Thanksgiving In Italy, A New Tradition
Written by: Travel With Wally
Thanksgiving is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year in the USA. After all, it has something to satisfy just about everyone. An extravagant parade, balloons of famous characters, football, family, and of course, FOOD! Thanksgiving is a staple holiday in American culture and it is something that I wanted to continue while in Italy. But, of course, Thanksgiving in Italy is not a thing. Which historically makes sense. But Thanksgiving in Italy was going to happen.
I know the history of the holiday is troubled, and that is why I choose to take the day to celebrate family, friends, and all that we should be thankful for. It is a day to reflect on what I have in my life, and there is a lot when I think about it. Thanksgiving reminds me to reflect and look at all that I have in my life. A loving family, great friends, the cutest dog, and life in Italy.
For probably the last 8ish years Andrew and I haven’t had the opportunity to go home to be with family for Thanksgiving. When we lived in South Carolina my parents would meet us somewhere between Wisconsin and South Carolina to celebrate. The first year was in Nashville, Tennessee and then in Lexington, Kentucky. It was cool to not only explore new cities with family but also to celebrate the holiday together.
Our First Solo Thanksgiving
Once we moved to California, we were too far away to drive to each other, so we started a new tradition. Friendsgiving. Yeah, I know it is nothing new to the world, but it was new for us. It was also the first time I was cooking the meal on my own. Oh, and we are vegetarians so finding vegetarian dishes adds a hurdle.
For our first year, we were living in Orange County, California, in a small one-bedroom apartment with two cats. We thought we had won the lottery!
One of my childhood friends lived an hour away in San Diego, so we invited her to join us for a hearty meal. (She and Andrew now celebrate their friendship on Thanksgiving.) It was great to reignite our friendship, as it would continue to grow over the next few years. I remember making a bland pot pie and learning that you can’t make mashed potatoes in the blender.
Our gatherings grew each year as we made more friends, though some years we were alone, too. You just don’t know how schedules will change, when people will move away. Life is always moving, but Thanksgiving is not going anywhere. And that is why I wasn’t willing to let the tradition die when we moved to Italy.
Thus Thanksgiving in Italy has become our newest tradition.
Thanksgiving in Italy
Holidays are definitely a bit different here in Italy when compared to America. Halloween isn’t a big thing here like it is back in the states where it is a huge event for the entirety of October. You may see a couple of kids dressed up here are there. And there is a giant comic book convention in a neighboring town (Lucca.) So you may see some costumes from that.
But in Italy, you pretty much just skip right over to Christmas. I, of course, am used to the milestone holidays you get to before Christmas. Once Thanksgiving hits, then it’s time for the tree and lights to go up and holiday music to come on.
What I have noticed about living in Italy is that it is a more gradual transition. Towards the end of November the lights start to go up and you may see some trees adorned with decoration in piazzas. But it isn’t really until the first week or so of December that the lights turn on, holiday markets come to life, and you may even find an ice rink or two.
But back to Thanksgiving. There is of course no Thanksgiving in Italy as their history is quite different from the United States, and pilgrims didn’t land at an Italian Plymouth Rock. So it makes complete sense that they don’t celebrate. But I love Thanksgiving. So I decided to invite our non-American friends over to experience an American Thanksgiving in Italy.
Food at our Italian Thanksgiving
As vegetarians, we do not participate in the tradition of a turkey centerpiece for dinner. Instead we, well I, make all of our other favorite dishes. Mashed potatoes, dressing/stuffing, macaroni and cheese, and roasted vegetables. This year I made an awesome mushroom gravy. I was pretty proud as in other years it has turned out a bit bland.
I have to give credit to the New York Times Cooking website, it really earned its monthly subscription cost in November. I used their recipes for just about everything and they were all amazing! So I recommend checking them out if you are ever hungry for a new recipe.
I really enjoy cooking, and that is a good thing seeing as though I had once again planned to make an extensive menu. Five dishes and extraordinarily small counter space requires some creativity. Let’s just say that I did dishes several times during the day, and I really dislike doing dishes. But I was committed.
Let’s Cook!
Usually, I am not one for using disposable dishes, but seeing as though we are living a somewhat minimalist life we just don’t have a lot of pots and pans. I purchased aluminum baking pans for the stuffing and macaroni and cheese, both of which needed to be baked. Back in California, I made an awesome “sausage” stuffing in a crockpot, but the NYT cooking site gave me a good chestnut alternative that I could stick in the oven. Sometimes I look at crockpots and stand mixers and reminisce about the good times we used to have.
When it came to the macaroni and cheese, I used Italian cheeses and one French. There is no sharp cheddar to be found. We are in Italy after all, which also means that is really all I have access to. I made a silly miscalculation, though, when cooking the noodles, I thought I should make two packages of pasta. Big mistake, it resulted in WAY too much pasta. So I figured I would just put half in the pot with the milk, eggs, and cheese. Well almost all of the noodles fell in the pot (facepalm.)
So, at no fault to the recipe, I had too many noodles and not enough sauce. Looking back I would have added more cheese, I mean you can’t have too much cheese, right? Oh well, lesson learned. Don’t let the size of the package of noodles fool you into making extra, take it from me.
Closer to dinner time I boiled the potatoes and mixed up the roasted cauliflower with gorgonzola, walnuts, and balsamic. I mashed and whipped the potatoes, heated the gravy, and made sure the baked dishes were warm in the oven.
An International Thanksgiving
I looked around. We had a total of six people coming over for dinner. I started to get nervous, I had made A LOT of food. I didn’t want to have tons of leftovers, I was trying to be healthy outside of this one day. I told our friends to bring containers. I even had our friend Mustafa invite another friend–unfortunately he couldn’t come.
Oh boy, what have I done! I thought to myself.
Then our friends started to arrive, the best part of the day. Getting to share not only a meal but also a tradition with good people. We had American, Turkish, British, and Italian nationalities represented at our Italian Thanksgiving table. I loved it!
Andrew and I shared one of the popular traditions of sharing our “thankfuls.” We went around the table and everyone shared what they were thankful for. Friendship was a universal commonality, there were some new friendships built that evening, and older ones made stronger.
And guess what…there were no leftovers.
My “Thankfuls”
- I am thankful for new friends. I don’t know about you, but as I get older it has become harder to make friends. It takes a lot of effort, not to mention when you live in a new country where you don’t speak the language.
I will be honest, Facebook ex-pat groups have really helped me in this regard. I have been forced to put myself outside of my comfort zone and reach out to complete strangers. “Does anyone in Pisa want to grab a coffee?” And hey, it worked!
We have also made good friends with some of Andrew’s colleagues, which I am very thankful for.
- I am thankful for the opportunity to live abroad. Not just abroad, but in Italy. I will be honest, it’s not always easy. I have hit some bumps in the road and I miss my family and my cats. I miss how easy it was to just walk in a store and ask for what I wanted and not feel self conscious about my pronunciation.
Living in Italy is so novel, it’s beautiful, it’s rich with history, the people are kind and generous. I love sharing it with visitors, showing them the magic of where we are lucky enough to live. And I just have to believe that the language will become easier with time.
- I am thankful for a husband that loves me no matter what. He is pretty cool. As well as a rad family that supports me even if it’s from a couple of thousand miles away.
- I am thankful for a silly little dog that I adore. He is so spoiled, but really I feel like the spoiled one.
- I am thankful for a space to write about my adventures and share things that I have learned with you. I’m not perfect and am still learning a lot, but I hope you are at least having fun with these articles.
- The list could go on and on, I am lucky and sometimes I take that for granted. Thanksgiving really made me reflect on all that I have in my life, and I am grateful.
Italian Thanksgiving Was a Success!
I love holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I am really happy that we still got to celebrate with new traditions. This will be the first year that I spend Christmas away from family, which I will be sad about. Andrew was really unlucky last year, as he had to spend his birthday, Christmas, and New Years alone in the COVID lockdown here in Italy. So I cannot really complain.
Don’t be afraid to get creative and make new traditions for your favorite holidays while in a new country. It may be a bit weird at first, but seriously, it is a lot of fun. Especially when you get to expose your new friends to a holiday they have never celebrated before.
Happy celebrating!
