Bagnoli Del Trigno
It is a magnificent place if you want to get away from civilization, the internet, wireless, everything. And if you go in the fall, and know how to wrangle an invitation to stay at the home of one of the local Bagnolesi (I just might enable you to because I do have relatives there and may be able to get you accommodations via one of them since there are NO HOTELS in the village or within the immediate region, except maybe Civitanova del Sannio.) you will be able to sample the summer harvest of the tomatoes, cheeses, prosciutto, capicola, sopressata, vino, limoncello, cherry liquor, pane, et la pasta (all home made, including the cured pork artisanal meats which are made from a fresh killed pig).
Bagnoli as it is referred to by locals is in the province of Molise, Italy, one of the poorest regions, as well as the most recently formed (1970) after it was split from Abruzzo. (I heard my parents who were both born there refer to it as Abruzzi-Molise. Even they didn't know that the province had been split into two and Molise was the second smallest in Italy.) The town boasts beauty and uniqueness in its name: Bagnoli, probably from the word bagno or bath in translation and Trigno the name of the river that runs through the area and from which the residents took their water and irrigated their crops in "ancient times." Together both words translate as bathed in the Trigno. The river's watershed is in the Apennines and the region has been studied because in comparison to other parts of Italy and Europe, it has some of the purest water and cleanest air to be found. Underneath the sign the town's beauty is noted: , "The Pearl of the Molise."
My cousin married a Taxi Driver and they live and work in Roma in the wintertime and visit Bagnoli with their parents in the summer for the celebrations and feast days. The winter population shrinks to a hover around 800. In the summer all of the younger expatriates and families return, taking a break from life in Roma, Perugia, Milano and elsewhere to commemorate a week of festivities including the one day when all of Italy shuts down and fireworks can be seen in every town along the entire coast line from Torino to Capo Spartivento, Calabria, from Venezia to Italy's heel: Fiera Augusto.
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