When we returned from our jaunt to Germany we found the ‘Soccer Field’ fully decked out for our village’s Festa in honor of San Maurizio.  At Last the Committee has a spacious area in which to prepare and serve food.  It is so much easier than the old narrow fascia on this site, and much roomier than the small house and little paved courtyard around the corner which the Committee has used for the last couple of years.

Behind the ‘Amici’ sign is the new cabin which is fully equipped as a kitchen.  The tables are obvious.  Behind the tent and truck in the foreground there was a solid dance floor put down and a small stage for a band erected.  Sunday was the night for the Great Pyrotechnic Show.

Alas, as so often happens in September, it rained.  It seems like our Festa has been rained out a lot in the last few years – and what a pity it should happen the first year we have new festa grounds, I mean ‘a new soccer field.’   It cleared at the end of the rainy Sunday, but the men who set up the fireworks had not had an opportunity to do so, so the show was cancelled.

So… soccer field?  festa field?  both?  I vote for the last.  We have yet to see any soccer played here, but that doesn’t matter.  Building this public space took a lot of time (25 years, according to the Piazza Cavour web site) and a lot of citizen participation and volunteer work.  It surely contributes to San Maurizio having a sense of community.  In my dark heart I imagine that there was some grant money out there available to build soccer fields and our Festa Committee thought ‘what a good idea.  A soccer field is an ideal spot for a festa.’  If that’s what happened, I say more power to them (and I have to be honest: I have no idea what the stated purpose of the Comitato Amici di San Maurizio might be).

Surely someone will organize a soccer program one of these days, and in the meantime we can spend the next year looking forward to La Festa di San Maurizio, 2012 edition – please let it not rain!