Ortona: Una serata medievale

After hearing so much about the spectacular display of fireworks from inside a castle in Ortona, I spent the entire day in anticipation, desperate to get there and see with my own eyes what everyone had been telling me about. Ortona is fairly large town, two towns (or about 20 minutes driving) around the coast. Even though it is a port, rather than being at sea level, the entire town is perched on the top of a hill, looking down at the harbour. And for the record, it is amazing.

On Tuesday night, however, the town was even more incredible than usual. Not only because there was a red moon shining across the sea, but also because the whole of the old town had been redecorated as if we had gone back to medieval times.

We (and our many followers) parked at the bottom of the hill and walked the rest of the way up the stairs to the town above. At the top there is a footpath lined with giant palm trees and lights that winds around the port in both directions, along which are scattered many restaurants and bars. Since we had arrived three hours before the fireworks display was due to commence, we decided to walk in the direction of the castle and explore the surrounding area.

The view of the lungomare after climbing the stairs

The castle pre-fireworks

Walking to the castle definitely lead us in the right direction, because there were hundreds of people billowing out of the narrow streets. Because we had entered the festival backwards, we didn’t realise that there was actually a weeklong sagra of mammoth proportions in the medieval part of Ortona called Antichi Sapori it was identical to the idyllic Italian photos you see in tourism magazines of narrow, winding, cobbled streets with homes opening directly onto the roads, nonne (grandmothers) offering prosciutto sandwiches and boiled corn cobs to passers-by, and balconies perched up high with flowers streaming down. Unfortunately, neither I nor my camera were skilled enough to capture the beauty of the town, but we tried our best.

The heavily decorated and crowded streets
Sorry, it was really hard to capture in a photo

We wove our way through the streets that had been decorated with old fishing nets and pots hanging from the balconies above, big food stalls in various areas selling different dishes typical of Ortona and Abruzzo, and tables and chairs scattered everywhere possible for the hundreds of people waiting in 30m long queues to get their food and wine.

One of the food stands were women are making desserts typical of Ortona
To make these, the lady below cooks a sort of crêpe, splits it in two,
rolls each half into a cone, then this lady fills each warm soft cone
with a yellow custard-type crema.

A nonna cooking the circular crêpes to make the dessert 

When we finally got to the main piazza, we realised that this was a festival to celebrate the medieval history of the town. As part of the celebration, you were welcomed through a gateway lined with men playing booming drums into the streets where locals had dressed up in medieval clothing and were wandering the streets, playing old instruments and performing fortune-telling games.

Musicians line the entrance way to the medieval festivities

Me with two costumed girls sitting in the street through the entrance way

There was even a group of entertainers wandering around, some on stilts, others carrying a ginormous old trunk, and all heavily costumed including hats and bells. I eventually found these performers again in the midst of a group of people and went over to see what was going on. I soon discovered they were covering Esmerelda, one of the performers who was lying on the ground, in 100kg of snakes, one of which weighs 40kg in itself.

The main piazza, the entrance to Antichi Sapori is to the right by the tree

A snapshot of the end of the snake show in the piazza

When a whole lot of booming started, thinking perhaps we had mistaken the time that the fireworks were due to commence, so we hurried our way through the maze of streets in search of the castle. As it turns out, there was a pre-fireworks fireworks display over the harbour which was good enough to be the main thing. It lasted for about 15-20 minutes, after which we found our way to the nearest bar (along with 1000 other people) to get some granita and gelato.

As hoards of people started making their way towards the castle to get a good spot, we decided we should follow in their footsteps (even though it meant a half hour wait). I spent the whole time playing around with my camera and didn’t realise how many people had arrived in the piazza to see the fireworks until Gino told me to take a photo. Soon enough, a voice could be faintly heard through the microphone, and eventually the show began.

A view of everyone waiting for the fireworks to begin

A whole 40 minutes was filled with a synchronised display of pyrotechnics, coloured, themed, and well timed to suit the famous Italian music. The initial piece was a parade of red, white and green fireworks booming out of the castle to the Italian national anthem. This was followed by a series of famous Italian opera (now ballet) songs, of which the only one I can remember was Partirò by Andrea Bocelli, or Time to Say Goodbye as we know it.

A snapshot of the fireworks out of the castle

The reason I remember this song was because instead of having a normal fireworks display red smoke was billowing out of the castle, and every now and again some fireworks would explode and fire two lanterns (similar to a Chinese lantern) complete with flame into the sky, and we would watch them drift off into the distance until the next ones were fired. It was so incredible to watch. Every single song was stunning and every single song was different. Just when we thought it had finished, another song would start up again, and I’m so glad I videoed the final song because it was by far the best display (obviously). They even had smiley face fireworks (green eyes, red mouth). Hopefully when the internet works again I can put a couple of these videos on facebook.

Red smoke billowing out of the castle as lanterns were fired into the air

Another photo of the fireworks

Eventually, the show came to an end and we all wandered back to our cars feeling very moved. If anyone can put fireworks, it is definitely Italians. These were by far the best pyrotechnics I have ever seen, and I have seen the Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks at New Year’s three times. Then again, it’s not often you get to see fireworks shooting out of a medieval castle. Perhaps it was the fairytale castle that did it for me. Whatever it was, I highly recommend a trip to Abruzzo for anyone considering travelling to Italy in the near future.