Boston: Madonna del Soccorso di Sciacca

 

By accident we stumbled on to this Boston, North End, Italian festival called the Fisherman’s Feast held in honor of the Madonna del Soccorso di Sciacca. We had just finished eating at Taranta (a self-described Italian – Peruvian marriage of food) and were feeling very happy with our restaurant choice when we followed the noise and caught part of the festival. The festival has its roots in Sciacca Sicily dating back centuries. Since 1911, the festival has been celebrated in the North End by immigrants and their descendants from Sciacca every August. The Madonna del Soccorso (translated as “Our Lady of Help”) has its roots in a miraculous recovery of an Augustinian monk in the year 1300. The Madonna visited him and he was healed. That was Nicolo Bruno. Being in the midst of the festival with the smell of delicious food (even after just finished eating), listening to Italian being spoken, and feeling the party atmosphere was a good way to cap off the our only full day in Boston. The last night of the feast features an angel descending from a window to bless the Madonna. Past angel-flights can be found on You Tube.

Artigianato e Palazzo

The festival called Artigianato e Palazzo – botteghe artigiane e loro committenze, and took place from the 16th through the 18th of May 2008 at Giardino Corsini. This festival of artisans seems to focus heavily on local artisans though you also find artisans from other parts of Italy as well as Europe. In general, this event is a fraction of what the Mostra Internazionale dell’Artigianato was in size, but “seems” to be a bit more exclusive. We stopped by to see “maestro” Roberto Marrucci and the wonderful world of pietra dura, mosaici fiorentini. See photo attached.

The Giardino Corsini (satellite location) at Via della Scala, 115 is a 16th century garden that we hadn’t been in before. It seems faded on first glance but on closer inspection reveals itself to be an elegant space. The artisans were scattered all around the property. Some in the garden, some in the limonaie (citrus houses), some in open areas. It costs 7,50 euro to get in. There is place to buy a lunch and sit down and eat. Look for it again next May.

Mostra Internazionale dell’Artigianato

This is the 72nd year for Mostra Internazionale dell’Artigianato - a festival of arts and crafts. There’s food (of course), clothes, household goods (all sorts), people working on their craft in front of your eyes, kiddy rides, and more. Much of the exhibition space (from what we could tell) is devoted to Italian arts and crafts, but International is represented as well. This year it was from the 25th of April to 4th of May at the Fortezza da Basso.

We spent 90% of the few hours we were there in the food section. There were just too many samples to try. We walked out with a number of salamis and chocolate, what else did you expect?

An interesting note is that the fair started back in the 1930s under Fascist leadership in Florence. The fascists were looking to give Fascism a cultural and aristocratic polish by sponsoring cultural events. It looks the fair survived Fascism, thankfully, and today has no political overtones.

Festival della Creativita

Just found some of our pictures from the Festival della Creativita'. It goes on for several days and late into the night (3am). We caught it from 9 to midnight on Friday. It's free, so it is worth the trouble if you happen to in town. The picture of the band playing to Blade Runner was our favorite. Fortezza da Basso is an old fort just north and east of the train station.