Ischia.it english

October, Mars, the backpack and the Autumn Sea

September is over. For many this month has meant the opportunity, if not the last one, on the island to spend the final days of summer now at the entrance of the autumn before winter. It is in the taste of the air that a September calm invades the beaches. And in places where previously flowed fruitful flow of curious travelers that explore new places and live customs, after the autumnal equinox and the beginning of October.

The surface of the sea begins to ripple for the upcoming change of season. The footsteps of children imprinted on the wet sand while they were busy building castles, as those of experienced players of beach volleyball and beach tennis or deck that housed the tanned bodies in the sun, ensured the achievement of a small slice of pleasant happiness, consolidated day by day, which now is over. Yet what many still do not know and worth knowing is that in this chiaroscuro of Ischia in the month chaired by Mars, lord of birth and death, portrayed as a young man who goes hunting or sowing, has a strange but pleasant look for eyes and soul. Magnificent scenery keep the charm of a place where you have to devote their attention if you want to discover the unique traits of extreme beauty. In the first thirty days of the tenth month of the year, defined by Roman emperor Commodus “Invictus” or “never defeated” or “the invincible”, the beauty of the island is not obscured though winter economic trends are approaching.
It is in the transition between the end of summer and the cool air of autumn, in a light hard to limit, which we leave behind the memory of the moist warmth of the hottest months. So, we replace the desire to wear light shoes and backpackers equipped with camera, following the map with the desire to draw sensations and fragrances in mind, obsessed by the idea to give it concreteness to make it real. Without any effort, you can give up the idea that the arrival of the night limits the desire to move on the island, although the short days mark a different time. It is in the month of vendèmiaire - the first month of the French revolutionary calendar, which runs from September 22/24 to October 21/23, dedicated to the harvest period. For the Romans, it represented the eighth month, that one of sowing as well as the end a complete cycle that opens the door to the next: the basis for the new crop. In addition, for many, it is a new journey. The Catholic Church invented the feast of “All Saints” perhaps to contrast the Saints to ghosts and spirits, to the wandering souls of the dead celebrated on the night of October 31 on the occasion of Halloween. The Romans of ancient times used this feast to open access to the lower kingdom. We can consider it, instead, the idea of regeneration that accompanies us all the time.
It opens so, October, humbly in its views through the typical narrows of Forio while we are sitting at the bar only to be kidnapped by the changing of colors of this month. Summer does not end. Continues as a status within. It is in October that a different vivacity surrounding landscapes making them light of sight, contrasting the thought that wants died leaves and sadness as a frame.
There is a growing rediscovery of everyday life and the knowledge that you can dive in the thermal waters of the parks still open or make a natural sauna in Sant’Angelo and Cava Scura. In spite of the short rains which timidly launch from the clouds to fall upon the earth. Ischia is therefore no longer crowded with summer materialism, sometimes commercial and chaotic, but exhibits a realm where you know, unhindered, the landscape, cultural and folklore tradition. Events as it has been for years covering the October cycle. An example is the “Tutti in tavola” organized and planned on Oct. 12 in the hamlet of Succhivo to rediscovery the traditional ritual of Sunday lunch. Palpable feelings, every day and at every view.