Casamassima, Triggiano and Bronte
In last week’s post I talked about an often-overlooked gem of a town, Gioia del Colle – 40 km inland from Bari and a town which has become renowned for its cheese and wine. In this post I will turn my attention to three other off-the-beaten-track towns; Casamassima and Triggiano in Puglia and Bronte near Catania in Sicily.
The countryside around Bronte, Sicily.
Casamassima
“The building is horrible and really old and looks like it should be in a horror movie!”
The teenage student had been asked to describe a building in his hometown and had chosen his scuola media (middle school). He continued:
“And there are these really awful trees that grow outside and make the classrooms really dark. For me; they should knock the school down and rebuild it again.”
And when asked about whether he liked living in his hometown, Casamassima?
“Not really. It’s a really boring small town and there’s not much to do apart from studying, running and going to the pizzeria. Tourists never come here.”
Then he remembered something that might vaguely be of interest:
“Oh, but there is this one cool thing. In the centro storico, some of the old houses are painted blue because they thought it would protect them during the… [he looks up the correct word] plague.”
So, when I found myself with a school holiday in February, I took myself off to Casamassima – also known as Puglia’s ‘Blue Town’.
It’s a town with a population of 19,000 that’s 25 minutes’ drive from Bari and nestled at the foot of the Murge Plateau. It has an interesting history and was most likely founded during the Punic Wars by the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus. In the 14th century it was attacked by the army of Louis I of Hungary and whilst nearby cities like Bari resisted the attack thanks to its city walls and defences, Casamassima fell and the troops razed the village to the ground, burning and killing everything in sight. It was then subsequently rebuilt by the Principality of Taranto, under The Kingdom of Naples and later commandeered by the Acquaviva and Vaaz families (of Portuguese-Jewish origin).
I arrived in Casamassima in the afternoon on a cold and blustery day and found myself a parking space, near an ugly school building surrounded by huge weeping willow-style trees, that spookily matched my student’s description. If this was the place he was describing, he was spot-on, as you can see below.
A short stroll took me into the town centre and after walking through a stone archway and into a narrow street, I found myself in Casamassima’s centro storico and soon enough I began to see several medieval-age stone buildings painted in light blue lime. Casamassima is known in Puglia as “Il Paese Azzurro” (“The Blue Country”) and local legend has it that houses in the town were turned blue by adding copper sulphate to quicklime, after an outbreak of plague in 1658 (transmitted by sailors arriving at the port of Bari) to both ward off and show gratitude to the Madonna for protecting the town against the disease.
In the 1960s, the Millan artist Vittorio Viviani was struck by Casamassima’s uniqueness and began painting new works using the town’s centre as the backdrop. This played a part in reviving the centro storico’s fortunes and also resulted in a period of urbanisation in the town (up until then, most of its residents’ primary source of income had been from agriculture). A large shopping and commercial centre (‘Parco Commerciale Casamassima’) was also built on the edge of the town, although it’s attracted much criticism from locals who see it as an eyesore and are dismayed by the fact that many of its units remain empty.
Casamassima; ‘Il Paese Azzurro’.
This wasn’t my first visit to Casamassima though. Back in the summer, I had visited Villa Pagliaro; an imposing masseria built around 1870. ‘Masseria’ is the Pugliese word for a ‘fortified farmhouse’ and they are a common sight throughout the region. There is a different word for these sorts of buildings, depending on which area of Italy you live in so ‘masseria’ is very typically and exclusively Puglian. I had been given an Italian lesson (and delicious tomato and rosemary crostini) courtesy of one of its residents Tiziana, as well as a tour of the villa’s grounds – now mainly used for the cultivation of olives, cherries and when the season is right, Indian figs (or Barbary figs or the ‘prickly pear’). Tiziana’s partner’s father owns the masseria and had been brought up there so the family was determined to continue making their living as authentically as possible, rather than transforming the building into a luxury wedding venue or boutique hotel, like so many others in the area.
Villa Pagliaro, Casamassima.
However, this masseria also had a secret. During World War II, its top floors became something of an unofficial nightclub for Allied soldiers based in the area and was a place for them to hang out and socialise. As well as an old piano, the attic levels of Villa Pagliaro still contain a number of well-preserved wall paintings and murals from the 1940s. There is a great article about them on the fascinating Barese local history website Barinedita.
The WWII-era murals on the top floor of the masseria. Photos: Barinedita.
Triggiano
Triggiano is another small town in Puglia; about 10 km from Bari driving in the direction of Rutigliano with 14th century origins. If you want a snapshot of daily life in a sleepy Italian town then it’s worth spending a few hours in Triggiano.
It’s actually larger than Casamassima (its population is circa 30,000 but somehow seems a lot quieter and quainter). Its outskirts are mainly non-descript concrete apartment blocks but the town’s centre boasts a number of Baroque 17thcentury churches and a small centro storico. There are plenty of cafes to choose from for a quick espresso hit, as well as the usual delis, pasticcerie and macellerie you’d expect to find in any typical Italian town. Prices were actually slightly cheaper than in the larger cities like Bari and Lecce too. On my way home, I also drove through the nearby Noicattaro and at 5pm on a Saturday the attractive centre was bustling with people fetching supplies for their evening ahead. Perhaps a place to explore in greater detail in future.
Triggiano apparently also has important emigrant communities in both the United States and Venezuela. During the festival of the Madonna della Croce in late-September, families often return to the town to show their children their origins and to donate money to the locality.
Out and about in Triggiano.
Bronte
I spent ten days exploring Sicily in September before the start of the new school year and just after my mates from London Mark and Stu had visited me in Bari. The eight-hour drive through rugged and mountainous Calabria all the way to the ferry terminal at Villa San Giovanni was an experience in itself and I then spent time in Messina (a rough and ready port city but with good food), Cefalu (beautiful but touristy), Palermo (a fascinating, heaving multicultural city), Syracuse (steeped in ancient history and mythology, plus heavenly seafood), Fiumefreddo di Sicilia (um, The Godfather) and Catania (a lively, fun city full of hip hang-outs). However, it was the small town of Bronte, about an hour from Catania and lying in Mount Etna’s shadow that really stood out to me.
Bronte, Sicily.
Bronte is a town that revolves around the growing and harvesting of its very own ‘green gold’ – the pistachio nut. Bronte’s pistachio nuts are said to have a unique flavour (“the perfect balance between sweet and savoury”), texture and vibrant green colour that is incomparable to any other and they are sought-after by chefs all over the world.
Bronte’s position 760 metres above sea level and on the Western slopes of Mount Etna is said to contribute to its pistachios’ unique quality as the plants absorb nutrients and minerals from the soil containing old lava deposits. The cultivation of pistachios is a tradition that’s handed down from father to son and retrieving the nut from the tree is still done by hand and in some cases, by shaking the plant. As a result of this centuries-old and painstaking process, Bronte pistachios are DOP-certified (of course) and often fetch high prices. You will notice in Sicily that rather than parmesan or pecorino cheese, crushed pistachios will often be served on top of pasta dishes and you can pick up a bag of these pre-crushed at local markets for only a couple of euros.
The first impression of Bronte upon visiting is that it’s a very lush-looking and scenic place. It’s surrounded by green hills, olive groves and cactus fields, yet the ominous presence of Mount Etna is clearly visible from just about anywhere in the town. I stopped for lunch at a small café and picked up a panino, arancino, water and coffee for €2.50 and even though there were several shops dedicated to the humble pistachio nut, it didn’t seem like they were visited by many tourists (it is about one hour’s drive from Catania, around the other side of Mount Etna).
Mount Etna from the road to Bronte.
I took a walk around its quiet, hilly streets, passing the occasional tractor and trailer and through a park that overlooked some hills covered in green vegetation before picking up some of these hallowed pistachios for my family back in the UK. They were very tasty and succulent and were certainly a lot greener than the varieties you find in supermarkets.
Bronte and the surrounding countryside is well worth a visit if you are looking for something a little more unusual to do in Sicily. You can find out more about the town, its history and places to stay here.
Bronte, Sicily.