covid19: the new increase in infections at the end of the summer

Also in Italy, as in most of the European countries, there is a net increase in infections. It takes place at the end of summer, which was thought to bring at least a pause to the spread of the virus, in fact many argued that the heat could help eliminate the virus. Instead, the dangerous pandemic reappears: an increase in infections, deaths, and above all hospitalizations, especially those in intensive care. Although the use of masks has been mandatory for several months, it seems that the good of hygiene are difficult to apply. Accomplice in addition to the summer also the festivity of mid-August, which certainly led to the delight of many people. But perhaps the worst is yet to come because the school year of the soles has not yet begun, which could lead to a further significant increase. Objectively I think that the government is unlikely to implement another lockdown (after the one in March-April) for many reasons: first of all for an economic factor, which is already affecting a lot in the state budget …

📸 PHOTOS of Castelbottaccio (CB) [Molise] – Italy

Castelbottaccio stands on a hill to the hydrographic left of the Biferno river, the most important in the province. From its highest point, Colle Iannone (717 meters above sea level), it is possible to see the surrounding landscape as far as the Abruzzo region and the sea and, on clear days, the Tremiti islands (about 90 km away). Among the countryside it is easy to find farms and huts, a clear reference to the peasant soul of the country. Furthermore, a few km away there is the Celano-Foggia route(sheep track), which joins the summer pastures in Abruzzo to the winter ones in Puglia

 

The town was founded by the Normans in the 11th century, with towers and walls. The first churches (including the main one, Santa Maria delle Grazie) were also Norman.

The center changed in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, with the transformation of the castle into a stately palace. In 1691 the Norman walls and towers were still standing, as written in a report by Antonio Galluccio, an admirer who lived towards the end of the 17th century.

 

Victory Square
Initially known as the town hall square, it was so named in 1965, it is the social center of the town. Adjacent to the church of San Rocco. In the center of the square there is a fountain that portrays the symbol of the town, a barrel surmounted by the walls of the ‘civitas’. Over the years, work has been carried out to modify the original shape of the square, which now looks like in the photo.

Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie
It is the most important church in the town, a few steps from the baronial palace. The church belongs to the 10th century and has three naves. Despite its Norman origins, currently, after a series of important restorations, the whole body is of Baroque matrix. Along the two side aisles there are small cells where we find several statues. At the end of the left aisle there is an imposing wrought iron gate. There is an imposing square bell tower, where 4 bells are housed. The church preserves the three important statues of Saint Lucia (year 1841 – wooden sculpture by Crescenzo Ranallo di Oratino), of the Virgin of Grace (year 1694 – wooden sculpture by Giacomo Colombo) and of Saint Joseph (year 1780 – wooden sculpture by Silverio Giovannitti by Oratino).

 

 

📸 PHOTOS of Lucito (CB) [Molise] – Italy

Lucito is an Italian town of 655 inhabitants in the province of Campobasso, in Molise.

The name of the town, Lucito, could derive from the Latin term lucus, which means “sacred wood”, or from the Latin name Lucius. According to others, it derives instead from “elceto” (or “saliceto”), vulgarly become “liceto” (or “saluceto”), and therefore “Luceto”.

The foundation of Lucito is traced back to the Lombard period. The town was a fiefdom of Gionata di Balbano in 1188, then passed to the Caracciolos and later to the Di Sangro. From the Di Sangro it passed to the Piscicelli, who due to debts were forced to auction off their fiefs. The fiefdom of Lucito was purchased in 1670 by the Neapolitan nobleman Francesco Capecelatro, former lord of Nevano, who thus became the Marquis of Lucito.

Church of San Nicola di Bari
It was built in the 14th century on the remains of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Santa Maria al Plasinium. With the earthquake of 1456 it suffered damage and the church was re-consecrated in Renaissance style in 1566.

In 1805 a new great earthquake shook Molise and the church was completely restored in 1897.

The merit of the neoclassical church is the frescoed chapel on the right with arches. The church is distributed in three naves. The bell tower belongs to the Renaissance and is decorated with an onion spire.

 

Capecelatro Palace
It was originally the medieval castle. The Capecelatro family bought the castle in 1655, transforming the structure into a baronial residence. The rectangular building has two lower floors and a noble one, with the ancient coats of arms attached to the exterior. The ramparts and the two access portals are preserved.

 

📸 PHOTOS of Limosano (CB) [Molise] – Italy

Limosano is the main town in Molise used as the set of the 2013 film with Checco Zalone. In the story Checco takes his son Nicolò on vacation to his aunt in Limosano because he doesn’t have enough money for a luxurious trip. But staying with the stingy aunt turns out to be torture. In the film you can see the town from the provincial road, and its very distinct historic center with the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at the top, and on the right the facade of San Francesco, while Checco and his son climb the stairs to visit their uncle .

The release of the film sparked some controversy in Molise for the stereotypical way in which they were seen by Zalone in the story, such as the total absence of children in the country.

The oldest nucleus stands on the central part of the tufaceous hill of the historic center, while the more recent late Renaissance one developed at the foot of the Ducal Palace. Limosano has medieval origins, built around a castle founded by the Lombards, when it was part of the Gastaldato di Bojano, which later became the County of Molise in the 13th century.

 

Parish Church of Santa Maria Maggiore
The church dates back to the 11th century, restored in the 15th century after an earthquake, and again heavily modified in the 18th century. The underground crypt remains original; the façade is very simple, characterized by a portal surmounted by a rectangular window. The portal has an architrave with Latin writing and the date of restoration of the church, in 1755; the plan of the building is rectangular with a single nave, laterally composed of a series of chapels bordered by round arches. The span near the entrance is formed by a gallery that preserves the wooden organ.
The presbytery which is located in an elevated position with respect to the area of ​​the faithful, preserves an altar in worked marble; on the right side there are access doors to the bell tower and the sacristy. On the opposite side there is a room that leads to an orthogonal chapel, characterized by Renaissance frescoes; this chapel is dedicated to the Rosary, seat of the homonymous Confraternity.

The bell tower of the church is on the right, with a rectangular turreted plan. One of its walls has an ogival semi-arch attesting to its medieval origin, remodeled in the eighteenth century. There are engraved allegorical symbols of the Sun and the Lamb. Below the level of the church there are rooms: one has a barrel roof and is positioned under the terrace in front of the facade; another is placed under the church, preserving the lockable floor, where some bishops are buried with the original medieval tombstones.

📷 PHOTOS of Sant’Angelo Limosano

In my opinion one of the most beautiful towns in Molise. According to some sources, it is the birthplace of the only Molise pope: CelestinoV. The photos may not make you understand the beauty of this village but the church of Maria Assunta, located in the highest and most panoramic place, can shiver. It makes you feel like you are on top of the clouds, having a landscape from above.

The village developed as a fief of the old diocese of Limosano in the 11th century. It belonged until 1477 to the Molise center of Montagano (seat of the Badia di Faifoli), and then passed to Gerardo di Appiano.

Between the 17th and 18th centuries it was owned by the Carafa and Antellis families.

They are fortifications used as access walls, for the path to the parish church. They unfold in three levels, decorated with arches.

Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo
The church was founded in the thirteenth century as a chapel dedicated to Pietro da Morrone, it was in fact known as San Pietro Celestino. Replaced in Baroque form in 1695, the church has kept a beautiful medieval wooden tabernacle. Outside there is still a part of medieval masonry with a Latin inscription.

Being the town located at 894 meters above sea level, it can boast many panoramic points, from which to see much of the Molise area because the fortress on which the town is located is the highest point in the whole surrounding area.

📷 PHOTOS of Fossalto (CB) [MOLISE] – Italy

For those who live in this region will certainly know this country for its famous ice cream shop. In fact, it is well known that the Gelateria di Fossalto makes the best ice cream in the region.

Fossalto is an Italian town of 1 251 inhabitants in the province of Campobasso, in Molise, which was the birthplace of the poet Eugenio Cirese and Giuseppe Folchi, a futurist intellectual.
It is located north-west of the capital.
Built as a medieval village, the town was divided into two nuclei: Fossaceca and Castelluccio, dependent on Limosano. The center was fortified by towers and walls, dismantled in the 18th century, when the fiefdom belonged to the Di Capua and Mascione families.

 

Church of San Antonio of Padua
Baroque church built with a single nave, with a longitudinal plan. Inside there is a painting of the Saint, dated 1660. The church has a bell tower from 1866 next to it.

 

 

📷 Photos of Villaalfonsina (CH) – Abruzzo – ITALY

Villalfonsina is an Italian town of 911 inhabitants in the province of Chieti in Abruzzo, part of the union of the communes of the Miracles.

The origins of Villalfonsina are uncertain and a source of discussion. However, some texts state that the town was founded in the 16th century by the feudal lord Alfonso Caracciolo prince of San Buono and baron of Casalbordino. Other sources assert instead that the country was founded by the Schiavoni who landed on the Osento river with makeshift vehicles, fled from the Balkan peninsula pushed by the Turkish advance in search of more hospitable lands. At that time the area was under the fief of the d’Avalos of Vasto who owned a palace surrounded by farmhouses of colonists and servants, for which the population was subjected to the service of his belongings. A trace of this settlement remains in the parish, which has a bulb-shaped bell tower, typical architecture of the eastern shore of the Adriatic.

 

📷 PHOTOS of Casalbordino (CH) – Abruzzo – ITALY

Casalbordino is an Italian municipality of 5972 inhabitants in the province of Chieti in Abruzzo, and is the seat of the union of the municipalities of the Miracles.

The name goes back to a leader of that period, Roberto Bordinus, who captained the garrison in defense of the monastery.

Casal, that is, a farmhouse, a small territory of dwellings that guarded the monastery, developed from an ancient tower, later became the fortified center, a fief of the D’Avalos.

 

 

The mother church of San Salvatore, the main church in the city center, whose first plant dates back to the 14th century. It has neoclassical features, although the interior retains the late Baroque appearance.

 

 

 
The sanctuary of the Madonna dei Miracoli, an important Theatine sanctuary, located north-east of Casalbordino in the suburbs, a destination for pilgrimages, since the period of the Marian apparition to the farmer Alessandro Muzii in the year 1576, when there was a terrible storm that destroyed the collected, except that of the villager, who prayed to Our Lady. The sanctuary was built over the first chapel in 1824, however being damaged by the Second World War, when the Benedictine monastery had already been built, it was redone again in the 1950s, finished in 1962, having a neo-Renaissance style. The historical sanctuary was immortalized by Gabriele D’Annunzio in the novel The Triumph of Death, which summarizes the events of the Marian apparition of 1576, and then describes the pilgrimage of wayfarers and wretches, in asking for thanks to the Madonna, under the gaze of the protagonists of the story Giorgio Aurispa and Ippolita Sanzio.

 

 

 
The Lido (beach) di Casalbordino, equipped and popular seaside resort with a large sandy beach, is 7.5 km from the municipal capital and extends along the suggestive Costa dei Trabocchi, a very short distance from the spectacular rocky coast of the Marine Natural Reserve of Punta d’Erce ( or Punta Aderci), called in the area “the little Normandy”.