Molise

I reached Molise with two fellow villagers on a short tour of southern Italy. We travelled in my car. I had already been to Molise many years earlier during my military service, when they took me to throw hand grenades in a field in the province of Campobasso, but in practice I had seen nothing. First stop in Campobasso, where, walking up the steep little streets of the historic centre that occupies a hill overlooking the new town, we reached Monforte Castle and entered its inner courtyard. It was Sunday, and on the square facing the manor there is also a church from which numerous worshippers are coming out after Mass. Having come back down through the historic centre among old houses and churches, we take the car again and continue towards Isernia. Before entering the town we stop at a restaurant where we have lunch with typical local dishes.

On arriving at Isernia we immediately realise that we are the only tourists. To tell the truth, the historic centre is completely empty, the shops are closed, and the only person we meet in the main square is an old man sitting in front of the Caffè Centrale asking us in dialect whether we want to buy the Provincia. The square is overlooked by the Cathedral with a neoclassical façade flanked by an older, more massive bell tower, through which opens an arch beneath which the street we are walking passes. Here we finally find a business that is open, a restaurant that also serves as a wine bar, where we drink a coffee. We walk back up the street to the square that houses the Fontana Fraterna, the symbolic monument of Isernia, an aedicule displaying various architectural styles from different periods.

Leaving Isernia we stop at Venafro, where we buy local sweets in a pastry shop and a grocer's which, unlike the previous town, are open. From here we leave Molise.