Vallecorsa
I would like to apologize for the long delay as I haven't posted anything much in months. I've been getting messages on Facebook asking whether I had already decided to give up the blog, which I haven't. Yet :p
I didn't think my previous posts would go as well as they did, but it turns out that people are reading the blog posts in 14 countries and the view count is over 400. Woohoo :D
Also, I think I should mention the fact that Blogger doesn't tell me who exactly reads the articles, it will only show me the country and browser used by the reader to access them.
This being said, I thought I would start by talking about a few experiences I had this summer during the break from university, starting with my visit to a small comune in the Lazio region named 'Vallecorsa'.
Located 90 km from Rome, the small town is a fortified borough, said to have been built in the 9th century AD.
Vallecorsa is also known by most people for its olive oil production as well as for being the main location of the 1960's film "La Ciociara" directed by Vittorio De Sica, starring the Italian bombshell Sophia Loren, based on Alberto Moravia's novel of the same name. The movie narrates the story of widow Cesira (Sophia Loren) who flees Rome with her daughter during the second world war, eventually arriving in Vallecorsa.
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| Her Majesty Sophia Loren |
My sister is a HUGE fan of the movie and the book (which I both highly recommend), so we decided to go visit the town for the day.
While I'm always up for adventures and love going on trips to explore new places, I am also particularly scared of heights which turned out to be a great disadvantage considering Vallecorsa is located right on top of a mountain.
The first thing I noticed was the medieval look of the place, also characterized by fascist buildings dating back to the second world war.
I was quite struck by the fact that the town seemed to be empty, as we were only able to spot a few elderly people sitting in quiet and gloomy cafés.
While making our way up to the main square or "piazza" of Vallecorsa, we came upon two churches; the first being 'La Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo'. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any information on when the church was built as I later had to google it, although plenty was given on the patron saint the place is dedicated to, Saint Michael.
In the center of the picture below you may be able to spot a statue of a soldier holding a sword. Created in the 1600's by an unknown artist, the statue has since become Vallecorsa's most prized possession after the 1796 miracle, in which hundreds of believers declared to have witnessed the statue of Michel moving its eyes, as well as seeing beads of sweat form on its forehead.
I wasn't able to take closer pictures of it as there were people praying and it seemed rude to interrupt although I was able to take this picture before making my way out.
As we made our way around, we bumped into a group of elderly ladies sitting in one of the squares. As we walked passed them,they asked us why we were visiting the town as tourists are rarely seen. One of the ladies jokingly asked me whether we interested in buying one of the many empty houses which surrounded the square due to the younger generations moving to the city, while another added that we would have been able to purchase 3 for the price of 1.
While chatting about the beauty around us, I was able to notice that a few of the women were wearing necklaces with tiny black and white portraits of men so I asked if they could tell me who the men in the portraits were. They told me the photos were of their husbands who had left for the United States during the 50's when Italy was still devastated by the war. They added that the necklaces would serve to show the other men of the village that they were already married (few could afford wedding rings), and had decided to keep them on even after their spouses had returned.
Finally, I asked if I could take a selfie with them for my blog, and even after reassuring them they were still beautiful even at their age, they politely declined. :(
While going through the photos, Lorenzo gave us some information on how Vallecorsians used to live then moved on to talk about the reason we were there in the first place, La Ciociara.
He told us that the church we were in was the same one used to shoot the scene in which Cesira and her daughter take refuge prior to the latter's rape by Moroccan soldiers patrolling for the French army.
The cast and crew had to find another location to film the actual rape scene as the priest running Santa Maria Delle Grazie refused to sign the papers granting them access to film there.
After thanking Lorenzo a million times for having let us in, I opened google and found a few of the stills from the scene in the movie then took some pictures of the façade of the church. Here they are compared:
and:
While making our way up to the main square or "piazza" of Vallecorsa, we came upon two churches; the first being 'La Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo'. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any information on when the church was built as I later had to google it, although plenty was given on the patron saint the place is dedicated to, Saint Michael.
In the center of the picture below you may be able to spot a statue of a soldier holding a sword. Created in the 1600's by an unknown artist, the statue has since become Vallecorsa's most prized possession after the 1796 miracle, in which hundreds of believers declared to have witnessed the statue of Michel moving its eyes, as well as seeing beads of sweat form on its forehead.
I wasn't able to take closer pictures of it as there were people praying and it seemed rude to interrupt although I was able to take this picture before making my way out.
While chatting about the beauty around us, I was able to notice that a few of the women were wearing necklaces with tiny black and white portraits of men so I asked if they could tell me who the men in the portraits were. They told me the photos were of their husbands who had left for the United States during the 50's when Italy was still devastated by the war. They added that the necklaces would serve to show the other men of the village that they were already married (few could afford wedding rings), and had decided to keep them on even after their spouses had returned.
Finally, I asked if I could take a selfie with them for my blog, and even after reassuring them they were still beautiful even at their age, they politely declined. :(
After briefly stopping at a dark and gloomy bar for a quick bite to eat, we made our way back down the medieval stone road to the other church, 'Santa Maria delle Grazie'.
Around twenty minutes later we found ourselves in front of what seemed to be a recently built monument, which left us slightly puzzled as we wondered whether we had stopped in front of the wrong building.
We turned around to find a middle aged man sitting in a small truck,who had seen us standing there for some time, and offered to fetch the keys to the unconsecrated church (this means people don't pray there anymore) .
Once let in, Lorenzo showed us around indicating a few interesting spots such as behind the altar and the broken baptism 'pool'.
What struck me most out of all the decorations on the ceiling was this:
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| Illuminati confirmed :o
Pretty weird symbol for a 200-year-old church built in a small town forgotten by the world (great location for the Illuminati though).
Here are a few of the posters hanging on the dusty floor he showed us.
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He told us that the church we were in was the same one used to shoot the scene in which Cesira and her daughter take refuge prior to the latter's rape by Moroccan soldiers patrolling for the French army.
The cast and crew had to find another location to film the actual rape scene as the priest running Santa Maria Delle Grazie refused to sign the papers granting them access to film there.
After thanking Lorenzo a million times for having let us in, I opened google and found a few of the stills from the scene in the movie then took some pictures of the façade of the church. Here they are compared:
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| wonderful paint edit hahaha |
and:
From the lousy paint edited pictures you can clearly see this is the exact location where the scene was shot, which made both me and my sister super stoked and even more glad we visited Vallecorsa. We ended the tour by going round the town once more by car then headed back down the mountain and home.
I hope y'all liked this long blog post! I would really appreciate feedback if you have any!
:D
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