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If you ask an Italian to point on the map to the exact location of Molise, you'd probably receive an embarassed stare --unless of course he is from Molise... With an area slightly more than 4000 km, two provinces, and a population density of 75 people per square km, Molise is one of the smallest provinces in Italy. It has experienced a peak of media notoriety in the early '90s, thanks to the rise of native Tonino Di Pietro, political rising star and symbol of the Mani Pulite team investigating political corruption.
Molise has harsh mountanous terrain, constricted as it is on one side by the Appennine mountains, and on the other by a small coastline. Termoli is the only port of Molise, while the majority of its inhabitants live on agriculture, and sheepherding.
The city lays on the flanks of a hill dominated by the Medieval Castle, with beautiful towers and turrets. Its old town center is crossed by minuscule streets and stairs. 1421 m. on the sea, this town is one of the highest of the Appennini Mts. and certainly one of the quaintest. It's a bizarre ski resort in the winter. See the ruins of the ancient 1st Century Roman town. Isernia lays in the beautiful green valley of the Volturno river. A very old town of Sannitic origin, it was terribly damaged by an earthquake in the 1800s. See: the Cathedral and the Fountain of the Fraterna. Living proof of the outstanding artisan culture of Southern Italy, Agnone is the world center of bellmaking, an art that is passed from father to son since the Middle Ages. Santa Maria di Canneto is a Romanic abbey splendidly isolated in an olive grove in the environs of Roccavivara. |
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