Ex Voto

Surely the best day out you can have at this time of year has to be the Arezzo antique market. I know I have raved about it before, but it never fails to thrill me.  It's the mix of clear blue skies and thin autumn sunshine, the Italian fashionista out in throngs displaying the new seasons ‘look’, the marvelous spectacle of all that junk and religious paraphernalia, as well as a chance to strut my stuff in new skinny jeans and boots.

Russian dolls and icons

One of my favourite things on offer is the Ex Voto.  The word comes from the Latin, meaning ‘from the vow made’.  These votive offerings were traditionally left to a saint or divinity, placed on the altar of a church, expressing a wish or desire or to give thanks for the fulfillment of a prayer. 

How we regard illness and healing has changed drastically throughout the ages but our abiding hope that all will be well is wonderfully expressed by the ex voto.  They were often left to give thanks after a successful operation, or survival of an accident and, although usually left anonymously, they are a touching mix of both public and personal faith.

Ex votos

Beginning in this form in Italy in the 15th Century, they slowly spread to the new world and, although most prolific in the early 19th Century, they continue to be used as an expression of thanks for healing, even cats and dogs get a look in.

Out of their religious context, these tarnished pressed tin likenesses take on a silvery and tactile allure.  I find their naïve symbolism strangely compelling.

Jumbled together in damp cardboard boxes or haphazardly displayed amongst all the other tawdry tat, they glint temptingly.  I can never resist them and can spend endless time deliberating over body parts, often returning home with several comforting little packages containing disembodied limbs, eyes and torsos.  

Best thing I ate:

Porcini 

We are coming to the end of the porcini season here, so I thought I’d better get a move on before the first hard frost arrives.  I wish I could tell you that I’d been foraging in the woods for them, but I am far to fearful to trust my own judgment in the poisonous funghi department.  Luckily, at this time of year, there are porcini stalls at every local market as well as those randomly placed by the side of the road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, just waiting for a some porcini crazed motorists to pull up, and sure enough we did.

Piled into a wooden crate, the porcini look so plump and appealing with their chestnut bronze and chocolate caps.  I think the best way to cook porcini is to roast them, either whole or thickly sliced.  Place them in a single layer in a shallow roasting pan, douse them with a generous slug of olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and a few sprigs of thyme, and roast until the flesh is slightly shrunken and the tops a little wrinkled.  The 'bosky' flavour will be sublime, intense and earthy.  I served mine, dark and glossy, piled on top of a basic white risotto, to which I had added the sweetness of a little marsala, and finished by stirring in a big creamy dollop of mascarpone. Heaven.

Where to get them:

In the woods, if you dare.

Comments

[airport berlin hotel]

Very interesting story about the ex-voto.Hope to check it out the next week.

[karen cole]

Hope you guys are well.
I noticed on your website that you are still doing classes......just not blogging. My posts are few and far between.

I will be in Cortona again with friends in May. No classes this time. Someday, I'll come to paint. I would have loved to see you in action, but I leave on the 15th.

Anyway, "hi" from the other side of the ocean.

-Karen

[Mark Leslie]

What a wonderful blog about Italy. I vacation there every year and lived with an Italian family for a month in 2005. It was an experience that changed my life. My blog, www.mark-leslie.net, does what your blog does--talks about experiences, places to visit, restaurants to eat at, places to stay. Isn't it great to share Italy with other people who love it as much as we do?
-Mark

[Clarisa Rod]

OMG I so recently happened to find your blog and been thrilled to read that wonderful experience you're having in lovely italy. I haven't been there, yet but for what I've seen all over the web I can't wait to move over there!!

Your blog was quite helpfull in understanding more about their culture, and hope I can find a decent way of living so I can move sometime soon.

It's great what you're doing, and hope I can learn more from your experience. Oh and BTW, I am in Mexico :D

[casalba]

Happy New Year to all - especially your pirate cat. Tanti Auguri. Sally

[Sophie]

Where are you?! November! It's a whole new year now! Please blog pronto...I am missing you all! Sophie x

[Ted]

Sorry,
forgot to mention, you are welcome to add your Artist website too, we cover all things expatriate:) Have a Great Christmas

[joe@italyville]

I would love to dare! but I can't find any as beautiful as you have near you. Hope you guys are well.

[silver bracelet]

Nice lockets product.
I like it ..........

[IBeatrice]

I'd certainly be tempted by such strangely charming little objects.

There is an excellent monthly antiques market in Lucca too. They set up camp there with their lorries, and more or less fill the town. I have this ongoing fantasy .... that I have just bought a huge empty villa in the region, and am going to furnish it top to bottom - furniture, bed and table linen, garden statuary, the lot! - with objects bought from the market.

I was at Petersham Nursery yesterday (you will remember it?), and it occurred to me that the very special charm it has, is very much that of the Italian antiques market...

The soup is very good too!

[janie]

I love the Arezzo antique fair-have been twice and even if I don't buy anything it's so fun to look!

[chris lewis]

Thanks for showing that to us when we were there. Now let's see those skinnies!

[nyc/caribbean ragazza]

I have heard amazing things about that market. I hope to check it out one day.

Very interesting story about the ex-voto.

Hope all is well!

[diego]

Those ex voto are really gorgeous. I'm Italian, and yet I'd never seen them before...! I'll have to visit an antiques market, next time I'm "home".
After 13 years in London, I fall in love with my own country every time I read one of your entries.
Keep up the good work!

[erin :: the olive notes]

YAY! Glad to see you posting again :) I'd love to head to that market again. It was so fun!

I'm matching you over here with the skinny jeans + boots. The best cool weather outfit for sure! xo

[Scintilla]

I'd love to visit that market. The Antique dealer in Positano has those ex-voto thingmabobs adorning the wall outside his shop. I've never asked how much he wants but will hazard a guess that the price will be much higher than in Arezzo.

[Antonina]

I'd forgotten to ask how is Melvin doing?

[Antonina]

Dear Amanda, you go girl in those skinny jeans!
As for the ex-voto I'd seen many on the Madonna in the church in Sicily in the town I was born in Termini Imerese when I went to visit.
I had no idea what they were and their use.
How strange that one buys them at the Marketa and not in the church.

Terrific shot of those delicious Porcini hazelnut colored mushrooms with the contrast of flat leaf Italian Parsley.
Lucky you can just buy some on the side of the road ,we do the supermarket thing.
An egg fritatda of mushrooms and Romano cheese with green scallions , with a side of tomatoes and oregano salad and parsley with simple olive oil and red wine vinegar is on my plate for dinner tonight, thanks for the inspiration.