Felice Anno Nuovo!
Italian New Year traditions, the last meal of 2023 + ending the year with a laugh.
Another New Year’s Eve is upon us. Cities across Italy mark the occasion with free events in captivating locations:
Rome will ring in the New Year with a live concert in Circus Maximus, the ancient stadium of Roman Gladiators.
In Naples, they are setting up for concerts in the expansive and elegant Piazza del Plebiscito.
Florentines will celebrate throughout the city, with concerts and events in Piazza del Carmine, Piazza di Santa Croce, Piazza San Giovanni, and Piazza della Santissima Annunziata. In Italian, that’s called l’imbarazzo della scelta, an embarrassment of riches.
Siena’s celebration may be our first choice - a family-friendly event in Piazza del Campo, one of Europe’s grandest medieval squares.
Quiz: Italian New Year Traditions
Which of the following are New Year traditions in Italy?
Eat lentils and pork sausage at midnight.
Wear red underwear.
Throw your old dishes out the window.
Dive off of Rome’s Ponte Cavour into the Tiber River.
All of the above.
Did you say, “All of the above?” You are correct!
Lenticchie e cotechino, or lentils and pork sausage, represent the riches to come in the new year.
The tradition of wearing red dates back to ancient Rome, where the color red symbolized power, fortune, and fertility.
Tossing old dishes onto the streets is a way of saying “out with the old, in with the new.” Once a common New Year’s Eve practice that had people scrambling to move their parked cars, this tradition has faded away in most communities.
Each year since 1946, on the morning of January 1, a Speedo-wearing Mister OK dives from Ponte Cavour into the river Tevere. The current Mister OK is 70-year-old Maurizio Palmulli, who will complete his 36th New Year’s dive in 2024.
Food & Wine
Here in Minneapolis, we don’t plan to throw out any old dishes or dive into the Mississippi, but we will enjoy a New Year’s Eve celebration at home with friends.
What’s on our menu?
Seafood-based appetizers: oysters, caviar canapés, smoked salmon bites, and octopus salad.
Spaghetti with swordfish prepared Sicilian-style.
Rumor has it our guests, expats from Naples, are bringing eggplant parmesan, which would be amazing because theirs is the best we’ve ever tasted!
Even though no one actually wants to eat lentils and pork sausage at midnight, Stefano is a traditionalist, and he will ensure they are on the table.
We haven’t decided on a dessert yet, but I’m leaning toward this panna cotta recipe with an orange pistachio sauce. It’s pretty and festive - perfect for the occasion.
To Toast the New Year
Stefano is in charge of the wine, but there’s no doubt we will toast the New Year with a Franciacorta.
Italy’s answer to champagne, Franciacorta is a sparkling wine with DOCG status made from grapes grown near Brescia, in Lombardy.
Like champagne, Franciacorta is produced using the traditional method. This means it undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle, a labor-intensive process and the reason for the silky-smooth, bubbly feeling in your mouth when you drink it.
Our go-to sparkling wine for holidays, celebrations, and even just an evening with friends is a Ca’ del Bosco Franciacorta, which is featured in our guide, Ten Excellent Italian Wines to Gift and Enjoy During the Holidays. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, do so now! It will be gone after the New Year.
Quick Tip Recipe: Caviar Canapés
Caviar canapés are tasty and elegant, but ridiculously easy to make. They are the perfect appetizer for special occasions.
You need just four ingredients:
Thin-sliced white bread, such as Pepperidge Farms Very Thin Bread
Crème fraîche
Caviar
Lemon (optional)
Directions
Cut the bread into small shapes. I use a small round cookie cutter, but you can use a knife to cut the bread into squares or triangles.
Spread a layer of crème fraîche onto each canapé.
Use two small spoons to place a dollop of caviar on top of the crème fraîche.
If you like, cut a small triangle out of a paper-thin slice of lemon (with the peel) and place it on top. It serves both as garnish and as a flavor compliment to the caviar.
Serve immediately.
The Last Laugh
One of the strangest stories of 2023 is that men can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire.
The phenomenon, which originated on TikTok, captured the public’s fascination. The Washington Post and the New York Times wrote about it, SNL parodied it, and entire Reddit threads sought to explain it.
Lacking in substance but entertaining nonetheless, the whole thing cracks us up. So when this website popped up on our social media feed showing what you would look like in Ancient Rome, we couldn’t resist.
If you try it, share your photos in our comments feed so we can send 2023 out with a laugh!
