San Nicola traditional fair

I have already posted about the Fiera di San Nicola, as our family is fond of it.

First of all the fair is strongly connected to our childhood when our grandparents used to give us our allowance to buy candies, a toy or a balloon. Besides, when my sister (auntie Chicca) and I were in our teens – I mean, when she was in her teens; I’m the younger of the two 😉 –  we used to go to San Nicola fair and sell bead jewelry she would make months ahead. We even sold painted tiles (mostly using Peanuts characters) and painted cotton bags. My father used to rent us a regular space right in front of the former Cruiser Congress Hotel (which turned into a Mercure hotel this year). He never told us but the rent he payed for our exhibiting (little) area was never made up for by our earnings! That was fun though 😉

The fair – entitled to Saint Nicholas (celebrated on Sept. 10th according to the Roman Catholic calendar) – marks for us Pesaresi the turning point between Summer and Fall.

It dates back to 400 years ago: after the new harbour was built under Francesco Maria Della Rovere II in 1615, the inhabitants and the merchants of Pesaro asked for the ‘old fair’ (already existing in the 16th century) to be held again, and improved. The fair did not keep going through the centuries; later on the fairs of San Terenzio, Pesaro patron saint – which we celebrate on Sept. 24th – and San Nicola fair merged into just one fair.  Nowadays, they are again two seperate events.

Since our daughter Costanza was born I attend the fair with quite a different attitude… First of all we mostly linger on the sweet children’s shops set up on the sidewalks looking for a soft stuffed animal to add to Costanza’s collection or for a new Playmobil character.

Starting from via della Repubblica (leading to the bronze sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro), both viale Trento and viale Trieste display each year all kinds of goods on over 500 hundred stalls: onions, garlic, local ‘pecorino’ or ‘fossa’ cheese, sausages, honey, toys, clothes, hats, books, umbrellas, shoes and, of course, the yearly fair ‘thing-a-majig’.

Each year someone comes up with the ‘discovery-of-the-year’ item that is supposed to make each housewife the most fulfilled housewife in the world. The eighth wonder of the world is usually a miraculous rag to clean windows, a magic knife to make roses out of zucchini and/or carrots, a lemon squeezer you just have to push into the lemon (I got it two years ago and never used it!). This year the big fuss was about a ‘reverse umbrella’…

Last year Costanza made a ‘sidewalk sale’. She went there for a couple of days with her friends Lara and Anastasia. She was very proud of her achievement and earned about 50 euros. She said she needs money for when she grows up and goes to ‘that Spanish disco island’ (i.e Ibiza… OMG!).

This year though she could not find any old toy or book to sell. We gave her our old books and DVDs but she said that ‘grown-ups’ things do not sell so good’. So, no sidewalk shop.

So much for Ibiza 😉