Pietracupa

I briefly mentioned Pietracupa in my last entry, but I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t devote an entire entry to this special place. This tiny village in the hills of Molise (a region of Italy) is where my father was born, and while my mom was born in New Jersey, her parents are from this same place.

Growing up, if I wasn’t at the Jersey Shore, this is where I spent my summer vacations. We would go every few years, but because of my gymnastics obligations I wasn’t able to go as much as I would have liked. A good number of my greatest and most vivid childhood memories are of my time spent in Pietracupa.

So you have a better understanding of the kind of place I’m talking about, there are only a few hundred people that live in Pietracupa all year round (I think it’s more like ten, but we’ll say a few hundred) and it’s tucked away in the hills a few hours southeast of Rome. The surrounding green hills give the impression that you could be living in an area where hobbits reside. The whole town is built in and around this massive rock. As you drive up from the south it remains hidden from view. Suddenly, the rock comes into sight and the whole village reveals itself. As a kid waiting for that moment where I would see Pietracupa again for the first time after a few years was like waking up on Christmas morning.

During the month of August many of the families that have connections to the town come back for vacation and the town becomes alive. We would spend our days playing calcetto (soccer on a smaller field where the teams are made up of five players instead of eleven), eating, going to the beach, and hanging out at the town bar many times until the sun came up.

It is a very isolated spot that allows for a very simple way of life...basically the complete opposite of living in a big city like Rome. Not many changes have been made to the town over the years and that is what one of the things I love about it. Pietracupa will always be very special to me, and I can’t wait to spend more time there now that I am retired from gymnastics.


Side Note: While I was in Pietracupa over the weekend, I went to a relatives masseria (basically a farm) where he has a bunch of fig trees. I don’t know how many of you have had fresh figs, but they are amazing!!! With figs, the general idea is that the uglier they look, the better they taste. They have a honey like sweetness to them that I haven’t found in another fruit. The amount we collected should have lasted us a couple weeks. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help myself and I’ve just about finished them already...haha!!