Province of L’Aquila, Region of Abruzzo

The beautiful small town of Castel di Ieri is located in the province of L’Aquila. It has
approximately 326 inhabitants, known as Casteldieresi.

A small but hardy band of AMHS members and friends gathered in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on the morning of May 3 for a short hike along the C&O Canal towpath.

Our story starts with an email sent to the AMHS in March 2025. Dominic Palumbo, a farmer at Moon in the Pond Farm and educator at Farm education, Inc., in Sheffield, Mass., wrote the following:

Often referred to as the quintessential L.A. novelist and a precursor to the Beat writers of the 1950s, John Fante was one of the first novelists to portray the tough times for writers during the Great Depression. John Fante also had roots in Abruzzo.

At the most recent AMHS general meeting, held on March 23 at Casa Italiana, former Society President Maria D’Andrea-Yothers reprised her presentation on the famed herding trails in Abruzzo and Molise, known as the trattoria which make up the interconnected system known as the transumanza.