15 Comments

Absolutely love this story. Still smiling after reading it and will pay close attention to the skies on Friday night! 🧙

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Happy to make you smile! Do you think Erbanina will hitch a ride with Befana? Hmmm. Maybe around Benevento!

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Grazie. I love these local stories. Looking forward to the i briganti one as the local story from my father’s village in Calabria, Cirella di Plati, was that my great grandfather was one of the Borboni who supported the monarchy against Garibaldi. Still attempting to validate that one.

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Against Garibaldi? Noooooo! Let me know what you find out. I'll get to work on the Terre di Confine piece!

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Befana? You mean delicious Portuguese pork sandes?! Oh, no, nevermind that´s Bifana! lol. ;)

Good one Cheryl, great story. Love me a great witch tale! Also love a good Strega, which I resemble!

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Now that's an odd word similarity! I think I'm gonna need to buy a bottle of Strega; seems like the right thing to do!

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There's something very Italian about a story in which the crucial plot point is based on a distinction between lard and body fat. It's like the importance of distinguishing between bacon and guanciale. The devil is in the details, apparently. Love the post...

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That's a really good point! Seems like a human sacrifice was needed; otherwise, how'd they get that fat (whether from a living donor or a cadaver)? Must learn more!

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Quite the family ghost story, Cheryl! I can just imagine that beautiful Italian witch zooming over the skies of Campania.

Here in España, the children are all eagerly awaiting the Feast of the Epiphany. They will receive gifts from the Three Kings on that day if they have been good all year.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

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Buon Anno a te! Kids here get to watch a procession of the Three Kings, but the gifts come from Befana. In past years she's flown from the Duomo into the main piazza, but I think she's not making an appearance this year. If you do see her you get thumped by her stick, because she prefers to remain unseen.

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amazing story. thx

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Glad you liked it!

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How fun! I hadn’t heard this story before

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Yes, against Garibaldi. My parents, aunts, uncles, always pointed to a film made in 1961 by Mario Camerini, starring Ernest Borgnine and Vittorio Gassman, as proof of my GGF involvement as an anti-Borboni fighter. "I Italiani Briganti" as IMDB describes it [is] "Based on the events from the Italian civil war. In 1860's, a member of a guerrilla force captures a colonel from the opposing army and later leads one of the sides to victory." The guerrilla force head was Sante Carbone played by Borgnine. My GGF name was Rocco, but his son was named Santo. My parents said they have stories from my GGF of his imprisonment and eventual escape. I need to dig more into the archivi di stati of Calabria,Napoli, and perhaps the Spanish archives..

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Interesting! It'd be fun to write down those stories and put all the pieces together.

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