Spring has semi-sprung and with the sun, breeze and later sunsets Ancona is starting to come alive again. Through the winter I got used to it being quiet and deserted in the evenings and I forgot what it was like in the fall when I arrived and was starting to think of the town as being a bit (a lot) quiet and boring. But over the past few days, the streets are noisier and more crowded as the bars and restaurants put their outdoor seating back out and people meet up to have a drink or take a walk or most of all, talk and gossip. It reminds me a lot of the first few days of sun in Portland after the winter when the whole city seems to rouse itself and a new energy takes over except that here the weather is a bit milder, the center is a bit more concentrated and socializing is a more central way of life. The result is that the effect is similar but more concentrated and intense. And it’s nice to see and not to be missed. This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to come join me on an evening walk. Just let me know when you’ll be here, and I’ll buy the first gelato.
April 25th was Italy’s Independence Day and it commemorates the day in 1945 that partisans declared the country free from Nazi domination. The occupation army finally surrendered and left Northern Italy in the face of an insurrection by the Italian resistance (Allied troops may also have contributed to the departure). It is generally taken as symbolic of the liberation of Italy and is meant to honor all those who died during the war including victims of the atrocities committed by the retreating German army, Italian service personnel, and civilian victims of Allied bombings. The lives of those serving as partisans in the resistance are especially honored.
Around these parts, it’s almost September 6th and by that I mean it’s almost May 1st which is Italy’s Labor Day, called Primo Maggio, and vigorously celebrated throughout much of the world as International Worker’s Day or May Day or Excuse To Go To The Beach Day, except in the US and Canada where we wait until September (just to see if any better offers come along I guess). Because so many people belong to unions and because they play a more central role in daily life, it’s a bit more of a labor focused holiday with people joining in labor marches, demonstrations and rallies. The unions also organize a huge concert in Rome, as well as many other concerts, celebrations and festivities around the country. And because this year the day falls on a Saturday, we don’t get it off from work.
Fortunately, May 4th, the following Tuesday is a local holiday for Ancona (click here for the city’s official website). Every city in Italy has a Saint Day, also called a Feast Day, and our saint is San Judas Cyriacus and his day is May 4th. Unfortunately, we’re not a local business, but an “international” one so we’ll be open. But many lucky people won’t be working and will “make the bridge” and take Monday off since it’s lurking there between the weekend and the Tuesday holiday. Starting on Saturday there will be concerts in the various piazzas and a huge outdoor market set-up throughout the entire city which will stay open through Tuesday. Already the tents are going up and it looks like just about any open space is going to be taken over by a booth. Or we’re all just going to go camping. People come from all over the region to participate and party and it’s supposed to be a very fun and maybe slightly rowdy time. Unlike New Year’s where Raimondo and I showed up to the free concert without any of our own celebration juice we plan to be much better prepared this time.
And now for something completely different, a man with three buttocks. (Ask my brother, he gets the joke.) No really, something completely different = Adventure! ™ = Locked out of my apartment. My roommates Alice and Deborah leave most every Friday afternoon to go back to their towns for the weekend and this week was no different. Raimondo goes back every couple of weeks and about an hour after he left on Saturday I decided to go for a walk to the Passetto and watch the storm on the sea.
About three flights of steps later I had a lightning series of fantastic revelations that roughly went like this: my pocket isn’t jingling; my pocket always jingles from my keys; that’s weird that my pocket isn’t jingling; my pocket ISN’T jingling!; I don’t have my keys; oh CRAP, I DON’T have my KEYS; my nearest roommate is more than 100 km away; oh crap, I have to walk back up these three flights of stairs. My first solution was to get a hotel room and spend the night in three star luxury waiting for someone to return on Sunday. Then I called Raimondo and asked him to call Michele, our landlord, and see if he could come let me in. I couldn’t call Michele because Michele thinks that I know Italian now and speaks way too fast while mumbling and I can’t understand him. This Adventure™ has a happy ending whose resolution is three hours in the making and whose details will try even the patience of my most tolerant readers. Let’s leave it at the story concludes with me getting into my apartment several hours later after taking the right bus but at the wrong time, a hasty exit from said bus, getting the right bus, a 3 km walk up a hill in the wrong direction while trying to follow Michele’s instructions, a kind but exasperated bartender and a clandestine meeting in a hospital lobby between me and a third party to receive the spare set of keys concluded with a giant piece of celebration cake. What’s celebration cake? It’s like normal cake but the piece is a lot bigger and there’s no guilt. It’s a lot like birthday cake, wedding cake, Tuesday cake, and Oh, Is That Cake? cake.
The other evening I was up on my roof watching the sun set into the sea when it occurred to me that just that morning the sun had been shining into my room and that those windows also face the sea. Somehow the sun was rising out of the sea in the east and setting into the same sea in the west. It turns out that Ancona is the only Italian city where you can see this happen and it’s not entirely because of magic. Most of you have already figured out what is going on but I was stumped. The name of the city hints at the answer and the local geography explains it. First, fun with etymology! Ancona comes from the Greek word for elbow ’Ἀγκών’ – Angon or Ankon depending on what website you are ripping off. Ancona was founded by the Greeks in 387 B.C. and the name came about because the original harbor was protected by the ‘elbow’ of land to the north. It stuck. Now the geography. The shape and orientation of this elbow of land jutting into the sea makes it possible for the sunrise, sunset phenomenon to occur and it’s actually quite remarkable to witness it. Or even just to think about. Don’t you think?
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