Wine festival and saucicciata in Fontana d’Ischia
The wine festival and saucicciata in Fontana d’Ischia is now the most awaited appointment of the summer season, both for the Fontanesi and for the “foreigners”.
A party with popular roots, whose intent is handed down unchanged during the editions thanks to the work of the members of the Pro Serrara Fontana.
Founded in 1975 simply to celebrate the ancient Fontanese tradition that saw the inhabitants of this fraction of Ischia go to the Falanga wood on the first Sunday of August to collect the snow, preserved in the deep pit, which was then used to make thirst quenching granita. once descended to the coast.
Today there is above all the desire, on the part of the organizers of this event, to make the most of their territory, to make local traditions, habits and food known.
The choice of sauciccia fontanese, always prepared by the same family that has now reached the third generation of butchers, is almost to underline that in Ischia there is not only a gastronomic seafood tradition but also and above all a strong land tradition.
(In this regard, I suggest you read the beautiful story of Michelangelo Iacono’s rabbit to the Ischia.)
Secondly, thanks to this event, you have the opportunity to admire the beauty of the landscape and at the same time taste the goodness of the products such as the superb wine made with local grapes and the delicious sausages … simple and genuine food!
Participating in this evening was not only the best way to gratify all those who with great enthusiasm, every year, contribute voluntarily to the realization of this event but it was mainly … a sensory and visual journey!
My journey started when I passed the source of Nitrodi, I started to walk the uphill road to the municipality of Serrara – Fontana.
Proceeding slowly I stopped several times along the road to look up at the beauty of the coast that slopes towards Sant’Angelo and I caught, with my gaze, everything that normally can escape from the eyes accustomed to such sight!
Arriving at Fontana, the scents of vegetation soon gave way to the smell of the embers which was followed by the smell of grilled sausages and magnificent wine accompanied by the songs and folk music of Spakkaneapolis 55.
But the festival offered me yet another opportunity, namely to admire people’s faces.
Faces of elders who express the wisdom of the time and faces of children on which we read a better quality of life, definitely healthier than those who live in the city.
For those like me who are always around, this evening was the right occasion to appreciate the important meaning of simple, genuine and popular things!
My wish is that thanks to the success of this festival, born almost as a joke 38 years ago, the organizers constantly have the strength and the will to propose it again in the years to come, benefiting from the participation of an ever increasing number of citizens.
