Visit
Come as a guest, not as a collector.
The town is lived-in. It is not a set. If you remember that, you will be fed.
Gallo Matese is about seventy kilometres north of Naples and forty-five north of Caserta, 875 metres up, on the Molise border, inside the national park. You reach the valley by three ordinary roads: from the Fontegreca–Capriati a Volturno junction if you come from Venafro; from Monteroduni if you come from Isernia; from Letino if you come off Lago del Matese. The last kilometres are the ones your memory will try to flatten. They are not flat.
When to come: 13 June if you have a reason to stand in the piazza. High summer if you want the lake and the open houses. September if you want the mountain to yourself and the beans drying. Winter only if someone is expecting you. Do not come for a “hidden Italy” reel. There is nothing hidden. There is a town that would like you to say good evening.
- Sleep. Rooms are few. Book early in June and August. A relative’s house is the true hotel.
- Walk. Alleys, then Vallelunga with someone who knows the red rock. Beech forest. The lake road at evening.
- Eat. Beans if they are offered. See Food. Do not ask for a menu that looks like Rome.
- Festa. Read Festa before you pack a costume.
From the book
“Gallo Matese is not a ruin. It is not a postcard waiting to be rescued by people who left.”
How to arrive is on this page. How to sit, once you have, is in the book.
Read the opening chapter