Living in a Village - Turning Tuscan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Going Native - page 47

to rattle off about twenty-five or thirty of these in a row without pausing for air. Many are
somewhat off-color or politically incorrect, and everybody loves them. My kind of people.
During the long, dark month of January, once Epiphany is over and done with, the village
organizes a series of Italian Bingo nights. I won't bore you with an explanation of the game
of tombola , but suffice it to say that it shares with Bingo the goal of getting a series of num-
ber all on the same row. And, the guy who picks the tiles out of the sack, who calls them
out with breathless excitement, and who reminds the crowd that the winner of this round
takes home a cordless phone and a whole leg of prosciutto, is once again the village priest.
Apart from religious holidays, our village also celebrates an entirely secular festival every
fall. Almost every village in Tuscany celebrates something on an annual basis. Other towns
and villages near to us host the Festa of the Snail, the Festa of the Frog, the Festa of the
Grape, the Festa of the Beef Steak, and so forth. Our town celebrates the birthday of an
illustrious citizen, honored and immortalized by a statue complete with a commemorative
plaque, who never existed. It's a great excuse, like all the other festas, to get together with
friends and family, eat lots of ribs, sausages and steak roasted over a wood fire, wash it
all down with a nice bottle of Chianti, and dance to different singers and bands over the
course of the weekend. All the kids from five to fifteen, our girls included, bus the tables
when people get up from their benches. The older teens and young adults serve as waiters
and waitresses, direct traffic to available parking places, and assist in setting up tables and
benches. Meanwhile the grown-ups cook the various foods, handle the incoming orders,
and prepare the trays heavily laden with meats, soups, salads, wine and desserts.
On the last night of the festa, there are always fireworks. Designing fireworks displays is
one of the many things that Tuscans do superbly well. The segues between the various ex-
plosions are brilliantly conceived in terms of timing, sounds, color sequences, and patterns
of dispersion. You get pulled in and pushed out, you slide down shimmering cascades of
gold,youthrilltoexplosionsthatcontinuetounfoldafteryoucan'tbelievethere'sanything
left. The whole performance reveals a level of sophistication that is worthy of high art.
The fireworks start at about 10:30 pm and last a good hour. The school year typically starts
early the next morning, but all the children are out running around, excited out of their
minds, until well after midnight. The older kids set off firecrackers, whistlers and spark-
lers until they run dry. “Do not go gentle into that new school year; rage, rage against the
dying of the summer vacation.” Getting your own kids out of bed the next morning is a
nightmare, butthelocal schoolseems tobewell aware ofthesituation andmercifully sends
them home after only a few hours.