Each year in late July, Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood braves the heat to stage the Festa de Noantri, a celebration of the uniqueness of the neighborhood and its inhabitants and a festival in honor of their patroness, the Madonna Fiumarola. Streets are closed. Stalls selling porchetta, crepes, and other delicacies are erected. Piazzas host evening concerts. Andthe famous Madonna makes a giro around the hood.
In a long entry last year, we told you all about the statue of the Madonna Fiumarola, recounting the way in which she was fished out of the Tiber River and given shelter in a Trastevere church in 1535. Since that time, each year during the Festa de Noantri, the Madonna has made a tour around the Trastevere neighborhood — it’s her way of bestowing blessings while checking on the general state of affairs
Last night was the Virgin’s big night. Dressed in a new cream-colored gown and wearing a lovely coral necklace, she was placed on a giant wooden litter and carried through the streets of Trastevere. Local priests, in the company of the Cardinal Józef Glemp, led the procession, chanting prayers over a loudspeaker as the Virgin made her way through Trastevere’s narrow and cobblestoned streets. The police band announced her arrival in each street while hundreds of devotees thronged behind the Madonna asking for her blessings and cheering her with shouts of “Viva Maria!”
