Tag Archives: Fossa Abruzzo Italy

Apr 6, 2024 · 3:44 pm

Forte e gentile… fifteen years after the earthquake

It is fifteen years since the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Abruzzo at 3.32am on 6 April 2009, taking the lives of 309 people and leaving 70,000 homeless in around fifty-six towns. My heart is with those who lost so much… the victims, their loved ones, all those who were displaced, the many still working hard to recover and rebuild in the long years following.

I’m often asked by those who’ve read of the earthquake in my books how Fossa is now and what happened to the centuries-old house lived in by generations of my family that I was so fortunate to have stayed in too. Well, the house remains damaged, as it was the day of the earthquake, since looted and at the mercy of the elements. I’m unsure of its future at this stage, that is in other hands. Where it sits in the worst hit, ‘zono rosso’, red zone of Fossa largely remains empty and often called a ‘ghost town’. However! I’m very pleased to say that in parts of Fossa, especially around the outskirts, there is reconstruction work being done and people are returning to the town. I always held hope this would happen and it’s truly wonderful to see it seems to be. Che possa continuare!!

So in the spirit of the town’s hopeful return, I thought I’d share this photo from when Nanna Francesca and Nonno Anni were there in 1975 and Fossa was bustling and lively with much going on. I can’t be certain of the festival but I’m guessing San Antonio – perhaps someone recognises it. The parade is coming down towards the bar and main piazza (I can see Nanna Francesca beaming!) and it’s wonderful it appears pretty much the entire village are involved, all ages. Fossa has long been a thriving, beautiful town and has so much history. I look forward with much hope to its dwellings and streets being full of life like this once again along with all those across Abruzzo. ❤️🌠

From the page to the village…

It’s such a lovely surprise to find out that after reading my books, some of you have sought out Fossa to see it for yourselves! And what a thrill to be sent these photos by Mel of her parents, Doris and Domenico, who were recently among a group guided by local, Edmondo, and given a tour of Fossa and the places I wrote about. Thank you to all of you! xx I never dreamed of seeing my books in Fossa or held up outside the door of my family’s house there. Can you imagine what Nonno Anni would’ve thought?! I can almost see him shaking his head and half-smiling in disbelief and happiness, his eyes a little bit wet.

It was in 1996 that I stood outside this same doorway for the first time, feeling so many emotions amid a chip on my shoulder and yet that tugging sense of ‘coming home’ to a place I’d never been before. And it was at the kitchen table inside that I began writing what would become Mezza Italiana and my later books over several visits. I had no clue then that what I wrote might be published one day, or that in 2009 an earthquake would hit, rendering the house and most of the town so damaged as to be uninhabitable. (As you can see, red scaffolding remains for now outside my family’s house.)

Fossa currently is a ghost town that requires much care and it is quite a moving experience to visit, while still beautiful and also fascinating in its mystical and lively past. I keep holding hope that its centuries of history, art, life and beauty on Monte Circolo will prevail and in future the town will once more surge with people, animals, vespas, church bells, music and wonderful cooking aromas. Heartfelt thanks to Doris and Domenico and all those who’ve sought out Fossa with respect and interest and again, thank you to all of you who’ve embraced these books so.

Oh, and Mel also wrote to me that her parents would’ve held Joe’s Fruit Shop and Milk Bar in the photos as well but her aunt had it and was busy reading it. That Joe’s is being read all these years on is just so terrific to hear. For Nonno Anni who, in 1939, aged 15 walked down that cobblestoned road carrying one suitcase on his way to the other side of the world, having to leave Fossa that he loved so much, not knowing if he’d ever return, I’m truly grateful that this story lives on more than 80 years later. For him and for all those who’ve taken that same, sometimes rough, brave journey of migrating and made the best they could of it. Grazie mille and auguri. Zoë xx

Books…

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Tagged as 2009 Abruzzo earthquake, Abruzzo after earthquake, book connections, books and Italy, Fossa Abruzzo, Fossa Abruzzo Italy, ghost towns Italy, Italian migrant stories, Italian villages, Joe's Fruit Shop and Milk Bar, Mezza Italiana, Monte Circolo Abruzzo, mountain villages Italy, town after the earthquake

May 24, 2019 · 11:06 am

Restoration e la storia…

Around 800 years ago, Benedictine workers built this structure in Fossa on top of a 9^th century AD Roman-Byzantine temple. And that was already on top of a crypt where for centuries BC and up until 391 AD, the Vestini tribe honoured Vesta (pagan goddess of hearth, home and family).

It’s survived more than 17 earthquakes over many centuries as well as WW2 bombings close by.

While humble outside, painted inside its walls is some of the oldest, most precious art in Abruzzo. Gothic-Byzantine frescoes that depict scenes like the last judgment (said to have inspired Dante to later write the Divine Comedy after he visited Fossa in 1294) and the pagan agrarian calendar so central to a rural community and to show stories for those not fortunate to learn to read.

Recently it reopened, a decade on from its damage after the 2009 earthquake. Beliefs aside, it’s significant to see its art restored, not just for those at present but for generations to come, for it’s a story of the area’s people and even the tiniest villages high in the mountains have their own potent stories.