Challenge of the Tromboners

I've just told you about the medieval town of Cava dei Tirreni in province of Salerno not too far from Naples. The central and the most antique part of it, Borgo, has very interesting look, storically created by the mercants and their shops with the porticos.

The town organizes different medieval manifestations during the year and the most believed is the "Challenge of the Tromboners" that had just the 37 edition. Here is one of part of the feast that I liked more than others. Hope, they won the contest the day after I coud not visit.

Italian Feast "Sagra"

If you plan to visit Italy, you probably want to taste local foods and to partecipate on local feasts and life. So, you have to look for announcements that you can see normally on the walls, on the poles and in special places that tell about the "Sagra". You can have them all year round. When residents of this or that village need money for their projects, they organize Sagras.

We have a period of mushrooms now and different villages offer sagras where they offer home made food with mushrooms. I do not eat mushrooms normally, but once a year I like to taste them, so we visited one of the sagras this Sunday, and I took photos for you.



All the sagras I ever visited in the time I live in Italy have the same "plan": you receive the menu, choose what you want to eat, pay it

Than you take your dishes in the other stall

...and choose the place where you want to eat them.

It looks like this

all the receipes were with porcinis this time

Residents of this village needed money for the pilgrimage to Lourdes.
What is good in these kind of feasts is that you can taste real local cuisine and pay 2-3 times less than you would pay in a restaurant in the same zone or village. We paid euro 10 for all what you see on the tray. And it was possible to buy a glass of local wine for 0,50 euro.

Sochi is in Russia

I have a day of nostalgy today. I think about my mother, about my country, about my happy young past days.

My mother lives in Sochi today. You could hear this name maybe. It's a costal city with subtropical climate in Russia. And my mother is there. She has 70 years this year. And I have seen her 3 years ago last time... I'm nostalgic and sad. There is not job here, in Italy, and I can't visit my mother because I have not job. So, I can only look at this photos.