The Night of San Lorenzo

The Night of the Shooting Stars


La Notte di San Lorenzo

also know as The Night of San Lorenzo 




I am never Home to Italy during August so I have never seen the shooting stars that might grant me a wish.    Actually I have never seen a shooting star much as I look every time there is a clear sky.

Even today you hear 'make a wish' when you see a shooting star.   According to the web site Florence Inferno , August 10 is also know as the Night of San Lorenzo or the Night of the shooting Stars.  Apparently there is a scientific explanation as well as tradition or myth.   Valentina Gambino explains in an article in Envornment, the meteorite display may be repeated over several days with the days between August 12 and 13 when most visible.

Photo from the Envornment web page

But what about the myth or history behind the 'free wishes"?
Tears of San Lorenzo, sparks from the bonfire were two of the descriptions of what the shooting stars symbolize.  St Lorenzo was put to death on August 10th.

Who was San Lorenzo?
Researching San Lorenzo or Saint Lawrence,   With some humor (or perhaps it if my Catholic interpretation) Trinity Stories lists events prior to San Lorenzo's martyrdom:
He was responsible for collecting and distributing alms to the poor in Rome
San Lorenzo was commanded by emperor Valerian to give all the 'riches' of the Church to the Roman Prefect
San Lorenzo presented the poor under his care to the authorities
For this act he was burned on a gridiron.  Perhaps only myth, it is said San Lorenzo told his torturers to 'turn him over, he was already done on one side".   He died in 258AD.

Do the shooting stars represent his tears during torture or sparks from the bonfire that consumed. There can be may versions of one story.

Free Wishes:
But what is the draw of 'free wishes'?
Why have we been wishing on starts as far as I can remember?
"Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight" is know by many children?

With the hope that shooting stars on the night of San Lorenzo can be seen all over the world, I shall be out looking up at the stars tomorrow and the next 3 nights.


Remember that August 15th is Ferragosto, Assumption Day an important religious and traditional holiday.  I need a calendar just of holidays and feasts in Italy!

ITALY: Rome airport adds trains to Northern Cities

Just saw this online, Trains from the Rome Airport to Venice and other stops
No Change in Rome?

• OME

• 
  

Direct trains from Rome Fiumicino Airport

Travel directly from the airport in Rome to Venice, with stops in Florence, Bologna and Padova

Now there’s one less connection to make when you’re traveling from Rome Fiumicino Airport to popular stops in Italy, including Florence, Bologna, Padova and Venice. After a long flight it’s nice to skip the airport connection, usually required to get you to Rome Termini, the city’s central station.

With 2 daily departures in each direction you can travel on Trenitalia’s high speed Frecciargento trains between Rome Fiumicino Airport and:

• Florence Santa Maria Novella in 2h14m
• Bologna in 2h59m
• Padova in 3h59m
• Venice Santa Lucia in 4h27m

Book your Trenitalia E-ticket now, which you can print at home and is ready to travel with, seat reservation included!

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 florence, Italy, popular, Train, trains, travel, Venice

This entry was posted by Angela on July 8th, 2015, and is filed under Italy. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

Cooking and Wine School in Puglia

The Only Cooking and Wine School in

 Puglia, Italy

Yle Sambati, CEO of Yltour.com was recently interviewed by

Lee Laurino, Editor/Writer of Home to Italy about her Cooking and Wine School in Puglia, Italy.

Participating in a cooking class may be one of the top activities for travelers to Italy.   It may be your first trip or your yearly return to Italy,

Cooking with mamma's has long been part of the creative experiences Ylenia designs for her guests.   Local Italian women, grandmothers, have taught countless guests the cooking secrets handed down for generations.  

The Puglia Cooking School offers more than leaning to cook Italian food.  Yle, her name all her friends use, tells me, “When I started our culinary program, I really felt that this was the time to introduce people to a new way of cooking and eating.   Not just the common and well known Italian dishes, but above all the healthy and incredible vegetarian cuisine you can create using seasonal organic ingredients.”

“Most people think cooking vegetarian style is like not eating.  Wrong.  Cooking vegetarian means being more creative and focused on using fresh ingredients that create seasonal menus and special foods available at a specific time of the year.”

“And when it is about cooking ‘cucina povera’ style so much the better.  It is the cuisine style that our ancestors have always cooked and that it is now so popular in the south of Italy.  It is only inspired by the “prodotti natural dell terra” the natural products of the earth, and it is great for feeling good, strong and happy."

How did you become interested in vegetarian cooking?

“I have always been a vegetarian, this is not a secret and I am a big fan of the cucina povera. It is amazing, so creative, never fake, and so delicious. I’m not surprised that this cuisine style is loved by the Puglian people from generation to generation. “

“With my job, I’m a Puglia Travel Consultant, I am visited by so many friends from all over the world.   Food and wine was often a main topic and sometimes they joined cooking lesson that were similar to other cooking lessons they offer in other parts of Italy    . When I told guests about cucina povera and explained to them what they were eating, they simply loved it and wanted to know more about the ingredients and how to combine them.”

Local Mammas share their secrets

When did you expand your cooking lessons to include cucina povera and wine?

“So I realized it was time to create my own cooking and wine school because it was a great way to share this experience with friends visiting me and joining my tours from all over the world.   I did not want them to join a common cooking class, some cooking course they can easily find everywhere in Italy.”

 “I really wanted to recreate the most authentic atmosphere, cooking with local mums, using the most genuine ingredients and educate them on how this type of cuisine could be a real elixir for the health, eventually introducing it a couple of times in the week, at least in the beginning.”

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Where is your school located and who are your instructors?

“So I started looking for the most inspiring mammas from the area (I did not need English speaking mammas I wanted fabulous local mamme),  extensively researched  this type of cuisine, studied the nutritional facts, personally visited farmers purchasing the ingredients and finally found a gorgeous location to open my lovely Cooking and Wine School in Squinzano, north of Lecce.

It couldn’t be but there it is: in a place that tells everything about wine production and where you can really enjoy the sweet rhythm of the life in a typical Salento village.

The very moment I saw the Piazza in front of my cooking and wine school, I thought I really wanted this place to be the witness of what food, wine and olive oil means for the Pugliesi people."

The view from the window of the piazza