LESLIE MCBRIDE WILE Tuesday was Tutti i Santi, All Saints’ Day. Schools, shops, and offices close for this annual day of solemn remembrance, families visit the graves of their forebears to leave fresh flowers, florists do big business in chrysanthemums,…
LESLIE MCBRIDE WILE Siamo in Italia! It means We are in Italy!, and people here often say this to us when they cannot explain some bureaucratic tangle or incomprehensible administrative regulation. With a characteristic gesture that is half-shrug, half-surrender, they let…
ROBERTA FERRARIS Hidden and surrounded by the Argentera Massif, Gesso Valley was chosen as countryside resort by the House of Savoy who acquired the hunting rights from the Councils of Entracque and Valdieri villages in the middle of 19th century.…
ROBERTA FERRARIS Located at the extreme South-East corner of the Occitan-speaking area, Vermenagna Valley is a borderland for several aspects: it borders with France through the Col di Tenda (a high mountain pass) which also separates Ligurian Alps from Maritime…
ROBERTA FERRARIS The Pesio Valley is one of the most woody valleys of the Western Alps due to its proximity to the sea and to abundant rainfalls. For centuries, the local forest resources have been wisely administered by the Charterhouse…
LESLIE MCBRIDE WILE There is a fire burning merrily in my bedroom fireplace, a fire of fagus logs. I ordered the wood this morning and it was delivered this evening–and there is quite a story about THAT. The story has a…
ROBERTA FERRARIS The Occitan variant spoken in the Èllero valley indicates as «Quié (Kyé)» the 1st singular person subjective pronoun «I». Only in 1969, the linguist Corrado Grassi included this dialect spoken in some villages of the Monregalese valleys in…
