The Forte Gelato Holiday

 

THE FORTE GELATO HOLIDAY

Bruno is Italian and lives across the street from us. Like all of the Italian immigrants in Bloomfield, he comes from the small town of Ateleta, in Italy’s Abruzzi region. When he was young he thought that winter lasted forever in America. That was because of what his grandfather and the other old men said when they came home to Ateleta. “It is when the Americans celebrate one of their biggest holidays,” his grandfather and the other old men told him. They said the Americans called it forte gelato, “the strong frost.”

A strange name for a holiday, Bruno and his young friends thought. Gelato was one of their favorite desserts, like a cold jello. And forte, pronounced “for-tay,” simply meant strong. So forte gelato meant a strong jello. But it could also mean a strong frost, as gelato also means something cold or frosty.

So, the old men told Bruno, the strongest frost in America comes right at the beginning of the summer month, July. And all of America celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of summer with fireworks and parades and picnics with hot dogs and hamburgers cooked outdoors on grills.

Bruno and his boyhood pals wondered why Americans paraded and cooked outdoors during the strongest frost. Americans must be very different from Italians, they thought. And America must be a very strange land, to have winter last so long, and to be so strong, even up until the fourth day of July, which was the day on which Americans always celebrated the strong frost.

Yes, Bruno and his pals agreed, a strange land. They would have to see it for themselves, and marvel at the strong frost, forte gelato, when Americans celebrated the birthday of their country.