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Intemelia Valley - A world of traditions
| The traditional harmony of the inhabitants |
| Village festivals renew the links with the past and tighten human bonds. Dance in a circle, in the reassuring cradle of traditional merrymaking hearts melt to discover that these hospitable but reserved mountain people truly and constantly live in a "human" dimension and can convey extreme warmth to all those who can appreciate it. |
Travelling through valleys of wine, oil and flowers
| Wine-grapes, olives and flowers reward the tenacious efforts of the Community's farmers, who celebrate consuming gastronomic specialities prepared just once a year in a harmonious feast of folklore and cuisine. Gastronomic tourism is joined by hiking (especially at high altitudes) and natural pastimes also include river descents in canoes, horse-riding, cross-country skiing and mountain-biking. |
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The wine valleys
| The locals have symbolically renamed their valleys thus to better exhibit the delicious product of these lands - the Rossese Doc wine that has won a prominent place among full-bodied red table wines - as if to confirm that the Rossese of Dolceacqua DOC, or more simply "Dolceacqua", is a truly superlative wine. |
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The Taggia Olive
| The production of extra virgin olive oil is the Community's second pride and joy. The cultivation of olives dates from pre-Roman times, but it was given a great boost by the Benedictine monks, around the 12th century, with the introduction of the Taggia olive, still queen of olive farming all over the Riviera dei Fiori. |
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Splendid flowers
| Floriculture was not introduced into the Nervia valley and the hills of Bordighera until recent decades. The greenhouses of Dolceacqua produce roses, with broom, mimosa and ornamental leafy fronds being grown in theair. Perinaldo and Seborga are also known for mimosa and broom. The hamlets around Ventimiglia practise the intensive cultivation of some species of carnation. |
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Craft and shepherding
| The small artistic craft shops of Dolceacqua and Apricale sell characteristic pottery, objects in olive wood, baskets, artistic glassware, prints and paintings. Only a few flocks of sheep and the odd herd of cows graze today on the mountains of Pigna, reminding the visitors of this once widespread activity, as recorded in the local Folk Museum. |
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At table and in the streets, the same memories live on
| From mother to daughter, the recipes of the past could not be lost in a land so jealously protective of its traditions. Who could forget the culture of oil and wine, engraved in the earth and heartily repeated in the harsh everyday toil. This peasant culture, bound to the cycles of sowing and harvesting, is celebrated when the Community assembles. It is a celebration, tradition is relived, families gather and tables are laid - in private homes and in the squares, where the village festivals revive the pleasure of dining together. The dishes eaten are natural and fragrant, seasoned with the skilful addition of aromas and the splendid Ligurian oil, produced in faithful respect of wholesomeness. |
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A calendar of celebrations
| The peasant and pagan origin of some festivities, especially those dedicated to the winter solstice, is revealed in frequent allusions to the rebirth of life, at the very time of the year when the days begin slowly to lengthen after the winter sleep. Throughout the year, however, festivities, religious and non, are not lacking. On Good Friday Airole celebrates with a torchlit night procession and the village houses illuminated. At Apricale September sees the celebrations for the "Sagra della pansarola" (a local sweetmeat), and in July and August a now traditional nocturnal theatre festival is held in the squares and in the village alleyways, turned into stages. |
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| At Bajardo, on Whit Sunday the lovely "Festa della barca" (featuring a boat mast) commemorates one of the Count's daughters, who was decapitated with her lover, a sailor in the Pisan fleet around 1200 by her furious parent who had discovered them. In the square they hoist a pine tree, stripped of leaves and bark. A group of young people in costume dance and sing a charming ballad around this. In the square, in the meanwhile, people nibble at "ciausùn", a vegetable pie baked in a wood oven, which is the local speciality. At Castelvittorio and at Pigna boiled wheat is eaten on Christmas night, as a good omen for the harvest of the coming year. In August, the Sagra del turtùn is a tribute to a local gastronomic speciality made with courgettes. |
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| Dolceacqua celebrates Christmas with large bonfires, while the January Sunday closest to San Sebastiano's feast-day sees the Procession of the laurel tree with coloured wafers; this is a peasant play that alludes to the variety and abundance of the harvest. After the solemn procession the branches are cut and distributed to those present (the wafers, by tradition, are only eaten in the event of illness). On 16th August the "Festa della Michetta" (a characteristic dessert) celebrates the end of the "jus primae noctis", in 1364. This was the censurable right of the lord to spend the first wedding night with all the young brides of the village. On 22nd July Isolabona celebrates "Santa Maria" with a country festival during which cubàite, wafers with honey and hazelnuts, are eaten. Olivetta San Michele celebrates its patron saint, Sant'Antonio, on 13th June. |
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| Perinaldo reserves the first Saturday in August for the "Sagra della meésana" (stuffed courgette flowers); in the same month, fancy dress celebrations are held at the Poggio alle Stelle. Pigna maintains the custom of the shepherds offering a lamb on Christmas night and the patron saint, San Michele, is celebrated on 29th September. The "Raviolata" di San Tiberio (the closest Sunday to 4th October) is made without oil, because it commemorates a siege by pirates, which was averted when the inhabitants of the village poured all the boiling hot oil available onto the heads of the enemies. |
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| In July Pigna has - since 1967 - held the Intemelia Poetry and Play festival, the most important exhibition of literary production in dialect in western Liguria. On the last Sunday in August Rocchetta Nervina celebrates with the "Sagra della capra e fagioli" (goat and beans), while Seborga, on 20th August, prepares small handmade ravioli and rabbit and there is a re-enactment of the investiture of the new ruling Prince with his court. The hamlets around Ventimiglia hold numerous religious festivals for the patron saints days, all to be enjoyed. |
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| The labels |
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The "DOC Rossese di Dolceacqua" is produced by Dolceacqua as well as the communes of Apricale, Bajardo, Isolabona, Perinaldo, Rocchetta Nervina and some of Ventimiglia's hamlets. The same wine-producing regions produce other wines under the label "Riviera di Ponente DOC", e.g. the white wines Vermentino and Pigato. |
| Dolceacqua juice from the rocks |
The old "Rocese" is, as its Latin name would suggest, a type of wine obtained from the rocks, i.e. from arid, stony terrain. The colour that best describes it is ruby red, tending towards garnet red with age; it smells of the land, but delicately so. The taste is warm, dry, soft and aromatic; it gives the palate an initial sweetish sensation, that turns immediately slightly bitter. It ages well and reaches an alcoholic content of 12.5° at least (13° for the Superior Quality). Rossese is not a mixed wine as it is made entirely from the grapes that bear its name. At table, it is a particularly good accompaniment to dried cod, game and rabbit. On average approximately 300000 bottles are produced each year, of which only half are sold. "Rossese Riviera Ligure di Ponente DOC" is the name given to a wine that is not so dark red and has a minimum alcoholic content of just 11°. The DOC "Riviera Ligure di Ponente" label also covers the production of Vermentino and Pigato, white wines with a nuance of straw-yellow and a fruity smell the former, bitter almonds the latter. The minimum alcoholic content is 11° in both cases. During the grape-harvest the numerous Intemelia Community village wine-cellars come alive and the carrugi fill with the smell of must - this is the ideal time for the oenologist-tourist to visit. |
| Cleaned, measured, crushed and pressed |
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This production cycle takes place in the winter months; the olives are gathered by beating, i.e. shaking the fruit-laden branches with a long pole. Once the crop is cleaned and selected (the size of the fruit is judged with a double decalitre or quarta), the olives are transported to the olive-press. Large stone millstones reduce the olives to a paste that is crushed in the presses and filtered to produce a golden-coloured oil. A degree of acidity below 1% permits the product to boast the title of "extra virgin olive oil". The olive culture also permits the production of olives in brine, olive paste, pesto and dried tomatoes, mushrooms and other vegetables in oil. |
| Labour and its fruits: farming on the "fasce" |
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The challenge of alimentary survival in these impervious lands called for the taming of grassy slopes that had to be adapted to the needs of the peasants, in a deep-rooted desire to dominate the territory. The "fasce", snatched by the crops from over-steep slopes, are terraced plots, well exposed to the sun, here where the climate is friendly and the soil generous. The prime beneficiaries of this are the olive and the vine. | | |
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