Halloween in Italy

Ever wonder what Halloween is like in Italy? We chat all about it in this, the final episode of Season One. 
Among other things, you’ll hear about…:
- Why we give out spicy tofu
- How to dress up as olives and grapes
- How to say “Trick or Treat” in Italian

Plus: all new music! We arranged and recorded special music just for this episode: swing jazz versions of Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King. Happy Halloween! 

Want to know more about us and our travel services? Find us at:

www.LittleRoadsEurope.com

www.facebook.com/LittleRoadsEurope

We craft small-town driving itineraries for travelers to Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

And our "alter-egos" as musicians:

www.OrsiniVirtuosi.it

Transcript

HALLOWEEN podcast notes

Note: This is not a complete transcript, but rather the show notes we write in advance to prepare for the episode.


INTRO: 
Welcome to Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond

Today we’re talking about Halloween in Italy
Among other things, you’ll hear about…:
- Why we give out spicy tofu
- How to dress up as olives and grapes
- How to say “Trick or Treat” in Italian
[music up then down to 20%]

This is Matt Walker          …and I’m Zeneba Bowers - 
We’re recording while sitting on the terrace of our tiny home in Italy - so you’ll get a sense of the sounds of life in our little town. We want this to be more like a casual conversion with us, rather than a scripted studio session - so you may hear church bells, cats meowing, scooters and trains and neighbors talking, and whatever else happens.

“ … we’ll be talking about Halloween here in Italy - here on Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond.”
[Music up then fade out]

For those of you who don’t know us: We have been living and working here in Italy for the past 6 years, as professional musicians and also travel writers and consultants, 
If you want to learn more about us and our lives, you can find us on our website LittleRoadsEurope..com, on our socials, and now here on our new podcast, which we’re going to do unedited, as if you’re sitting here chatting with us - 
And that’s new intro music - Matt arranged it, and we recorded it right here in our house! Since we’re musicians working here in Italy, we thought that would be a fun and sensible addition to our show. 

So let’s get to talking about Halloween!

Halloween (“All Hallow’s Eve”), the day before giorno di Ognissanti, All Saints’ day. The day before isn’t particularly celebrated, certainly not the way it’s done in the US. 

Talk about Nashville Halloween, first house I ever owned

The first time in Italy - 2014 - Dozza, town festival 
Kids dressed up, best costume competitions (prettiest, scariest, etc), 
Parent told us they had only done it a couple of years so far, in front of castle

No door to door with bags to get candy

Candy available here is different - Halloween displays are not a thing except maybe giant super-stores

Yesterday in Orvieto, beet sprouts, 5 kinds of parm, bean sprouts, no candy 

They almost never decorate with pumpkins - people here consider that actual food, and wouldn’t just leave food out on the porch , like leaving a basket of sausages
Hello you left your groceries outside

— “ADVERTISEMENT” BREAK —
That reminds me that we need to stop for a word from our sponsor - - - - 
- - - just kidding, we don’t have any sponsors - we want to keep this an ad-free show.
So today’s show is brought to you by: A Good Idea. 

And today’s Good Idea is: Recycle your jack-o-lanterns after halloween - compost them, or spread them out for wildlife to eat (as long as you haven’t painted or treated them)
Whole pumpkins or other gourds: Eat them! Roast seeds, cook pumpkin flesh, etc
That’s it!

… So anyway, where were we?

(That was more new music that we did there…)

Our first Halloween once we moved to Soriano, between lockdowns 2020 - we were limited to Lazio
- we tried to travel a lot in safe way; 
- decided Party Store was a good place to go with no people: Got balloons for costumes.
[Obviously we gave away our costume box, I recycled my high school yearbook!]
- went to friend’s house to bring treats to the kids (we know it was backwards)
Drive there in car with balloons on, top down, which we knew was non consentito
Had to pick up a few balloons that we lost on the way

Most recent Halloween: Research trip in ER, small town San Giovanni in P. 
More organized: Parents taking their costumed kids around to local businesses, personnel dress up, hand out treats. (Still not ringing doorbells though)

Candy from Asian markets: Individually wrapped, unusual flavors, no English or Italian writing on wrappers: Egg yolk cookies, goji berry fruit rollups and wafers, coconut gummy
We also get a few savory treats, also individually wrapped, but spicy tofu flavor or shrimp flavored chips or wasabi peas

Later: “dolcetto o scherzetto” - kids come to our house
Last year housesitters gave it out

OUTRO: 
I think that’s a good place to wrap it up here - we hope you enjoyed joining us for our chat on Halloween!

We’ll be talking about a wide variety of topics here on this podcast, from travel tips to slice-of-life stories - we’ll post a new episode every Tuesday. 

So catch us next time - we’ll see you down the Little Roads… CIAO!

#ItalyTravelPodcast #SlowTravel #LittleRoadsUnfiltered #LifeInItaly #ItalyTips #ExpatInItaly #TravelPlanning #AuthenticItaly #BalconyChats