Marino Grape Festival – is a famous autumn festival dedicated to the grape harvest in Italy. This is a bright holiday full of ancient traditions, one of the oldest such harvest festivals in the country, combined with tasting of local wines and the best grape varieties.
Marino – is an ancient city, near Rome. Previously, there was a summer resort for the Roman nobility, and local wines gained considerable popularity already during the Roman Empire.
According to tradition, the festival has been held annually, since 1925, in early October. The initiator of this festival was the poet Leon Ciprelli. Every year, 3,000 liters of local white wine are prepared from 150 tons of grapes to celebrate the harvest.
The grape festival, which has become an exclusively secular holiday today, has a religious basis. On the first Sunday in October, the Catholic Church celebrates the day of the Madonna del Rosario or the Madonna of Victory. The miraculous image of the Madonna from the 12th century, kept in the church of the patron saint of the city of St. Barnabas, protects the harvest, protecting it, according to local residents, from hail and rain.
By the way, Pope Pius V declared her the Madonna of Victory, since it was to her that Christendom was « obliged» with the most important victory at Lepanto. In this naval battle, which took place on October 7, 1571 in the Gulf of Patras, where the main character was Marcantonio Colonna, the combined forces of the Holy League inflicted a crushing defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire. Celebrating this victory is also one of the important parts of the festival.
Although the main grape celebrations take place on Sunday, preparations for them begin in advance, and the first participants, dressed in historical costumes, appear on Marino streets on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, services are held in honor of the Madonna and the blessing of grapes, as well as theatrical performances and concerts.
During the festival days, the entire city is decorated with grape clusters: they are on the walls, windowsills and balconies of houses, in store windows, on the doors of cafes and restaurants, on fences and statues of city fountains. The Grape Festival begins with the opening of a local produce fair. On Sunday morning, after the solemn mass, the religious procession heads in a religious procession to give gratitude to the Madonna del Rosario – on a 17th century palanquin, a wax statue of the Mother of God in lush baroque robes is taken out of the church.
In the afternoon there is a historical parade – dramatization of the triumphal procession and solemn meeting of Marcantonio Colonna in the city, as well as a medieval tournament of knights – in memory of 260 soldiers from Marino who took part in the Battle of Lepanto. Tambourists beat drums, standard bearers juggle flags, several hundred people dressed in ancient costumes…. Every year the celebration becomes more and more magnificent and colorful.
Then everyone gathers in the central square of Marino, where the culmination of the entire holiday takes place – stream of wine pouring from the fountain of the Four Moors – symbol of the Colonna family, built back in the 17th century. According to the tradition that has existed in the Italian town for many years, on the day of the festival celebration it is not water that beats here, but real white wine Marino DOC from Malvasia.
Participants in the celebration line up around the fountain, exposing some to glasses and bottles, and some to their palms folded in a ladle. Then this «wonderful transformation» occurs in other fountains of the city, and the doors of all wine cellars open, where anyone can try wine.
In addition to participating in the tasting of wine and grapes, participants of the holiday will enjoy traditional local snacks – smoked meats, sausage, porchetta – baked pork with spices, for which Marino is famous, and fresh bread. For dessert, chambella – must be sweet round buns or cookies, the dough for which is mixed with wine.
At this time, cultural events continue on the street, a considerable part of which is occupied by music and folk dances. In the evening, the festive illumination is lit, and the cheerful bacchanalia continues until late at night. The day ends with a carnival procession in honor of Madonna del Rosario and colorful fireworks.
Thousands of liters of wine, hundreds of kilograms of the best local grape varieties, a literally and figuratively heady atmosphere in the city and a central fountain overflowing with wine throughout the day... Abundance – is the name of the action that takes place during the Marino Grape Festival.