Wedding at City Hall, Continued

The wedding I showed you two posts ago continued yesterday with a lunch held at a beautiful restaurant on the sea at Polignano a Mare, located about an hour's drive south of Molfetta.

Let me introduce you to the groom today. His name is Fulvio and he is from Molfetta. He works as as a certified public accountant. He has good taste in women and restaurants, because Katja is a doll and the lunch was absolutely delicious, all seafood from the hors d'oeuvres on.

This is a view of Polignano from the window of the restaurant. Sorry if it's a bit blotchy, but the window was covered with sea spray. Polignano is famous for being the birthplace of Domenico Modugno, one of the most famous Italian singer/songwriters of all time.

Here's one of his most famous tunes...

Vittoria Facchini, Artist

Vittoria Facchini is a Molfettan artist and is pictured here in her studio. In addition to painting, she is also an illustrator of children's books and has published a few books of her own. One of these is an illustrated version of the traditional Molfettan Christmas song, the Santa Allegrezza, which was released in December. To see a couple of photos about that event, click here and here. In the photo above she was discussing her "Pin-Up" series, which is inspired by 1950's pin-up calendars.

Her studio is a colorful and crazy collection of a thousand different odds and ends, plus two cats who crawl all over everything. I couldn't get a photo of them because they just wouldn't sit still. Vittoria wasn't all that easy to stop either!

Wedding at City Hall

A wedding at the City Hall is much simpler than a church wedding. A city functionary reads the bride and groom the obligations that marriage implies (for example: cohabitation, support of the family by both the husband and the wife, supporting any children and guiding them into the career of their choice). Then both the couple and their witnesses sign a lot of papers and presto, bingo, they're married!

What a beautiful bride! Her name is Katia and she is not from Molfetta, nor even Italian actually. She is Bulgarian, studied to be a beautician in Germany and works in the tourism industry here in Apulia. She speaks Bulgarian, Russian, German, Italian and English...pretty impressive!

A Blues Man is Born

A good time was had by all at a friend's 50th birthday party last night. The crowd was moving and grooving to the music of the De Ville Blues Band of Trani. To read about them and listen to their music on their MySpace page, click here.

My younger son jumped in on the fun with the spoons. Talk about your washboard abs!

Molfettan Faces - Mauro

Mauro is the caretaker at the Circolo Nautico Ippocampo, one of the docks for pleasure crafts in Molfetta. Here he is cleaning mussels fished right off the dock.

Molfettan Faces - Paolo Lunanova

Paolo Lunanova is a Molfettan artist. For a look at some of his paintings, click here. He looks very serious in this photo, but he's actually a playful and fun guy...so I included the second photo as proof!

A Southern Italian Wedding, 4

Food and eating are an important part of everyday life and any social gathering in southern Italy. At a wedding reception, the meal becomes the central event that all other activities revolve around.

The bride and groom were very concerned about accomodating all of their guests' particular food needs, so several different variations on the menu were provided. There was a children's menu for the kids, cooked mollusks for those who don't eat raw mollusks (a delicacy here), special dishes for the diabetics, and, since I am intolerant to gluten and lactose, a special meal for me. The headwaiter introduced himself immediately and told (ordered!) me not to eat anything that had not been served to me directly from his hands!

When I saw Mario, the man in today's photo, making mozzarella from scratch I had to go meet him and take his photo. He assured me that I could eat his cheese because he cooked it at 90° celcius which, apparently, destroys the lactose. When it was ready, he personally brought me the first dish of tiny knots of exquisitely delicious - and fresh - mozzarella. Unfortunately, my personal waiter saw me eating it and threw a fit...he went directly over to Mario and scolded him! It was like having a food bodyguard...ready to fight for my digestive system!

In the end, we got the misunderstanding worked out. But, my waiter remained ever-vigilant...all the way up to the cutting of the cake, when he brought me my own special slice of no-gluten, no-lactose cake!

Molfettan Faces - Gaetano Grillo

The inauguration of the most recent exhibit of paintings and sculpture by Gaetano Grillo, a Molfettan artist, was held Thursday evening at Lorusso Arredamenti in Andria. The exhibit is entitled Abbracci, which means "Embraces" in Italian.

Grillo works a great deal with techniques of collage and what is called "contaminazione" in Italian. Rather than having the negative connotations that the word "contamination" has in English, this artistic concept refers to a fusion of art forms, cultures, languages, etc.

Children's Theater Festival, 2

Last night's headlining event in the "Ti Fiabo e Ti Racconto" Children's Theater Festival was "The Pillow Fight," led by the Compagnia il Melarancio (from Cuneo), but performed by everyone present. 654 soft beanbag type pillows were dropped down onto the audience from above and the fight was on! Hundreds of men, women and children went wild throwing pillows around. It was a lot of fun!

Claudio, one of the festival helpers, kindly agreed to model the official festival t-shirt.

Molfettan Faces: Lullaby Design

Grazia is a local craftsperson who designs and produces one-of-a-kind costume jewelry pieces, including necklaces, bracelets and earrings. She uses semi-precious stones, modelled clay, metal and a variety of other materials.

Her shop, Lullaby Design (click on the name to go to her site), is located in Molfetta's old town on Via Morte (which translates as Death Way, but don't let that put you off!) just past the Chiesa della Morte. She can make you a piece of jewelry to order, to coordinate with a particular outfit or to suit your individual style, and she also repairs existing items.

Her prices are reasonable and she's a lot of fun. Definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in town!

Molfettan Faces - Lucio

Lucio doesn't really count as a "Molfettan" face since he was born and raised in Giovinazzo, the next town down the Adriatic coast. But, he is married to a Molfettan woman so that kind of makes him Molfettan by proxy.

He is an ex-bank director who is currently working on a project to open a new bank. His hobbies include gardening, collecting watches and taking afternoon naps. In this photo he is eating, with great relish, a crab cooked in tomato sauce.

Molfettan Faces - Lina

Lina is a member of my husband's family. She is not a blood relative, but she has been an integral part of the family for the past 45 years. She was the cleaning lady, but at her age and after a double bypass, she's not up to more than washing the dishes. And she only does that because otherwise she might feel like she wasn't being "useful."

For more fascinating details about Lina's life (a Greek tragedy, if there ever was one), click on this link and then scroll down to Thursday, May 18, 2006.

Molfettan Faces - Vito

Vito is a dentist who participated with his daughter in the Bimbinbici family bike ride last Sunday. He is framed by a view of the skyline of Molfetta's historic center. (You can see the rowboat featured in yesterday's photo in the background.)

Molfettan Faces - Anna

Anna participated in yesterday's Bimbinbici bike ride. I like this photo of her because she has all of the items related to the event on her...the Bimbinbici cap, the rose-shaped necklace thingy, the real roses that were distributed to all of the mothers present and the free ice-cream handed out at the end of the ride.

Anna is a stay-at-home mom who used to be a graphic designer until the birth of her first child, when she decided to give up her job and dedicate herself to the care of her family.

Molfettan Faces - Michele

Michele's family is one of the wealthiest in Molfetta, they own a large company that produces industrial drills. He works for the family firm and travels a great deal around the world. He was a wild and crazy kind of guy in his youth and was the lead singer of a band called I Figli delle Stelle, which specialised in raunchy humor and parodies of famous songs 1970s style (think large wigs and platform shoes). They reunited last summer for a hilarious concert here in town.

In this photo, Michele is standing on his family's 42-foot yacht, the very largest pleasure craft in Molfetta's harbor...by a long shot!

The Oasis of Freshness

Looking to buy some olives, nuts, seeds, taralli (for a photo and recipe click here) or lemons?
L'Oasi della Freschezza is the place to go! You can see many mobile vendors like this one around Molfetta. There are many who sell fruit and vegetables, some on the back of small trucks like this one, and others who set up a sort of semi-permanent business on the sidewalk or even in the center divider of the street. The legality of many of these vendors is an ongoing topic of discussion around town...as in, do these guys actually have a business license? And do we want to have vendors blocking our sidewalks and spilling out into the street at times?
I'd be willing to bet that this guy, Sergio Mutti, has his papers in order. He was quite happy to have his picture taken and give me his name and the name of his enterprise!

Molfettan Faces

For some time now, I've been wanting to do a series of photos on the people of Molfetta. I had this idea that I would call it "Molfettan Faces" and it would show Molfettans of all different types. I have been inspired in part by the 100 Strangers Project. The problem is that I rarely am able to work up the courage to ask strangers if I can photograph them. The people I have asked have always said yes, but I still get all shy about it.

So, I decided to start the series nonetheless, but beginning with people I know. This photo is of Carlo. I like it as the first photo in the Molfettan Faces series because it captures the Molfettan skyline in the background and because Carlo is making a typical Italian gesture which means "what do you want from me?" or "hey, what do you mean by that?".