Ferragosto 2020

Since the Roman times when it all started, every year August 15th is Ferragosto or the epitome of the Italian summer vacations.

By extension all August is vacation time in Italy, so whatever you might need, take it for granted: you won't get it between July 15th and September 15th. 

This August 2020 with covid19 is no exception to the rule even though 30% of the people living in Turin will stay in town and briefly venture up in the mountains for a short fresh week-end (where all rentals are sold out!), down to the sea, most likely in nearby Liguria (defying overcrowded trains), or at the lakes - and indeed in Piedmont, we do have many nice small lakes.

Over the past 7 weeks, Italy has become a small happy island surrounded by many countries where covid19 clusters are multiplying rapidly. New measures are put into place every 2 weeks but over all, we must admit it: Italians are very much wearing their face masks in all indoor public spaces, public transit and are generally keeping their social distance in a huge effort to avoid another avoidable lockdown in the Fall.

Summer temperatures have gone up but are now down within reasonable seasonal ranges, most Italians are staying in the boot and traveling by car. Italian airports are rather empty and the national tourist economy is suffering big losses compared to the past years.

Many small business won't reopen in September and many major structural changes seem to be slow to come, especially in the educational, fiscal and technology fields.

And yet we made it up here and now we are looking ourselves around in disbelief we were indeed able to reverse our catastrophic coronavirus 19 fate.

For this virtual 7th editon of Turin Epicurean Capital (week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4) we have been sharing some of the things you would have normally only experienced coming over in person.

We filmed a sample of our guided tour of the Porta Palazzo market aka the largest outdoor market in Europe:

We IG chatted with TurinEpi16 and Turinepi19 guest and long time friend: Jyothi Aimino now owner and founder of L'Erm winery in the Canavese wine district here in Piedmont, where Erbaluce di Caluso DOCG - the fairy tale wine - and prealpine Carema DOC are produced. 

Discalimer: this chat is fully in Italian, if you are interested in an English version, let us know.

To celebrate August we also filmed an Italian video class with the vocabulary of the Italian summer vacations and the words most used in the boot with some Italian culture bits. What new word did you learn?

As customary we'll come back in September with more posts and virtual experiences. Wherever you are, may you be safe and in good spirits 🙏 most of 2020 is already gone, we have to hang in there only for a few months left 😅

Buon Ferragosto!