glossario

Here in Italy, it’s common to meet foreigners that believe to know Italy like the back of their hand yet have never been south of Rome or maybe Amalfi. (And there is LOT of Italy south of Amalfi). I’ve created this glossary towards helping you make more sense of this part of Italy: The land, the food, the wine and the culture.

The history of Southern Italy is radically different than that of the north, with more things in contrast, than in common. Up until 1491 the islands and peninsulas that stretched out in the Mediterranean where prime real estate for military bases of just about every culture that had ever floated a navy. When you consider the important of shipping before roads and carbon-based fuels, the Mediterranean couldn’t help but be seen as the centre of the world. (From the Latin, Mediterraneus, Mediterraneo in modern Italian, ‘mezzo alle terre’, literally, The middle of the Earth).

Everyone wanted this place.

And one by one they took it.

Not with real estate deals with fountain-pen flourishes but nearly always with knives, killing and stealing from those that were often on the brink of starvation to begin with. Wave after wave after wave of invasion. After wave after wave. Folks moved inland, building their homes in impossible locations in hope that the invaders would stop at the coasts, their simple, spartan stone country churches for the moments when it was clear that they wouldn’t.

This went on not for a generation but for thousands of years, to the point that no part of the local culture can ever really be called that, local. Words from Greek, Arab, Spanish, French, Turkish, Catalan, Albanian penetrate southern Italian dialects even today. The dark hair. The eyes. The shape of the head. The stature. The olive skin. None of these are traits of those that actually evolved here. They are the genetic materials of the invaders that made their way into the local blood supply, changing the psiotomy as certain as the language and architecture. And of course the food, perhaps the most poignant and longest-lasting demonstration of surrender.

That’s not to say that the South of is a sad place, by any stretch, but this sober sense of poverty and subjugation- by both earth and man- seeps from every aspect of Southern Italian life. It’s never, not been here.

I hope you’ll read more and perhaps build an interest in the South. It’s my hope that my enthusiasm for the south of Italy will prove contagious.

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How to use this:

I’ve broken down the glossary as such: Land, Sea, Food, Wine, Culture. (Please feel free to post suggestions for additional topics. This site will forever be a work in progress).

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Italia. A new country in Europe, dating back only to 1861 (major changes have been made since then, but 1861 is considered by most to be the birth of the republic). Seen from outside as homogenous, it’s anything but inside the nation itself. Many Italians speak other languages as their first language, and have for hundreds if not thousands of years. Seen in only a few brief flashes during the Musolini era, Italy has never had strong national tendencies. Most citizins even today see themselves as being for a city first, a region second and the nation third.

Puglia. Puglia is one of the 20 regions of Italy, most famously referred to as ‘the heel’, of the Italian ‘boot’. Its capitol is Bari but other major cites are Lecce, Brindisi, Trani, Alberobello, Foggia, Gallipoli.

Salice Salentino

Lecce

Salento

Puglia

Italia

orecchiette

cavatelli