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1 CHAPTER FIRST - Remembering the past - I was born on September 8, 1929 in Fallo, a small village in the province of Chieti in the region of Abruzzi in Central Italy. Fallo is located on a hill in the River Sangro valley, between Quadri and Villa Santa Maria. Fallo is at an elevation of 570 meters above sea level on the slopes of the Apennine Mountains. Originally the village was located on a nearby hill, the Colle S. Nicola, which was commonly called, "Fallo Vecchio". The ruins of few walls were still visible when I was growing up in Fallo. According to legend the village was abandoned because of an invasion of ants and relocated on the present site. The name Fallo probably derives from the Latin word "Faldus", slope, and obviously refers to its physical location. According to Giulio Di Nicola (Di Nicola, Giulio, Paesi d'Abruzzo, 2nd Ed. Eco, S. Gabriele (TE) 1977) Fallo already existed in the year 1000 and the bishop of Chieti periodically visited the village "Faldus" as early as 1200. The village later became part of the feudal possession of the Caldora family in the XIV and XV centuries. Some ruins of the Caldora's fortified castle on a hilltop above Civitaluparella still existed when I was growing up. The feudal lords of the region often changed according to the victorious party of the time during the long struggle between the |
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French House of Anjou and the Spanish House of Aragona. Since the early times Fallo's inhabitants ( 32 families in 1532,49 families in 1562 and about 500 people in the early 1800s) were mostly farmers, who were often exploited by their greedy feudal masters. In 1927-28 Fallo was administratively attached to the more populous Civitaluparella and it did not regain its administrative independence as a "Comune" until 1962. Fallo must be located in a critical climate zone since on the valley side of the village olive trees and vineyards can be cultivated, while on the hill side (towards the higher side of the Appennines) there were no vineyards or olive trees, but only wheat, potatoes, corn and hay. * * * We used to get a lot of snow in the winter, but the cold was never severe. Frost, when it occurred, was rather superficial and limited to the snow's surface and water puddles. Sometimes there were some icicles hanging from rooftops. The river never froze. The springs were long and rainy. In the spring the wild flowers, the fruit trees in bloom, the abundant yellow ginestre (broom plant) flowers were colorful and fragrant. In 1940 there were no cars in the village, only a few of them passed through the village on the "via nuova" (new road) which led to the north to Civitaluparella or to the south to the "bivio" (junction) with |
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