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As we all know, Italy is a treasure trove of art, architecture, food, hilltop towns and seaside villas. The country offers “something for everyone” and surely nobody in his right mind could ever be disappointed after having spent any amount of time there. But while we all know about the canals that await us in Venice, the art in Florence and the gastronomy in Bologna, what about the lesser known but just as exciting sites like the royal silk factory in Caserta, the small island of Ponza situated somewhere between Rome and Naples and the small town of Dozza that boasts frescoed building façades? Enter Italiannotebook.com. La Gazzetta Italiana’s friends at the popular website have provided us with some “notes” on places in Italy that you may want to add to your itinerary the next time you visit Italy. Deruta Signage (Deruta | Perugia, Umbria)
A visit to the town as well is worthwhile next time you’re in area. Besides the Ceramic Museum (not to be missed) you would imagine you were in any other beautiful little Umbrian town, if it weren’t for the fact that most of the town’s signage is done in what else but traditionally decorated and colored Deruta ceramic tiles. The store sign to Mr. and Mrs. Cherubini’s pharmacy (you can’t miss it, it’s the only one) is done with tiles, naturally. The local alimentari that sells local foods and wine also has a lovely decorative element adorning its door. The same goes for the municipio (town hall), the vigili urbani (town police) and many others. Mind you, signage isn’t the only interesting thing in Deruta (the church and the local public garden are must-sees), but one last sign certainly needs to be pointed out. It is this one of the local high school. A fine arts high school that specializes in, you guessed it, ceramics. It’s good to see that Deruta is thinking about the future of its tradition too. Dozza’s Frescoes (Dozza | Bologna, Emilia-Romagna)
The detour is a tiny town called Dozza, and it sits atop the Colli Imolesi (Imolesi Hills), famous for their wine production. However, the true allure of the city are its incredibly frescoed building facades, products of a biennial festival for which artists fly in all over the world to decorate homes, churches and municipal buildings with lovely imagery. The festival started in the 1960s and is still going strong. Since the town is so minuscule, nearly every possible surface has been covered with an artist’s rendering. My favorite murals are attributed to Japanese artists and the juxtaposition of their highly stylized representations of their native land, set against the backdrop of the rolling Emilian hills. Truly magical! The Colours of Corricella (Procida | Naples, Campania)
However, the locals are bemused. Once, while taking a photograph of a door with a complex history of layered paint, I heard a voice behind me ask why I was bothering with that porta bruttissima (terribly ugly door) at which she had to stare every day. Her laughter pursued me all the way down the steps to the harbour -- where I just had to take some more pictures. Royal Silk Factory (San Leucio | Caserta, Campania)
The factory, now a UNESCO World Heritage site (1997), has been turned into a museum. On display are full-size replicas of the machines used to spin the dyed thread onto reels, patterned after a water-powered model by Leonardo da Vinci. Also available are several fascinating old looms which used computer-like punch cards to dictate the patterns. The shuttle was released by the weaver once the pattern had been coded. For the first time, silk for furniture, elegant wall coverings in palazzi, and clothing was able to be made industrially. Many in San Leucio recall with fondness the noblesse oblige approach taken by King Ferdinand, implementing many social reforms in this utopian town of his called Ferdinandopoli. Then again, he also practiced the droit de seigneur, giving him the right to all brides on their wedding night! Salina: Aeolian Gem (Salina | Messina, Sicily)
In ancient times Salina was known as “Didyme” because of the twin peaks of its now-extinct volcanoes, and is known today for its production of capers and Malvasia wine. Visitors to Salina flock to Pollara’s rocky promontory to watch the sun go down behind the two western-most Aeolian islands, Alicudi and Filicudi. The 15-minute hike down to the water has been made easy by a well-kept stone path, although getting in and out of the water is challenging for those not used to scrambling over algae-slicked rocks! At the end of the day, after a swim in the wine-dark sea and the unique spectacle of that day’s golden sunset, everyone heads back up the hill in the gathering twilight, but they all keep turning back to catch one more glimpse of the gilded sky and seascape below. Ponza (Ponza | Latina, Lazio)
They’ve used it for all sorts of purposes too -- mining, vacationing, Saracen raiding base, fish farming, as an ancient shipping and cargo port, a penal colony, a religious center, etc. etc. Why go? Besides the pretty phenomenal fish restaurants, the island has unlimited, picture perfect, isolated rocky coves to sail into and enjoy all day. Oh, and supposedly there are the quite a few ruins too, except if anyone manages to see any then let the rest of us know. For some reason you just never manage to get around to it. Spaccanapoli (Naples, Campania)
Along its length sit worthwhile sights: Santa Chiara and its amazing cloister, San Domenico Maggiore with its incredible mix of Gothic and baroque styles, the San Severo Chapel with Sammartino’s Veiled Christ marble statue, and Via San Gregorio Armeno, a side street where traditional presepio (nativity scene) figurine making is still alive and well. All in all, Spaccanapoli offers a nice afternoon’s walk that puts you in direct contact with daily life in the city, as well as… WAIT! Forty-five minutes into the walk and you realize that you have been heading in the same direction the whole time. As in there are no bends in the street! Not even a smidgen of a sliver of a comforting degree or two, even slightly! Even the buildings are straight! Compared to most other streets in Naples which are most definitely not straight, or at least not for more than 20 feet, this one is nothing but! Disoriented, dizziness begins to set in…vertigo even. Not to worry! You are walking along the inferior decumanus, the southernmost of the three east-to-west running main avenues which were standard layout of ancient Greek settlements and Roman military encampments. Phew! Not an unsettling chance occurrence then, it is reassuring to know that this is 3,000+-year-old deliberate Italian urban planning at its finest. And you thought that was an oxymoron if there ever was one…ha! Italian Notebook: Experience Italy daily, for free, one short note at a time. Visit italiannnotebook.com to sign up to receive free daily emails about all things Italian for Italy lovers everywhere! We would like to thank GB, editor of italiannotebook.com, for providing us with the fabulous notes and photos, and each of the writers for so graciously giving us permissin to use their work in our feature story. La Gazzetta Italiana strongly encourages everyone to sign up for daily Italy notes from italiannotebook.com... you'll learn something new everyday!
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That this small town is almost entirely dedicated to the creation of beautiful ceramics since age immemorial is known by aficionados the world over. However, many who come to purchase the wares often only see the large modern showrooms, workshops and kilns that lie at the foot of the old medieval town up on its hill.
If you ever make the drive down the lovely (and very historic) Via Emilia, which runs straight as an arrow through some of Emilia Romagna’s largest cities, there is a lovely detour on the way from Bologna to Imola.
On the island of Procida is a village that still uses its fishing boats when so many other little towns on Capri and Ischia have surrendered entirely to ice cream, mud treatments and disco tourism. But tourists, grand and not-so-grand, still come to Corricella to explore the alleyways because this is a positive paint box of a town where everyday objects are drenched in colour. It must be the light. Is it any surprise that so much of Il Postino, Massimo Troisi’s poignant last role, was filmed here?
In 1750, Bourbon King Charles VII and his son Ferdinand I, builders of Caserta’s Reggia (Royal Palace), chose to turn their hunting lodge at San Leucio into a silk factory. They maintained the elegant rooms for their family, and built houses for the silk artisans across the narrow street. All had a commanding view of Caserta and the Reggia from the belvedere. The artisans, while given an advantageous lifestyle, were nonetheless constrained to remain with the factory their entire lives or suffer the consequences. Italy benefited enormously as it soon produced the most magnificent silk of the era.
Salina, one of the seven volcanic Aeolian islands off the north coast of Sicily, may be familiar to film buffs if they remember the movie Il Postino, of which parts of the film were filmed. The movie recounts the fictional tale of friendship between the exiled Communist poet from Chile, Pablo Neruda, and the simple fisherman-turned-postman who delivers his mail every day. Several of the movie’s scenes were filmed on the beach at Pollara, located on the island’s northwestern shores.
This small island off the Tyrrhenian coast between Rome and Naples is a local, very pleasant and low-key vacation destination, just as it was for the Romans two thousand years ago. And before them and since? Volsci, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Libyans, Egyptians, Anatolians, and Canaanites, Moors, Spanish, French… pretty much everyone in the area has at one point or another been here.
No trip to Naples is complete without a walk along what locals simply call Spaccanapoli (literally, Naples splitter). Actually, it is probably the easiest way to take in quite a bit of what this amazing city has to offer, short of driving (most inadvisable!).