Once we were settled in our rooms we went to the square for a drink and a snack (I do so like the Italian concept of an “aperitivo” which, in some ways, is conceptually similar to the English tea in that one gets together with friends late afternoon for a drink and a snack to hold one until dinner, much later that evening, though not even close to being as formal) where we came to the realization that there was a festival occurring in town that weekend…the aforementioned Black Celery festival.
Well, first the celery is not black, but the seeds are. Second, this type of celery is only produced in the canapine region of Umbria between the Borgo and Clitunno rivers. Don’t look for black celery in your local Whole Foods or Trade Joe’s anytime soon as production of the celery is extremely limited and most of it, as I understand it, is purchased by the locals during the festival. Late in the growing process the stalks are tightly wrapped in burlap to allow the stalks to grow longer as you can see above.
Unfortunately, the first day of the festival, the day we arrived, was rained out. So, after our aperitivo, I went to my room for a shower and a nap, while Will and Stephen went exploring and found a museum of the local history of Trevi.
That evening, we realized how busy a festival it was when we went to find a restaurant and there was no room at the Inn! I even asked at the local pizzeria if we could order take out and was told “mi dispiace ma il forno e pieno” (I’m sorry but the oven is full). So, we went back to the little bar on the square where we had enjoyed our afternoon drink….any port in a storm folks. So, a word to the wise re ordering food in Italy. First the food is marvelous, truly bordering on a religious experience, but, whatever you do, don’t order a hamburger, anywhere other than a Burger King or McDonalds or you will be disappointed. I don’t know what they do to a hamburger, I mean, how can one screw up a hamburger? But, I have ordered four hamburgers in Italy at casual restaurants during my travels in Italy in different regions of the country and they have all come up short. I think it might be that they is no seasoning of the meat prior to cooking….I mean none, no salt, no pepper, no garlic powder, niente! But the crowds were lively and we ultimately ended up at a little bar off the square for a nightcap which was full of locals watching “un gara di calcio” a soccer match between Roma and Juventus…..soccer is serious in Italy think NFL Sunday. So, while the meal was not the culinary experience I have come to expect in Italy, the lively atmosphere of the locals made the evening a pleasant experience.
The next morning we returned to the bar where we finished the evening to a hive of activity as the rain out of Saturday turned into the festival of Sunday. Massive grills were already getting fired up and roasting sausages.
So, what is a sausage and celery sandwich? Well, it is really a mixture of whole celery kind of stuffed with sausage with a light tomato sauce.
that can be eaten on its own, or served on pane (bread) as a sandwich. So, a cultural PSA the word for sandwich in Italy is panino. The word for sandwiches in Italy is panini so, if in Italy and one wants a sandwich and asks for “uno panini”, the person taking the order is likely to be confused as the whether the person ordering wants one sandwich or an undetermined number of sandwiches.
Unfortunately, this post really does not begin do the festival justice as there is a whole portion of the festival dedicated to various historical points of the town including actors dressed in medieval grab (more on that in the next post). If I had realized that we were hiking into the festival when I was setting up our trek, I would have set a day off just to stay in Trevi to enjoy the festivities. In fact, the festival intrigues me in such a way that it is kind of on a semi bucket list to return to at a future date to experience. Ah! An excuse to return to Italy! What a concept LOL! Till next post, Ciao!
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