Autumnia Figline

On Saturday Gary and I traveled to Figline (pronounced Fe le ne) for  the Festa Autumnia or Autumn festival.  Figline is a town about 18 kilometers from our home, and we go there each Monday to do our major grocery shopping.  We generally do not go into the town proper, where the piazza is and the evening strolls occur.

Figline has an original castle in good condition

Autumnia is what I would call a thanksgiving for the summer’s bounty.  It is a street fair with dozens of booths showing and selling their summer’s harvest, from salami to cheese, from honey to vegetables, from home made chocolates to mouth watering pastries, to first prize for the biggest pumpkin (367 kilos or nearly 800 pounds of pumpkin!)

Bread; wine and olive oil

Meat and sausage; cheese

Cookies; cakes

Sweets; glass fairies

During our wanderings to the various booths we were just in time for the parade!

The members of the parade were dressed in Renaissance clothing with drummers, court jesters and flag thrower/twirlers.  

Flag twirling seems to be a big deal in Italy.  On numerous occasions we have seen squads, mostly teenagers, out practicing.  The Flag twirler/throwers in the parade were seasoned adults, and they were spectacular! I was able to get only one really good picture of the flag toss (I need more photo lessons on that one).  

Of course there were town officials getting up to speak, but for only 10 minutes or so, and then the best flag twirler strutted his stuff to the Ohs and Ahs of the crowd.  During all of the Festa you get the same feel of family, unity and community.  It is another opportunity to get in an extra “stroll”.  The Italians have got it right!

Finally, we get a chuckle when we occasionally see a trendy shop that chooses a name in English that comes out a little bit wrong: