Taurasi

Taurasi is both a pleasant small town in Campania and an increasingly renowned wine.

This is what the local Mountain Community's brochure says about the town:

Taurasi, a centre of intensive wine production, is located on a hill. There are two main entrances: Porta Maggiore in the West and Porta dell'Angelo in the East. There is a third smaller entrance in the South: Porta Piccola, which was built next to a Langobard tower. The monumental baronial palace (Palazzo Baronale), which was extended during the Norman and Anjouian epoch, is next to the collegiate church San Marciano (Collegiata di San Marciano) which was probably built on the remains of a temple of the goddess Ceres. The church Santissimo Rosario keeps important paintings from the XVIII century. Of special interest is the Church Immacolata, built in 1729, where the relics of martyr Saint Benigno are kept.

If you wish to read more both about the town and the wine:

• Taurasi's entry on Wikipedia
• The City's website (in Italian)
• About the local wines

An "Italian" signed the American Declaration of Independence

A few days ago I twittered that "an Italian was the first to sign the United States Declaration of Independence". Such post raised a lot of interest and also some discussion about the real Italian heritage of Caesar Rodney. Obviously, Twitter with its 140 characters limitation calls for synthesis. It would have been more correct to define Caesar Rodney "of Italian descent" from his grandmother's side. She came from the Adelmare family in Treviso. They emigrated to England and then to America.

A quick research on the Internet let you find many posts claiming Caesar Rodney as Italian and many working hard to demonstrate that such origins are very diluted and unconsequential. With some surprise I found even a very racist blog against Italians disguised as a "scientific" genealogy website. I will not give its link because such people don't deserve publicity.

Would have Caesar Rodney declared himself "Italian" to the US Census today? I don't know. Probably not. But I think that his Italian blood is a small curious fact well worth a smile for anybody living in Italy and not much more. For sure, not zealot fights to demonstrate delusional racial supremacies.

As a side note: Rodney may not have been the only "Italian" to sign the Declaration of Independence. There is also William Paca, who was an important general during the Revolutionary War and later Governor of Maryland. His Italian origins are suggested just from his surname and are not sure, but his descendants were persuaded that they were true.

Only in Italy: the Ucelùt grape

The Ucelùt is an autochthonous grape from Friuli in the North-western Italy. You can find it only near Valeriano, Pinzano al Tagliamento and Castelnuovo del Friuli. It is a so-called "uva uccellina" or, very loosely, "bird grape" because it grew near woods and bird used to eat its fruits. The Ucelùt gives a very good dessert wine.

A very popular religion in Rome

Rome is the city of bell towers: catholic churches are simply countless. That's not a big surprise in the city of the Pope. But would you be able to guess which religion is classified at the second place in an all-time chart based on the number of places of worship?

Not any of the other Christian confessions. Nor Muslim religion or Buddhism.

It is Mithraism, an ancient oriental monotheistic religion which was extremely popular during III and IV century of the Christian Era all over the Roman Empire. Mithra was identified with the Sol Invictus - the Undefeated Sun - and it was by far the most adored divinity by legionnaires. As usual, the Wikipedia entry about Mithraism is a good place to start to know more about some topic. It is curious to note as Christian and Mithraic iconography influenced each other a lot: the halo of the saints, for example, comes from a Mithraic tradition. Again, Mithra was born on December 25th, the day when daylight starts to increase again after Winter's solstice. Does this date remind you anything?

But how many Mithraic temple were built in Rome?

Probably about 2,000.

Eight of them are identified with absolute certainty and can be visited in Rome more or less easily:

1. The Mithraeum of Chancellery;
2. The Mithraeum of Via Giovanni Lanza;
3. The Mithraeum of S. Stefano Rotondo;
4. The Mithraeum Barberini;
5. The Mithraeum of Circo Massimo;
6. The Mithraeum of Caracalla's Thermae;
7. The Mithraeum of S. Clemente;
8. The Mithraeum of S. Prisca.

Pizza owes a lot to Sex...

Ok, my title is a shameless attempt to attract attention, but there is a very funny anecdote connecting tomato and sex. And what would pizza be without tomato?

Tomato and many other vegetables arrived in Europe and then in Italy only after that Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. Mais, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and many kind of beans were not known in the Old Continent. Now they are very very common on our tables and sometimes intimately connected with iconic italian dishes like pizza or spaghetti, but the road to success was not equally easy for all of them. For example, italian name for eggplant is melanzana, which comes from 'mela insana', literally 'unhealthy apple'.

But let's come to our Tomato. The first variety imported was the one who resembles cherries, like the ones we call Pachino now. Both leaves and berries went under examination to verify if they were fit for human consumption. The doctors discovered solanina, which was considered poisonous during the XVI century. So tomato was cultivated only as an ornamental plant for about two centuries. It was very indicated as gift for ladies instead of flowers.

But gossip is always stronger than science. At some point in 1700 somebody devised the 'real' reason behind the prohibition to eat tomato's berries. The Spanish government proscribed the poor tomato under the influence of Church because of its extraoirdinaire aphrodisiac properties. This gossip spread faster than light and... the rest is history.

So, is it so wrong to say that Pizza owes a lot to Sex (and Gossip)?

Caedicia Victrix, a successful businesswoman

We are inclined to think that businesswomen are something belonging to the very recent history. A phenomenon started from the USA to reach Europe and then Italy not so long ago.

But it is not like that.

During first century AD Caedicia Victrix was one of the most important wine trader in the Mediterranean Sea as it is attested by her many sigils found on broken amphoras all around its coasts in Italy, Spain, France, Greece and Northern Africa.

Caedicia lived in Pompei, which was the most important and active Mediterranean wine market. It hosted more than 200 taverns (tabernae) and perhaps even more brothels (lupanari). To understand the importance of wine for the ancient port of Pompei before its destruction by an eruption of the Vesuvio, just think that 29 out of the 31 villas discovered by archaeologists belonged to families working in the wine market.

Historical evidence shows that Caedicia produced Falerno, the most appreciated wine in ancient Rome. She sold it in the Caediciae Tabernae along Via Appia, but, as we already said, she also exported it in all the Roman Empire.

Postcard from Bertinoro

Bertinoro is famous for its ancient Hospitality Rite: anyone could be hosted for a meal by one of the noble families of the town simply by taking his envelopes tied to a ring of the Hospitality Column (which inside has the name of the hosting family).