 "Today enters March, the wrangling arose underground and cracked the Earth, God save the quarrel, the witch, the femmena mandrega, by dogma are angry and envious of Mankind." --from Prete Grasso e dal Vilan che va a Spasso (The Fat Priest and Villain Take a Walk, a childrens story)   A detailed map of where to locate the margolfe of Fiumalbo This children's story warns against evil and reminds us of the Margolfa, a "mummy" carved into stone and used to ward off evil and the malocchio in the region surrounding Fiumalbo in the mountains of Emilia-Romagna. These stone heads are placed on walls and homes to scare away the evil that came from the deep, dark forests in medieval days. Perhaps this superstitious tradition was begun by the ancestors of modern day Fiumalbini, who in times past actually hung the severed heads on doors and walls as a warning to their real world threats--invaders--to stay away. While some margolfa are ancient, there are local artists still carving new ones today... and people still guard their homes from the malocchio with them. --Jerry Finzi 
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Small Towns of Italy - Fiumalbo in Emilia-Romagna Monsters of Italy: Sardinian Mamuthones, the Stuff of Nightmares Garden of Bomarzo - Lions, Monsters and Bears, Oh My! Villa Palagonia, the Sicilian Villa of Monsters Castello Incantato - the Enchanted Castle and Stone Heads of a Madman To me, the old, weathered doors in Italy are a work of art in and of themselves. Their textures of aged wood, peeling paint and ancient, blacksmith forged hardware are wonderful subjects for my own photography. But in the small mountainside village of Staiti in the Aspromonte National Park in Calabria there are doors that boast both colors and colorful words. They were painted by a Staitese artist, Teresa Gandini, with the help of local boys. Gandini is a well known artist in the area who usually paints local scenes of rustic architecture, gardens and floral settings. But in this case, not only her images, but also the words she paints on the doors are what transforms them doors into sheer architectural poetry. They could very well be the doors to visitors' souls... --Jerry Finzi  Those who want to see the rainbow must learn to love the rain.
 Doing what you love is freedom. Loving what you do is happiness.
 It is the cynical who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
 Read and live a thousand lives.  |
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