A small, mountain village celebrates a festival called October Grap

One of the joys of traveling around Italy are the innumerable village festivals that occur almost year round. I was privileged enough to have had the opportunity to attend October Grap celebrated in Lago Delio, which offered fine vistas of Lago Maggiore in the distance.

A fine selection of grappa to celebrate October Grap in style. Grappa is a liquor manufactured from what remains after the winemaking process (the grapes' skins, seeds, and stems). It can vary in strength from 70 to 120 proof. I would equate it to something like moonshine.

You can sample anywhere from one shot of grappa for 1.50 Euros to 144 shots for 180.00 Euros.

The shots are served on narrow wooden panels measured out in meters. Here you can see 8 meters (144 shots) and 7 meters (126 shots) with holes ready to be filled with shot glasses.

Here is the line to order food and drink. A big draw for these village celebrations is the traditional food.

Once you've ordered and paid for your food you then have to wait in this line to procure it.

Finally I've reached the place where all the magic happens!

POLENTA!! Glorious, splendid, delicious polenta!

It was all worth the wait once it was on my plate! Polenta with 3 types of meat.

The view from where we ate.

The band that serenaded us with lively tunes.

Now it's time to pick out which types of grappa we would like to place in our 7 meter sampler try.

Here I stand with 126 shots of various types of grappa before me.

 Don't get your knickers in a twist, mom, I only sampled 5 "girly" types of grappa: chocolate, hazelnut, green apple, pear, and fig. Nothing crazy strong for me. I came mainly for the views and the polenta! My girl Giorgia and I left the stronger stuff to the menfolk!

The menfolk enjoying the stronger stuff.

Lago Maggiore with a castle on a small island in the background.

These festivals are not always harmless good fun. A gentleman who had drunk too much grappa collapsed and had to be ambulanced away.

It took an entire afternoon, but finally mission accomplished!
As a rule of thumb, never pass up an opportunity to take part in these types of small festivals since they offer not only a fantastic taste of local cuisine but also a glimpse into local culture.