Festival delle Sagre

Asti plays annual host to Festival delle Sagre, a food and wine event featuring over 40 small Piemontese villages. A park is dedicated to the food and wine staging, each town proudly serving its specialty dishes from solidly constructed booths evocative of countryside homes.

I heard not a word of English among the several hundred people in attendance. I walked the park for an hour, feeling an equal measure of wonder and confusion, before I understood the protocol-- Each village house sells tickets for food redeemed at that specific site; tickets are sold an hour before the food is available; it's perfectly acceptable to knock to the ground anyone standing between you and the food server, etc.

But what I couldn't wrap my brain around was this-- for the price of about 75 cents, you are provided an empty glass to be worn around the neck in a pastic Festival holder. With this investment, you get free wine from each village vendor. Three different villages explained this to me, slowly, before I understood that "gratis" really did mean free. They were very patient with me, though I certainly appeared the idiot of several villages. This, before the wine was served.

2 Minutes Inside Asti's St. Secondo

There is an underground crypt where visitors can see the silver urn containing the ashes of this city's patron saint. My video is here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Z0Z-Fh9Eo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

(I exercised a little videographer discretion and dropped the camera to my waist when I visited the alter, to create the visual effect of kneeling. For this I will surely burn in hell.)

Rite of Passage?

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> My US/EU adaptor blew a fuse, dispatching my beautiful iPhone 4 (and sole blogging device) to power purgatory. Instead of buying another adaptor, I found an Apple dealer in Asti who sold me the European USB power cord (30€/44$). Here, you can see the difference in shape and size.
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Slouching Towards Piedmont

The Alps hover over Italy's northwestern region ("Piemonte" means "foot of the mountain"), with Switzerland to the North and France to the West. Known as "the Burgundy of Italy", it is a land of castles, white truffles and "finer" wines, including one of my favorites, Barolo.

I'm moving from the Lombardy region and staying in Asti, Piedmont, a couple of days before moving into ICIF student housing in Costigliole d'Asti. I've never lived in a dorm before... we sleep three to a room.

ICIF is housed in one of Piedmont's castles. Here's a youtube of ICIF, which, my time having come, drew me to slouch towards Piedmont for a redemption of sorts. (With apologies to William Butler Yeats.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARaUYXV8byc&feature=youtube_gdata_player