Sagra and SPQR

My A-Z Challenge series is about Italy, it's lifestyle, the country and other miscellaneous things in regard to it.

A Sagra are festivals held in towns, each town will have it's own local one. Each one will celebrate one particular thing which could be anything but usually some type of food or maybe wine. They started originally as some kind of religious celebration but over the years this gradually changed so they mark a type of food grown locally or made there or perhaps some kind of tradition the local residents follow. There is a Sagra held in the north of the country in Trento, in March, which is a tradition Sagra going back to the ancient Roman times. The local people walk up the nearby hills and shout out Trato Marzo then follows 3 days of tricks and joking around with a large bonfire to warm yourselves by.

The Sagra pesce and patate (fish and potatoes) is held in Lucca in July with accompanying dancing and children's area for playing.

 Anzio also have a fish Sagra, in July, with lots of beautiful and noisy fireworks let off over the sea by many boats, fishermen's and other local boats, at midnight with the whole town standing on the promenade watching after dancing in the piazza.

La Madonna della 'Stella' a Pallagiano, October in Taranto starts with Mass followed by a pagan festival with tagliatelle with tomato sauce served on tractors.

Other Sagras are in San Severino Marche which celebrates the chick pea, a funghi (mushroom) Sagra in Cusano Mutri for all recipes containing mushroom and wine Sagras such as the one in Verdicchio in August. Some of the wine festivals have not only wine on all stalls but also coming out from the fountains instead of water. There are even Sagras celebrating omelettes or fried stuffed olives. There must be one to your taste somewhere surely.

SPQR stand for Senatus Populusque Romanus and literally translates as 'The Senate and People of Rome'. It was used by the senate of the ancient Roman times to denote anything which was theirs and is still used as the emblem of modern day municipality of Rome and is seen everywhere. I just wanted to add this in as I see it so often when visiting family in Italy so has a sort of good feel of familiarity to me. It's on coins, documents, monuments and especially on drain covers, so next time your in Rome have a look down at your feet to see this SPQR emblazoning a drain cover set in the ground protecting you from falling in.