Thoughts of an Italian Writer: (1d)

Dr. Antonio Castaldo, Sociologist and Journalist, Brusciano, Italy

"A Slow Walk between Art, History and Memory" (5)

(Continued from Page: 4)

And here we are, therefore, to Castelcisterna that welcomes us with the beautiful paving in porphyry of the sidewalks but disappears entirely in the narrowing before the communal center. The parish church which towers majestically over via Nazionale, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, an abbey which was built in 1766, opened in 1775 and dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari. Yet interesting traces even lead to the monks of Montevergine and Guglielmo da Vercelli arrived in this part of the world in 1134, with the benefit of a donation by Ruggiero II comprising Castelcisterna.

We are now at the gates of Pomigliano D'Arc which is the junction between the main provincial routes, state highways that serve the city traffic, the exchange of goods, deliveries of large commercial centers and industry and the sorting of their products. And to that industrial world inspires the positioning of the Technical Institute "Barsanti."

Queen of the local industrial history, is the anonymous Lombarda Automobile Factory, which, in liquidation ne1 1915, it passed into the hands of Nicola Romeo, Neapolitan engineer. After World War I it became Alfa Romeo and in 1938, under the control of I.R.I., this factory was built in Pomigliano. In 1967 spawned the infamous Alfasud that transformed thousands of masons, artisans and farmers into metal-working workers. In 1986 the group went to Alfa Romeo FIAT .The thirty year "Group Workers' E Zezi" whose leader is Angelo De Falco has expressed for years the suffered anthropological mutation which has accompanied the industrial experience. Today Pomigliano is a small town with its standard of living, culture, public services and cultural movement which provides a positive example for the whole area. We stop here, at the height of the old station Circumvesuviana, where the Nazionale became via Mauro Leone and continues as via Roma, towards Naples. We have now ended the walk with some knowledge in slower time and dwelling on things, memories, feelings, thoughts and "finding the way, as well as the invisible in things encountered." The Duccio Demetrio affirms in his recent work " Filosofia del camminare. Esercitazione di meditazione mediterranea," edited by Cortina Editore, we recommend that you read it so you can discuss it then, with your friends during a long walk.

Dr. Antonio Castaldo
January 2006
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Translation from Italian to English by Miriam Medina
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