Chestnuts adventure in Calabria. Part 1

1 November is a Holiday in Italy thats why we decided to make a three days weekend and go in Calabria to pick chestnuts in forest. We went to Camigliatello Silano. It's a small town in Sila moutains and it population is about 1000 persons.
 It was Sunday and as you think, what we found when we came - a Fest! It was Sagra of chestnuts and potatoes. Sagra is a small local fest dedicated to local food and drinks.

The central street was full of market stalls selling every local product and of course chestnuts, potatoes and mushrooms. 

Of course there was local cheese and salami:

This chees in hay we bought:

Cute market stall:

Cute decorations made from pumpkin:

Of course on every corner you can find roasted chestnuts:

Calabria is region in southern Italy, so no fest can be without trtaditional dance - tarantella.

This cute felted toadstools I saw in showcase of the shop:

Summertime

Summer is here and with summertime came a season of sagras which I love. 

Sagra is an artisian food themed festival in a small towns which usually is taking place on the central square. It can be dedicated to a watermelon or eggplant or even pizza! The full list of sagras you can find in a local newspaper so you can always find the one which will suit your taste.

During the festival you can sample 2 or 3 dishes of the local cuisine and sip some wine. The food and wine comes from the town’s butchers, bakers, farmers and vintners. All the cooking is done by volunteers and the wait staffs are the enthusiastic local people. Signs announcing the dates and featured foods of the sagras dot roadways and are posted on stone walls in and around towns.

We have already visited some sagras this summer:

No sagra is possible without the traditional music and dance of Salento. Everyone here knows how to dance pizzika, from toddler to the elderly people. People are learning to dance from the very young age.

This little girl simply charmed me, she is probably just learned how to walk and she is already trying to dance!

This is me during one of the festivals, wearing a traditional pizzika costume. The girl's costume for pizzika always includes a long wide skirt and scarf or shawl. While dancing the girl is flirting with a young man, using her scarf. 

Here are two my costumes for pizzika:

This wonderful skirt I bought in vacance in Greece and I very like it for bright color:

After I learned to make crochet balls I created these two pairs of crochet earrings to add to my costumes. One pair is white as I have white skirt and the second pair is turquoise for my turquoise skirt.

So when you drive through the Italian country side and see the signs along the road inviting you to visit sagra, turn, go in and enjoy!