Buon Ferragosto!

A large portion of Italy shuts down during the month of August because everyone simultaneously takes vacation and goes off to their desired sea locale (seriously, this place is a ghost town). Falling perfectly in the middle of this giant holiday month on August 15^th is a celebration termed Ferragosto. It serves as an occasion for a short vacation for those not already enjoying a longer one, a trip to the beach, and large communal meals.

Ferragosto is this Wednesday and we’ll be heading to il campeggio at the seaside where we often go on weekends. This’ll be my first and everyone’s been amping up the holiday since before summer even started (very enthusiastic people around here) so I’m pumped!

[A beautiful day in the neighborhood]

The day will consist of (or so I’ve been told) lunch preparation in the morning, break time at the beach, a great big lunch at one long table filled with our surrounding, camping neighbors and then some dumping-buckets-of-water-on-unsuspecting-people to top it all off. Everyone will gather again for dinnertime and that’s about it. A day filled with friends, family, the beach and food. I couldn’t really ask for more.

Here’s what I’m really looking forward to though:

[zonzelle – fried bread dough]

[stracchino – a creamy cow’s milk cheese with a mild flavor]

We ate zonzelle, stracchino and prosciutto the night before I left for the US and it left me craving it the entire month I was gone. On Wednesday, the wait is over!