POSTCARD FROM L’AQUILA
The plaster and stonecutting dust is palpable, the clinking and generator sounds constant. After a few minutes of sipping a Birra Moretti at Nero Caffè on Corso Vittorio Emanuele in central L’Aquila, my eyes start to sting, but I am thrilled to be here to see, hear, and practically taste the fruits of reconstructing the capital of Abruzzo. I always begin my few precious weeks in Abruzzo with a one or two night stay at Hotel San Michele. I dub this my “Love in the Ruins” leg of my holiday in the region. I am not one to abandon an old friend after a disaster- in this case, the 2009 earthquake rendering most of central L’Aquila a zona rossa.
I visit the powerful new paintings of Giovanni Gasparro from Bari in the fully restored Basilica di San Giuseppe Artigiano. Gasparro‘s canvases are striking for the subjects’ multiple faces or hands. At left St. Joseph the Worker stands on the job holding carpenter tools and the iconic flowering staff, a sign that he was chosen by God to be Mary’s husband. 6 The remains of Pope Celestine V, whose 13th century mountain hermitage sites in the Majella are a must see, lie here temporarily until the work on the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio is complete.
In renovating San Giuseppe, a new wall in the apse was unearthed surprising scholars with a lovely fresco from Giotto school of painting. It’s easy to spend an hour in this church and to work up a taste for Italy’s best torrone sold a five minute walk away at Caffè Fratelli Nurzia on the Piazza Duomo. The café’s old world charm and incredibly good fortune in escaping quake damage make it a popular spot to remember what L’Aquila used to be.
Though I love to bring home several bars of chocolate with hazelnut torrone, the act of shopping here has also become a symbolic gesture – one that helps me imagine the historic center’s comeback. From L’Aquila, I head fifty minutes away to Mascioni, the ancestral home of my grandfather Frank Antonelli, where the air is clear and I see more cows, horses, and sheep on the road leading into town than I see people. Mascioni lies at the base of Lago di Campotosto, a lake Mussolini built in the 30s to provide hydro-electric power to this mountainous area.
The lake, the mountain air, and Mascioni’s designation as national park land redolent with wild herbs, protect the surrounding land from development and environmental harm. These factors also contribute to the superiority of the local products, namely the DOC salumi and cheese from the renowned La Mascionara. A stop at their roadside shop rewards me with a satchel of pecorino cheese and the prized lard centered mortadella di Campotosto. I always travel with a good penknife.
Satisfied by the annual visit to places close to my heart, I am anxious to move on to the quilted landscapes of Teremo, the stunning presence of the Corno Grande, the timelessness of Campo Imperatore, the crocus filled plains of Navelli, un-touristy Sulmona, and so much more.