19/05/2016
Saluda, North Carolina Becomes Sister City to Carunchio, Italy
Saluda officially became the Sister City of Carunchio, Italy in a ceremony at the Carunchio City Hall on May 13. Lynn Cass, a former city commissioner in Saluda and its official representative, joined with Carunchio mayor Gianfranco D'Isabella in a meeting before the Carunchio City Council to memorialize the relationship. Backed by the flags of Italy, the United States, Carunchio and Saluda, the two read a proclamation in Italian and English that will be displayed in the Saluda City Hall. D'Isabella also presented Cass with an engraved plaque to commemorate the joining. Cass presented Carunchio with books picturing Saluda environs and celebrating its artistic heritage. On a more fun note, Cass also presented the mayor with a traditional "C**n Dog Day" festival shirt and invited all to Saluda for "barbeque and sweet tea."
Both Cass and D'Isabella pointed out the many commonalities between their cities including similar mountainous location, altitude, latitude, climate, population density and demographics. Both celebrate local food, art and music.
Following the ceremony both delegations joined together at Palazzo Tour D'Eau, a restored hilltop palace built in the 1732 where the 21 Saluda guests and friends were staying. They were treated to a concert of medieval music on traditional instruments by a local troupe, Hexperos, followed by a traditional dinner in the palace dining room.
This year was the third year in a row that a delegation from Saluda visited Carunchio which is in the province of Abruzzo. Located 30 miles inland from the Adriatic Sea, Carunchio is about three and a half hours east of Rome through rolling farmland and pastures below the Apennine mountain range. As in prior years, the Saludians stayed six nights at the Palazzo Tour D'Eau and were shown the best of the province of Abruzzo by host and owner Massimo Criscio.
The capital of the area is the historic city of Vasto, located directly on the Adriatic coast. There the group visited an ancient trabocco, one of the few remaining historic fish houses perched on wooden pilings looking like a "tree-house over water on stilts" in the edge of the Adriatic. Guests dined, on a broad variety of fresh seafood and saw a demonstration of how the fishing nets work from the trabocco. Traboccos dotted the Abruzzo coast line 100 years ago and were the livelihood of fishing families who could lower huge nets from their wooden platform by a series of pulleys, and pull up fish without, having to journey out into the sea and risk bad weather. The family members cleaned and prepared the raw fish at the trabocco and then delivered the fish to the near-by towns. As recently as 50 years ago, 85 traboccos dotted the Abruzzo coast.
The rest of the week was taken up with visits to historic and commercial sites to help experience the true culture of the area. They visited olive groves and grape vineyards with demonstrations of how the olives and grapes are processed Into the olive oil and wines that the region is famous for. They observed cheese-making at a factory producing local mozzarella and toured the second largest bell foundry in the world to learn how the huge bells are created and to hear a concert played by hand, on eight massive bells hung from the ceiling of the bell foundry.
Sharing the summit of Carunchio with the Palazzo is the church San Giovanni Battista, which houses a magnificent baroque pipe organ built in the 1600s. In honor of the joining of the two cities, a rare concert was played on the organ and the Saluda visitors were given the opportunity to climb the tiny, steep stairs behind the organ to see its workings. As the concert was played, the movements of the musician playing the concert were transmitted by closed circuit camera to those listening in the sanctuary below. While the air needed to create the pipe organ music is now provided by an electric air pump, it nevertheless required a second assistant to help pull and push the many levers, called "stops," that create the variation in sound as the keyboard is played. Cass observed that it was a real time example of the origin of the phrase, "pulling out all the stops."
The visitors all commented on the graciousness of the Carunchio population and the luxurious accommodations at the Palazzo. Cass pointed out that one of the ongoing highlights of the week for the Saluda visitors was the cooking instruction from two top chefs, including the Palazzo's resident chef, Dino Paganelli, who trained at the famous Villa Santa Maria cooking school in Abruzzo. The cooking school has a tradition of training chefs for over 500 years and is known as the "Home of Italian Chefs." Throughout the week, meals were prepared by Chef Dino who said they were designed to highlight the best traditions of Abruzzo cuisine and expose the Saluda guests to the local, seasonal vegetables, herbs and fruits as well as the traditional meats of the region.
