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🔔 The Italian Almanac

October 1

Stories and curiosities for October 1, from the Italy of a thousand bell towers.

Saying of the day

Ottobrata: in Rome the word for fine October weather began as a cart ride to the vineyards

An ottobrata today is a warm day out of season. In Rome, until the early decades of the 20th century, it was an outing: on October Sundays, and usually Thursdays too, groups left the rioni at dawn on carrettelle, horse-drawn carts with bells on the harness. On board, seven girls in their best clothes and a “bellona” beside the driver; the men followed on foot. The destinations: Monte Testaccio, the countryside around Ponte Milvio, the vineyards between Monteverde and Porta San Pancrazio. The grape festival of Marino, on the first Sunday of October since 1925, has been called the last of the Roman ottobrate.

📍 Discover Rome

Today's tidbits

On the table today

In Marradi, October is counted in Sundays: the month of the Marrone del Mugello chestnut

Every Sunday in October Marradi holds its chestnut festival, and some come up the Lamone valley by steam train. The village, 2,814 inhabitants at 328 metres, sits on the Romagna side of the Apennines but belongs to the province of Florence: Tuscan Romagna, they call it. The fruit is the Marrone del Mugello, a PGI product since 1996, and no ordinary chestnut. The difference is measured: in a chestnut more than 12% of the nuts are split, the inner skin folding into the flesh; in a marrone under 12%, one or two sweet nuts per burr, with a skin that peels off easily. On the table, the torta di marroni di Marradi.

📍 Marradi →
Italian records

Italy's westernmost point is a 3,225-metre peak above Bardonecchia

Italy's western extreme is not a beach but a summit: the Rocca Bernauda, 3,225 metres in the Cottian Alps above Bardonecchia, in Piedmont, between the Susa valley, the Durance valley and the Maurienne, with the French border on top. The record is recent: until 1947 Italian territory reached further west, into the Valle Stretta, part of which went to France under the Treaty of Paris. So Bardonecchia, 2,844 inhabitants at 1,312 metres, where the two Fréjus tunnels come out, is the westernmost municipality in Italy. The other extremes: Testa Gemella Occidentale at Predoi (north), Punta Pesce Spada on Lampedusa (south), Capo d'Otranto (east).

📍 Bardonecchia →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 4

4 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on October 1

San Remigio 3

FosdinovoTuscany Cavasso NuovoFriuli Venezia Giulia VilladeatiPiedmont

Other saints of the day 1

Atinasan Marco Galileo · Lazio
Patron saint festival 📍 Cavasso Nuovo

Feast of San Remigio

📅 Every year, on 1 October

On 1 October Cavasso Nuovo, a municipality of 1,606 inhabitants in the province of Pordenone, celebrates its patron San Remigio (Saint Remigius).

Patron saint festival 📍 Villadeati

Feast of San Remigio

📅 Every year, on 1 October

On 1 October Villadeati, a municipality of 523 inhabitants in the province of Alessandria, celebrates its patron San Remigio (Saint Remigius).

Patron saint festival In 340 days 📍 Fosdinovo

Saint Remigius, patron of the silver reliquary

📅 Every year, on 1 October, the day the relics were transferred in 1701

Fosdinovo celebrates Saint Remigius on 1 October, the day in 1701 when his relics were transferred from Lucca. They are kept in a seventeenth-century silver reliquary and shown to the faithful also on 13 January.