聖母升天節Assumption Day
在去聖羅科之夜前，這日子掐得剛剛好，西洋的八月十五不是中秋，卻是天主教的聖母升天節。這天在蘿蔔頭家裡也是一整個闔家團聚。
Before going to La Notte di San Rocco, the date is just right — 15th Aug in western calendar isn’t the mid-autumn festival, but the Assumption Day for Catholics. It was also a family gathering day at Roberto’s.
中午吃飯的時候除了蘿蔔頭一家五口外，還有他舅舅一家三口，加上我，一共有九張嘴要吃飯。第一道上桌的是涼拌花枝，酸酸的超好吃，再來是蘿蔔頭他弟[1]煮的蕃茄醬的花枝，口味很重，醬要配著麵包吃。吃完兩盤我也飽了，想說應該可以下餐桌了吧？結果他娘又去廚房下義大利麵。對南義大利人來說，義大利麵是帶點硬度才算合格[2]。我看到義大利麵的時候真的呆掉了，我小聲地跟蘿蔔頭說：不好意思欸，我以為剛剛兩道菜就是全部，所以我吃得很多，已經飽了……蘿蔔頭說我吃多少算多少，沒關係的。我勉強吃完我盤子裡三分之二的麵，後來又連續上了兩道魚的料理……我又吃。吃完又上提拉米蘇……之後是冰淇淋，再來是咖啡……一頓午餐折騰下來也已經是四點半了。
There were nine people for lunch at Roberto’s — five from his immediate family, three from his uncle’s, and myself, a self-invited guest. The first dish was a cold dish of octopus salad, a bit sour and very tasty. The second dish was octopus with tomato sauce, cooked by Roberto’s brother[1] — heavily flavoured and you can dip the bread in the sauce. After the two dishes I was full, and thought that we were done. Then Roberto’s mum went off to cook the spaghetti — for Italians, the spaghetti should be a bit chewy, not completely soft[2]. I froze when I saw spaghetti, and whispered to Roberto ‘sorry, I thought there were only those two dishes, so I’ve already eaten a lot… quite full now.’ Roberto told me not to stress and to eat as much or as little as I could. I managed to clear 2/3 of spaghetti from my plate, then there were two more fish dishes… and I ate them. After that there was Tiramisu… then ice cream, followed by coffee… when the lunch was finally over it was half past 4 in the afternoon.
稍微耗呆了一個小時之後（當蘿蔔頭叔叔一家告辭之後），蘿蔔頭說，那好，我們走吧。於是我們去了聖馬利亞琉卡角（Santa Maria di Leuca），是義大利最最南端的一角，來這裡是為了看這個：
After spacing out for an hour (when Roberto’s uncle and family had left), Roberto said, alright, let’s go. So we went to Santa Maria di Leuca, which is the south-most tip of Italy, and we were there to see this:
這個是比照葬禮遊行儀式，也就是葬禮時抬棺材到墓地的過程。船隻比照這樣的模式出航，由大船帶領著小船出航，是為了紀念聖母瑪利亞的身體和靈魂升天的日子。稍微觀看了一下慶典之後，就在聖馬利亞琉卡角亂走了一下，到處都是攤販，其實很像台灣的夜市。還有很多小攤販是在賣銼冰，銼冰非常的原汁原味，就是一大塊冰放在那裡然後拿銼刀銼銼銼，然後加上不同口味的醬汁，就降。蘿蔔頭建議我想換工作的話可以買一大塊冰。
The ships were in a ceremonial parade of a funeral, similar to the walk holding the coffin to the grave. The ships departed in order, where the biggest ship led the way and small ones followed, to recognise that the Blessed Virgin Mary ascended into Heaven with her body and soul. After watching the ceremony for a while, we walked around Santa Maria di Leuca, which was filled with street vendors, and quite similar to the night market in Taiwan. There were a lot of vendors selling shaved ice, which was extremely basic — a huge chunk of ice, with a file grating ice out of it, then adding on different flavours of sauce, and that was it. Roberto recommended me to get a block of ice if I ever want to have a different career.
[1] 蘿蔔頭他弟第一次見面原本是在念獸醫系的，結果最後做了廚師。The first time I met Roberto’s brother, he was studying veterinary. He ended up being a chef — here’s his webstie https://chefalessandronegro.co.uk/
[2] 義大利一九八三年的經典老歌 L’italiano 的歌詞就寫著Buongiorno Italia gli spaghetti al dente — 意思就是用有嚼勁的義大利麵和義大利說早安。The classic Italian song from 1983, L’italiano, has lyrics stating ‘Buongiorno Italia gli spaghetti al dente’, meaning ‘Good morning Italy with the chewy spaghetti.’
無三小路用通識之南義美食 Useless Common Sense of Southern Italian Delicacy
八月的義大利之旅還拜訪了和蘿蔔頭一家一樣住在薩倫托區的馬卻羅家，還有在西西里的史黛拉家。整個八月就在被中、下午在海邊被太陽無止盡地曬，晚上出門跳舞狂歡，凌晨再回家補眠的循環中度過。
In my Italian trip in August, I also visited Marcello whose family lives in Salento like Roberto’s, and Stella whose family is in Sicily. The whole August was spent in a loop — excessive sun exposure by the sea in the late morning / early afternoon, dance the night away, then home to recharge at dawn.
義大利人的習慣是醬料也會吃完，所以麵包是必要的，這樣才能把沾著醬料吃掉。馬卻羅跟我說他祖母有時候一大早起床，光是煮醬料就煮了一上午，這是他們當地飲食對醬料的講究。
Italians finish up the sauce in the dishes too, so having bread in a meal is essential, as one can then use the bread to dip into the sauce. Marcello told me that at times his grandma would get up at a crack of dawn so she can spend the whole morning cooking the sauce — this is how important the sauce is to the local dishes.
在西西里去吃了當地研發的格蘭尼塔（granita），貌似7–11賣的思樂冰，不過不一樣的地方就在於，你可以選擇沾著布里歐麵包（Brioche）吃……（貌似在南義，什麼都可以沾著麵包吃？）
In Sicily I had the locally invented granita, a bit like Slurpee from 7–11 convenient store, with the difference being that you can eat the granita with the brioche (i.e. dip the brioche into the granita)… maybe it is possible to dip the bread into any food in south Italy?
