bandits on the road to hell

Sunday October 16, 2011

I'm struggling through Dante's Divine Comedy. I've read excerpts before and its import in history is obvious, but reading through it, line by line (with the help of marginal notes), is slow going. I'm determined though, because there are so many references to this region.

"In the midway of this our mortal life,

I found me in a gloomy wood, astray

Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell

It were no easy task, how savage wild

That forest, how robust and rough its growth,

Which to remember only, my dismay

Renews, in bitterness not far from death.

Yet to discourse of what there good befell,

All else will I relate discover'd there.

How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,

Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd

My senses down, when the true path I left,

But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where clos'd

The valley, that had pierc'd my heart with dread..."

The gloomy wood of the Cimini mountains is thought to be the source of this first line. Yes, the road to hell. It's around twenty minutes north east of us. The ancient Romans were scared of this dense wood, too. In Medieval ages and Renaissance, this was an infamous hide out and trail for bandits.

It was a gorgeous Sunday morning and we walked through this wood near the summit of the mountain. It's harvest time for the beech trees and chestnut trees, and we saw people by the roadside collecting both.
The beech nuts were so plentiful here that I rolled on them and lost my balance, but did not fall five times and fell - spectacularly - twice. Alex and Eleni both had some monumental falls, too.

It was the perfect morning; I was reminded of home in the northeast around this time of year often. We had a snack at the top and then headed down/rolled to our car. It's the season for chestnut festivals now, so we decided to check one out. Soriano nel Cimino was a fifteen minute drive away.

The 13th century Orsini Fortress looms over the town. They've been celebrating chestnuts here for two weeks. They use this opportunity to reenact (over 500 years of this) some treacherous Renaissance moments: In 1489, A disguised Paolo Nardini of Vignanello slipped into the Orsini castle and killed Didaco of Carvajal. In the middle of the night, as Paolo was holding up a torch to signal to his mates to join him at the castle and help overthrow it, an elderly woman (she is referred to as a hag) who was working at the slaughterhouse saw the torch. She got a few neighbors together and together they managed to ambush the invaders, throw Paolo off the high tower, and keep the family's power intact.

We found a good Renaissance style tent to eat in. Neil and I shared chestnut soup that was so simple and so delicious. Then we climbed up and into the Orsini Castle. Here was the view from the top. Viterbo is out there somewhere.

We enjoyed the sun and atmosphere for a while and then headed home. Neil was scheduled to play in the school soccer game (and did so rather successfully!).

As we were leaving, we realized that we had parked our car here - on the Road of the Bandits. Evidently, this place was swarming with them; perhaps they are the Robin Hoods of Italy. Which leads me back to Dante's hell. Where would the bandits be?