An Italian (rainy) Easter Day

Santa Maria dell’Arzilla, 1399

Kommt, eilet und laufet (if you click here, you’ll be connected to Bach’s Easter Oratorio which is a good soundtrack to Easter Day – and to life! – as all of Bach’s works are).

One would expect that on Easter Day, the sun (the “light”) would be more generous than in any other Springtime days. And yet, it has been raining in sheets since this (early) morning, when our daughter woke me up at 6.18

Happy Easter to you. Buona Pasqua, anyway

Easter’s celebrations, last night, at the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Arzilla with my sister at 9.15 (one of our many – not just religious – family rites!). The simple Romanic church, built in 1399, hosts one of my beloved sacred images: the Madonna of  Mercy, by Giovanni Antonio da Pesaro (1462).

Easter Luch at my parents today – table setting with crescia di Pasqua

Today, at noon, even if the Italian saying goes “Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi” (“Stay with your family at Christmas, with anyone you like at Easter”), we had lunch with my parents – who also happen to be the ones I like to associate with at Easter (are you reading, mom and dad, right?).

Well, to cut it short, here’s the menu (not so traditional, but nonetheless very appreciated by us all): cannelloni with ricotta cheese and spinach (two toppings: tomato sauce and besciamella with mush-rooms), little rooster (galletto) with black olives and filling with minced meat, olives and garlick, crescia di Pasqua (which I adore) with abundant parmesan cheese and pepper, colomba  (a similar cake to Christmas panettone – shaped like a dove – with sugar crust and almonds), chocolate eggs. The wine, selected by our expert Walter (he’s the one who makes the gorgeous chocolate liquor!), came from Mariotti vineyards (Montemaggiore al Metauro) and – despite we had meat – it was a white “bianchello del Metauro“.

And to top it all – a very special “made in Walter” gift to everyone: home-made olive oil and cinnamon soap for a “gentle scrub”. To get rid – also metaphorically – of the “old skin” and to rise to a new life.

Or more simply – for those who don’t feel to engage in such demanding long-term goals – to get a clean shower!

Walter’s home made olive oil soap with cinnamon