Pietra di Cappa Mount

The next step is in Calabria and precisely Monte Pietra di Cappa, the largest monolith in Europe.

We leave for Reggio Calabria, early in the morning because we will have to walk. 

What do we know about this place? Actually we did not even know its existence before reading an article about the "strange" Calabrian places.

It was enough to read about ancient stories, legends, Jesus and apostles against the devil, Templars and much more.

Talking about its origins is already a nice puzzle between history and legend. As we approach the mountain, an old man tells us  the locals talk about the origin of Pietra di Cappa in the Middle Ages, there are documents to testify.

A legend links the name to the apostle Simon called Peter, to whom Christ gave the task of building his Church. Simone (in the texts of the Greek  Gospels) is called Kefa by Christ which means Rock, hence the Italian translation of Rock which becomes stone (Petra)  and then Peter. (Pietro)

So Cappa (the sound of the letter K in Italian) was a reference to the word Kefa.

Another legend tells that Jesus and his Apostles arrived here as they traveled to spread the good of the Lord.

In this place they had to do penance, their task was to collect boulders and bring them in front of the Lord, Peter (always him!), perhaps out of laziness or because he considered the work too tiring, decided to collect a small stone.

Jesus transformed the boulders into bread and everyone was happy, except for Peter, he found a small bite in his hands. The apostle understood the lesson and decided to leave that stone in memory of his malice and touching it with a finger made it so big that it covered the ground all around.

While we continue to walk on the trekking route (oh I forgot ... we are inside the Aspromonte natural park) reserved for experienced hikers (about 7 hours of route and a beautiful gradient) our travel companions continue to tell legends on the spot.

This is the one I liked the most, perhaps because they told it to me just when I could see a humanoid shape in the rock.

Legend says that it is the imprint of the devil. Christ arrived in Calabria during one of his pilgrimages (I believe immediately after turning the boulders into bread), during a conversation with Pietro, the Devil assaulted him trying to draw him into temptation (like in the desert). The Lord removed him with a sign of the cross and the Devil was sucked into the rock, he tried not to be imprisoned but in vain. Only the imprint remains on the rocky wall.

Now the path begins to be difficult and tests my physical abilities, the dirt path and the heat do not help me but the landscape is wonderfully beautiful and charming. In these woods, nature shines

Do you think that my guides have finished telling me about other legends? Obviously not!

Could another one be missing on Peter? They must truly be devoted to the Saint around here.
This time Peter, as the Guardian of Paradise, is facing the entrance of the heavens the sergeant slapped Jesus in front of the High Priest Caiaphas after his arrest. Peter was a saint but had a fiery character, took the unfortunate for the ear (although the sergeant had sincerely repented of his gesture) and imprisoned him inside the monolith, uttering the following words:

"Until the day of judgment you will run back and forth in this big room, slapping the walls, so you will always remember the one given to the Lord"

Since then the evil sergeant runs up and down the rocky room, hitting the walls violently, screaming for pain. Anyone, even today, being in the immediate vicinity of Pietra Cappa on particularly windy days, can testify that from inside there are distinctly loud pops with loud and excruciating cries.

Monastery pic by Giancarlo Parisi 

 The path becomes more and more difficult, we need a pause to refresh ourselves and then leave again. Along the way we see a "Jazzo" (typical enclosures for sheep built by shepherds), hidden among spectacular chestnut trees, also called "Giants Giants". These trees surrounded the Monastery of San Giorgio (or at least what remains of it)

Monastery pic by Giancarlo Parisi 

Just as we are about to approach the end of the path, I am told that the monolith also has a role in the Mystery of the Knights Templar.

The nearby town of Reggio Calabria was home to the Legio_X_Fretensis (I ignored the story), created by Ottaviano to fight Sesto Pompeo during the "Bellum Siculum" for the control of Sicily (granary essential for Rome)

The Legio took the numerical tithe in honor of the legendary tenth legion that ithad validly fought with Caesar in Gaul and its name of Fretensis from Fretum Siculum, the ancient name of the Strait of Messina.

The X  was made up of soldiers coming  from the area of ​​the Strait of Messina and mainly from the Municipality of Regium and they had as a symbol the Verro or the Trireme. It was sent to Judea under the command of Pontius Pilate. It is thought that it was the Legion who crucified Jesus and stole the treasures of the Temple of Jerusalem. Seniors say that Longinus (the soldier  pierced Jesus with his spear) was a representative of this legion. Many of Longino's comrades came from this garrison and gave rise to the Knights of Malta, along with the monks who founded the order of Zion.



Precisely the monks ,on Mount Cappa, had the detection of the Grail. And here, in the mysterious ramifications of the great rock (which would come even in the bowels of the earth), the Knights of the Temple would have been established, and later hidden, making the "Queen of the Aspromonte" even more enigmatic and fascinating.

Attention: the trekking route is for expert hikers.

How to get

From Bovalino, on the south side,leave the S.S. 106 and enter the S.P. 112 Bis (crossroads for Natile -Plati - Bagnara).
Once in Natile Nuovo at the junction follow the sign for Platì, after about 400 meters you will find, on the left, the junction for Natile Superiore, follow this road for 4 km.,
After passing the narrow street of the village, you it follows the only semi-cemented road that climbs towards the mountain. After the soccer field a little further on the right there is a fountain where it is possible to refuel. Follow the road for about 2 km.

The Italian Excalibur: S. Galgano in Montesiepi

It may sound incredible, but the most famous british legend, the sword in the stone, becomes real if you visit an ancient abbey laying among tuscan hills, not too far from Siena.

We're talking of the Abbey of San Galgano, in Chiusdino.
This is a Cistercian monastery, and like Tintern in Galles, or Melrose in Scotland, it has no roof, and that's why we suggest an evening visit: it can be very suggestive to contemplate the starry sky through a church's ruins.

At the time of its building, in 1218, the abbey was provided of a big lead roof, sold in XIV century during a period of decadence that started when the friars lost the emperor Frederick II' s support. He was a great alchemist, passionate about the research of Holy Graal. As a matter of fact, inside the abbey there are many references to numerical symbolism, to Egyptian culture and to Holy Graal.

The builders followed S. Bernardo 's rule, that gave clear recommendations about the location of a Cistercian monastery: it had to be built near an important route (via Maremmana, in this case) to be connected with other monasteries, near a river ( Merse) to use its mechanical energy, and near swamps, to reclamate the land for agriculture.

The abbey may look familiar to you... Have you ever watched "The English patient" ? The love story between Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas was set here!

But who was Galgano, and what has he in common with king Arthur?

Actually, his history recalls much more S. Francis: He leads a dissolute life in his youth, till when the archangel Michael appears in dream to him, and persuades him to atonement and hermitage. In 1180, on Christmas day, on Montesiepi hill he inserted his sword in the ground, to mark his conversion transforming a weapon in a cross. Today you can still admire it, in the middle of Montesiepi round, a chapel on the hill surrounding the abbey, that was the place where Saint Galgano lived his last year, and where he was buried. This is a little church with round diagram, consisting in the apsis and a little chapel where you can admire Lorenzetti 's frescos, dated by 1334/36. The dome that covers the chapel is very elegant, made in succession of white and red stones.

There are some voices of a further connection between Montesiepi and Arthurian tales: according to a legend, this could be the place where the Holy Graal was  hidden, in a misterious cellar, that may be revealed moving a certain stone... Why don't you come here and try to be the lucky explorer who finds the treasure?

The Well of Santa Cristina in Paulilatino

We stay in Sardinia to visit a mysterious and magical place. The Well of Santa Cristina, the archaeological area of Santa Cristina is located about 4 kilometers from Paulilatino.

We will find an archaeological complex that includes the nuragic sanctuary and a small single-tower nuraghe with village remains.

The first news on this well date back to 1840 and the first graphic study of the structure is by Giovanni Spano, the father of Sardinian archeology in 1857.

What was it? At first it was thought to be a well for water supply, but next to it there is a fountain that it supplies visitors without any problem. The proximity of the Nuraghe is another indication that it was not a well because they were built near water sources.

Was the well actually a prison? Was Santa Cristina  incarcerated by a tyrant, as local traditions tell?

What is it?

We can only make assumptions. There is no doubt that the "well" is a work of great architectural quality.

It is so balanced in proportions, sophisticated in the clear and precise paraments of the interior, studied in the geometric composition of the members, so rational in a word not to be understood, at first sight, that it is close to the year 1000 BC. and that the nuragic art has expressed it, before prestigious historical civilizations were established on the island ".

Spano thought that the well was a prison, justifying his theory with the conformation of the Etruscan and Roman prisons that "consisted of a well, that is underground, made vault lit only by an opening above".

Mayr, influenced by the analogies with the Mycenaean tholoi, interprets it as a domed tomb.

In 1910 Antonio Taramelli (italian  archaeologis) identified it as a sacred well similar to  Santa Vittoria di Serri.

Arnold Lebeuf ( Professor of Anthropology and Archaeoastronomy at the Jagielonian University of Krakow) tries to show, in 2011, how the Santa Cristina was a lunar astronomical observatory, an instrument through which its builders observed and recorded the moon's motions in order to foresee the eclipses.

The writer thinks it is based on the base / height ratio of the well dome, this is characterized by an architectural geometry that coincides with a good approximation with an astronomical geometry. In other words, the line passing between the north point of the base of the dome and the apical hole forms an angle (relative to the vertical) coinciding with the angle that characterizes the point where the moon crosses the meridian on the day of the northern major lunar.



We know only one thing with certainty that in the well of Santa Cristina and its vicinity there were rituals connected to the cults of the waters and that the use of the area continued well beyond the Nuragic age , not unanimously shared by archeologists, there is a theory the sanctuary was also a place of astronomical observation,

In fact, every year, coinciding with the spring equinox (around March 21st) and autumn (around September 23rd), the twenty-four steps (leading to the bottom of the well)  are completely illuminated by sunlight.

Descending them simultaneously with an equinox means seeing one's shadow projected onto the inverted front wall. And even if science has explained this phenomenon through the effect of refraction of the image, it is undeniable that, for those who live it, the fascination of the "mystery" remains.

The well of Santa Cristina has at least one other particularity linked to the celestial cycles. Every eighteen and six months, the full moon (which is at that moment at its height) shines through the opening of the well, illuminating it completely and reflecting on the water.

Randomness or the result of a precise knowledge of the motion of the stars? Moreover, in other Sardinian sanctuaries of the same type, after all, the spring and autumn equinoxes (but also the winter and summer solstices) mark the moment when the light of the sun crosses the well, illuminating it in a "particular" way.

Therefore, their builders would have had astronomical knowledge that was anything but random and on the basis of these they would build the sacred wells. 

To date, there is no definitive word on these subjects. It remains (however you think) the magic of a place that resists for thousands of years, and the play of light, water and shadows that every visitor can see with their own eyes, continuing to remain fascinated




Advices on eating and drinking? Read here

Ghost Tour in Rome #6 Julius Caesar's ghost

Ghosts in St. Peter's Square?

Legends and suggestions tell us since  1585 a golden globe adorned the obelisk in the square (and this is true), this globe contained the ashes of the great leader Giulio Cesare (this is legend, perhaps).

The ghost of the Roman general and politician was hovering around the obelisk. 

Julius Caesar appeared in the night when his rivals killed him: the Ides of March (March ,15th).

Is not this phantom enough for you? Do you want more ghosts in San Pietro? 

We'll settle you immediately.

Inside the Basilica there is the "column of the ossessi". The column is so called because the people (obsessed) were bound that the priests wanted to free from the demons. This column was inside the   Solomon's Temple  and was brought to Rome hundreds of years ago.

Column of the Ossessi

Legends say  the souls and spirits of the men killed on the column still wander today for the Basilica...be careful !