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Gaining access to the castle in Calitri had proved impossible for six years for the cousin and his intended. Thwarted by irregular opening hours they prepared us for the possibility that it just might not happen.
A chance meeting at the Manhattan restaurant, where we went for pizza one night and incidentally where the UEFA cup match between Real Madrid and Bayern was being beamed for the edification of local football enthusiasts, with Titti Lampariello ensured that we would have our very own Saturday morning guided tour. Titti works at the Tourist Information Centre as a volunteer and said she would be more than delighted to show us round.
The door to the ceramics museum at the base of the castle was open, the main gate was not. The castle caretaker was nowhere to be seen. We looked at pots, bowls, jars and jugs all made by local potters, Titti's father had been one, and were intrigued by 'Mummoli'. These squat, cylindrical pots with small holes at the top are built into the walls and ceilings as air-conditioning. How does that work? Titti explained that during the hot days the warm air rose into these containers and as the
Mummoli
More attractive than radiators?evening temperature cooled the hot air would fall down out of the mummoli. Ingenious!
We nearly didn't see the castle either as it took a while for Titti to rouse the caretaker / keykeeper to let us in to explore the partly restored castle. EU money has restored some areas for exhibitions and collections, beautifully refurbished and decorated but again difficult to access. I don't think the arty, yuppie set has arrived in Calitri yet.
The Gesualdo family owned this castle for 300 years but after most collapsed in the earthquake of 1694 and the family dispersed the rooms became dwellings for the local population. We looked at one small house which Titti remembered as the house of her brother's mother-in-law. Tiled remains showed the site of the kitchen and bathroom.
'I remember coming here often,' Titti said, ' it was always a busy house.'
After the earthquake in the 80s the owner of the shattered castle properties chose to use the compensation money (insurance? Government?) to build outside the old town, leading to the new Calitri which in Titti's childhood was more green.
'Tourists like to come to Italy for the sea,' said Titti,
'well we have sea here, it is a green sea!' Standing on the topmost viewpoint we had to agree with her. Calitri was a ship in a green sea with a few more village ships breasting other waves in the emerald waters.
The original 12,000 inhabitants have dwindled to 5,000. Titti herself left with her family, aged 15, to promises of more prosperous climes in Montevideo, Uruguay. Why Uruguay? Her father's brother had emigrated there earlier and encouraged her father to go. Spanish became Titti's second language, but she married a Northern Italian and then moved to New York.
Many years, and children later, Titti returned to Calitri to volunteer her services to the Touri Infi and 'give back' to her hometown and regale tourists with tales of growing up here in the 'sea of green.'
These are some of the tales she told us.
Her grandfather, a clay tile and 'mummolo' maker set out with his wares to surrounding towns and villages. Donkey-laden, he told of how brigands roamed the woods and how one time a loud groaning nearby made him tremble. Afeared he followed the agonised groans until he came across a man lying
injured on the ground. He made him comfortable, tucked a small, curved roof tile under his head, gave him a drink of water and went on his way.
Several months later on a similar trip he found himself surrounded by brigands. Thinking his end had come, he prayed out loud and out of the trees stepped the man he had assisted, the chief, who admonished the others and promised il nonno continued safe passage as without him he would have died! True story or a grandpa's tale to entertain the bambini crouched at his knees, mouths gaping as they listened in the cave house?
Titti recalled how busy the women always were. No time for arguments or petty jealousies. Carrying water, making bread, washing, cooking and, of course, cleaning the front step.
Most foodstuffs were stored up in the town. Honey came from the hives in Titti's father's fields. Thoughts of Germans coming had led Titti's father to take the family out to the little house in the fields. One solitary German did make it to Calitri, he stole a strongbox, which contained nothing but paperwork and was chased out by pursuing Americans. The family got the
all clear to return home and the day after the Americans bombed the little house in the field believing that the German was hiding there. Titti vividly remembers standing on the edge of the bomb crater, holding her brother's hand viewing the total destruction of the little house, the beehives and the surrounding flower meadow. No more honey for a while for Calitri then!
And that was our tour of the castle – worth waiting for!
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Jim
non-member comment
I visited Calitri three years ago by accident and decided that the feel of the village was right, so i bought a house in the storico and had it refurbished. I go back every three months and stay at my casa and spend lazy days visiting my new friends. Life slows down to a pace that can't be imagined in the "hurry up i want it now U.S..