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🔔 The Italian Almanac

October 9

Stories and curiosities for October 9, from the Italy of a thousand bell towers.

Vanished Italy 📅 1963

Vajont, 9 October 1963: the dam held, Longarone did not

At 10:39 pm some 263 million cubic metres of rock slid off Monte Toc into the Vajont reservoir, in the Dolomites north of Venice. The wave cleared the crest of the dam by 250 metres and swept down the Piave valley, wiping out Longarone together with Pirago, Faè, Villanova and Rivalta. The dead numbered 1,917, among them 487 children and teenagers; 1,450 were from Longarone alone. The dam, built by the SADE company, took a load twenty times its design value and is still standing. Longarone was rebuilt under a 1965 plan; since 2007 visitors have been able to walk along the crest of the dam.

📍 Discover Longarone

Today's tidbits

On the table today

Modica chocolate never goes above 40 degrees

In Modica, in south-eastern Sicily, cocoa is worked cold: the mass of roasted, ground beans is mixed with granulated or cane sugar without exceeding 35-40 °C, skipping conching, the step that makes an ordinary bar smooth. The sugar crystals stay whole, so the bar comes out grainy and crumbly and you feel the grains on your teeth. The Spaniards had learnt the stone-grinder technique, the metate, from the Aztecs and brought it to the County of Modica in the sixteenth century. Cinnamon and vanilla are the classic flavours; Leonardo Sciascia compared this chocolate to that of Alicante for that very reason. In 2003 twenty makers founded a consortium; PGI status came on 8 October 2018.

📍 Modica →
Place names

There are two Castros: one on Aeneas's sea, one on Lake Iseo

Castro, 2,277 inhabitants on the heel of the Italian boot, was Castrum Minervae: according to Virgil's Aeneid this is where Aeneas first sets foot in Italy, below a temple of Minerva. Digs in 2007 found traces of the sanctuary, and in July 2015 a large mutilated female statue from the fourth century BC came out of the ground, thought to be the goddess herself. A municipality only since 1975, it was a hamlet of Diso before. The other Castro, 1,202 inhabitants, is in the province of Bergamo on the western shore of Lake Iseo. Nor is it the only double name: Peglio, Samone, Livo and San Teodoro each name two Italian towns, from Como and Trento down to Sicily and Sardinia.

📍 Castro →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 8

8 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on October 9

San Donnino 3

Castelfranco EmiliaEmilia-Romagna FidenzaEmilia-Romagna DernicePiedmont

San Dionigi 2

MontafiaPiedmont LonghenaLombardy

Other saints of the day 3

Saint-DenisSan Dionigi di Parigi · Aosta Valley San Geminisan Gemine · Umbria Pomarancesan Vittore · Tuscany
Patron saint festival In 348 days 📍 Saint-Denis

Feast of Saint Denis

📅 Every year, on 9 October

On 9 October Saint-Denis celebrates Saint Denis of Paris, who gives the village its name; at the beginning of December, instead, comes the mistletoe festival.

Patron saint festival 📍 Longhena

Feast of Saint Dionysius

📅 Every year, on 9 October

On 9 October Longhena celebrates its patron Saint Dionysius; the town is also one of the "casoncello towns", with the festa in Biolcheria dedicated to this typical pasta.

Patron saint festival 📍 Montafia

Feast of Saint Dionysius

📅 Every year, on 9 October

On 9 October Montafia celebrates its patron Saint Dionysius; the municipal territory also preserves the Fonte Sulfurea di Montafia-Bagnasco, a sulphur spring.

Patron saint festival 📍 Castelfranco Emilia

Feast of Saint Donninus

📅 Every year, on 9 October

On 9 October Castelfranco Emilia celebrates its patron Saint Donninus; the town claims, together with Bologna and Modena, to be the birthplace of the tortellino.

Patron saint festival 📍 Dernice

Feast of Saint Donninus

📅 Every year, on 9 October

On 9 October Dernice celebrates its patron Saint Donninus; with just 210 residents, the town also preserves the Castello di Dernice.

Patron saint festival 📍 Fidenza

Feast of Saint Donninus

📅 Every year, on 9 October

On 9 October Fidenza celebrates its patron Saint Donninus, a martyr beheaded in the city in 296; his remains are kept in a glass and silver urn in the cathedral crypt.

Patron saint festival 📍 Pomarance

Feast of Saint Victor

📅 Every year, on 9 October

On 9 October Pomarance celebrates its patron Saint Victor; the town is also known for the Palio storico delle contrade, born in 1958 and now a theatrical contest among its four districts.

Patron saint festival 📍 San Gemini

Saint Gemine and the Giostra dell'Arme

📅 Every year, on 9 October; the Giostra dell'Arme from the last Saturday of September to the second Sunday of October

On 9 October San Gemini celebrates its patron, a Syrian pilgrim venerated since the Middle Ages; in the preceding days the Giostra dell'Arme, a mounted challenge between the town's two districts, takes place.