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Published: April 8th 2006
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Patron Saint
This is St.Eufermia, the Patron Saint of Irsina Hey everyone!
I guess its finally time to describe where I have been living for the past five months, Irsina. The locals call it a "paese" or "paesino". In Italian "Paese" with an uppercase letter means country, with a lowercase letter it means town or village and with the ending -ino its a very small town or village. I have a great urge to call Irsina a village, but in reality its more like a town.
Irsina was once a very important place. Decades, more likely centuries before the birth of Christ there was Greek presence on Monte d'Irsi (one of the larger hills around for which Irsina is named after). Then came the Romans who built the cathedral and the foundations for the town. After the decline and fall of the Romans, Irsina came under the reign of Sicily and its ruler Federico II. He built a castle that was later given to the Franciscans who converted it into a monastery with amazing frescoes. The town was also under the rule of Naples for quite a while, but of that period I know nothing. Irsina was the seat of a Bishop for quite of a while, and that fact contributed
Irsina
View of part of Irsina to a larger population and an origin of importance. Unfortunately the seat of the Bishop was moved to another town and the great poverty of the early 1900s forced many to immigrate. I am not quite sure of the history behind the name, but the town was called Montescaglioso and then changed to Irsina at some point in time.
The area is full of history and artifacts. My history teacher brought in some ancient Greek artifacts (mirror, bowls, feminine items) from a Greek tomb he and his friend plundered when they were young. I guess you could label him a grave robber, but that just made seeing the objects even more interesting since he had found them himself.
The building my school is in is u-shaped and was built during Mussolini's reign( he nay have been dictator, but he built sturdy buildings). Our school is on the third and last floor of the building. The first stories are used by the preschool and elementary school. There are five grades with one class for each grade. To be honest I don't like the school, in fact it is probably my least favorite aspect of Italy. According to my parents though, I've never liked any school I've been to so I guess you can't put much stock in my opinion, oh well.
Italian schools in general are very different from American ones. There are five years of high school and a variety of types to frequent. The kind of school I attend is a scientific one, which is the closest to the curriculum in American schools. High schools focus on what students want to do in their futures. There are high schools to be a cook, social worker, artist, teacher, hotel manager, and numerous other occupations. From what I've heard the most difficult of the schools is the classical school, the subjects are harder and more is expected of you.
Irsina is on a hill, and is long, but very thin. My host sister and I timed how long it is to walk from our house to the other side of the town and it was around twenty minutes(and considering that our house is situated a little outside of the center, for most people this time is much shorter). One of the things I love about Irsina is that I can walk everywhere, since the gym is expensive this is a big plus. Another one of the great things about Irsina is the view, because we are on a hill we have a beautiful panorama of the other hills and farmland surrounding. The Cathedral and the Franciscan church are also spectacular. A few years ago a statue was found, and discovered to have been made by Andrea Mantegna, who was a famous Italian sculptor. The sculpture is of the patron saint of the town, Saint Eufermia, it is the treasure of the town and rests in the cathedral.
There are many homemade products made here and lots of culture with it'. Once the town was known for its cheese, not much anymore. I might have tasted the cheese but to be honest I’m not sure. People here produce their own olive oil, wine, etc. There is lots of culture if you look for it, one aspect that is impossible to escape is the local dialect. Irsina, just like every other small town in Italy, has its own dialect. Dialect is another language, sometimes there are similarities with the Italian language, but not always. People speaking dialect annoys me a bit, but just because I don't understand it.
When I travel to other cities like Rome and Venice I see the enormous difference in accent, culture overall way of living. As my dad says I’ll always be a true southerner who thinks the northerners talk funny and act strange.
Ciao!
Alyssa
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Jane
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Moving to Irsina
I was very pleased to find this on the web as we are Brits who have just brought a holiday home in Irsina; so you will soon have some English speaking neighbours. In fact most of the old town (borgo) is now up for sale to us interntational types so soon you will probaly have a lot of new neighbours! We agree with you, it is beautiful.