Bel Paese - Italy



“Bel paese” (bell pah-ay-say) – these words translate to beautiful country and are the words used by many to describe Italy.  The beauty of Italy is found in its people and their strong family values and traditions, its culture which includes a love for and the creation of world-renowned food and wine, its diverse and captivating landscape, and its ancient, historical sites which attract and awe millions.  I have been fortunate to visit Italy, the country where my parents were born, many times.  Three of my favorite places in Italy are Montescaglioso (Mohn-tess-cah-lee-oh-so), Positano (Poh-see-tah-noh), and of course, Roma.  Journey with me to these places where I will share with you the words, images, and sounds of these enchanting places.

First vacation spot:  Montescaglioso



Many of you may be thinking, “where is Montescaglioso?”, or even before that, “how do you say that word?!”.  Hopefully my above attempt at phonetic spelling helped you with that.  Montescaglioso, which in Italian, means “terraced mountain” is a little town in Southern Italy that sits atop an 1,198 ft hill.  As per wikipedia, its population at June 2009 was 10,051.  This town is in the Basilicata region of Italy, in the province of Matera.  Italy is divided into 20 regions, which can be loosely related to our states, with each region having a number of provinces, which can be loosely related to our county seats.  Matera, Montescaglioso’s province, is the next town over from it.  Matera houses one of Unesco’s World Heritage sites, called The Sassi.  The Sassi are natural cave formations in the side of a mountain that, more than 10,000 years ago, were used as shelter and dwellings.  This site was also used as the backdrop of the crucifixion site in Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ”.  As well, the streets and alleyways of the city were used in the filming of Jesus’s carrying of the cross to his crucifixion site.  My cousin, who dabbles in filmmaking, told me that many local actors were hired to be in these scenes.

Montescaglioso as viewed from afar

History of Montescaglioso (as per Wikipedia):
The first settlements in the area date from the 7th century BC, belonging to the Apuli Italic tribe. The original nucleus of Montescaglioso grew substantially in the following centuries, thanks to trade with the nearby Greek town of Metaponto. When the latter decayed in Roman times, Montescaglioso further increased in importance. Archaeological findings include a large tuff wall dating from the 3rd century BC.
After the decline of the Western Roman Empire, Montescaglioso is mentioned first only in early medieval times. A Byzantine stronghold, it was captured by the Normans after the year 1000, and housed an important Benedictine community. Under the Angevin and Aragonese dynasties of the Kingdom of Naples, it belonged in sequence to the D'Avalos, Orsini, Loffredo, Grillo and Cattaneo feudal families.

Evidence of Montescaglioso's history from the medieval times still exists today.  In the old quarter of town, there are many old churches and monasteries with gated courtyards, old buildings, monuments, and narrow streets and alleyways.  The largest and most impressive of these is the Benedictine Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo, known to exist from 1078 and probably built in the 5^th century (also as per Wikipedia), having 365 rooms, some with frescoes dating back to this time.  My mother's grammar school was housed in some of these rooms.  The old quarter is fortified to the north with the town’s wall, with the last remaining of the six doors to the town, Porta Sant’Angelo that still exists.  See old quarter photos below: 

Benedictine Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo









Piazza del Popolo with Saint Angelo's Door toward center - notice elevation of town in relation to landscape





Porta Sant'Angelo (Saint Angelo's Door - old door to the city)

What brought me to this charming, endearing town is that it is the birthplace of my parents.  They would bring me there when I was younger and I have returned on my own several times, with and without them.  It is here, with many aunts, uncles, and cousins, that I have and can still experience an Italy that is much different than the Italy experienced in the larger, more well known cities and towns that most tourists visit.  It is here, in a small town, that the true Italian culture, traditions, and people still exist and can be experienced. 

My vacations in Montescaglioso consist of being with many relatives, eating at a different relative’s house each day, meeting them and friends in the piazza every night where we would talk and sometimes go to a restaurant for a late night supper of pizza or for the renowned Italian gelato.  On any day in this small town, work is suspended and stores are closed from about midday to 3 pm when the family sits down to dinner followed by a little nap.  Work then resumes and stores reopen until about 6 or 7 pm.  In the evenings, the piazzas or squares come alive with friends and relatives meeting to relax, talk, eat gelato or drink espresso.  This all forms the basis of the strong family values and support systems that Italians are known for.  In these small towns where work is not abundant or income is low, and hence population demographics undergo no to limited changes over the years, these strong family values and systems naturally evolve and become important to all.  Here you can find extended family members, consisting of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, grandchildren together on a daily basis, whether just checking in on each other, having dinner together, or being together otherwise. 

 



Birthday party dinner with aunts, uncles, cousins



 

Late night pizza in restaurant










Gelato!!

It is here in Montescaglioso that I also experience an Italian tradition and part of their culture where annually they celebrate and honor their patron saint, Saint Rocco, the protector of their town.  Every August, for about five to six days, the citizens participate in a feast where they have processions, led by a marching band, where they carry a statue of their saint through the streets from and to some of the churches.  The streets and the main piazzas are all lit up with festival lights.  Vendors line them selling foods, clothing, shoes, purses, toys, and other items.  Restaurants and cafes are very busy.  Families celebrate in their homes with enormous dinners.  The feast culminates with a final procession of the statue, on a horse-drawn platform, through the old quarter and then the retirement of the statue to the first church, in the town’s main piazza, where it is stored until next year.  Here bands play in the bandstand all night long and the evening ends with a fireworks display.  All town citizens, from the very young to the very old, and many citizens from neighboring towns are here, in this small square, in the thousands, this evening.  The party atmosphere is electrifying.  Families and friends coming together to celebrate their city’s saint and continue a tradition that has been going on for many years creates a sense of community that cannot be matched nor broken.  This is why I will return to Montescaglioso many more times!





Procession of Saint Rocco through streets









Festival lights in the main piazza



Second Vacation Spot:  Positano (on the Amalfi Coast)



Positano's location on the boot





Positano's location on the Amalfi Coast

Another of my favorite places to vacation in Italy is Positano.  Positano, with a history that dates back to the 10^th Century, is an idyllic, picturesque seaside town perched on the cliffs of the famous Amalfi Coast and is known as the pearl of the Amalfi Coast.  In an article that he wrote about Positano which appeared in the May 1953 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, John Steinbeck, the famed author, wrote:

“Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone. Its houses climb a hill so steep it would be a cliff except that stairs are cut in it. I believe that whereas most house foundations are vertical, in Positano they are horizontal. The small curving bay of unbelievably blue and green water lips gently on a beach of small pebbles. There is only one narrow street and it does not come down to the water. Everything else is stairs, some of them as steep as ladders. You do not walk to visit a friend, you either climb or slide”.

This brings us to the many steps of Positano.  Although there isn’t an official count, the number is in the thousands!  Just the main steps, from Amalfi Drive through the center of town to the beach has been counted at 1,700 steps!  There are more steps in Positano than there are citizens.  The population, at April 2009, was 3,968.  





Step after step after step...





finally going down!!

After Steinbeck wrote his article about Positano, it began to attract a large number of tourists.  Tourism is now the main industry in Positano which attracts millions of visitors each year.    Prior to this and after the 16^th and 17^th centuries when it prospered as an important seaport for Middle East trade, Positano was a poor fishing village. 

The unsurpassed beauty of Positano appeals to many artists, authors, and filmmakers.  William James wrote about Positano in his 2010 book, “Finding Positano:  A Love Story”.  Positano is featured in a number of Hollywood films.  One that you may be familiar with is “Under the Tuscan Sun”.  The following YouTube video places you on the beautiful Amalfi Drive, which overlooks the beach and the main cliff of the town in the backdrop.    



Here are some pictures I took of Positano in August 2010 as I was approaching it on the ferry from Salerno.  I traveled to Positano this year after I had been in Montescaglioso.  I took a train from there to Salerno where I jumped on the ferry for the 1.25 hour trip to Positano where I met six of my friends.  The ferry ride was awesome as along the way I had the opportunity to see, from the water, Amalfi and a few of the other 13 towns that dot the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast. 



Alas!  My beautiful Positano!





 

Getting closer!!




 

Positano in all its grandeur!!






 

View from hotel  lobby



 

Is this what Mellencamp meant when he sang, "Pretty pink houses for you and me!" - I'll take one!

No trip to Positano would be complete without an excursion down the Amalfi Drive to visit other towns on the coast.  It’s best to take a bus or car service for this trip for safety reasons (leave the driving here to the experts!) and as you will want to see the breathtaking views around every curve of the drive.  The ride is a little scary as Amalfi Drive hugs the edge of the cliff and at times opposing traffic (mostly buses versus cars) need to stop and back up to allow the other to continue, but it is worth every second of it.  Here are pictures I took from the bus on the ride from Positano to Amalfi and Ravello and a few of the scenes in Amalfi:





Stunning view from Amalfi Drive




 

Amalfi from water 





Local Natural Supplements - Italy is for lovers!!

Here also is a You Tube video called “The Most Beautiful Drive in the World” that shows the beauty and magnificence of this coastline and gives you a feel for how terrifying this ride is for some people:

Positano’s hotels and restaurants provide superior service.  My girlfriends and I did not have one bad meal.  Needless to say, the fish that is served is as fresh as it can be.  The main fish here and in most of Italy is orata, which is what I ate here.  It was one of the best-tasting fish dishes I’ve ever had!  See our smiles in the picture below: 

 

"Belle donne", beautiful ladies, as the locals called us, having a most delicious dinner

 




  



Positano-sized lobster - 10 lbs.!!

Positano and the whole Amalfi Coast region are popular for the Limoncello they produce, which is a lemon liqueur they make with the local lemons, which are among the largest that I have ever seen.  Everywhere we go, the fragrance of the lemons is in the air and Limoncello is sold and drunk!

  


Lemons for Limoncello

 





The finished product - enjoy!!

Finally, I share with you one of the songs that has become widely associated with this region, “Funiculi, Funicula”.  It is a Neopolitan song that commemorates the opening of the first funicular (cable car) on Mount Vesuvius, which was later destroyed by the eruption of the mountain in 1944.  It is a jovial song which is heard often throughout the streets in this region, piping out from stores as you walk by, in bars and restaurants, and on the streets by groups of locals as they are walking.  We quickly adopted this as our song and would sing it ourselves as we were walking around.  The verse, “yamma, yamma, ‘ncoppa, yamme ya! Yamma, yamma, ‘ncoppa, yamme ya! Funiculi, Funicula!” would put a pep in our step and make us clap our hands.  As much as we didn’t look like locals, we felt like we were when we were singing this song.  Yes, strange, weird, crazy maybe, but we were having fun!!  This version seems to begin with a formal tone, being sung by Andrea Bocelli, all tuxedoed out in the Colosseum in Rome, but as it progresses you can hear the lightheartedness and joviality of it (not sure about the zombie looking people in this video though!).



The absolute beauty of Positano, the laid back atmosphere, and the fun that can be had there is what will keep me going back year after year!  My dream is to spend my summers there teaching ESL!  I WILL make that happen!!

The above video lands us nicely in my third and final favorite vacation spot in Italy - Rome!

Nowhere in the world that I’ve visited have I gotten the feeling of what it may have been like to live in ancient times than in Rome.  Walking through the streets of Rome, in the shadows of its ancient architecture and buildings, I can easily imagine emperors and gladiators in their horse-drawn carriages passing by. 

Rome is the capital of Italy and, as per Wikipedia, its population at December 2010 was 2,761,477.  It is located in central Italy in the province of Lazio, on the Tevere or Tiber River. 

Rome’s history dates back two and a half thousand years and the city was, at different times, a kingdom, a republic, and then an empire.  It was founded by Romulus and Remus, twin brothers, in 753 BC.  Myth has it that Romulus and Remus, abandoned by servants in charge to execute them, were raised by a she-wolf.  In an argument over where to locate the Roman kingdom, Romulus killed Remus and hence the name of the city became Rome.  The statue in the below image, from connect.in.com, showing the twins suckling from the she-wolf, is representative of this myth.  Figurines of this statue can be bought all over Rome.

Via Appia, or as we may know it, the Appian Way, is of great interest to me because the first section of it was built by Claudius Appius, later translated to modern Claudio Appio.  If you haven’t noticed yet, this is my last name.  I can’t claim a direct line of descendence from this man as I haven’t yet traced my family lineage that far back, but it would be pretty cool if I could claim that he was a direct ancestor of mine.  I’ve been to Rome twice and of course have pictures of me on the Appian and of the ancient catacombs along it but do not have digital pictures because the first time I visited digital cameras were not invented yet and the second time, just last year, my camera battery was dead so I had to take pictures with a disposable.  I would have loved to share these with you.

 

Anyway, back to the road - Claudius Appius began a series of public works projects in 312 BC, including an aqueduct, Aqua Appia, and the more famed and popular road, the Via Appia.  Via Appia was built and used at that time to mobilize troops and transport supplies during the Second Samnite War.  Later, Via Appia had been extended all the way to Brindisi, in the Puglia region of Italy.  The map and images below show the length of the road.  As per Wikipedia, Via Appia contains the longest stretch of straight road in Europe,^[6] totaling 62 km.

 The pink section of the road is the Via Appio Traina, built to create a shorter route.  

  

Wikipedia provides a good description of this road and some of the sites along it:

Via Appia antica

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the road fell out of use; Pope Pius VI ordered its restoration. A new Appian Way was built in parallel with the old one in 1784 as far as the Alban Hills region. The new road is the Via Appia Nuova ("New Appian Way") as opposed to the old section, now known as Via Appia Antica. The old Appian Way close to Rome is now a free tourist attraction. It was extensively restored for Rome's Millennium and Great Jubilee celebrations. The first three miles are still heavily used by cars, buses and coaches but from then on traffic is very light and the ruins can be explored on foot in relative safety. The Church of Domine Quo Vadis is in the second mile of the road. Along or close to the part of the road closest to Rome, there are three catacombs of Roman and early Christian origin.

The construction of Rome's ring road, the Grande Raccordo Anulare or GRA, in 1951 caused the Appian Way to be cut in two. More recent improvements to the GRA have rectified this through the construction of a tunnel under the Appia, so that it is now possible to follow the Appia on foot for about ten miles from its beginning near the Baths of Caracalla.

Many parts of the original road beyond Rome's environs have been preserved, and some are now used by cars (for example, in the area of Velletri).

Images of the Appian Way from Wikipedia:

Remains of the old Appian Way



 


Porta San Sebastiano - gate to the Appian Way in the Aurelian Walls

I finish here with some pictures of the more famous sites in Rome that I took last year.  All of them have their own ancient, personal history and are quite the magnificent sites to see.



Spanish Steps

  


Square in front of Pantheon

  





Trevi Fountain

 

Pantheon

The following image of the Colosseum was taken from shortstayapartment.com:



I end this journey through Rome and through beautiful Italy with the song "Arrivederci Roma" (video from YouTube).  In this video you will also see images of the Vatican which I did not touch upon.  This is not to ignore or diminish the beauty and importance of this part of Rome, which actually is a sovereign city/state within the confines of Rome.  Sites to see there include the magnificent St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel with the work of Michelangelo, the La Pieta' statue by Michelangelo, which is the beginning picture in the video.  This famous statue resides in St. Peter's Basilica, now behind an impenetrable glass wall, as a man, out of his wits one day, took a hammer to it and chipped off a piece of the statue.  This beautiful statue depicts the image of the Blessed Mother holding the dead body of Jesus.  Pieta' translates to mercy or pity. 

"Arrivederci" means "to see each other again".  It is with this song in my heart that I end all of my trips to Rome and to Italy as I know that I will always return.   

 

Blog created by Rosanna Appio