Weekend happenings

As the weather gets gloomier the festivals get heartier...

In Trieste Tra un Mese è Natale (a month until Christmas) a fair of Christmas gifts (and I assume tasty treats) has been on since the 21st and finishes on Sunday. The only handy thing I got from the website was the location: da Piazza Cavana a Piazza Hortis. Lots of towns are having similar festivals at the moment; Turismo FVG and Giro FVG have more info about these.

Chocofest (in Gradisca D'isonzo) starts tonight and continues over the weekend celebrating all things chocolate, coffee and cream.

Purcit in Staiare is a festival to celebrate pig slaughtering by eating tasty piggy products. Blatantly using the information given here, purcit is the name given to Friulian pork and staiare is an ancient Friulian dance. So Purcit in Staiare is a party to relive the joyous events following the late November slaughtering of the home pig in the Friulian villages and the subsequent preparation of porky products that supplied the villagers with their protein and fat needs for the year. There is a free bus from Trieste to the festival on Sunday so you can eat, drink and be happy.

Festa della Zucca

On Sunday we walked about 5 km south of Cervignano to the small village San Martino for the Festa della Zucca (festival of the pumpkin). The Italians do love a good food festival and I find the festivals are handy for knowing what veggies are in season (bring on pumpkin soup). As well as generally celebrating pumpkins, there was a re-enacted wedding with people dressed up as noble folk, plebs (I particularly liked one fellow who looked like Baldrick from Blackadder), knights and other sword wielding characters. There were a bunch of stalls selling something for everyone - wooden weapons, all things pagan, religious items, herbs and spices...

The pumpkin sculpting entries were a highlight, our favourites generally being the pirate based ones. There were a number of cigarette smoking pumpkins...did I mention these were made by children? Hmmm.

Anyho, to food, we started off our eating experience for the day with chocolate coated fruit skewers, this was followed by pumpkin gnocchi with butter and sage, polenta and cheese frico. Oh, and roasted chestnuts. Yummy!

What's On....

This weekend is looking pretty exciting and full of tasty things to eat...so, putting on my tourist guide hat...

Sapori Friulani (Friulian Flavours)
Palmanova 3-4 October

Lots of food stands plus a photography exhibition, bike ride, a Friulian comedy show, and various markets.

• Program (pdf)
• GiroFVG page
  

40th Mostra Regionale della Mela (Apple Festival)
Pantiannico 1-4 October

Many apple type activities including a 10 km fun walk on Sunday and a Miss Mela competition (of course...)

• Home page
• GiroFVG page
• Program (pdf)
  

Cavalli e Profumo di Mosto
Medeazza 2-4 October

Medeazza is in the Duino-Aurisina area about 1.5 km from San Giovanni al Timavo. You can get to San Giovanni by the Trieste bus #44 or on the APT airport bus (#51). This festival looks like heaps of fun with a bunch of ozmizze open, a 3-4 hour guided walk each day (one crosses the border into Slovenia, and the other explores the trenches of WWI), "rural games" in the afternoon (I think games such as sack races...), music at night, and horse excursions (if you have a horse handy).

• Program (pdf)
• GiroFVG page
  

Stomp, stomp, stomp...in my new shoes

Sick of oweeee feet on the pebbly "beaches" around these here parts we finally succumbed to buying beach shoes. Unfortunately for me, they only had pink ones left in the women's stock, but I guess I'm lucky that they aren't covered in sequins and sparkles (both of which are wayyyy overused in women's clothing here). I feel slightly ridiculous wearing then, but maybe not as ridiculous as these fellows feel....

...actually, who am I kidding, I would love a pair of bell shoes.

Weird and wonderful things

We went to the Trieste aquarium the other weekend (and randomly managed to pick a day of "liberta entrata" - yay free stuff!). The funniest animal in the aquarium was the "Jackass penguin", I think named appropriately given the ass wiggling this penguin was doing. Upstairs there is a collection of snakes; being European most of the snakes are quite civilised and harmless. The ones that will give you a decent bite are generally cowards and will slither away. Also upstairs there was an exhibition dedicated to Darwin called "Nature Anomale". Basically a whole lot of stuffed deformed animals on display - two headed sheep, one eyed rabbits, four legged chickens.

After looking at such weird and wonderful animals, I decided to buy the giant bag of stuffing to stuff Norberta and make her a real dragon. Here is Norberta working out how to attach her limbs and wings...and a little while later, giving up and getting stuck into the limoncello!