Marina Grande and Villa Tritone

 

It has been a month since the re-opening of the wonderful piece of art and history, which is Marina Grande Ancient Gate. The site, which once was the only way to access the port, dates back to roman times and is linked to the devastating Turkish Invasion in 1558, which almost destroyed Sorrento city. In fact, the story goes that a traitor, slave of the Correale family, opened the gate during the night of the invasion, allowing pirates to plunder the city. The ancient gate, which often figure on Sorrento’s postcards, was threatening to collapse, reason why important recovery activities have begun. During the intervention, the expert restorers discovered a secret ancient passage, which dates back to the sixteenth century, and that allowed entering and exiting the gates of the ancient city, from Marina Grande. Endless tunnels, long hundreds of meters , dug without delay "offering up" a "hidden path ", a route to take when the city gates were closed in times of: war, bloody battles and sieges, and which is said to emerge near the cave of St. George in Villa Tritone.

The mansion has always been considered one of the most prestigious property of Sorrento also for its position, one of the most beautiful of the Sorrento Peninsula. In fact, as an eagle, the villa overlooks the village of Marina Grande, which was the natural set of the famous movie "Pane, Amore e ..." with Sofia Loren, from a two hundred feet high ridge of tuff, which is dominated by the triangular Vesuvius. Former residence of Agrippa Postumus, grandson of Augustus, the villa became in 1200 the convent of cloistered nuns, violated by the Saracens in 1558. Rebuilt by the Dominicans, the property was honoured by the presence of Torquato Tasso visiting prior to the friar in 1577. Abolished as a monastery in 1799 it passed to the Jesuits in 1835 and was later purchased by Baron Calabrian Labonia who built his house on the ruins the Roman villa of Agrippa, passing later in the hands of the publishing magnate William Waldorf Astor who built the magnificent garden full of exotic plants.

Among the years, the Villa has had several owners, among them the publisher Astor in Geertsema with whom the property definitely took the name of Villa Tritone. In addition to its unparalleled beauty, which we have already talked about earlier, the Villa was made famous also for having given hospitality to: tycoons, intellectuals, aristocrats and artists, in the immediate post-war, among whom figure the philosopher Benedetto Croce during the bombing of Naples in 1942. During those years, the Villa also became the Reference point as well as the counterpart of Villa “La Rufola”, owned by the Marquis Ruffino Benzoni, who for years played host to the death to Gaetano Salvemini, returned from long exile in the United States.

In the sixties, Rita and Mariano Pane bought Villa Tritone, making it recover its past splendour forgotten during the years. Many were the improvements: the reorganization of the apartments, the care of the garden full of exotic and local, some of which are higher than the building itself.  In the Villa we also find many archaeological finds, all of rare beauty, and then basins, grassy paths, areas of greenery, hundreds of steps towards the sea, secret caves and huge tanks, which were in the Roman period, nurseries for fish. When Mariano and Rita began to live at Villa Tritone, they used to receive and accommodate some of the greatest exponents of the international culture, allowing sharing the beauty of this wonderful place to the knowledge of many.

Villa Tritone is today the only Villa in southern Italy, which has been included in the prestigious volume of “Giardini d’Italia” of Marella Caracciolo Agnelli and Federico Forquet.

Regina Giovanna

Best Picture ever for the best place ever!

Ieranto Bay and the Myth of the Sirens

Massa Lubrense has always been called "The Land of the Sirens", that's why I got interested in this theme nd started doing some research. Here's to yu what I found Enjoy!

Sirens, mystical creatures of an ancient past who are said to have inhabited Sorrento area since Greek times; statements of sirens existence are mainly found in Greek stories among which the most important is Homer’s “Odyssey”.

Sirens physiognomy changed a lot during their first appearances, in early Greek art in fact, they used to be represented as birds with huge women's heads, bird feathers and scaly feet, turning later into female figures with bird’s legs, with or without wings, who rejoiced themselves playing variety of musical instruments, especially harps. It is believed that their bird element was chosen because of their beautiful voices. According to the “Odissey”, Odysseus was so curious to hear the Siren’s chant that in order to do that, on Circe’s advice, he had all of his sailor’s ear plug with beeswax and ordered his men to tie him to the mast and to not unbid him no matter his begging. When they came to pass near the Island of the Sirens, Odysseus heard their fascinating chant and begged his sailors to free him, but they did not give up to his entreaties.

Once out of the earshot, his sailors released Odysseus. According to popular beliefs, Sorrento Peninsula is strictly related to the myth of the Sirens, and is commonly known also as the “Land of the Sirens”. Scholars retains in fact that, according to Homer descriptions, Siren’s liar would match exactly the morphological appearance described by the Greek poet. It is believed that those mythological creatures found in the mouths of Capri their ideal setting, being related, for the Greek imaginary, to a liminal situation between land and water, and for being those who rule over the elements and in particular to the condition and to the essential elements for navigation.

The story goes that Sirens would have had a temple in the Peninsula, possibly in Ieranto’s Bay, and that their mythical lair would have been the famous “Li Galli” islands “Sirenuse” to the ancients. Some post-Homeric authors stated that the Sirens were fated to die if someone hearing their chant would have managed to escape them, according Licofrone in fact, having failed to attract Odysseus, “Li Galli” island’s sirens, threw themselves into the sea letting the sea carry their dead bodies respectively to Terina (Ligeia), Licosa (Leukosia) and the other one in Naples (Parthenope). From the name of the sirens would derives the name of those places.

Please find at the end of the page the direct link to download a calendar of the available events related to the wonderful Bay of Ieranto and to the story of the Myth of the Sirens.

Italian's Ghost Town - Pentedattilo "The Devil's Hand"

Pentedattilo is an Italian abandoned village hamlet of Melito Porto Salvo in Reggio Calabria. Located about 250 meters above the sea level on the cliff of Mount Calvary, it overlooks the Ionian Sea and the stunning views of the nearby Sicily and Mount Etna. Its characteristic shape resembles a gigantic hand with five fingers, and it’s from this peculiarity that derives its name “Pentedattilo”: Penta + Daktylos = Five Fingers. Unfortunately, some parts of the mountain collapsed down and it no longer represents all of the five "fingers”. The area remains a fascinating place, related to a lots of myths and legends, full of mystery, and it is of course one of the most characteristic of the Area Grecanica. The town has ancient origins, and its foundation dates back to 640 BC.

For the Greek-Roman period, the city was a thriving and vibrant economic center, as well as an important military center, due to its strategic position of control over the torrent Sant'Elia, the privileged path to reach the Aspromonte. With the Byzantine era, for the city began a long period of decline, caused by the continuous looting made by the Saracens and later by the Duke of Calabria. After the occupation of the Normans in the twelfth century, Pentadattilo came under the rule of the Marquis Alberti. To this family, a horrible crime, committed in 1686, is linked.  We’re talking of the famous so-called “Strage degli Alberti”, unearthed by the novel of Andrea Cantadori "The tragedy of Pentidattilo." Protagonists of this story were the members of two noble Calabria families, that of Alberti, Marquis of Pentadattilo, and that of Abenavoli, barons of Montebello and former vassals of Pentidattilo. Rivalry and hatred existed from a long time between the two families; the conflict mainly regarded matter of common borders. Around 1680, the tensions between the two families seemed to be waning for both pressures of the Viceroy, which sought to pacify the area, and because the founder family Abenavoli, Baron Bernardino, planned to take Antonietta, the daughter of the Marquis Domenico Alberti, as his wife.

It so happens, however, that in 1685 the Marquis Domenico dies and is succeeded by his son Lorenzo, who, a few months after his father's death, married Catherine Cortez, daughter of the Viceroy of Naples. On such a marriage, a long and sumptuous cortege that included, in addition to the bride, the Viceroy and his wife as well as his son Don Petrillo Cortez, arrived from Naples. At the ceremony, the young Don Petrillo had the opportunity to meet Antonietta; after the marriage, Don Petrillo, due to his mother sudden illness was forced to remain in Calabria, having in that way the chance of to date the girl, whom he later felt in love with. After a brief period, Petrillo asked Lorenzo to marry his sister, but, the Marquis Alberti, not knowing his father previous accord, agreed to the wedding. The news of the official engagement between Don Cortez and Antonietta Petrillo Alberti sent on the rampage Bernardino that, hurt in feelings and pride, decided to take revenge overall Alberti family. The story goes that, on the night of 16 April 1686, Bernardino, due to the treachery of Joseph Scrufari, unfaithful servant of the Alberti, introduced himself inside the castle of Pentadattilo with a group of armed men. He first surprised Lorenzo, who was asleep, killing him with two shots of musket and finishing him with 14 stabs. Later, with his men, Bernardino rushed to the assault of the various castle’s rooms, killing most of the occupants including Simone Alberti, the 9 year old little brother of Lorenzo, fatally crashed into a rock. From this massacre were spared only: Caterina Cortez, Antonietta Alberti, her little sister Teodora, her mother Donna Giovanna Petrillo and Don Cortez, taken hostage as a guarantee against possible retaliation of the Viceroy to the Abenavoli. Antonietta and her lover were brought to the Abenavoli castle of Montebello where Bernardino, on the 19 of April, forced Antonietta to marry him. News of the massacre came to the Viceroy Cortez, who immediately sent a real military expedition. The army attacked the castle of Abenavoli, freed Don Petrillo and captured seven perpetrators of the massacre, whose heads were cut off and hung on the battlements of the castle of Pentadattilo.

The Baron Abenavoli, thanks to various tricks and support, managed to escape from the troops of the Viceroy along with Antoinette and, after entrusting his wife to a convent, ran first to Malta and then to Vienna, where he entered the Austrian army. After become an appointed captain, he was killed by a cannon ball during a naval battle in 21 August 1692. Antonietta Alberti, whose marriage was annulled by the Roman Rota in 1690 because it was the result of a violence, ended her days in the cloistered convent of Reggio Calabria, consumed by the pain and anguish, because she felt as the unintended cause of the 'slaughter of his family. Over the time, this tragic story of love and obsessive passion, to the point that blind the human soul, has given rise to many legends and rumours. It seems that the stone towers, which overlooks the town, represent the bloody fingers of the Marquis Lorenzo Alberti and the huge hand that one day will fall on men to punish them for their thirst of blood. It is also said that at night, in winter, when the wind is violently channelled between the gorges of the mountain, you can still hear the screams of the Marquis Alberti. The domination of the Alberti lasted until 1760, but those tragic events were not the only ones to undermine the existence of the small village of Pentadattilo. In 1783 a violent earthquake devastated the town and destroyed several houses. This prompted several families to move to the nearby Melito Porto Salvo, and to call this place "the walking country" just because of the instability of the soil and rock that hosts it.

Today Pentadattilo lives in the memory of those people who know its history and that, with emotion and enthusiasm, do not hesitate to tell others fascinating legends of this charming village that still has much to offer and to tell. Thanks to the passion and commitment of these people, since the early '80s, Pentadattilo was rediscovered by young people and associations who have started a slow path to recovery with the help of volunteers from all over Europe. A concrete result of this voluntary work is the restoration of the church of SS. Peter and Paul, which now houses a church choir. Moreover, every summer Pentadattilo is the destination of the traveling festival "Paleariza", an important event that takes place annually in the province of Reggio Calabria. In addition, between August and September the city hosts the "Pentedattilo Film Festival", an international festival of short films that combines film and territory. Calabria, in which palm lies the ghost town of Pentadattilo, one of the most beautiful and fascinating places of Aspromonte, and from which derives its nickname “The hand of the Devil”.

Legends of Sorrento - The Treasure cave!

Today I want to tell you about a history that has always fascinated me a lot! Since I was I child people in Sorrento, just like anyone else in the area, used to told me about a story related to the area of the Neffola river. I got so interested that I started doing some research I eventually went there...but this is another story...here's to you what I found about the aura of mistery of this place! Enjoy the reading!


Nicolucci’s Cave is located in the Cretaceous limestone ridge overlooking the extreme part of the town of Sorrento, about ninety meters above sea level, where it flows a small waterfall, stream of the source Neffola, that emerge into the sea at Marina Grande. It is not easily visible from a distance, especially in the spring season, as the surrounding area is completely covered with Mediterranean vegetation and a weed in brambles. The opening of the cave has semi-elliptical shape, quite large and high. It leads into a small space of a few square meters where the floor has been lowered due to the input of the many uncontrolled excavations. The interior of the cave has a high vault with stalactite formation, while on the walls are frequent mosses and algae. The back wall, opposite the entrance, is divided into two shelves, one above the other, separated by a stalagmite arch. The upper chamber, raised about two meters from the ground floor, is divided into a vestibule and into an inner chamber, which is accessed with difficulty. The lower compartment is wider than the upper compartment.

Over the years, the cave was often subject of study by many scholars, but it has also undergone many alterations, especially at the hands of curious in search of hidden treasures. The area is in fact linked to many legends, rumors and weird stories, which helped to create an aura of fear and mystery around this place. It seems in fact, that many people from Sorrento and surroundings believed that every night, a warrior armed like S. Giorgio, would monitor the area riding a huge black horse, disappearing later into the ravine below. Woe to meet him!

There’s then the most widespread legend which tells that the cave once treasured a hidden treasure consisting of: precious gems, jewelry, statues and ancient gold coins. The story goes that giant skeletons would have bitten up with unprecedented ferocity and cruelty those who, out of greed or simple curiosity, would have introduced into the cave without knowing the magic words and the other spells designed to allow access guarded the treasure. However, to tell the truth, the treasure really existed and it was the one that Leonardo Lorenzoni, director of the boarding school and the Technical School of matched Viggiano, discovered in 1885. After the excavations, Lorenzoni described the numerous and interesting material found in the cave which he dedicated as a token of esteem to Justinian Nicolucci professor of Anthropology at the University of Naples. Many of the objects found by Lorenzoni in the cavity are now kept in the Museum of Anthropology, founded by Nicolucci himself.

Nicolucci’s Cave currently holds a considerable regional importance since it is so far one of the only extant example of the Bronze Age in Sorrento peninsula. It has restored a large amount of fragments, about a thousand, now found only in small part, which may date back to a period that goes from the Neolithic Serra d'Alto until the fourth century BC, allowing us to reconstruct with a certain approximation the succession of human presence in the cavity. The spots carbonaceous stored on the funds of the vases, the faunal remains (wild but also domestic animals) and ash, the remains of lithic and bone, the weights of the frame, the different whorls, not clearly attributable to a specific cultural horizon, testify, according to some scholars, the unfolding of an activity in the cave of domestic life, every day. The modest size of the cave, however, make it difficult to assume a continuous residential use of the site and suggest rather an occasionally natural shelter probably only as a supplement to a closer and more comfortable home.
Finally it cannot be excluded, the possibility that this place was used as a worship and burial cave.

Italian Ghost Towns - Craco

Craco is an abandoned “comune” of the Province of Matera (Italy), which is characterised by a very stark appearance. Constructed on the highest side of the hilltop, it overlooks the Cavone River alley; its territory is very diverse, with a predominance of gullies, deep furrows in a chalky soil by descent to the valley of rainwater. Due to recurring earthquakes and to a disastrous landslip, probably caused by terrible works of infrastructure: sewer and water systems, the city had been deserted in 1963. The fortune of the country, in its ancient past was due to its strategic location between the river valleys of the Tschafon and Agri, formerly navigable as well as privileged ways for anyone wishing to cross the inner Basilicata. In fact, the tower of Craco formed, together with other fortifications of the area as the Petrolla of Montalbano, the Norman-Swabian castle of Pisticci and the castle of San Basilio, a network of towers able to guarantee the absolute control of the whole area. In the fifteenth century, the city expanded around four palaces:
·         Maronna Palace, near the tower that dominates the country, is characterized by a beautiful monumental brick entrance and a large terraced balcony
·         Palazzo Grossi, close to the Mother Church, has a high portal architrave, frameless. The upper floors are covered with ribbed vaults and are decorated with floral motifs enclosed in medallions. Part of the windows and balconies retain wrought iron railings
·         Carbone Palace, built at the end of 400, has a monumental entrance. In the eighteenth century it was renovated and expanded
·         Palazzo Simonetti
Still visible are the ruins of a tower, called by Craco’s inhabitants "the castle”. For almost six decades, Craco appears today as it was then, that as a country frozen and never lived. According to many fans of the paranormal, ghosts would haunt the streets of the town and disturbing noises and voices would have been heard. Believe it or not, a walk to the town center is really a special experience, evocative, mystical, dark-hued and melancholy. Among the ruins of the walls and the palace, between the castle and the church, the ghost town offers you excitement to no end. No wonder if this place of charm and magic has been the set of many national and not sets. "The Lupa" by Alberto Lattuada, "Christ Stopped at Eboli" by Francesco Rosi, "Nativity" by Catherine Hardwicke, "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson, "007 - Quantum of Solace," by Marc Forster, and "Basilicata coast to coast" by Rocco Papaleo. In this city suggestions are not fiction, but solid reality: Welcome to Cracow, the ghost town!

Important Advice:
Anyone who wants to venture in Craco must keep in mind that it is forbidden to approach the houses, since there is the danger of collapse. However, the panorama that can be admired from the foot of the village there will amply repay the time taken to reach it. Going to Craco with a specialized guide means being able to see the country safely and be able to make out the most beautiful sights that will be framed in the right historical context.
http://www.comune.craco.mt.it/cracocard/dettagli.html

Capri - Via Krupp

Marina Piccola is a beautiful bay surrounded by large cliffs and from urban and natural environment. The most attracting thing of this beach it’s its special charm created by the mix of wonderful scenery, sand, crystalline water as well as the spectacular environment that surrounds it. This wonderful corner of paradise is formed by two very small beaches: Marina di Mulo and Marina di Pennauro once used as little hamlets. Between the two beaches, we find what it could be considered one of the main attraction of Capri: “Scoglio delle Sirene”; in ancient times, Romans used it as a pier but there are several theories around its origin. According to the theories of some scholars of the past,the place was in reality the much-vaunted lair of the mermaids narrated by Omero in the Odyssey, it seems in fact, that the rocks of Marina Piccola in Capri matches perfectly those described by Omero in his Odyssey. In this very famous greek poem in fact, Omero tells of a beach covered with bones on which, the hero Ulysses was attracted by the Mermaid’s enchanting chant; in a small cave in Marina Piccola scholars really found numerous ancient bones. It is not surprising that from the 50s of last century, this beach attracts a high level tourism and still can count many celebrities among its visitors, its unique conformation, environment and history make of it one of the “To-do” things in Capri. But just stop for a second and let’s talk about the way to access this wonderful place: “Via Krupp”, a historic switchback path that connects Marina Piccola to Giardini di Augusto and the charterhouse of San Giacomo.

Commissioned by the German Friedrich Alfred Krupp, the path was idealized as a direct connection from his apartment in Quisisana Hotel to Marina Piccola. The magnate in fact, not managing to reach quickly the little beach where his marine biology research vessel used to lay at anchor, bought the entire area comprised between the Charterhouse of San Giacomo and the Castiglione, to build the renowned “Via Krupp”. Since 1976, the path has been closed several times due to numerous landslides occurred during the years forcing the islanders to use the alternative less panoramic “Via Mulo”. “Via Krupp”starts right after the staircase that lead to “Giardini di Augusto” from where it’s possible to see the road, and which after an initial short straight section, proceed with its characteristic numerous bend for a total of 8 curves.

Right after the winding part of the road, begins a long straight path, from where it’s possible to admire the famous Faraglioni, and from where starts one of the two narrow paths that take respectively to: “Grotta del Castiglione”and “Grotta dell’Arsenale”. The first one is the largest cavity of Capri that opens at 250 meters above the sea level and used to be a refuge during the war’s years; the second one instead, was in roman times a depot for naval stores. Right few minute walk after the beginning of the straight path, we find the gate that take to “Grotta di San Felice”; property of the magnate Krupp, who after cleaning and furnishing it up, used it as his usual hangout point; the grotto has many stories related to itself. For sure, the most famous and scandalous is the one related to the sexual activities it was believed to have taken place there; it is in fact known as Krupp had been accused of pederasty during the war years and how serious this was for the German Reich.

It is said that the "well engineered" scandal, born from the envy and the blackmail of the locals, was "the martyrdom of a man." In the cave (soon called "Orgies Cave") Krupp used to gather with his friends, who, with the disappointment of many people (especially from Capri) had nothing to do with British, Germans, Russians and Americans that instead met at the table d 'hôte of the Zum Kater Hiddigeigei Cafè of the Morgano family. The friends with whom he used to entertain in the cave were: two doctors (Ignazio Cerio and Vincenzo Cuomo), two engineers (Edwin Cerio and the German Wiesener), two painters (White and Lovatti), the young barber Adolfo Schiano (believed to be the favorite of Krupp) and the fishermen Antonino Arcucci, equally young and beautiful. It was said that the group used to meet after going hunting for quail or to held philosophical and convivial meetings but, according to local rumors, the cave was "a fragrant Sodom where Capri children were subjected to the most sophisticated tenderness from their host" to the sound of three violins; the orgasm would have been celebrated by' rocket firing.

When the scandal surfaced, Krupp was expelled from Italy in 1902 but the severity of what was retained a crime at that time in Germany (homosexuality), caused so much pressure on him that few time later Krupp was found dead in his german residence. The official cause of the death was said to be a stroke, though probably it was suicide.