Saturday, February 02, 2008

Carnevale has arrived!

Carnevale season began this past Thursday, but the costume frenzy began in mid-January. If you're Italian (child or adult), your mother or nonna (grandmother) might make your costume. Or you could buy one at a store like the one we visited last weekend.

You could start with a mask:
Add a hat:

Or go all out from head (note the wigs in the background) to toe:

Here's the line-up of children's costumes:

A fireworks display...

...and kilos of confetti and string--enough to make you thankful you're not an Italian street cleaner.

This will be the 7th Carnevale I've spent in Italy, and I must say that this next item was a new one for me:


If you can't make out the writing, it says: Hill Billy Teeth. Do Italians really know what a Hill Billy is? I asked my Italian husband what he thought Hill Billy meant, and he said: "It's the guy's name, right?" (In Italy, people often introduce themselves and sign their names with their last name first, then first name. As in: "Hi, I'm Hill, Billy. Nice to meet ya.")

Um--no.

I'm guessing the store won't be selling out of this item anytime soon.

I'll post some more Carnevale photos later this week.

P.S. Today is the first blogiversary of Italian Moments!

12 comments:

Susan Sandmore said...

Oh my gosh! Hill Billy teeth!

I wonder how many "Billy Hills" live around me? I'm totally going to look this up.

Happy Blogiversary!

Angela said...

Happy Anniversary Italian Moments (has it been a year already?)

I love your posts -they all make me miss living in Italy sooo much.

I'm getting excited for Bologna. A week just won't be long enough!!

We're celebrating carnavale here too - - such fun

Natalie said...

Thanks, Susan! Let me know if you find any Hill, Billy neighbors. :-0

Ciao Angela, I can't wait for Bologna, either! I'm glad you've been enjoying my blog. :-) Happy Carnevale to you in Germany!

Unknown said...

Hi Natalie,

Congrats on your first year. You are such a talented writer, your blog is a delight to read. Between you and Count Francesco de Mota I can't decide who is better at showing us a different take on Italy. Is he well known over there? Well I don't want to choose, I enjoy both of you so much. Continued success in everything you do!

C. K. Kelly Martin said...

The costumes look great (with the exception of the scary Hill Billy teeth, of course). Let's just be glad Italians are missing the reference!

Happy blogiversary to Italian Moments!

Julie_c said...

When I went to Ireland, I saw a Hill Billy Chicken restaurant and Apache Pizza. Um, I don't think the native Americans were that into pizza.

Love the picture of the Hill Billy though. Looks pretty accurate.

Happy Anniversary!

africakidandtheworld said...

Great idea to show carnevale costumes--are there any bottles of moonshine to go with the hill billy teeth??

Anonymous said...

Okay, Natalie. Where are you?

Hope all is well.

Danette V.

Anonymous said...

HELLO NATALIE,

I AM ALSO WONDERING, WHERE ARE YOU.

ON HOLIDAY, PERHAPS? HOPE YOU ARE WELL.

Natalie said...

Hi Lillian, and thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying the blog. :-)

Thanks, C.K. and Julie. :-) Apache Pizza?? So thaaaaat's where pizza came from!

Ha, Africakid! I haven't seen any moonshine thusfar, but you never know...

Thanks for checking in, Danette and anonymous...all is well! And Danette, didn't you hold my blog's hand the last time I neglected it, and told it I'll be back soon? Thanks for holding its hand once again. :-)

Anonymous said...

Lol at the Hill Billy teeth! I enjoy reading your posts because I am an Italian living in US and it's interesting to read about an opposite experience :)

Mary Witzl said...

This is absolutely fantastic: Hill Billy teeth! I love the fact that it is two separate words. And what an authentic looking hillbilly they found for the photograph, too!

In Japan, I once bought a 'Haroo gaijin' mask, complete with blue eyes and exaggeratedly pointy nose. I figured I would need to have the real thing to convince people of its existence.