A Perfect Day, Italian Style
The Bubbio Polenta Festival
The entertainment included a reinactment of the medieval battle fought in Bubbio and lots and lots of food and wine. I loved the tight and colorful costumes!

We have been back in Italy for a couple of weeks now. Hard weeks full of really difficult to understand stuff that will cost us a zillion dollars if we get it wrong. STRESS and PRESSURE.




I did my best-est at the annual Bubbio Polenta Festival to sample everything from the homemade cheese and wild boar sausage to this delicious hot out of the oven rosemary focaccia

But today was, well, it was PERFECT. The weather was perfect, the wildflowers and fields of poppies were perfect, the countryside and hill towns on the 20 minute drive to the annual Bubbio Polenta Festival were perfect, the medieval

The long awaited moment - the BIG POUR!
township was perfect, the crowds were perfect, the gelato, wine and cheese were perfect. But mostest perfect of all was the giant flag throwing, darling Italian guys in colorful tights. Dozens of them. What’s not to like about that??? The Groppo Asta is world known, at least in this part of the world. If you watched the Olympics you might have seen them perform.

Here is a 2 minute movie I made at the Bubbio Polenta Festival that includes exciting battle scenes, the making of the mother of all polentas and men in tights. Come on, you've got 2 minutes!!

Too many cooks do not spoil the polenta. These guys had me worried the way they were straining under the weight. They could have used a few more cooks to help hoist it up.
I do realize that a Westerner viewing this event for the first time might find it a little weird. Grown men dressed in tight-fitting multicolor outfits parading around in a synchronized routine would probably not happen much
Besides polenta with wild boar sauce, the crowd was treated to an aromatic onion frittata.
outside of San Francisco in the States. In Italy it’s a macho-badge of courage. Sorta like a Spanish matador dressed in sequins, but here instead of the spectacle ending in something killed, everybody eats and drinks. God, I love that.

With deepest apologies to my videographer friends - watch my movie, Bubbio Polenta Festival. The quality is bad but it's funny! It's my first, so be kind...