Yes, for us Italians the table is very important. And notice, "the table" is female, woman, welcoming, very different from the simple object, the table.
Setting a table means sharing the joy of dining together, eating traditional foods or experimenting with new ones, chatting, having fun, enjoying: all this is more than a cultural fact, we Italians have it in our blood and maybe we don't give it back account, even when foreigners tell us, smugly, that we can taste food even when we are at the table!
And what could be nicer then than to celebrate New Year's Eve with dear friends, all around a beautifully laid table?
A classic brings good luck and a good omen is to give the friend or friend a nice centerpiece for the occasion that has opened their doors to us even for that evening. Here are some original and all-natural ideas.
White candles with cinnamon, bay leaves and pomegranates
The good omen that these small fruits give is colored with light and magic thanks to white candles: a centerpiece of pure energy!
Procedure : take a nice large round dish, white, golden or red, lay as a base many bay leaves in radius and place many white round candles of various sizes, heights and dimensions.
Color here and there with small decorative pomegranates (if you don't have the bush, try asking a friend, neighbor or relative), and cinnamon sticks. The effect will be magical and very fragrant.
Centerpiece of natural pine cones with citrus scents
A magical pout pourri that tastes of orange, lemon and tangerine, for your natural and specially scented New Year!
Procedure : collect sprigs of pine, pinecones and pignette of all sorts along the paths and in the woods; a week before, cut slices of mandarin, mandarin, oranges and lemons. Allow them to dry for a few days on the radiator.
Take a wicker basket and fill it with pine cones of all sizes. Here and there we put the dried slices of citrus fruit and pine branches: simple and fragrant, for a completely natural table.
Centerpiece that comes from the sea with text messages
For those who love the sea and want to hear it even on the last day of the year!
Procedure : collect many woods, sticks on the beach and get a bottle of sand, shells and lots of colored pebbles or colored slides (white-blue-blue shades). Take white round candles of various heights and sizes and glue the sticks around them; then tie them with string, making knots and bows. Take a glass centerpiece and put the sand in it. At the center all the candles and around the shells and pebbles.
Before eating, have fun writing "message in a bottle" on small pieces of paper, which you will then roll up and put between the shells and stones: read all together in the early hours of the new year!
