The pumpkin exhibition returns to Murta: inauguration on Saturday 5 November
Genoa. On the weekends of 5 and 6 November and 12 and 13 November, on the occasion of the celebrations for the feast of San Martino, Murta is once again a great protagonist with its traditional exhibition “From A … to PUMPKIN” now in its 36th edition. This year’s theme is “The Pumpkin and the Arts”, a journey through cinema, comics and literature ”.
Program, details and curiosities of the event are published on the website www.murtaezucche.it on the Facebook page and on the Instagram profile of the initiative.
The exhibition, sponsored by the Municipality of Genoa and organized subsequently in collaboration with the Department of Commerce, Crafts, Pro Loco and City Traditions and the Municipality V Valpolcevera, will be inaugurated on Saturday 5 November at 10.30 and can be visited until 18, in the days the opening hours will be 10-18. As usual, the proceeds will be donated to charity. AMT will enhance the bus service between the valley floor and the exhibition. It will be possible to park the car in via NS della Guardia and in via Polonio.
«The Murta Pumpkin exhibition is one of the greatest examples of the enhancement of the traditions and agricultural and food and wine heritage of our territory – says Paola Bordilli, councilor for trade, crafts, Pro Loco and city traditions -. It is an important event for the identity and the community of Val Polcevera which over the years has tightened more and more a strong bond with the whole city. As a municipal administration we thank the organizers for the commitment each year with whom, even in the Covid period, we wanted to keep alive the value and continuity of this event. Together with the adviser to the valleys Alessio Bevilacqua and the president of the Valpolcevera Municipality Federico Romeo, whom I thank, we renew our support for this event attended by young and old ”.
In the Genoese hinterland town surrounded by greenery, food stands will be set up offering pumpkin-based dishes and tastings of freshly harvested Novello Valpolcevera white wine.
Sunday 6 at 18 will be awarded the longest pumpkin and the largest pumpkin; while at the same time on Sunday 13 the awards will be assigned to the pumpkin and the most beautiful one (determined on the basis of the votes of the visitors), to the school works and to the shop windows of Valpolcevera set up with cucurbits.
Growers who want to exhibit their pumpkin can present themselves by Friday 4 November, from 3 to 6 pm, at the parish of San Martino.
«This year the pumpkin takes us on a journey through the arts: from painting to literature, from cinema to comics – declares the organizing committee of the Murta Pumpkin Show -. We are waiting for all our visiting friends and we thank the Municipality of Genoa and the Department of Commerce, Crafts, Pro Loco and City Traditions for the precious support provided in organizing this edition which will be even richer and more surprising! ».
The exhibition “From A … to the PUMPKIN” will be enriched by side activities: in the gymnasium of the primary school “Doge Giovanni da Murta” will be exhibited works of the institutes of the Valpolceveraschi institutes; comics workshops will be held in the parish garden; the QuellicheaTrastacistannobene Cultural Committee will organize guided tours of the parish church and the rose garden in the monumental cemetery of Murta (reservations required by calling or writing on WhatsApp at 3383211391); the Bolzaneto section of the CAI-Italian Alpine Club will offer excursions to the Murta-Asósto di Bigiæ path, departing from the square of the Church of Murta and the Astronomical Observatory of Genoa (OAG) will offer mini-conferences. The protagonists with special compositions of pumpkins will also be the shops of Valpolcevera participating in the “Vetrine in festa” initiative.
Finally, from 11 to 13 November, in the atrium space of Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, a photographic exhibition will be set up which will tell, in the heart of the city, all the previous editions of the Murta Pumpkin Exhibition.
Since its first edition in 1987, the exhibition “From A… to the Pumpkin” has increased its popularity not only locally. From year to year the pumpkins have been placed in an exhibition context that has framed characters, historical periods and local activities through careful documentation combined with the search for curious news and unusual aspects. In its uninterrupted thirty-six years of life, the exhibition “traveled” in the fourteenth century with Giovanni da Murta, the second Doge of Genoa, and in the Risorgimento through the figure of Giuseppe Mazzini’s sister who lived in Murta. The themes also concerned commercial traffic on the Via del Sale, the birth of the railway lines along the Valpolcevera, Cristoforo Colombo and the pumpkins in Europe but also the Moon or the arrival of the Genoese dialect.