travelswithalice

“Chuiso per ferie” signs had become a familiar sight everywhere we went. We knew that we had come in the middle of Ferragosto, the Italian holiday season, which meant that a lot of places would be closed; but after a while, we got really tired of being off the beaten track and felt like going someplace more welcoming of guests.

After a quick check with our map, we decided on Montepulciano as our next stop. It was a lucky choice. Banners were flying on Main Street and there were signs of activity everywhere, even at the sacred time of the afternoon siesta. The town was preparing for Calici di Stelle, which our hotel manager translated for us as “wine glasses under falling stars.”

For the price of a 10 euro ticket, you get to have your own personal calice or wine glass and a leather sling for it that you wear around your neck. This calice entitles you to five glasses of local wine, the superb Montepulciano, Nobile or Rosso.


An additional 18 euros buys you antipasti, primi, secondi, and dolci in various designated Calici di Stelle stations where the townspeople have prepared low-budget banquets of bruschetta, pasta and grilled meats for wandering partygoers with wine glasses hanging from their necks.

Very sprited and immensely enjoyable.




Postscript

I have since learned that I totally missed out on the significance of this festival. Even if I did enjoy the food and wine and the very fact of being there. What the hotel manager was probably struggling to make me understand then was that this evening had as much to do with the stars as it had with the wine that so captured my attention.

Also known as La Notte di San Lorenzo, this evening is special for stargazers. The "falling stars" of the Perseids meteor shower are sometimes called the "tears of San Lorenzo" because August 10, the date of the saint's martyrdom, corresponds to the peak period of the meteor shower.

And I missed all this! I never even once looked up to the sky! I really must go back to correct this oversight. Soon.