Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone, welcome back to italianpod101.com.
My name is Desy, mi chiamo Desy, and in this video, we're going to talk about what
happens in Italy in July.
luglio in Italia
You may have some problems pronouncing it, but July is called luglio, also there's a
famous song that goes like luglio col bene che ti voglio, so July with all the love I
have for you.
It's not really a sentence that you would use every day, but it's also a nice one to
remember and to practice saying luglio and the LL sound in general.
luglio col bene che ti voglio
Anyway, what happens in July in Italy?
I'd say technically nothing, but also a lot.
There are no specific holidays, so no bank holidays or big celebrations, like nationally,
but also there are many many sagre and feste, festivals, so feste, sagre and paglio around
Italy.
Now we're going to see what that means.
una sagra, so una sagra, it's actually like a fair or a festival, but it's something that
happens every year in order to celebrate a saint or an event.
So it's actually about products a lot in Italy.
For example, there is la sagra del tartufo, truffles festival, but it's not really like
a festival, it's just like really a celebration of the product itself and everyone goes there
to taste, buy, experience it, it's in Abruzzo.
In Terracina there is la sagra del pesce, the fish one, but also many feste del vino,
wines festivals.
It's because July in Italy gifts us with good weather, okay, sometimes there are storms,
but in general it's really hot and sunny, so it's easy and really pleasant to stay
outside.
Now another interesting one is la cipolla rossa di Tropea, red onion in Tropea, which
is in Calabria, Calabria, so South Italy.
But there are also, what I was saying before, a lot of paglio, this doesn't really have
a translation because it's a celebration of a small town or city, it really celebrates
the history of the place.
In fact, you can find things like giullari, giullari, jesters, mangia fuoco, mangia fuoco,
fire eater or sbandieratori, sbandieratori, flag waver, because bandiera means flag, bandiera
means flag, so sbandierare is to move the flag around.
So it's in many historical places, the biggest, the most famous is Venezia, Venice, there
is la festa del redentore, festa del redentore, so the savior, the redeemer literally.
It happens every third Sunday of July in order to celebrate the ending of the plague in 1575
and 1577, actually it lasted two years.
So you'll see a lot of historical costumes but also fireworks and gondole going here
and there, really traditional.
In Villa Stellone next to Turin, so Northern Italy, there is il paglio dei templari, Templar's
Knights' paglio.
So here too, again, like Middle Ages, armors and so on.
In Umbria, you can find a really interesting one, it's il paglio dell'ovo, ovo is an old
way or dialectal way to say uovo, so egg.
So something really peculiar of this paglio is that the city divides in three, four or
five, depending on how big it is, teams from different neighborhoods of the city.
So in this specific one what they do is they play, let's say, fire gun with eggs, so they
have to hit each other and the one that lost last year's competition is the one that today,
so this year, is the target and they get hit with eggs, which are not really fresh and
in the past it was supposed to be with chestnuts, but then it was too painful actually, so they
switched to eggs.
So you can find a lot of typical and really old traditions that we still try to keep alive,
but also you can find, let's say, proper festivals, I don't want to say like the others are not,
but something more modern.
For example, there is the Jazz Festival in Umbria, which is kind of historical, in fact,
its first edition dates back to 1973, or also there is Lucca Summer Festival, Lucca Summer
Festival in Tuscany.
It's about music with many artists coming from all over Italy, I'd say, and Lucca is
a really nice setup because it's really historical.
There are walls, like the real old ones, and yeah, it's really enjoyable in July.
Of course, we also have to mention that July is a really, really nice month to go on holiday
in Italy.
Not most people go in July, but in August because the agencies and the companies just
close in August, but if you're lucky, you can ask to have some holidays before, or maybe
you can just take turns with your colleagues, and if you go around in July, I'd say that
it's not so crowded as it would be in August.
Not to mention that July is the hottest month of the year, close to August actually, because
the maximum is like 29 and minimum 20ish, but in August you find more storms, because
I don't know why, but the wind is just more present in Italy, while July is really nice
for the sea.
Just remember that in Italy in July schools are closed, so you will find a lot of kids
and students around.
For the reason I just said, so the weather not being stormy, July is the perfect month
to go visit islands, for example the small ones like Capri and Ischia or Isole Eolie
or Tremiti, which I recommend to look up if you don't know.
When it's too hot in July, I mean in summer in general, but in July for sure, you can
find granite, shaved ice and of course ice cream, gelato, gelato everywhere, and watermelons,
anguria, anguria, which are really popular because as I just said, it's really hot and
you have to restore liquids somehow and water, right?
So it's the perfect month to eat a lot of ice cream without feeling guilty.
Jokes aside, that was it for July in Italy, let me know what you would try or if you
know any other particular festival that I don't even know about, write it down in the
comments and if while travelling you want to be able to have real Italian conversations
with native speakers, make sure to click the link in the description and download our PDF
lessons.
I'll see you soon, bye bye, ciao ciao!

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