Ferragosto is celebrated on the 15th of August. As you know it is currently the day the Catholic Church celebrates the assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven. However, as with many Christian festivals the origin is much older and in Roman times it was held to celebrte the cycle of fertility and ripening. The Italian name Ferrogosto comes from the Latin Feriae Augusti – Festivals of the Emperor Augustus.
Today people celebrate by having family dinners or by going for a picnic to the mountains or the seaside. This year we celebrated by inviting Anne of Mondavio’s family for lunch. They were down from Zurich for a few days and so for lunch we had Anne, Sara (daughter), Rod (son in law), Alexander (grandson) and James (Alexander). Despite the oven breaking down just as we started to cook the meat the previous night and having to throw ourselves on the mercy of Mike and Monique’s cooker everything went well – stuffed boned chicken, the pork cooked in milk and the summer pudding for dessert.
After lunch we went to the beach where an English speaking colony was formed – us, Anne’s family, the Asentes, the Roscoes. The weather was perfect, the water lovely and we had a great time.
In the evening we went back to Mike and Monique’s house for even more food and somehow we managed to eat something. It felt like Christmas but with sun.