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🔔 The Italian Almanac

September 15

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

Vanished Italy 📅 1864

The day Turin stopped being Italy's capital

On 15 September 1864, at Fontainebleau, Italy signed the September Convention with Napoleon III's France: the capital was to leave Turin (Torino) within six months, bound for Florence. The city — capital of the young Kingdom of Italy, in the northwestern region of Piedmont — rose up in protest, and on 21 and 22 September the crackdown left around sixty dead between Piazza Castello and Piazza San Carlo. The Minghetti government fell; the move went ahead anyway, and the capital never came back.

📍 Discover Turin

Today's tidbits

Place names

A village called Bomba, no explosives involved

In the hills of Abruzzo, in central Italy, a village of fewer than seven hundred people answers to the name Bomba — 'bomb', in Italian. No explosives are involved: scholars trace the name back to an onomatopoeic Latin word for a rumbling sound, probably of water. Bomba overlooks an artificial lake created in 1957 by diverting the river Sangro, and it gave Italy the Spaventa brothers, Bertrando and Silvio, patriots and thinkers of the Risorgimento, the movement that unified the country.

📍 Bomba →
Words born here

Baloney has an Italian hometown

Every American lunchbox knows bologna, pronounced 'baloney' — and the name is no accident: the sausage derives from mortadella Bologna, the silky pork classic of Bologna, in northern Italy's Emilia region. Across the ocean it took on a life of its own, from the bologna sandwich to the slang 'baloney!' for talk that doesn't hold up — one and the same word covering both the cold cut and the nonsense. Either way, an Italian city's name has been sitting in everyday American English all along.

📍 Bologna →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 16

16 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on September 15

Beata Vergine Addolorata 8

BalestrateSicily Villanova MondovìPiedmont AngeraLombardy TorrenovaSicily LuisagoLombardy GosaldoVeneto AccumoliLazio ParoldoPiedmont

Madonna Addolorata 2

SoveratoCalabria Ronchi ValsuganaTrentino-South Tyrol

Other saints of the day 6

Villanova SolaroMadonna della Noce e San Giovanni Battista (Vernetto) · Piedmont MarcellinaMadonna delle Grazie · Lazio Isola del Gigliosan Mamiliano · Tuscany MattinataSanta Maria della Luce · Puglia Castelnuovo della Dauniasanta Maria della Murgia · Puglia Terme Vigliatoresanta Maria delle Grazie · Sicily
Patron saint festival 📍 Balestrate

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

📅 Every year, on 15 September

On 15 September Balestrate celebrates Our Lady of Sorrows with a procession through the streets; on 29 June the fishing village also celebrates Saint Peter and the sea, with a fish festival and the procession of the "vara".

Patron saint festival 📍 Margherita di Savoia

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

📅 Every year, on 15 September

On 15 September Margherita di Savoia celebrates its co-patron Our Lady of Sorrows; the main patron is the Most Holy Saviour, on 6 August, and the town is also known for its salt pans.

Patron saint festival 📍 Paroldo

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

📅 Every year, on 15 September

On 15 September Paroldo celebrates Our Lady of Sorrows; with just 228 residents, it is one of the smallest municipalities in Piedmont.

Patron saint festival 📍 Gosaldo

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

📅 Every year, on 15 September

On 15 September Gosaldo celebrates Our Lady of Sorrows; its territory includes the Dolomite peaks of Croda Granda and Monte Brandòl.

Patron saint festival 📍 Angera

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

📅 Every year, on 15 September

On 15 September Angera celebrates Our Lady of Sorrows; the village is dominated by the Rocca Borromeo, the medieval castle overlooking Lake Maggiore.

Patron saint festival 📍 Accumoli

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

📅 Every year, on 15 September

On 15 September Accumoli celebrates Our Lady of Sorrows; the municipality is home to six "università agrarie", bodies that have managed the town's collective assets for centuries.

Patron saint festival 📍 Isola del Giglio

Feast of Saint Mamilianus

📅 Every year, on 15 September

On 15 September Giglio Castello celebrates its patron Saint Mamilianus with a procession, the Palio degli Asini (donkey race) and the quadrille; on 10 August it is Giglio Porto's turn, with the Palio Marinaro for Saint Lawrence.

Patron saint festival 📍 Melendugno

Feast of Saint Niceta

📅 Every year, on 15 and 16 September

On 15 and 16 September Melendugno celebrates its patron Saint Niceta the Goth at the mother church of Maria Santissima Assunta; the ancient Abbey of San Niceta is also dedicated to him.

Patron saint festival 📍 Soverato

Feast of the Madonna Addolorata

📅 Every year, on the third Sunday of September

On the third Sunday of September Soverato celebrates its patron, the Madonna Addolorata; the town also has Maria SS di Porto Salvo, protector of Soverato's sailors, celebrated on the second Sunday of August.