Perfect parties, perfect party playground

Halloween heralds another long week of parties in a perfect natural playground

As you may imagine, a village that enjoys parties so much as Longiano has a whale of a time at Halloween. The ancient hilltop castellated village provided the perfect evening setting for a Halloween party – and simply everybody joined in. Old and very young got themselves up in costumes and joined in enthusiastically – dancing  to a live loud band in the square and trick or treating, mainly focused on the café.

But of course – as everywhere in Romagna – the real evening focus was food and wine. So as the night fell, the trestle tables in the village square filled with feasters and loaded with feasts of great local food and great Sangiovese wine from the hillside vineyards. Undeterred by the fireworks thrown by the local boys and the churchbells ringing in annoyance at the occult celebrations – the feasters happily feasted on well into the night.

And, from the profane to the sacred… as dawn rose the next day over the castle, it was time to get up and start to get ready for Christmas! Longiano, with its monastery and beautiful churches celebrates it in style enough to attract thousands of visitors.

Every year Longiano  becomes Christmas personified and its nativity scenes – over 100 of them – will be on show all over the historic centre to everyone who wants to pamper themselves with an authentic Christmas atmosphere. From 8 December 2015 until 24 January 2016, the museums, churches, squares, streets, gardens, public places and private homes will host the enchantment and magic of hand-made cribs. Central to this wonderland is the pilgrimage-site monastery of SS. Crucifix which hosts a beautiful mechanical nativity scene. And atop the hill, the 11^th century castle always hosts its own contemporary scene.

Plus, naturally there’s local food and food-related activities, which include Christmas markets, and local food, local wine and local olive oil is just everywhere. Restaurants, of course have special local menus. Roll on Christmas!

The Valsellustra is walking distance of Caterina Sforza’s Dozza which is a real city of art in the sense that every two years its houses act as canvases for joyous, glorious paintings (Banksy beware!). The muscular medieval Sforza castle that crowns this hilltop town, is now the regional wine library housing an astonishing array of wines and local products

Just a hop, skip and jump from the via Emilia – this atmospheric and spiritual valley was extraordinarily important a few hundred years ago, but now a simple, stunningly-beautiful, amazingly fertile backwater. Its winding, walkable road takes the visitor through vineyards and farmland up to astounding views of the Romagna hills and the Apennines beyond. A breath of sweet fresh air – and of course the site for a truly great restaurant. It’s no wonder that the restaurant is owned by a prosciutto producer who uses the factory site at the back of the restaurant to hang great legs of prosciutto taking benefit of the glorious air to mature, dry and gain their superb taste. It’s no wonder that a pope – Honorius II was born here!

All this takes us to Imola – why? Because of the Baccanale – the feast of Bacchus – god of wine.

The beautiful city is famous for its Sforza citadel, for the fact that Leonardo da Vinci tried out his city-planning skills here, for the fame of one of its later citizens, Andrea Costa (who brought socialism here from Russia) and for its Formula 1 racetrack – now disused. And for the fact that it probably has the most expensive restaurant in all of Romagna.

Be that as it may, this year the Baccanale has become a diffused festival which has as its emblem an egg! This has given rise to a lot of egg-like installations around the city and a lot of restaurants offering special Baccanale menus – and a market or two.

No such circumspection about the Fiera dei Becchi (the Cuckold’s Fair) in Santarcangelo. This heaving, eating, drinking, dancing, buying, singing, laughing mass of people celebrating a 1,000+ year old tradition in an extraordinary foodie, winey city needs to be approached with care!

A wise and wonderful choice was to take the glorious mountain road via Montetiffi – another stunning, secret historic hilltop village which is unknown just 50km away. As the road winds up the hillside, the most amazing views are revealed, over the valleys, over the hills and mountains – all the way to the blue Adriatic Sea.

And Montetiffi itself – fantastic. It was a renowned Franciscan pilgrimage place and now a sublimely beautiful spot with superb panoramic views – and a sensational weekend restaurant run by a young couple expecting their first baby. A painter by week, Enea’s real passion is for cooking, using the very best of really local ingredients – grown and produced all within sight of his kitchen. Enoa’s wife Alice provides a very knowledgeable front of house welcome. A fabulous plate of cured meat, cheeses and piadina started a meal that included Tagliolini with thistles and chicory and sensational Titamisu plus Alice’s warm chocolate and fruit tart.

Montetiffi has one more culinary speciality – clay from the mountain is used to create the ‘Teglia’ upon which all true piadina are cooked. So the piadina was perfect!

Finally – Santarcangelo Fair of Cuckolds – close to a food riot, the event has focused on Romagnolo love of fun and food and wine for over a thousand years. No more so than now.

Imagine a historic medieval city full of nooks and crannies, riddled with ancient tunnels and capped with a massive castle. Imagine that the way uphill is terraces connected with steps and at each level (or balcony) another street with squares, food shops and restaurants unveils itself.

Now imagine all these streets and squares full of stalls selling everything foodie and more – wine, meats, breads, sweets, cooking equipment, fruits and vegetables, even great stalls of mushrooms and truffles. Imagine too that everywhere there is the sound of music. Now imagine this city with tens of thousands of local visitors, so crammed in that it feels that there can be no more space – yet there are still crowds arriving at 10pm. Imagine all these crowds eating, drinking, talking and singing – all at the same time.

Finally imagine that the only way to this fair is through the historic arch of triumph from which a bulls horns hang. If, as you walk under them, they wobble – you’re a cuckold!

Craziness, but great fun.

From the astonishing beauty of the surroundings, to the astonishing vitality of its inhabitants – to the astonishing wildness of its festivals this is Romagna.

Valere Tjolle

@ValereTjolle

[email protected]

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