I recently acquired book of photographs with a simple narrative about Molise...simply called "The Women of Molise " - An Italian village 1950"It was produced from a collection of photographs taken by Frank Monaco. His family was originally from the village of Cantalupo although he was born in New York.
In 1950 he visited Cantalupo, and spent time photographing the women living their daily lives.
The introduction quotes from an article from the Times in 1959 by Norman Hall.
"In the whole of Italy there is no province quite like Molise. It is a wild region, mountainous and largely untamed.
This week I am going to Cantalupo to explore and take some photographs. It will be interesting to compare them more than sixty years later, although of course few if any of the people will be there apart from the children of course. Monaco even comments in his narrative that it would be interesting to know if the children stayed in the village or moved on.
Sadly now so many regions of Molise are as much if not more in decline than they were in the 1950s, with large areas still largely untouched except by agriculture. This has allowed Molise to keep it's own uniqueness and natural beauty.
Sometimes it hard to believe I am living in Italy again as it so different here to Milan or the Italian lakes where I used to live.
Once again quoting from Monaco's book Molise is still in a primitive state, which "generates a feeling of isolation, which is both spiritual and physical."
This is the magic of Molise, it's people and it's lands.
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