The gastronomic fields of the south and of the major islands ensure memorable discoveries. Today as in the time of the Grand Tour
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Like travelers of the Grand Tour that, after having explored Northern Italy, began in the late eighteenth century to go to the South, so also Sale & Pepe closes its journey by celebrating the beauty and goodness of the South and the two major islands. A path that he saw as our exceptional partner Destination Gusto, an initiative of Intesa Sanpaolo designed to promote Italian food and wine excellences. A large online store, run by B2X, which offers over 350 small and medium-sized Italian agri-food producers (presented one by one with exhaustive data sheets) a digital commercial channel to raise awareness of the quality of their products in Italy and around the world. Over 3000 references including cured meats, cheeses, oils, wines, beers, preserves, pasta, desserts and much more all made in Italy. By entering the Destination Gusto website and reading our latest episode, you can immerse yourself in the immense gastronomic heritage that the generous Mezzogiorno gives us. Products of the earth or of human processing that at the time of the Grand Tour were not those of today, however some travelers of the time had already guessed what the territory could offer.
Goethe's Journey to Italy
For example, Goethe in his book Viaggio in Italia writes that in the Campania capital there is a large consumption of vegetables: "The whole countryside that surrounds Naples is a single vegetable garden and it is a pleasure to see the incredible quantities of legumes that flow into the market days", or Charles de Brosses, duke, French politician and writer observes: "It is here (Naples ) after all that is cooked in the best way, excellent wines … excellent beef, grapes as you can imagine and melons in the middle of winter ". Yet for a long time this part of Italy was by no means a destination: the final stage of the journey was Rome. Only after the discovery of Herculaneum (1738) and Pompeii (1748), the rediscovery of the temples of Paestum, the fame of Goethe's journey (1786-1788) and his book shifted the interests of foreign travelers to Naples and Sicily.
But getting to the south of the peninsula was not easy
The roads between the Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and Ionian Seas were very bad and only one major artery, the Strada Regia delle Calabrie that the Bourbons began to build in 1778, led from Rome to Reggio Calabria. The shortcomings of the road system concerned both long-distance roads and connections with small towns, as well as the nature of the territory was impervious and to this was added the problem of brigandage. Those who traveled to the South did so only for institutional, military or study reasons, aware of the risks and the long distances to be covered on foot or on horseback. For the same reason Sardinia was excluded from the first part of the Grand Tour until the beginning of the 19th century, when the construction of the Strada Reale Carlo Felice facilitated the presence of travelers. But those who managed to get to Puglia, Calabria or elsewhere were delighted.
One of the first was the Irish philosopher in 1717 George Berkeley who in a letter to a Scottish friend writes: "I have just returned from a trip through the most remote and unknown parts of Italy … but perhaps you don't know that the most beautiful city in Italy (Lecce ed) is in a corner remote of the heel …. The season of the year and the many splendid landscapes of Puglia, Peucezia and ancient Calabria made this trip really pleasant ".
October2021
by Laura Maragliano
photo above Alessandro Saffo / Simephoto
portrait Gian Marco Folcolini
The special dedicated to Southern Italy is on newsstands in the October 2021 issue of Sale & Pepe.
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