Italy has held an emotionally charged funeral for dozens of its earthquake victims as the country observes a national day of mourning for the disaster that killed 290 people and wounded hundreds more.
The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, the prime minister, Matteo Renzi, and other leaders were among hundreds who sat solemnly behind 35 coffins in a sports hall in Ascoli Piceno on Saturday to mourn the dead. Hundreds more stood silently outside as the sombre proceedings of the mass was relayed to them by loudspeakers.
The hall in the town, situated in the Marche region, had been converted temporarily into a place of worship for the funeral of most of the people who died in the villages of Arquata del Tronto and Pescara del Tronto in the region’s mountainous interior.
Here in Barga the Duomo bells rang out this afternoon the unmistakable sound of the Funeral Bells.
The restaurants in Barga Vecchia – Locanda di Mezzo, the Shamrock, Altana, l’osteria, Borgo 1 and Scacciagui plus la sosta dei diavoli are all taking part in a novel fund raising effort for the devastated town of Amatrice which was this weekend set to hold its 50th annual food festival celebrating its famous spaghetti all’amatriciana.
2 euro will be donated to the disaster fund for every plate they serve of spaghetti all’amatriciana – a dish of tomato sauce and pork cheek.
Amatriciana originates from a recipe named gricia. Grici were what Romans—modern dwellers of Rome, not the ancient ones—called the sellers of bread and comestibles. They were so called in that a number of them emigrated from the Swiss canton of Grisons. According to another hypothesis, the name originates from the hamlet of Grisciano, in the comune of Accumoli, near Amatrice. The sauce was (and still is) prepared with guanciale (cured pork cheek) and grated pecorino. According to the matching hypothesis, ingredients reflect local products available either to a simple grocery store or to common folk who practiced herding in the mountainous area. At some point, a little olive oil was added to the recipe; also it should be noted that in the 1960s the Amatriciana sauce was still prepared in this way in Amatrice itself.
