Given that Maya has soccer three afternoons a week and riding one afternoon, we have decided to make our free Tuesday afternoon “Cultural Tuesday,” where we head out to explore some new part/attraction of Sevilla. Yesterday our plan involved having lunch at El Rinconcillo, the oldest restaurant in Spain, going to the lookout at the top of Las Setas, and going dress shopping for the Feria de Abril. The first two stops make it into most all tourist guides to the city, but it is the third which truly reveals the culture of the city. Lunch at El Rinconcillo was delicious, but it was not really distinguishable from any number of other old bodegas in the city, except for the tile that states that the restaurant was founded in 1670, which is pretty impressive. It felt like we couldn’t leave Sevilla with how eating there, and now we have. The Setas de Sevilla - the informal name for the Metropol Parasol - is an impressive structure consisting of six parasols that together look like a giant field of mushrooms growing right in and above the old section of the city. The mirador at the top of Las Setas provides a wonderful 360 degree view of the city. Maya like cantering the walkways that weave around the top of the structure. Like El Rinconcillo, Las Setas is an excellent tourist stop - but little more.
The real gem of this Cultural Tuesday was shopping for Feria dresses on Calle Francos. Shops in Sevilla are open in the morning from 10-2 and reopen again from 5-8. By 5:15 on Tuesday, the dress stores were full of women of all ages shopping for a dress to wear to the Feria de Abril. I will try to explain the Feria, but I can only do so in a limited way because I have never been to the Feria. What I do know is that the Feria is essentially Sevilla’s dressed up version of a state fair, with rides and food and parties, but for Sevillanos it is an institution and an obsession. The Feria takes place two weeks after Semana Santa, and as far as I can tell, everyone is all in for the festivities. In fact, most of the stores on the Calle Francos are dedicated solely to selling one of three things: objects for Semana Santa, Feria dresses, or the materials to make Feria dresses. Dresses for the Feria actually make up a significant industry in the city, and it appears to be a vital industry, at that. A few weeks ago the fabric stores were full of women purchasing fabric to make their own dresses, while this week the stores with pre-made dresses were swamped. The dresses themselves are full-on flamenco dresses, an ankle length, form fitting dress with complex ruffled sleeves and skirts. While it is easy to think of them as just cheap dresses sold to tourists in gift shops; these dresses are the real deal - unabashed and spectacular. Some are the traditional black or red with polka dots, but many are much more complex with various fabrics, adornments, and multiple colors.
Those of you who know Maya and Beth will find an afternoon of dress shopping to be almost an impossibility, but both of them agreed to the outing...on cultural grounds, I guess. Maya was pretty dubious, but girls in her class have already been asking her if she has a Feria dress, and I think it is becoming clear to her that everyone gets one. As much as Maya might be anti-dress, there is nothing she likes less than being the one person wearing the wrong thing. She agreed to at least try on a dress...Beth too. It took us a little while to get into the groove, but we finally decided just to go for it, and soon enough Beth and Maya were in one of five dressing rooms in a small dress shop trying on flamenco dresses. The scene at the dressing rooms was an amazing snapshot of Sevilla: two of the dressing rooms were occupied with young women (16-20) shopping with their mothers, one dressing room had a mother of an infant, shopping with another mother and her infant, and the other room was occupied by two women in their fifties, trying on dresses together. One of the older woman was taking selfies in each dress, sending them to her boyfriend. One of the mothers was asking if the dress could be taken out later if her daughter gained weight before the Feria...and the daughter scolding her mother for the comment. There were various discussions of flower patterns versus solid colors. Almost everyone added shawls to the dresses to see how the whole ensemble would look. For my part, I was dying to take pictures of the scene rich with color and flavor, but it seemed like a man taking pictures of the dressing rooms at a dress shop might not be so cool.
Both Beth and I commented afterward that it is like the whole city is going to prom: the dresses really are formal dresses and the excitement is palpable. However, unlike prom, everyone goes - from little girls to grandmas. A number of grandmothers appeared to be buying dresses for their granddaughters, as almost a rite of passage. Relative to other expenses in the city, this is a pretty major one, even at the relatively affordable shop we selected. Amazingly, Maya found a dress that she liked...or at least that she said was “probably the best we would find,” which for Maya is a pretty major affirmation. She wasn’t willing to say it, but I think she appreciated how good the dress looked on her. She has agreed to wear it for one day at the Feria...a photo worth its weight in gold for me. Beth also found a dress and a beautiful shawl. I am not quite sure how long either will wear the dresses, but I have no doubt that they will look amazing riding to the Feria in a horse carriage.
