Under the Southern Sun: Stories of the Real Italy and the Americans It Created
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About this ebook
Recently there has been a seemingly endless stream of books praising the glories of ancient and modern Rome, fretting over Venice's rising tides and moldering galleries, celebrating the Tuscan countryside, wines and cuisine. But there have been curiously few writings that deal directly with Italy as the country of origin for the grand- and great-grandparents of nearly twenty-six million Americans. The greatest majority—more than eight out of ten—of those American descendants of immigrant Italians aren't the progeny of Venetian doges or Tuscan wealth, but are the diaspora of Southern Italians, people from a place very different than Renaissance Florence or the modern political entity of Rome. Southern Italians, mostly from villages and towns sprinkled about the dramatic and remote countryside of Italian provinces even now tourists find only with determination and rental cars.
In Under the Southern Sun: Stories of the Real Italy and the Americans It Created, journalist Paul Paolicelli takes us on a grand tour of the Southern Italy of most Italian-American immigrants, including Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, Sicily, Abruzzo, and Molise, and explores the many fascinating elements of Southern Italian society, history, and culture. Along the way, he explores the concept of heritage and of going back to one's roots, the theory of a cultural subconscious, and most importantly, the idea of a Southern Italian "sensibility" – where it comes from, how it has been cultivated, and how it has been passed on from generation to generation. Amidst the delightful blend of travelogue and journalism are wonderful stories about famous Southern Italian-Americans, most notably Frank Capra and Rudolph Valentino, who were forced to leave their homeland and to adjust, adapt, and survive in America. He tells the story of the only large concentration camp built and run by the Fascists during World War II and of the humanity of the Southerners who ran the place. He visits ancient seaside communities once dominated by castles and watchtowers and now bathed in tanning oil and tourists, muses over Matera—what is probably Europe's oldest and most unknown city – and culminates in a fascinating exploration of how one's familial memory can influence his or her internal value system.
This book is a celebration of Southern Italy, its people, and what it has given to its American descendants.
Paul Paolicelli
Paul Paolicelli is an award-winning television journalist and documentary producer. In his more than twenty-five years as a news reporter, producer, and executive, he has worked throughout the United States and Europe at local and national TV outlets. He is the author of Dances with Luigi and Under the Southern Sun.
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Reviews for Under the Southern Sun
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I recommend reading "Dances with Luigi" before reading this book. This book is a followup to "Dances". Under the southern sun is the journey the author takes to his ancestral town in southern Italy. He lives in the area and writes of his experiences with the locals.Both his books are sentimental,humorous and well written and highly recommended if you have ancestors from Italy or an interest in Italy.His books do not disappoint.
Book preview
Under the Southern Sun - Paul Paolicelli
1
Il Mezzogiorno
DOWN THE AUTOSTRADE AND INTO HISTORY
South of Rome, the scenery changes. The landscape becomes dramatic and even dangerous. The soft rolling hills of Tuscany, the incredibly sprawling plains and gentle knolls of Lazio become the jagged and rugged mountains, ravines, cliffs, and the near deserts of Campania, Calabria, Basilicata and Puglia. Driving down the single autostrada along the western coast that leads to the deep South, all of Italy’s history passes by with the terrain.
Monte Cassino dominates the terrain where the Germans drew their line of defense in 1943 during the Second World War. The Allies fought for every inch of earth in the valley. The rebuilt abbey sits solidly and majestically atop its mountain, a silent and stately reminder of thousands of lives lost, including hundreds of Italian civilians caught in the deadly crossfire, while still others starved to death attempting to hide in the hills during that terrible winter.
The abbey had also been destroyed by the Longobards, Saracens and an earthquake over the fourteen centuries before the Allies advanced. We don’t know the death tolls from those particular events. The Goths sacked the place before St. Benedict founded his monastery on the remnants of a Roman fortification. The Romans fought in this region against rebelling native tribes.
Blood is in the soil here.
Yet the abbey remains and endures.
A few kilometers farther south, Vesuvio broods over Naples, a unique emblem of indifferent power. It was on the hills of this volcano that Spartacus hid from the Romans, its fertile soil, rich with fruit and grain, feeding and protecting his rebellious slave army for a