A ‘Felliniesque’ moment
We are enjoying a few months at Carmela’s house in the Campania region of Southern Italy. Situated in the foothills of the Apennines that run down the spine of Italy, it’s well positioned for exploring so much of what’s great about Italy. Rome, Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi coast are all no more than a couple of hours drive and even Capri is within a morning’s drive and sail.
However on this visit, it was the lesser known areas that caught the eye. We had a splendid evening in Castello, a small mountain village that puts on a series of ‘Festas’ at this time of year.
But it was in the small Roman walled town of Alife, pronounced ‘A-leaf-a’, that caused my biggest surprise. Usually I have my camera ready for the unexpected, but what happened next as I wandered the tightly packed streets of the Tuesday morning market, was a moment of pure Felliniesque magic, that could have graced the great director’s ‘La Strada’.
I found myself strolling a few strides behind a woman who was perhaps thirty, slender and tall by local standards, wearing a flowing calf length white dress. Just behind her was a young lad, no older than 5 or 6, that I took to be her son. All of a sudden in one magically naughty moment, the son lifted the tail of his mother’s dress above her waist as if a bridal gown, for all to see she was wearing no underwear! And the lad collected a sharp slap on his cheek, for choreographing the entertainment.
Why can’t Suffolk markets be so titillating!
by Roland Blunk
Roland Blunk(http://www.rolandblunk.com)