An Englishman at "La Notte della Taranta"

It is less than one month since we went to Melpignano, south of Lecce.

Melpignano is located in an area of the Lecce province called Grecia Salentina.

People there speak Griko, a variant of Greek.

We went there the 23^rd of August to attend the latest night of the itinerant festival La Notte della Taranta.

La Notte della Taranta is one of greatest folk festival in Europe.

The music played there is pizzica, which has Greek influence.

Aaron is from Bristol, in the UK.

He came to Brindisi, south of Apulia, in July 2013 to work.

He loves music, he likes very much music festival.

Last year I promised him: “I will take you to Melpignano at La Notte della Taranta, an amazing folk festival.”.

Mervyn, a funny friend of ours from London joined us.

The 23^rd of August 2013 we were in Melpignano.

I still remember their faces when they saw the huge crowd under the stage, filling the entire square.

Almost 30.000 people dancing and singing.

I consider it a bath of energy, pure energy.

Mervyn was supposed to come this year as well. Unfortunately, he could not make it.

 So Aaron and I went there again this year, to celebrate what seems to me a therapeutic rite.

Aaron, I, Lucia and her friends from Milan have been this year at La Notte della Taranta.

I asked Aaron:“Why do you like this music festival”. He replied: “because it is so trivial”.

Aaron has been dancing the entire night. He has even bought a tamburello.

Then, at the end of the night he comes to me and says: “do you know why I really like this festival?

Because it makes me think that I have to let it go” I have never understood very well what he meant.

But I guess he meant something personal, something which belongs to his own story.

Aaron will go back to UK soon.

His life experience in Apulia has almost come to an end.

I wish you all the best, dude.

I'm sure that I will see you next year in August, of course at Notte della Taranta.

MARTA, the splendor of Taranto

MARTA is not just a female name

In this case, MARTA stands for Archeological Museum of Taranto.
















Renewed in 2007, the Museum displays a permanent exhibition which embraces Prehistory and Proto-history, Greek period, Roman age till the Middle Age

Let me say that the best part of it is the Greek period. At that time, Taras (greek name of Taranto), a Spartan colony, became rich and powerful.

Bought the ticket, I begin to follow the path.

The the first room is big, very big.

Right in the middle there is a large amphora. Just at the bottom of it, there is an advise which says that it was returned by the USA.

It was previously displayed in an American Museum, which probably bought it from the black market.

Grave robbers are a big problem for a country like Italy, which has an archeological site almost in every village.

However, the Italian governament managed to get it back. And this is what counts.






According to the exhibition, Taranto was supposed to be very rich. I have never seen so many golden artifacts like I did in MARTA: hair slides, rings, necklaces, bracelets.

The aristocratics were supposed to be plenty of money; moreover, very sensitive to be good looking

The golden artifacts are very well made. Undoubtedly, there were at the time expert goldsmiths. Additionally, I assume there was a huge quantity of gold in Taranto.

The Roman section of MARTA is an additional reason to come here and visit it.

The mosaics look so great that they seem carpets.

I have always been told that MARTA is a great Museum. Now, I know why.

Therefore, if you wish to have an idea about Magna Graecia, now you know where to go to.

Galatina: the hearth of tarantismo

The 29th of June 2014, I went to Galatina for the celebration of St. Peter and Paul.

According to the tradition, those who were bitten by the tarantula used to go to the St. Paul's chapel in Galatina.

The therapeutic band was there waiting for them.

As soon the music begun to be played, the pizzicati (bitten), mostly women, started jumping, running, dancing, and eventually, collapsed on the ground.

Everything occurred under the supervision of the two miraculous Saints.

The goal was that the poison inoculated by the tarantula would have been got rid of by a very intense sweating.









An old man whom I met in Galatina, said: "the pizzicati were brought to the chapel by horse-car."

He adds: "this event was very popular till the 80s.

Then, with the fading of rural culture, women and men abandoned this custom.".

Over the last years, the Municipality of Galatina supported by the local club Unesco, hold a pantomime to recall the tradition.

Let us say that the pizzica, a therapeutic folk music has a hysterical rhythm.

Pizzica is part of that big family which goes under the name of tarantella.

Tarantella is a key element of the culture of Southern Italy.

If you wish to see more pictures, please click here