Happy St. Ambrose Day!
In Milan, we celebrate the feast day of St. Ambrose, our patron Saint. He was a 4th-century Christian bishop of Milan, which means he came too early to have the pleasure of enjoying this fabulous cathedral. Today, some quite fun things happen: 
1. Thousands (or it seems like thousands) flock to the grounds of the church of Sant'Ambrogio (his name in Italian) where they have a very large artisan fair called "Sagra dei Obej Obej" (in Milanese dialect, that's, "Oh beautiful, oh beautiful"). It's a great place to buy Christmas presents if you don't mind hustling and bustling crowds.
2. The elites of the city get to go to La Scala's opening night where this year they are playing Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in all it's ancient Egyptian glory. On TV tonight, we will get an Oscar-like view of all the fancy folks heading into the theater. Have a happy St. Ambrose Day, everybody!
posted by Susan in Italy @ 3:51 PM
13 Comments:
Beautiful Cathedral Susan! I heard Aida is fabulous.Unfortunately,we live far away from NY Broadway shows!
Enjoy St.Ambrose Day and have fun.I am celebrating a very special too today.Peek in my blog.
A happy St. Ambrose Day to you, Susan! Sounds like a really fun time for the city of Milan and its people. I wanted to see the cathedral, but the link doesn't work. The artisan fair sounds wonderful and it has such a lovely,expressive name, too! Enjoy the day!
Happy St. Ambrose Day! Enjoy the faire.
And to you, Susan!
Happy St. Ambrose day. The festivities sound like so much FUN!
Happy St. Ambrose Day. That sounds like so much fun!!
Hi Asha, From what they showed on TV the Aida set was all gold. P.S. Happy Anniversary!
Hi Lotus, Actually one of the nice things about this holiday is that a LOT of Milanese escape to the mountains, and the rest of us have more room to maneuver! (LOL)
Hi Cherry, Scott, Beenzzz and Moon, it was fun! Now, the goal for next year is to get into the debut with all the Beautiful People.
sounds like a great festival, and i had no idea of it until now. thanks, susan!
I'm hooked...bookmarking this blog. Don't have time to play right now but I shall be back....
Sharon in Sicily
Augoroni! I wish I was in Milan now. Oh mia bella Madonnina....che te brillet de lontan...
Happy Belated St. Ambrose Day! I miss my other home on the the other side of the world and am actually looking forward to returning. Miss all the sagra events!
Hi Melissa, It was a great weekend for the "ponte" (the bridge or long weekend) since Thursday was Ambrose, a city-wide holiday here and Friday was "L'Immaculata" (the Immaculate Conception, I think although that makes for one short Jesus gestation period, no?) and then the weekend, itself. We took advantage and hopped over to Turin for a couple days. So great!
Hi Sharon, Thanks for stopping by! Hope you write more about your stay in Sicily.
a.c.t., Wow! You know the Milanese dialect lyrics to La Madonnina! I'm impressed. Did your grandma teach you that?
Not exactly that song but I do understand Milanese through hearing her and various older relatives speak (she also used to sing Milanese songs to me when I was little). This is one of the songs that is sung at the San Siro.
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