L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2025 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano F o r R o m a n s , O c t o b e r h a s always been more than the month w h e n f a l l t r u l y hits. For centuries, this was the month of the Ottobra- te, the great outdoor outings that marked the end of the grape harvest and turned the hills outside the city into o p e n - a i r s t a g e s f o r w i n e , music, and dance. From the l a t e s e v e n t e e n t h c e n t u r y t h r o u g h t h e e a r l y 1 9 0 0 s , whole neighborhoods would leave their narrow streets for the countryside, gathering with friends, musicians, and food in tow. The custom's name came from the month itself, but it carried a mood that belonged only to Rome, a m i x o f c e l e b r a t i o n a n d irony, equal parts devotion to the harvest and delight in the last warm days before winter. The favorite destination w a s a l w a y s T e s t a c c i o , where the sides of Monte Testaccio were hollowed out by ancient storage caves that the locals called the cata- combe del vino; here, new wine could be kept at a per- fect temperature, so the area q u i c k l y b e c a m e R o m e ' s open-air cellar. There were, however, other destinations: Monteverde, Porta San Pan- crazio, Porta San Giovanni, o r P o n t e M i l v i o , w e r e a l l popular, and many reached as far as the Castelli Romani, where Frascati and Marino h a d l o n g b e e n k n o w n f o r their vineyards. Ottobrate had no social class: nobles and artisans, priests and soldiers, women with parasols and men with barrels of wine could all find themselves side by side once t h e c a r t s a r r i v e d a n d t h e f o o d w a s u n p a c k e d . T h i s made them very special for the community. Folklorist Giggi Zanaz- zo, who chronicled Roman customs at the start of the twentieth century, described the return from Testaccio as a l o n g , n o i s y p r o c e s s i o n , where people would sing and play tambourines and gnac- chere, traditional wooden clappers typical of popular music; he wrote of carts so f u l l t h a t t h e p a s s e n g e r s looked like grapes spilling f r o m a b a s k e t , o f g r o u p s s t o p p i n g t o d a n c e o n t h e roadside, of laughter and occasional scuffles after too much wine. Ottobrate were, Z a n a z z o h e l p s u s u n d e r - s t a n d , b o t h r i t u a l a n d release, a way for the city to turn its daily energy outward after months of work. M u s i c w a s t h e t r u e g l u e o f t h e d a y . E v e r y O t t o b r a t a h a d i t s o w n soundtrack of stornelli , short improvised verses that traded teasing, flirtation, or g e n t l e m o c k e r y b e t w e e n s i n g e r s . T h e s t o r n e l l o belongs to a long Italian tra- dition of improvised rhyme, but in Rome it took a truly d i s t i n c t i v e t o n e : e a r t h y , witty, and often affectionate, it became synonymous with t h e c i t y a n d i t s m u s i c a l s c e n e . A f e w w o r d s w e r e e n o u g h t o s t a r t a d u e l o f couplets, answered instantly by whoever had the sharpest tongue or the best ear for rhythm, much like it hap- p e n s i n s o m e o c c a s i o n s today with rap music. With the singing came the s a l t a r e l l o r o m a n o , a dance of quick, light steps, characterized by how dan- cers changed continuously partners, in circles that grew with the music. The dance had no fixed choreography, a n d e v e r y o n e l e a r n e d b y w a t c h i n g a n d j o i n i n g i n , which made it the perfect expression of the sponta- neous spirit of the Ottobrata. Neither the music nor the essence of Ottobrate, howe- ver, wouldn't have been the s a m e w i t h o u t w i n e : i n Testaccio, the osterie opened their cellars to the new sea- son's produce, pouring gen- erous glasses that mixed red dust from the hill with the scent of grapes and roasted m e a t s . T h e r e l a t i o n s h i p between Ottobrate and wine was so close that some histo- rians treat them as the city's first secular harvest fes- tival. It was, of course, only a matter of time before the culture that grew around the Ottobrate Romane started t o s h a p e R o m e ' s a r t i s t i c e x p r e s s i o n s , i n c l u d i n g m u s i c . T h e p o p u l a r s o n g Barcarolo Romano, writ- t e n i n 1 9 2 6 b y S a l v a t o r e Balzani and Romolo Pizzi- caria, transformed the fes- tive tone of those outings into a melody that became a standard of Roman song. Just two years later, Ottori- no Respighi took the same seasonal atmosphere and lifted it to the concert hall in F e s t e R o m a n e , w h o s e t h i r d m o v e m e n t , L'Ottobrata, turns the rural celebration into a symphonic scene, complete with hunt- ing horns and distant bells. The Ottobrata was no longer j u s t a S u n d a y t r i p t o t h e vineyards, it had become a metaphor for Roman vitality and joie de vivre, also on stage. As the twentieth century advanced, the excursions slowly faded: urban growth, n e w w o r k r h y t h m s , a n d changing ideas about leisure reshaped the city's calendar. Cars replaced carriages, and the countryside that once began at the gate of San Gio- v a n n i o r S a n P a n c r a z i o became part of the metropo- lis. Yet, the word Ottobrata never disappeared: each fall, Rome's cultural calendar still includes festivals under that name with concerts, f o o d f a i r s , n e i g h b o r h o o d events, and the association with outdoor music remains. T h e S a g r a d e l l ' U v a d i M a r i n o , c r e a t e d i n t h e 1920s to celebrate the harve- s t , c o n t i n u e s t o p o u r i t s fountains of wine on the first Sunday of October, and folk groups keep the stornelli and the saltarello alive in the city's courtyards and on small stages in Trastevere. When the weather cooper- ates and the air is still mild, it is easy to imagine how those older afternoons must have looked: the glow of late light on the Tiber, guitars tuning by the roadside, and voices trading rhymes that everyone knew. Rome's October outings: the music of the Ottobrate LUCA SIGNORINI LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Roman Ottobrate were all about conviviality, "vino novello" and music (Image created with DALL-E 2)

• Cover