Marcia Podistica a Partigliano

Last Sunday was the annual marcia podistica (organized walk) in Partigliano. It was held at the pizzeria at Guzzanello which is up the hill from the village. Unfortunately, after a string of stunningly beautiful days, we had rain and thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday. The previsione (forecast) was for improving conditions on Sunday but we woke to more rain. In spite of that, at 6:15 am we headed up the hill in our car eager to finally participate in the production of one of these events.

It actually requires a lot of pre-event planning as well. The weekend before we had seen the four routes (2, 5, 10 and 18 kilometers) being marked with freshly painted white arrows. Dom went up on Saturday afternoon to help set up while I cleaned the house in preparation for our Monday departure. At some point the premi (prize packets each participant receives) were also put together. On Friday several of the ladies had made almost 30 loaves of bread in a wood fired oven.

On Sunday, I was immediately put to work in the "kitchen." Actually, it was a storage room underneath the restaurant where a bevy of ladies made dozens and dozens of panini (sandwiches) and wrapped them in paper towels. We were assisted by several men who sliced the meats and cut the bread.


New regulations required that we all wear aprons, gloves and hair coverings. Really attractive as you can see from the above picture.


Outside the "kitchen" the participants returned from their walk or run to find tables full of panini, different types of torte (cakes and pies), lemon and orange wedges, sugar cubes, water, wine and sweet tea. At the walks we used to be able to just go up to the tables and take what we want but now someone has to serve you. The servers also had to wear aprons, gloves and head coverings.



Here I am taking a break from panini making.

Meanwhile, Dom had an orange vest and a flag and was busy parking cars. There is a soccer field next to the restaurant and they used that for the parking area. He found that his flag, flamboyant hand gestures and a few stern glares made up for any lack of language skills.

After I helped make mountains of sandwiches we went up to the restaurant bar and had a coffee. You can see Dom in his orange vest.

When we first got to Guzzanello at 6:30 it looked like it might brighten up and quit raining. No way! It really poured for a while after the marcia began at 7:15 or so. Many of the participants and some of the workers came back soaked to the skin.

Many of the participants huddled under the awning over the patio just outside the restaurant's main entry.

Even those handing out the premi huddled under their tent. Attendance at the event was down by about one third.

For the first time we were actually present at the end of the event. Here are the prizes that were distributed at the very end. The participating clubs were ranked according to the number of members participating. The club with the most participants got to pick a prize first and so it went down through the list of clubs until everyone had taken a prize.

There was also a raffle. Here they are drawing the winning raffle numbers.

Of course after everything was over and all the participants had left, the sun came out. It was actually quite windy while the tents were being taken down. None of that could happen until the trail sweeps had come in and reported there were no stragglers on the course. That was about 10:30 or 11. Then everything was broken down and put away and the ladies went to work preparing lunch.

Usually the post marcia lunch is held outside but the cool temperatures, brisk wind and possible rain led to the meal being held indoors. About 70 people sat down to eat at 1 pm. We had spaghetti with meat sauce, roast turkey, green salad, tomatoes, french fries, leftover cold cuts from the panini, lots of water and wine and all the leftover torte. It was delicious!

Unfortunately, the room we ate in was incredibly noisy. It would have been difficult understanding what was being said in English let alone understanding all the Italian around us. By 3 pm Dom and I were just about done in. We felt badly that we were the first to leave but we were really tired and needed to finish our preparations to leave the next morning.

All our Partigliano amici were sad to see us go. We REALLY look forward to returning in September and resuming our life in Italy.