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🔔 The Italian Almanac

October 16

Stories and curiosities for October 16, from the Italy of a thousand bell towers.

Words born here

Ciao means slave: the world's most Italian greeting began in Venice as a bow

The word comes from Venetian s'ciao, from late Latin sclavus: “I am your slave”, a reverential greeting. In the comedies of Carlo Goldoni the nobles of Venezia still take their leave with “vi sono schiavo”. From the 1800s the formula shortened into an informal salute; the lexicographer Niccolò Tommaseo noted in his dictionary, with some disapproval, that the habit was reaching Tuscany. Ciao only truly entered Italian in the 20th century, and emigration then carried it everywhere: tchau in Portuguese, chao in Spanish, tchao in French, tschau in German, nearly always to say goodbye. A servant's bow, worn light, that went around the world.

📍 Discover Venice

Today's tidbits

Italian records

The Serio falls drop 315 metres and can be seen five times a year: a dam keeps them the rest of the time

At Valbondione, at the top of the Seriana valley in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy, the river Serio plunges 315 metres in three leaps (166, 74 and 75 metres): Italy's second-highest waterfall. Except that from 1932, when the Barbellino dam was built, the water feeding it stayed in the reservoir and the falls vanished for almost forty years. Since 1969, under an agreement between Enel, which owns the dam, and the municipality of Valbondione, the gates open five times a year, usually one Sunday a month between June and October: half an hour, between 8,000 and 10,000 cubic metres of water let through, and the mountain roars again.

📍 Valbondione →
Busted myths 1846

Peroni, Rome's beer by definition, was born in Vigevano, a town near Pavia in Lombardy

Nastro Azzurro, the Colosseum, the trattoria table: Peroni looks as Roman as they come. Yet the beer was born in 1846 in Vigevano, in the Lomellina countryside of the province of Pavia, in Lombardy, when Francesco Peroni started brewing there. Rome came later: a second brewery opened in the capital in 1864, from 1867 the firm passed to Giovanni Peroni, the founder's son, and only in 1890 did the company move for good to a site near the Colosseum. Nastro Azzurro, the house's premium lager, dates from 1963. Since October 2016 the brand has belonged to Japan's Asahi group, and the beer is brewed in Rome, Padua and Bari. Rome made it famous; Vigevano made it.

📍 Vigevano →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 4

4 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on October 16

Other saints of the day 4

Pantelleriasan Fortunato · Sicily Urbanasan Gallo · Veneto Calvisan Gerardo Maiella · Campania Trentinarasanta Irene di Tessalonica · Campania
Patron saint festival 📍 Urbana

Feast of Saint Gall

📅 Every year, on 16 October

On 16 October Urbana celebrates its patron Saint Gall; the town also preserves the Monastero di San Salvaro.

Patron saint festival 📍 Trentinara

Feast of Saint Irene

📅 Every year, on 16 October

On 16 October Trentinara celebrates its patron Saint Irene of Thessalonica; the town lies within the Cilento National Park and is known for its Terrazza del Cilento viewpoint.