Every September, the streets of Panicale really come to life…It's grape harvest time, and time to celebrate the grape!
Hey, I do my best to celebrate the grape all year long, but I'm all in for a weekend of Italian style mayhem to do this magical fruit justice!
What great planning to be here now. Well, we got lucky, in all honesty. Didn't know it would be happening while we were here. Lucky us!
The party on Friday eve kicked off when the town marching band made it's way into the main piazza, rocking the walls with it's funk beats. Really fun-
We bought our wineglasses, put them in the little bib-bag thingy, and started to check into some of the 11 cantinas set up throughout town. Some had little food treats, too...
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| So interesting to get into these small garage type spaces all around the town. We always wonder what's behind these doors…. |
There were loads of people milling about, going from venue to venue. It was really buzzing! Music, lots of young people, good cheer all around.
I appreciated that no one was getting bombed…everyone just had a good time, without any trouble. There were lots of official looking fellows keeping an eye on the merry makers, but all was fine. Lots of families with small kids, too- So different from the states.
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| One of the many wineries on offer. This cantina had a very historical interior... |
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| A small part of the inside of this place. Johnny loved seeing all the vintage wine making equipment. |
Each cantina had a different look, and we were so impressed with the restorations in most. I thought they would be more like an old garage or something, but most were fully restored, with lights, etc.
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| The black bag with the white strips is the bag to hold your glass while you walk about. |
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| Content Artist! |
Then there was a parade, which featured everything from the 'Minions', which seemed to be a theme, to a group of young kids on bikes. This was at about 9:30 at night. I loved it. Loud music booming from the floats, some crazy dancing by the young folk of the community, and more wine...
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| The kid crew on bikes... |
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| Big funny floats... |
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| Wine spouts along the way... |
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| Tractors pulling floats down the streets and around the walls.. |
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| Scary wizards on floats….well, not that scary... |
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| Local folk dancers, even... |
We called it a night, knowing it would all be going on again the next night, Saturday.
Home to bed, to recuperate for day 2-
We still hadn't checked into all the cantina, so we started in again after sunset on Saturday.
Moderation is the word of the weekend, friends!
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| Another cantina up another street. |
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| This one also featured pecorino cheeses..mmmmm! |
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| Even at Yolanda & Enzo's market, there were tastings! |
We finished up our wine crawl, and decided to see what was going on below the main piazza…we heard music, and knew it would be interesting.
It was! All the older local folks were down in the arena area dancing to the live band, which featured this gorgeous gal playing the accordion. It was so fun to watch the old timers really burning up the concrete with their dance moves! We were so impressed!
It was sweet to watch the gents actually cross the space to ask the ladies to dance. I'm talking about 80 year olds here, no kidding! Old friends who have this down! They have been doing this for decades.
There were regular couples, of course, but many of these pensioners are widowed, so the sweetness of taking each others hands to walk onto the floor…It was great. My favorite part, honestly, of the whole weekend, so far.
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| So smooth, they dance…around and around the floor. |
And yes…Johnny and I took a twirl or two around the floor...But no way could we keep up with the moves the locals knew so well.
I tried some line dancing with my pal, Goode, too, but I was so bad! It looks easy from the sidelines, but I left the floor, tail between my legs!
It was all in good fun, with lots of smiles and laughs...
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| This was the place that the true Panicalese were hanging at. |
We ended our romp back where we started Friday evening, at Bar Gallo, of course. Good times with pals we love to see here...
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| Having a laugh with fiends is always the best. |
Will we return for the Festa? I'll let you know next year. It's been a hell of a weekend, that's all I'm going to say!
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