© 2010 Paul Forte

By Alfonso Forte, son of Carmine Forte and Emilia Magliocco
(Brighton)

First Brief Encounter

From the early to mid nineteen thirties and beyond many second generation Italians returned to Casalattico to holiday and visit their relatives living there.  They travelled by boat and train and a few by motor car.(air travel was not affordable and may not have even been an option at that time).  September and October were the favoured months as many were involved in seasonal businesses and many festas were celebrated around this time of the year.  There was no electricity and no running water and not even calor gas. Bathrooms and toilets were a rarity.  Life was primitive by today's standards.  The dusty roads and streets were unmade and uneven and in places covered by a sprinkling of brown pellets, excrement from the sheep and goats, as well as dung from the donkeys.  It was a rural backwater populated by sheep, goats, cows, pigs, chickens and horses.  Many donkeys were attired with twin baskets.  Any fertile ground was under the plough, or used for horticulture and other areas were used to graze animals.  Tractors, strimmers and agro-machinery were invisible.  The local population was already in decline and ageing through the mass emigration of the early 20th century.  The sight of visitors with their Northern European dress was in stark contrast to the shabby dress of the locals and the black garb of ageing widows.  Some of the elderly females were lame and hobbling about and many had facial hair and lumps on their wrinkled faces giving them a grotesque appearance.  Sunday was more or less considered to be a day of rest and even the locals would have been in their Sunday best as they herded into church. (I had occasion to sample this on my first visit to Mortale in 1950 and it was like a scene from the 18th century, for time had stood still).

Hanging in the fresh clear mountain air, were the distinctive smells of burning wood, animal excrement, floribunda and herbs and silence was broken by the sounds of the coarse Mortalese dialect, church bells, cow bells, the braying of donkeys, clucking chickens, singing birds and crickets and the patter of hooves on the ground or a rickety cart rolling by.  The houses were in various states of disrepair and built of local stone and washing hung on lines to dry.  Primitive stone walls edged the roads near and around La Soda, where as many as eight or nine wells were in daily use, and where an area had been set aside for Boccia, the sole village sporting activity.  Some dogs accompanied their owners to shepherd sheep, others were trained to hunt in the mountains for rabbits, hare, birds and truffles. Elderly dogs hung about sleeping in doorways.  Cats wandered about searching for scraps and vermin. Grapes and olives were gathered for the giant press located near the church.  Figs, apples and pears were picked as well as tomatoes for bottling in airtight jars.  Pigs and piglets shuffled and snorted happily within their pens oblivious to their ultimate destiny of becoming bacon, prosciutto, salami, salciccia and lard.

The blue of the sky was patched with white cloud hanging over the hills as the distant peaks of the Abruzzi awaited their first snowflakes.  The sun illuminated the roofs of houses, the landscape and stone terraces that embellished the lower slopes of the mountains.  The moonless sky at night revealed a blackness perforated by myriad bright stars.  Occasionally the silence would be pierced by an enormous clap of thunder and harmony would be disrupted by a waterfall of torrential rain. Mother Nature ruled the earth, but here Christianity ruled hearts and minds.

This was their birthplace and ancestral home and emigrants were drawn in droves to experience its natural charm.  Among them were two individuals, Carmine Forte and Emilia Magliocco.

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