Who was not born in La Spezia struggles to understand the “fair of San Giuseppe” phenomenon, three days in which La Spezia goes mad and banquets are assaulted even by people who do not care about shopping. Here’s how to explain what happens to the city around March 19th.
The San Giuseppe Fair is an enigma for those not born and raised in La Spezia. The atmosphere and the frenzy that pervade the city during the days of the event is a small secret that is often incomprehensible to non-locals.
Where does the quiet city end in those days of March? What drives the people of La Spezia – even those who say they hate it – to get stuck in a carnage among the banquets scattered along the streets of the city center?
Those who are not from Spezia find it hard to understand, while the people of La Spezia – so taken by the festive atmosphere – cannot explain themselves well. Here’s how to understand each other in 4 simple steps.
1 – “I don’t get it… it’s just a big market!”
This is one of the most pronounced phrases from those who are not from La Spezia. The “foresti” (non-locals) see in the fair only a big market, but they cannot understand that it is something more. La Spezia is born, grows, lives and dies in the absolute certainty that the fair of St. Joseph is the biggest fair in Italy, one of the largest in Europe and who knows if there really is something similar in the world!
Even if it were a simple market, it would still be an immense market. The proud pride – also felt by those who are not crazy about the fair – is an element that the foreigners do not consider.
2 – “Too much confusion, you can’t walk it!”
Foresti think that the most important thing to do at a fair is to walk among the stalls looking for some opportunity. It will be true for the other fairs, not for St. Joseph’s.
For the people of La Spezia, the crowd of people is a key element of the success of the fair. A fair in which one walks calmly and is able to have a look at the goods on display with tranquility is not a successful fair of St. Joseph.
Locals likes to take five steps, meet someone they know, stop to exchange a few words, complain a little, create a cork to the circulation, curse about it, barely rise again and then leave.
The fair is not made to buy, but to see who is there!
The San Giuseppe fair 2019 will take place on Sunday 17th, Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th with a wide selection of stands ranging from gastronomy to the commercial curiosity of the year. This year the fair is expanding the scope of action also to Piazza Europa.
“An important participation is that of the local producers who will set up stands in different parts of the city to make our products known to those who in these days will stop in La Spezia” – announced the Mayor.
3 – “At the fair of San Giuseppe there is always the same stuff!”
Foresti claim that the fair never changes and they consider this to be a disadvantage.
Mistake! This is exactly what the people of La Spezia like, the possibility of finding the same atmosphere for three days as they did when they were children.
Every local, living the fair in progress, lives all the fairs of his life. If the fair changed too much and too quickly, then this magic would disappear.
4 – “You don’t know what to wear for the San Giuseppe Fair”
Positioned as it is between a winter that is ending and the beautiful season at the gates, the fair brings temperatures ranging from 25 to -5 degrees (when it gets a little cold).
This makes crazy non-locals, who take off and put on their jackets and go nuts, because they don’t understand the weather.
For the people of La Spezia it is different: the people of La Spezia, in the fair, despite the often raining, they are ready to swear to feel summer coming.
The fair is good news: summer is coming (someone is ready to swear right on March 19th)!