 Despite the busy beggining of the year, we also managed to have some leisure and traveling around. At the beginning of March Jesus, our informal mentor Eugenio Mazzotta and our british friend Laurie, decided to go for a weekend trip to carnival.
After Bari we went straight on the road to Montemarano a little town in Irpinia area, in southern part of Campania region. That night we arrived to a rented appartment , and then went to the town where we had some chats with locals . Montemarano is very famous for its very old and unique carnival in which every person in the town goes out to the street to dance in an endless parade, dancing the "tarantella montemaranese". It's a kind of group crazyness, from the oldest till the youngest dance at the continuous rythm of tambourins, clarinets and accordeons played by the tireless musicians , in a massive parade that goes all around the town for hours and hours. Next day , Saturday we went in a tour around Irpinia. Irpinia is a beautiful region distiguished by its beautiful nature of hills and ancient forests and storic towns. We visit the storic centers of Gesualdo and Sant'Angelo dei Longobardi both with stunning views of the valleys from their castles. A local also recommended us to visit a place an unexpected place called "la Mefite" a solfatara like the one in Pozzuoli nearby, Napoli. Last stop of the day trip was the abbey of Goleto, a building from the XII century felt down during an earthquake in the 70's . Then we went back to Montemarano where we had a tarantella lesson with other 50 people, after this we went to the main square where you could find some typical tastes as polpette, porchetta and "cacio impiccato", a delicious cow cheese roasted at the fire. We where chatting with some locals when something like at 22h we heard a big explosion, a bonfire, and suddenly crazyness started, a parade full of people and music came out of nowhere, we just joined to the party and continued until 3 in the morning. Next day, Sunday our next stop was Satriano di Lucania, in Basilicata region. In the morning we left Montemarano and had a long beautiful trip through the hills and we made a stop to visit the San Fele waterfalls, which led us into a stunning roadtrip on the top of the mountains in our way to Satriano. At Satriano there is a special carnival called "La Foresta che Cammina" meaning the "walking forest". It's a tradition in which people dress as trees and parade around the town in order to remember "the Rumita", the spirit of the forest. We just arrived on time to the entrance of the forest the starting of the parade, to get dressed. Some last talks of the organizers, a moment of silence and then a huge shout of around 100 trees coming to the town. It was amazing to feel that energy, at the beggining, then we walked around the town for more than one hour while musicians played some traditional music from the region (tarantella of course). At the end of the parade we left our tree customs and stayed all evening in a little and charming square where there were musicians playing and many young people dancing traditional folk dances from south Italy. We created a good connection with people from the place, everybody was friendly and hospitable, there was many young people, we made some friends and the end of the night we were joking, playing music and singing around a fireplace in the middle of the square. Next day, we went to a town nearby called Sasso di Castalda, a little but extremely beautiful positioned village on the top of a rock. We went there to visit the "Ponte alla Luna" a tibetan bridge of 100 high in which you can feel a huge feeling between freedom and void. During the visit of the bridge we found a couple coming from a Salento town called Veglie, the same town from our informal mentor, mister Mazzotta, "world is a handkerchief" as we say. After the visit of Sasso di Castalda we came back straight to Puglia were 3 hours of trip still were waiting for us till arriving to Lecce, it was an amazing, unexpected trip and full of emotions from the beginning till the end.
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In this post we will tell you how we had fun in the winter in Lecce. Do you know what the law of meanness is? This is when there is no snow on New Year's Eve, but it falls the next week of the new year. It usually happened in Belarus. I planned to spend this winter without snow. But it did not work out. A cold cyclone brought snow to the Salento. There was a lot of noise about this. After all, such an anomalous natural phenomenon occurs here not often. Therefore, we went to explore the local sights, decorated with snow. Jesus even ate ice cream. What for? Probably Spanish curiosity. But ice cream when it’s cold outside does not get any better. Okay. There were no more natural abnormalities. We planned a trip to the neighboring region of basilicata to the city of Mater, which is the cultural capital of Europe in 2019. There were flags all over the city, and there were a lot of police. Safety is paramount, but it has caused inconvenience in the inspection of the city. But we still had a great time. On the way to Matera, we were haunted by a series of strange events. Especially when we crossed the Puglia border. First, on the way, a car drove us to a meeting, which created an emergency, then pedestrians who crossed the road in the wrong place right in front of the car's hood, and also a screaming woman who asked to give way, as if the ambulance turned on the siren. With the approach of spring, the religious holidays, the Sacra, are also approaching. At one holiday we visited. It was the fire of St. Anthony. huge bonfire of grapevine in height from the 4th storey house. This is such an important tradition that the online broadcast was even organized for 3 days while the fire was burning. We waited impatiently for the fire to be set on fire, but the invited guests all spoke and spoke. But the wait was justified. After all, after the arson there was a huge salute that lasted 30 minutes. It was amazing. A lot of rides, stalls with food and a big stage with musicians and dances entertained the people. This cheerful mood spoke of the approach of spring. And after a while carnivals began all over Italy. Every town has its own tradition of carnivals from small to large. We visited two. At one carnival we went along with a musical caravan from one village to another, and at the second carnival we decided to go to the galipoli. There we saw the costume of a man who died from a chop. A lot of freaks, disguised children in superheroes, and adults who behave like children. In March, it became quite warm. And we even had dinner on the balcony of our office. And while it was warming, the sun was our bos Sarah took this photo. We continue our volunteer project in Italy. Spring and summer are ahead.  |
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