LINGUISTIC WINDOW
SPEZZANO ALBANESE
Where we are - History - Dresses - Churches - Important men - Language - Art and handicraft - Spezzano every month - Contacts
"Dried pepper with black olive"
Ingredients: 50 dried peppers, olive oil and salt.
Before cooking, clean the peppers with a cloth or paper. Do not wash them. Heat the oil in a pan, add the olives and the pepper and fry till crisp. Before serving season
February 1 1960: Giovanni Orazio Rinaldi died in Spezzano Albanese. He was a lawyer and one of the founders of the Communist party. After the fall of Fascism he was appointed member of a special committee in Spezzano.
February 6 1581 The “Capitoli” (extraterritorial rights) were given by Prince Niccolò Bernardino Sanseverino to the inhabitants of “Spixana”.
February 18 1607 The new church of Saint Peter was consecrated.
Usually the weather is very cold. In the last few years there have been frequent snow falls. February’s colours are cold: the white of a snowy roof; the grey of a leafless tree or the brown of the bare, wet soil which awaits the warmth of Spring when it will be covered in fresh grass and multi-coloured flowers. The food in this season is typically wintry. Meat is usually part of the diet. A tasty dish of small wild onions or of dried peppers with olives is difficult to refuse especially if there is plenty of the new wine straight from the barrel.
T
his month starts with one of the most important and most
popular holidays of the year: Carnival The is the first celebration
that announces the arrival of the spring. In Spezzano on
Monday there is the procession of allegorical floats which
often mock local and national politicians. The streets of the town are
full of jollity. The masked parade passes through the main streets of
the town and the Arberesh dances are performed by the folk group
Spixana along the way. In Spezzano Carnival is very
important while in other towns this is not always the case.
Spezzano’s traditional, unique horse race
called “Shtjerri” takes place every year at Carnival time. A ring is
placed in the nose of a dead sheep which is hung from a rope over the
road. The contestants who carry a long iron spit must gallop along and
attempt to pass the spit through the ring.
This contest is repeated in the summer (usually in the middle of August) for the tourists.
Traditional food
"Cipolline selvatiche" (Onions)
Ingredients: 400 gr of small onions, one chilli pepper, olive oil, salt.
Wash the onions, cut them and boil ine salt water and then put them in oil.