CELEBRATING THE FISH

What could be more fitting for a fishing village than to have a festival celebrating what brings sustenance to the tables of its inhabitants?  Today, Marina Grande is having a Sardines and Anchovies Festival.  I googled it to see if I could find out anything about this tradition, but to no avail.  They started yesterday to decorate the marina by stringing white lights from the building balconies across to the lamp posts in a zigzag pattern.  A few tents went up.  All day, there has been more preparation, in the rain—more tents went up, and they hung fishnets in a canoe shape between the lamp posts.  I have no idea why, unless it’s just a declaration of identity. 

Things started to liven up around 7 p.m.  It was pouring rain, but I went out to see what was happening.  i didn’t take my camera because it’s hard to hold the umbrella and take pictures at the same time.  But, there were several food tents selling different kinds of fish and other foods.  I went to Da Emilia, the trattoria owned by my landlady, to get some fish—a mixture of sardines, shrimp, squid, and octopus—and also sampled some grilled salmon from another tent.  There was also a tent displaying giant size desserts, many of which had the names of local hotels in icing on the top.  For 5 euro, you could get a plate of fish with some bread and a glass of wine.  

Later, around 8 p.m., there was a live band, which sounded like it was in my living room, because they sheltered themselves in a room on the first floor of my building.  Fortunately, they were pretty good, and I enjoyed listening to the music until about 11 p.m.  There was a great fireworks display, too, and, of course, the church bells rang like crazy off and on during the evening.  It’s really too bad it was raining during most of the evening hours, because I’m sure that discouraged many people from coming to enjoy the wonderful fresh local fish.