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🔔 The Italian Almanac

October 28

Stories and curiosities for October 28, from the Italy of a thousand bell towers.

Place names 📅 1932

Latina used to be Littoria: founded in 1932 on drained marshland, renamed in 1945

The first stone was laid on 30 June 1932; by 18 December the town was already inaugurated. It was called Littoria and stood on the freshly drained Pontine Marshes south of Rome. Its settlers came mostly from Italy's north-east, assigned their farms by the Opera Nazionale Combattenti; in 1934 it became a provincial capital. The name lasted thirteen years: by a decree of 9 April 1945 Littoria became Latina, at the request of local institutions keen to distance the town from Fascism and avoid suppression. Today Latina has 127,379 inhabitants, second in Lazio only to Rome, and the settlers' Veneto dialects survive only in the outlying villages.

📍 Discover Latina

Today's tidbits

Italian records 2021

Castelsaraceno's 586-metre Tibetan bridge, among the world's longest, in a village of 1,102 people

A village of 1,102 people at 916 metres, in the province of Potenza, Basilicata, southern Italy, has had a walkway hanging in mid-air since 31 July 2021. The Tibetan bridge of Castelsaraceno is 586 metres long and runs 80 metres above the ground, figures that put it among the longest of its kind in the world. It joins not two ordinary banks but two parks: the Pollino National Park and the Appennino Lucano Val d'Agri Lagonegrese National Park, the two great protected areas of Basilicata that meet here. The valley lies beneath the planks: more than half a kilometre in the air, in a village with fewer than two inhabitants for every metre of bridge.

📍 Castelsaraceno →
On the table today 1731

Corigliano-Rossano has made liquorice since 1731: Amarelli, the same family for almost three centuries

On the Ionian coast of Calabria the Amarelli family, landowners of Rossano, were already working liquorice root in the 1500s; the company proper dates from 1731, and in the 1800s the area's output reached 70% of Italy's total. In 1931 mechanical extruders replaced the 46 workers who shaped the pieces by hand. Since 2001 the factory in Corigliano-Rossano has housed the liquorice museum named after Giorgio Amarelli, with a family archive running from 1445 to 1986. Calabrian liquorice has been a protected designation of origin (DOP) since 2011: fresh root, dried root and extract, from about 1,000 hectares yielding 2,500 tonnes of roots a year.

📍 Corigliano-Rossano →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 7

7 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on October 28

Santi Simone e Giuda 3

SovicoLombardy RoderoLombardy Nogarole VicentinoVeneto

San Simone 2

BubbioPiedmont Borca di CadoreVeneto

Other saints of the day 2

Montecchio Emiliasan Donnino · Emilia-Romagna Mellosan Fedele di Como · Lombardy
Patron saint festival In 2 days 📍 Borca di Cadore

Feast of Saint Simon

📅 Every year, on 28 October

On 28 October Borca di Cadore celebrates its patron Saint Simon; the territory includes Monte Pelmo, one of the best-known peaks of the Dolomites.

Patron saint festival In 2 days 📍 Bubbio

Feast of Saint Simon

📅 Every year, on 28 October

On 28 October Bubbio celebrates its patron Saint Simon; the town also preserves the Santuario dei Caffi.

Patron saint festival In 2 days 📍 Nogarole Vicentino

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude

📅 Every year, on 28 October

On 28 October Nogarole Vicentino celebrates its patrons Saints Simon and Jude; since 2014 the town has held the Festa del Formaggio, dedicated to the cheese products of Monte Faldo.

Patron saint festival In 2 days 📍 Rodero

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude

📅 Every year, on 28 October

On 28 October Rodero celebrates its patrons Saints Simon and Jude; the town preserves the Torre Longobarda and has celebrated the feast of Mary Queen of Angels in August since 1714.