QUAINT FLORENTINE WAYS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1116, 2 May 1911, Page 9

QUAINT FLORENTINE WAYS.

VISTAS OF THE VAL D'ABXO. [By Amcbi Ectheufo^d.] I.ent in Florence is marked by certain time-honoured customs and usages, which, though not of the importance they once were, are still sufficiently characteristic to be interesting. To begin with, Lent is tile season of fairs, and used formerly to bo inaugurated by a fair of dried fruits and cereals, which was held early on Ash Wednesday morning, in Piazza t>. Jlaria Novella. Hither flocked crowds of frugal housewives to lay in their stores of olives, ligs, nuts, raisins, etc., with which to vary the monotony of. maigre fare. This custom has been given up-.for a good many years, but each of the six Sundays of Lent is still marked by a nut fair, held at one ar other of the city gates, and, on March •25, the Feast of the Annunciation, a very animated fair—not limited to nuts—takes place in the Piazza della SS, Annunziata. The nut fairs, which were once on a much larger scale than they are now, were—and are'still, for the matter of that —greatly, resorted .tq by the working classes and the peasants from the neighbouring districts, and formed the grand opportunity of the year for meeting and match-maliing. The process of courtship commenced at the three fairs held at Porta S. Gallo, and culminated at the fifth fair, when the formal offers of marriage took place, and the serious business of the "dot" was attacked and'settled by tho parents of the young couples. A cozzone—or broker—was employed as gobetween on these occasions, and bargaining was carried on as openly and as vociferously as though horfes and cattlo were being disposed of. The San Gallo fair was the only one I was present 'at, and I was told that it was the largest and most popular. It presented a gay appearance, with all the little stalls piled high with nuts, and decorated with small (lags, and the portable ovens of the vendors of brigidini— small round aniseed biscuits, "baked while you wait."- The last fair takes.place on th" fifth Sunday in Lent.,

No ono can fail to notice the prevalence of nuts and almonds at this season. The" take the place of—l was going to write "chickens," which are scarce in Italychestnuts, and tho confectioners' shops arc full of sweets and cakes prepared with them. Other special' Lenten delicacies, from which butter is omitted, are the Roman buns, known, as maritozzi, and every variety of schiacciata.