Archive for the ‘scenes from village life’ Category
The Lay of the Land in Calabria
The physical layout of life in a medieval hilltop village in southern Italy is often hard to grasp — especially for people who haven’t been here — so I’m going to try to explain it.
As I’ve written before, many medieval villages up on the hills have counterpart towns on the sea; we’re up on the hill, where houses are very close to one another, often touching. This is about a quarter of Badolato (our quarter, as it were) with the Ionian Sea in the background:
Around the outskirts of town, there are small green patches where people have their gardens, even animals. Most of them are places where houses used to be but have fallen or otherwise been compromised, but any time you can get just a little “orto” near your house, you’ve scored.
Last year, P and I secured a small chunk of land very close to our house (it’s about a 30 second walk), but it’s not like a “yard” that some might imagine.
There are actually two levels to it; one you can see below and the other is just off to the side of this, a few steps down to the right, and is where we plant veggies. You can see the chicken coop and goat pen on the left. The house with the big hole in it? Not ours. You can actually see our bedroom window, though…that brown squarish thing just to the left of the whitish house? I have it in a note on Flickr if you click through:
To give you an idea of the distance, here is a photo taken about half way between our house and the entrance to orto, looking toward the house (the last house on the right — it’s on a corner, and yes I know it needs paint, badly):
This photo overlooks the beginning of the garden (you can see the tops of our trees just past the iron railing), although the entrance is another twenty or so paces away:
And here is a photo from the outside looking in; I’ve labeled it on Flickr with notes (click on the photo to go there) so you can see where we live compared to where the goats live in our orto:
We also keep some chickens and hens there:
Our orto has a lemon tree, a couple mandarin trees, a nespole tree, a fig tree, a small grapevine, and we also plant various crops there, including lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, peas, peperoncini, basil, and this year…strawberries!
And here is the view from our orto (from inside the goat pen):
This was taken a couple months ago, so those branches you see on the right are now full of fig leaves and the beginnings of some fruit.
So as you can see, it’s a nice little space that produces plenty for the two of us — actually way more than we need so we end up giving to friends and neighbors, and often get things in return that we haven’t grown yet, like zucchini and eggplants and also all kinds of pork products since we don’t have a pig. Yet.
Are you wondering about olives and olive oil? Well, there’s also some unofficial news on that, but it’s going to have to wait for another post.
Phew. Any questions?
Spending Mother’s Day in Campagna
It’s not official yet, so I don’t want to *officially* announce that P and I have acquired a campagna (land in the countryside), but we did spend this afternoon up there, and I can’t possibly hold in my joy.
For La Festa della Mamma, P swept me away from all my four-legged babies and did this for me:
While I did this:
And then we both enjoyed this:
Una giornata perfetta.
(A perfect day.)
Happiest of Mother’s Days to all the moms out there, especially mine!
P.S. Yes, there are olive trees! Yay!
Three Red Poppies Swaying in the Wind
Have you heard about the She Who Blogs 3rd Anniversary Photo Contest in which you can win a $33 Amazon gift certificate?
The contest ends May 8th, so get moving! Post a photo on your blog of your take on the theme “THREE,” and head over to the contest page to enter it.
Here’s my Bleeding Espresso entry:
Tre papaveri rossi that happen to be located just behind the little house on the piece of land P and I are in the process of acquiring…yes, more details forthcoming on our new campagna assuming all goes well. Fingers crossed!
P.S. I also put up a “Three” photo over at Goat Berries…couldn’t resist!
Photos of Holy Week in Calabria
As I’ve written before, Holy Week is a huge deal here in Calabria. Here are some photos from the 2010 Sabato Santo (Holy Saturday) procession in Badolato:
I’m telling you, you really should come and see this in person.
La Settimana Santa (Easter Holy Week) in Calabria
Infinitely more so than Christmas, La Settimana Santa (Holy Week) is the biggest, most important event in Calabria — and it has nothing to do with chocolate bunnies and marshmallow treats (more on that later this week).
Many villages have their own special goings-on, and Badolato is one of them. Activities last all week long and culminate in a half-day procession on Venerdì Santo (Good Friday) and an all day procession on Sabato Santo (Holy Saturday).
Last year, I gathered a collection of my posts on Pasqua in Calabria for you:
There are more stories, photos, videos, and a recipe linked there.
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I keep struggling with what to call what goes on here, though. “Celebration” and “festivities” simply don’t fit the somber, austere, and deeply emotional mood even for the non-religious like me. This will be my eighth Easter here, and I still get choked up for La Settimana Santa.
The rhythmic beat of a solitary drum echoing through the narrow streets, the bellowing yet wailing voices of men and sometimes women singing about the suffering of their savior, the trudging up these steep, unforgiving hills with the sun beating down on those dressed in layers of robes.
It all begins at the start of the week, with groups of men who walk around the village from church to church each morning leading up to Good Friday. This video was taken this morning from my balcony:
If you can come to Calabria for Holy Week even once in your lifetime, I highly recommend it.
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
Calabria Guidebook
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