt from the local nightclub.
Well, to start with, here New Year is called Capodanno and the thing to say seems to be Auguri (pronounced a-oo-goo-ree). Now this can get quite confusing as the 'Auguri' word seems to be used for all sorts of things; birthdays, Christmas or just to wish someone luck. I think the literal transalation is 'Wishes'. What made it all the more confusing was that as the fireworks were going at midnight (and the italian's love their fireworks), the 1st of January turned out to be one of the party-goers' birthday - and so followed more shouts of 'Auguri'.
Mum and Stuart were visiting for new year and we were invited to friends of Marco's for a new year feast and festa. The party was held in one of the Castelli villages surrounding Roma so off we went, the four of us, in the pre-requisite small city car that every Roman has (the city is full of Smarts, Yaris' and Micras). After getting lost a wee bit (italy isn't big on lighting street signs after it gets dark) we arrived to find the party in full swing and the antipasti out on the table. What was to follow was a 7 course buffet - Cannelloni, followed by Lasagne (apparently it's not just the same thing wrapped differently), followed by risotto with porcini mushrooms, followed by Zampone e lenticchie ( a kind of stuffed pig's leg served with lentils), then salsiccia e fagioli, miale arrosto and to finish it off some cake - for the birthday boy of course! I got as far as half of the lasagna which means I made the faux pas of not eating lentils as the first dish after midnight! Apparently this is eaten to bring you wealth in the following year - so here's to a poor 2007 then! Another tradition is that women should wear red underwear to bed on the first night of the year and the italian saying is "chi scopa a capodanno scopa tutto l'anno" (which I'm not going to translate into English). I didn't find this out until after new year and so I comfortably went to bed in my joggers and freebie t-shirt from the local nightclub.
So the food, the wine (from the next door neighbour's vineyard) and the endless firecrackers and flares and of course the fantastic company helped to make the Italian new year experience a very enjoyable one. Claudio and Mauro went to a special effort to get into the scottish traditions by giving us their unique example of scottish dancing (see picture) and of course there was, as always, the girl at the party who having drunk too much began to verbally abuse some of the revellers, I almost felt I was in Scotland!
1 comment:
Welcome to blogging!
I'm a new blogger myself, it's highly addictive so far!
Hope to see you later,
Elle :-)
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