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🔔 The Italian Almanac

September 29

Stories and curiosities for September 29, from the Italy of a thousand bell towers.

Busted myths

Fettuccine Alfredo, the Italian classic Italy has never heard of

Ask for fettuccine Alfredo in a restaurant in Italy and you will mostly get a puzzled look. Yet the dish genuinely was born in Rome: restaurateur Alfredo Di Lelio began serving it between 1908 and 1914, dressed with nothing but butter and plenty of Parmesan. Silent-film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford tasted it in Rome on their 1920 honeymoon and carried the legend back to America. In Italy it survives under a plainer name: fettuccine with butter and Parmesan.

📍 Discover Rome

Today's tidbits

Saying of the day

Moving day by the saints' calendar: the Italian art of doing San Michele

September 29 is Saint Michael's day, and in the farming world of the Po Valley, in northern Italy, the saints also set moving day. Fare San Martino, doing Saint Martin, still means packing up house and job: farm contracts expired on November 11, and labourers who were not kept on loaded the cart. Around Bologna the same thing is called fare San Michele, with a twist: the traditional date there was not September 29 but May 8, the archangel's other feast, the one recalling his apparition on the Gargano.

📍 Bologna →
Bell-tower rivalries 2000

One dark drop, two capitals: the traditional balsamic feud

Traditional balsamic vinegar ages for at least twelve years, moving through a battery of casks that must be odd in number and more than five. But Modena and Reggio Emilia, two neighbouring cities in Emilia-Romagna, have never agreed on who guards the orthodoxy: on 17 April 2000 the European Union acknowledged the rivalry by recognising two separate protected designations of origin, one for each city, each with its own consortium. Same cooked grape must, same patience, and the same unshakeable certainty of being the one true keeper of the black gold.

📍 Modena →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 136

136 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on September 29

San Michele Arcangelo 112

Gravina in PugliaPuglia AlgheroSardinia MaddaloniCampania VastoAbruzzo AlbengaLiguria VollaCampania Bastia UmbraUmbria PontassieveTuscany BagnacavalloEmilia-Romagna CarmignanoTuscany Cervignano del FriuliFriuli Venezia Giulia Monte Sant'AngeloPuglia Piano di SorrentoCampania SolofraCampania Sala ConsilinaCampania Novi di ModenaEmilia-Romagna SileaVeneto Poggio RenaticoEmilia-Romagna ArgelatoEmilia-Romagna CrosiaCalabria Quarto d'AltinoVeneto BrisighellaEmilia-Romagna Sant'Angelo di Piove di SaccoVeneto Morciano di RomagnaEmilia-Romagna SalgaredaVeneto BelgioiosoLombardy PimonteCampania PanicaleUmbria Celle LigureLiguria PadulaCampania Certosa di PaviaLombardy Santa Maria del CedroCalabria MornagoLombardy RombioloCalabria Capriano del ColleLombardy Gragnano TrebbienseEmilia-Romagna Sant'Angelo dei LombardiCampania Montopoli di SabinaLazio Sant'Angelo in VadoMarche Grizzana MorandiEmilia-Romagna MondavioMarche Miradolo TermeLombardy Gioia SanniticaCampania Bagnoli di SopraVeneto CavagliàPiedmont ContiglianoLazio LoreoVeneto Sant'Angelo di BroloSicily AntegnateLombardy CelicoCalabria AmorosiCampania Monte PorzioMarche VallecorsaLazio Mereto di TombaFriuli Venezia Giulia AusoniaLazio ChiuppanoVeneto Castiraga VidardoLombardy San Michele di SerinoCampania Borgo d'AlePiedmont Pieve LigureLiguria StrangolagalliLazio CandianaVeneto Poggio NativoLazio BenestareCalabria TrecchinaBasilicata MonteroduniMolise NurriSardinia PlataniaCalabria AngiariVeneto Valle LomellinaLombardy MontelanicoLazio PadruSardinia StreviPiedmont MalvitoCalabria CaianelloCampania SaruleSardinia Anzano del ParcoLombardy CalvanicoCampania GreccioLazio Ronco BiellesePiedmont Sant'Angelo Le FratteBasilicata OllolaiSardinia MalgessoLombardy RivodutriLazio Candia CanavesePiedmont ArielliAbruzzo VillasaltoSardinia PortePiedmont NovelloPiedmont GonnostramatzaSardinia CampolietoMolise PignaLiguria Motta CamastraSicily Lequio TanaroPiedmont ValbrevennaLiguria BedulitaLombardy CremiaLombardy Acquaviva CollecroceMolise PiattoPiedmont ColonnoLombardy Sant'Angelo del PescoMolise CaravonicaLiguria MombarcaroPiedmont Sant'Elena SannitaMolise PolinoUmbria OyaceAosta Valley Montemale di CuneoPiedmont PiedicavalloPiedmont ArguelloPiedmont PerloPiedmont AltoPiedmont RibordonePiedmont

San Michele 18

CasagioveCampania VigasioVeneto Canicattini BagniSicily MapelloLombardy BregnanoLombardy Figino SerenzaLombardy Pontirolo NuovoLombardy RotondiCampania NeivePiedmont RipalimosaniMolise MinoriCampania Soiano del LagoLombardy VillaromagnanoPiedmont Castello dell'AcquaLombardy PremiaPiedmont GabyAosta Valley VillamiroglioPiedmont RimellaPiedmont

Arcangelo Michele 2

ApriliaLazio Appiano sulla strada del vinoTrentino-South Tyrol

Other saints of the day 4

Pietralungasan Gaudenzio · Umbria Caltanissettasan Michele Arcangelo · Cristo Nero (Signore della Città) · Sicily Cuneosan Michele arcangelo, beato Angelo Carletti (protettore) · Piedmont Arsierosan Rocco · Veneto
Patron saint festival In 19 days 📍 Alghero

Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel

📅 Every year, on 29 September

On 29 September Alghero celebrates Saint Michael the Archangel. The most intense stretch of its religious year, though, remains Holy Week, with the Friday rite of the Deposition.

Patron saint festival In 19 days 📍 Vasto

Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel

📅 Every year, on 29 September

Protector of Vasto since the seventeenth century, Saint Michael became so officially in 1837, when prayers to him were credited with turning aside the typhus and malarial fevers rising from the coast.