Amazing Week in Italy! Nineteen Saluda residents and their friends and family have just returned from a fabulous and memorable week at the Palazzo Tour d’Eau in our Sister City of Carunchio. What made it so special was that this trip was timed to correspond with Italy’s annual flower festival, the “Infiorata.”
Celebrated in various towns throughout Italy, the annual festival celebrates the feast of Saint John the Baptist with a special community celebration based on flowers. In the central piazza of the village, various groups and organizations created beautiful six by ten foot “paintings” constructed completely out of flowers, flower petals, ferns, leaves, coffee powder and other natural substances. The Saluda delegation created two different designs, one of the Saluda Sister City emblem and the other of a large dove of peace. Saluda resident Sam Craig was a leader of the team working on the Sister City logo. He sprawled across the pavement carefully nudging coffee grounds around the edge of the letters to highlight them.
The Saluda Peace Dove had a body of white cornmeal crowned by a rainbow of pink roses, yellow scotch broom flowers and white petals.
All of Carunchio turned out and there were 30 different designs made by various community groups. Even the mayor of Carunchio, Gianfranco d’Isabella and his wife, Paola, were on hands and knees preparing a flower painting. Massimo Criscio, owner of the Palazzo Tour d’Eau and host to the Saluda delegation, was kept busy gathering crates of flowers and giving technical advice.
When all the flower paintings were completed, the participants walked up to the historic Church at the top of the mountain for a service. Then all paraded down flower festooned streets to the central piazza accompanied by the clergy, a band playing Italian songs and beautiful children dressed in white gowns. Music, food, dancing and a joyous celebration went on through the evening. Saluda’s Elizabeth Taylor was kept busy shuttling buckets of flowers and ferns to the workers. Judy Ward, who helped create the Saluda peace dove commented, “It is the most magical place in the world. Everyone needs to come!” Judy’s sister Marianna Hass, and her son and daughter-in-law were among the participants.
The week- long trip to Carunchio was filled out with cooking classes, a seafood luncheon on an ancient trabucco fishing house in the edge of the Adriatic and visits to a cheese production facility, a bell foundry and other places of interest in the Abruzzo region. Elizabeth Taylor called the trip “a dream come true” and said, “This trip has been eye-opening. It is the beginning of a whole new set of adventures for me! Seeing life thought the eyes of the people of Carunchio has filled me with appreciation for their culture and traditions. Many times, we did not speak the same language but there was no barrier to heartfelt communication with those I met. It has been such an honor to share experiences with them.” The palazzo rocked at the final night pizza party which saw everyone stretching their own pizza and singing along with the musicians on favorite Italian songs. The evening closed with chef Dino Paganelli offering an acapella rendition of a lovely Italian song. When he finished, tears were flowing. Massimo Criscio summed up the week saying the time seemed to pass way too fast. He has hosted the Saluda Sister City delegations since 2014 in his three-hundred-year-old restored Italian Palazzo at the peak of the village of Carunchio.
The Saluda Delegation, June 2023
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