Turin’s First Eat-in and Fishing Traditions Celebrated in Abruzzo

Tomorrow on Saturday July 4, hundreds of people will gather for the first Eat-In to be held in Turin – bringing together the community for a massive picnic in the city’s Valentino Park to celebrate good, clean and fair food. All are welcome, and invited to prepare some food at home, using ingredients from local markets, and bring it to the park to share.

The Turin Eat-In has been organized by students from the University of Gastronomic Sciences and is supported by Slow Food Piedmont, Slow Food Turin (both of whom will invite local food producers to bring their products), the Joint Association (a youth association based in Milan and Turin) and the City of Turin who is providing the venue – the historic Borgo Medievale and the area surrounding the castle, along the Po River in the city center.

Eat-Ins have been organized by young people around the world since the first Eat-In took place in San Francisco on September 1, 2008.

www.eat-ins.org

Further south, Slow Food Abruzzo are presenting their annual event Cala Lenta (Slow Coves) this weekend – three days of festivities and activities dedicated to the marine culture along the central Italian region’s Adriatic coast and the unique trabocchi fishing structures which can be still be found here.

The ‘trabocchi’ are platforms constructed on stilts over the sea, which have been part of the fishing tradition along this coastline since the 15th century. Using these structures, fishermen can access deeper waters where the fish more plentiful, without using a boat when the weather is too rough for sailing. The platforms have a basic system of poles and pulleys that the fishermen use to lower and raise the nets.

In addition to the trabocchi, Cala Lenta focuses on small-scale fisheries, and showcases examples of environmentally sustainability fishing, and the variety of fish species which are fished here, with particular attention on pesce azzuro – smaller species from the Mediterranean.

From Friday July 3 to Sunday July 5, the historic center of San Vito Chietino which will host a Market of Taste with excellent products from the trabocchi coast the hinterland, as well as Taste Workshops, Street Food vendors, Theater of Taste, meetings and conferences. In addition, osteria and restaurants selected by Slow Food, will present traditional recipes from the coastal Abruzzese traditions, dinners will be held on the trabocchi themselves and there are numerous excursions along the coast and trips on small fishing boats.

www.calalenta.com