Santa Maria MaddalenaJul 22, 2011
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The Main Piazza in Atrani
Serena and I
The Statue of Maria Maddalena
| Another interesting thing about the “Saint” days is that if you are named after one of the saints, that day is a huge celebration for you as well, just like a birthday. Yesterday was Serena’s cousin Maddalena’s Saint Day and everyone treated her just like it was her birthday, with gifts and a party and everything. Unfortunately, not everyone is named after a Saint… there is no Saint Serena, for example! Since Maria Maddalena is the saint of Atrani, there was a huge festival all day in the town. We didn’t end up getting to the town until pretty late in the afternoon – it was quite an adventure getting back from Happy Village. The day we planned to take the train from Marina Di Camerota to Salerno and then to Amalfi just happened to be the one day all the trains in Southern Italy were on strike. So, after waiting for three hours for a train, we finally got to Salerno in the late afternoon, and to Amalfi around 7pm. We met up with Serena’s cousins Alessandro and Cristina at about 9pm for the festivities.  The entire piazza of Atrani was lined with bright lights, people, and street vendors selling all sorts of food and small gifts. There was a big procession of church and community members carrying a huge statue of Maria Maddalena and saying prayers and singing hymns. We wandered around all night, indulging in some Nutella-filled crepes and pizza, waiting for the fireworks. At midnight, a huge fireworks show started. I was expecting just a small few fireworks, but this was just as big (if not bigger) than our Fourth of July. They managed to set the fireworks off so low over the water, and some of the fireworks even exploded from underwater, which was really cool.  The night was pretty calm, but I definitely got a feel for the festival and why the locals love it so much.  We have two more days in Amalfi – one beach day and then CAPRI! |
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