It all started last June, when Dr Michele Di Gianni, Honorary Consul for Malta in Naples since 1970, was sitting at table with my family and produced a small notebook containing the telephone numbers of people with whom he kept in touch as he wanted to call a friend and inform him of his arrival in Malta. Along with the notebook emerged some postcard-sized photographs.

He invited me to look at the colourfully dressed country people in the pictures. “They were taken during the celebration of the vendemmia, at my country house and vineyard in Capri, last year”, he said with a smile. “I’m going to invite you and Irma for this year’s grape-picking festivities that I organise in the first half coming October. You should come,’ he continued, without leaving a space for any comment.

A holiday in Naples

In the first week of September, the invitation – an A4 letter with a colourful reproduction of a folk-dancing group – arrived at my home, inviting Irma and me for the event in O Purtusillo, the country house and vineyard Dr Gianni owns in Capri.

My wife and I decided to take the opportunity and spend a week’s holiday in Naples before joining Dr Di Gianni and his guests for the vendemmia on Saturday, 8 October, in Capri.

In Naples, on the Friday morning, we went to obtain our tickets for the crossing to Capri. However, the inclement weather – sporadic rain and a rather strong northerly wind – meant that there was no guarantee the fast hydrofoils would be able to undertake the journeys the following day. However, we were able to buy tickets for the crossing on a large boat with the return on a faster one, late the same day.

The celebrations

Early on Saturday morning, while it was still dark, we walked all the way from our friends’ Maison Degas Hotel in Piazza del Gesù, where we were staying, to Molo Massa – a 25-minute brisk walk. The temperature had fallen about 10 degrees from the heat of the previous days, and we enjoyed the walk, even though it was a bit cold.

The boat took about 90 minutes to reach Marina Grande. There was a northerly swell that helped it move faster and maintain a steady speed.

Approaching Capri provided us with a breathtaking scene: the island’s rock, the vegetation and the sharp colours and shades of the houses against the clear blue sky were enchanting.

Soon we were on the small bus that carried us up to San Sebastiano and from there we were following the road map that Dr Di Gianni had printed on the back of the invitation, walking along the narrow winding path leading to the O Purtusillo estate. The grape picking was already under way and, in the kitchen, women who help in the Consul’s home in Via Crispi in Naples were preparing the food that would be served later.

Dr Di Gianni greeted us with a welcoming smile. “Thank you for coming”, he said. “You’ve come from Malta, and you’re the first to arrive!”

In a small yard outside the kitchen, Salvatore – a renowned Neapolitan pizzaiolo – was already heating oil in a large caldron and cutting small round portions of pastry to be baked later in a nearby large wood-fired stone oven, as small tasty pizzas.

The place

Dr Di Gianni’s country house – on the slopes of Anacapri – is of modest size with a fairly spacious kitchen. As well as the one with the wood-burning oven, there is another small yard outside the kitchen where a press was ready for the first stage of the winemaking process.

There are fields on both sides of the house, in one of which tomatoes, green peppers and peperoncino were growing. A bit further down are larger stretches of land where many old orange and lemon trees – and especially some very old vines – grow on trellises and yield good quantities of fruit from which Dr Di Gianni produces delicious home-made limoncello and a quite acceptable table wine that he offers to his guests with pride.

In one large field some 30 tables had been placed among the orange and lemon trees, in the shade of the vine-laden trellises. While some people were busy cleaning the tables and the chairs placed around them, others were setting the tables.

By noon, more than a hundred guests had arrived. Dressed in casual clothes, Dr Di Gianni greeted one and all with a smile. There were many of his friends – most of whom were lawyers, honorary consuls and even ambassadors. His only daughter, Antonietta, and her husband Alberto, and his son Fabrizio (who works in Brussels) with his Sicilian wife Mirta and their son Michele – whose second birthday was celebrated during the lunch – were also with us.

The Scialapopolo Folk Group

It seems that, year after year since he began celebrating the grape harvest, Dr Di Gianni brings in the Capri folk group Scialapopolo to entertain his guests.

Dressed in colourful traditional costume, the group consists of three principle singers – a woman and two men – all with beautiful and distinctive voices. Accompanied by musicians playing traditional musical instruments, including the tamburello, the singers went around the seated guests, singing popular Neapolitan songs – such as Tarantella and Luna Caprese – for more than three hours, and inviting everyone to join in – which most of the Italian guests were more than happy to do.

The food

In the meantime, several pasta dishes, small and large pizzas and a variety of dishes made with eggs, potatoes and other ingredients were served. Dr Gianni visited each table, serving last year’s home-made wine and stopping to chat with his guests, and his daughter Antonietta ensured that everyone was being served, while helping out with water, soft drinks and second helpings.

There was plenty of food for everyone and it was much enjoyed. Eventually, the pizzaiolo produced his large sugared doughnuts and the guests feasted on them with buon gusto.

There was such a happy, friendly atmosphere – undoubtedly help by the singing and music. At one point, one of the guests – Dr Antonino Fiorito – stood up, took the microphone from the hand of the folk-singer and, in a passionate if somewhat raucous voice, sang Oi Vita, Oi Vita, which he dedicated to the little birthday boy, Michele.

A happy man

Throughout the celebrations, Dr Di Gianni circulated among his guests with a radiant smile and an obvious sense of satisfaction. I have always known him like that: happy and content to bring people together and seeing them around him.

It must have been around four in the afternoon when a cake bearing two candles was produced to celebrate the second birthday of Dr Di Gianni’s grandson Michele. Dr Di Gianni was infused with happiness. He is grandfather to his daughter’s three children but young Michele is the first child of his son Fabrizio.

Departure

At around five in the afternoon, the folk group’s ‘show’ came to an end and the guests prepared to leave, thanking Dr Di Gianni for the wonderful lunch, the entertainment and the opportunity to meet friends, and giving him a ‘forte abbraccio’ and an ‘arrivederci’. My wife and I also left.

The sky on Capri had been clear all through the celebrations, but late in the afternoon threatening clouds began to gather overhead. After all the guests had left, and the women were still clearing up, the skies opened and heavy rain made everybody in the streets of Capri seek shelter. When it had stopped pouring, a smell of freshness and wet vegetation filled the air, while dusk fell with a stunning sunset on the horizon.

Irma and I found our way down on the molo of Marina Grande to wait for the boat to take us back to Naples.

It had been a fabulous experience, thanks to Dr Michele Di Gianni and to Mother Nature’s vines and grapes, of course, and the celebration of la vendemmia!

[email protected]