Tutto posto Ferragosto

Ferragosto.  According to the Wikipedia article I just looked at, the holiday of Ferragosto has rich historical origins. It also is a religious holiday of the Catholic Church, the Assumption of Mary.  If you’re interested in learning more about the holiday, look it up on Wikipedia.  For now, I won’t bore you with details of the historical significance… because to most Italians, Ferragosto means FUN FUN FUN!  (festa, mangia, festa, mangia, festa, mangia..)

dating back to the 1920s during Fascism.

 The holiday is celebrated all week long.  To sum up our experience so far in short- Ferragosto for us has consisted of visiting the most beautiful beaches in the world (and sleeping on that beach..and watching a meteor shower), hanging out on an awesome boat in the Ionian Sea, eating amazing food, listening/dancing to the Tarantella style music, drinking lots of beer/wine typical to Puglia, and meeting and spending time with incredible Italians who are also on vacation.  Not so bad…

Because it falls in the middle of August and is a very hot day, many Italians go to the beach for vacation.  Lisa and I have been lucky enough to take part in this experience in Puglia, which is on the heel of Italy.  The region of Italy falls between the two seas- the Adriatic and the Ionian.  For the past few nights we have been staying in Lecce.  This city is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to in Italy.  There have been people out in the city at all hours- and 95% of these people are Italians who are here for Ferragosto (similar to New Jersey people going down the shore for the 4^th of July).  I am going to post some videos and pictures of the city, although I do not believe they will do the city/region justice.  

I’m going to try my hardest here to try to depict for you in words our experience here.  The best way I can describe it is comparing it to a dream.  There is no way to predict what is going to happen in your dreams..but you often wake up and say to yourself “wow that was an awesome dream”.  Lisa and I have not been able to predict any of our experiences.  We are of course being smart, but we are going along with the flow of things and often don’t know the plans of the day/night.  We have been hanging out with Lisa’s friends who grew up in Puglia.  We have had the chance to meet their friends and family and go along with them for the ride.  Some highlights of our experiences (dreams) are dancing at a Tarantella concert, watching a meteor shower on a beach, sleeping on the beach and waking up to the sunrise, going to incredibly beautiful beaches on the Ionian sea, sleeping on a yacht, taking a ride on the yacht on the Ionian sea the next day,  eating incredibly fresh seafood, pasta, and pizza……….and the list goes on.

The culture here is so rich in history.  For example, the other day Lisa and I were walking back to our apartment (after having dinner at midnight…yes, midnight), and we stumbled upon this looking glass on the ground.  We stopped and looked through it to find that underneath the piazza ground, there still exists ancient stones and materials that at one point made buildings.  We were able to look beneath the glass and see stair cases and arches…..so. cool!  In addition to the very ancient architecture that still exists in Lecce, there also is an incredibly rich culture of music here.  Around the city, there is the Tarantella style music playing all over the place.  There are concerts almost every night in the big Piazza in Lecce.

An experience I will never forget is dancing in a circle with some Italian friends that we met at the Black Tarantella concert. We all were sweating so much and just jumping around and then we all got into a circle and started singing and kicking our legs out in front of us.  The full band that was playing, the Black Tarantella, was unlike anything I’ve ever heard/seen… amazing live music.  After the concert we all went to the beach to hang out….Lisa and I found out that we would be sleeping on the beach.  Before we slept, we all got to witness what had to be a meteor shower.  I think I saw 15-20 shooting stars within an hour.  So beautiful!! The friends we were with had tents/sleeping bags for the night sleep.  It’s common for people to sleep on the beach during the week of Ferragosto… it was such a cool experience.  I will never forget waking up to a beautiful light blue/purple sky against the crystal clear water.  Incredible.  One of our friends got everyone coffee/cornetti and soon we were joined with many other Italians on the beach all day.

We got the chance to spend some time on a spectacular boat that is the cousin’s of one of Lisa’s friends.  The owner of the boat was nice enough to host us for dinner/drinks on the boat, and we all stayed in separate beds on the boat at night (3 bedrooms).  Lisa slept on the deck….see the picture below.  The next day we went out on the boat and saw what I think was the most beautiful sea I have ever seen.  The water was crystal clear and a light blue color.  We got a chance to jump off the boat and go swimming a couple times.  Bellissima!

For the night of Ferragosto we went to another concert in Lecce and met up with our friends we’ve been hanging out with the past few days.  The piazza was packed with people- of all ages.  Everyone was singing and dancing all night.  It was definitely one of the top 5 best nights of my life…so much fun!! We've had an incredible time here!

 Next up.....we will be going to Croatia for 5 days.  Excited to see what adventures are in store for us there!