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🔔 The Italian Almanac

October 15

Stories and curiosities for October 15, from the Italy of a thousand bell towers.

Italian records 📅 1582

The first ever 15 October was decreed in a villa in the hills outside Rome

In 1582 the 15th of October came straight after the 4th: ten days struck out at once in Italy, Spain and Portugal to bring the calendar back in step with the seasons. The bull ordering it, Inter gravissimas, was issued by Pope Gregory XIII on 24 February 1582 from Villa Mondragone, now in the comune of Monte Porzio Catone, on a hill some 20 kilometres south-east of Rome. Built from 1567 for Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps, the villa took its name from the dragon on the arms of the Boncompagni, the pope's family. The rest of the world followed at its own pace: England in 1752, Russia in 1918, Turkey in 1926.

📍 Discover Monte Porzio Catone

Today's tidbits

On the table today

In Gragnano macaroni once dried in the streets, and a king made it the court's pasta

At the foot of the Monti Lattari, south of Naples, Gragnano has made pasta since the late 1500s: small family mills, then big pasta works along Via Roma and Piazza Trivione. The macaroni dried right there, in the streets, with wind, sun and the right humidity doing the job: a photograph from around 1900 shows Via Roma carpeted with drying pasta. On 12 July 1845 King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies granted Gragnano's makers the privilege of supplying the court with all its long pasta, and Gragnano has been the city of macaroni ever since. Since October 2013 Pasta di Gragnano has carried the EU's PGI mark: durum wheat semolina and water from the local aquifer.

📍 Gragnano →
Place names 1862

There is a Torino on the Adriatic: in 1862 it was given a surname so the post would stop going to Turin

Torino di Sangro sits in Abruzzo, in the province of Chieti on the Costa dei Trabocchi, and has nothing to do with Piedmont. The village was once simply called Torino: legend has it that the people of Civita di Sangro, attacked by Saracens in the 9th century, fled behind a bull that stopped beneath an old tower, and there they built the new settlement. The true origin of the name is still uncertain. In 1862, with Turin the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, the comune became Torino del Sangro to avoid mix-ups in the mail. The same year Bari, in Sardinia's Ogliastra, was given the tag Sardo by royal decree, for the same reason.

📍 Torino di Sangro →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 5

5 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on October 15

Other saints of the day 5

Tornimparte · Abruzzo CasaluceMadonna di Casaluce · Campania Torella del Sanniosan Clemente martire · Molise Berzano di Tortonasanta Teresa · Piedmont Gesturisanta Teresa d'Avila · Sardinia
Patron saint festival 📍 Casaluce

Feast of Our Lady of Casaluce

📅 Every year, from 15 to 19 October

From 15 to 19 October Casaluce celebrates its patron Our Lady of Casaluce, whose devotion reached as far as São Paulo, Brazil, where the Italian community of the Mooca neighbourhood still celebrates her today.

Patron saint festival 📍 Berzano di Tortona

Feast of Saint Teresa

📅 Every year, on 15 October

On 15 October Berzano di Tortona celebrates its patron Saint Teresa of Ávila; with just 171 residents it is one of the smallest municipalities in the province of Alessandria.

Patron saint festival 📍 Gesturi

Feast of Saint Teresa of Ávila

📅 Every year, on 15 October

On 15 October Gesturi celebrates its patron Saint Teresa of Ávila; the town is also linked to Blessed Nicola da Gesturi, beatified in 1999 by John Paul II.