By
Chanel Grundy
On June 16, 1944,
the last train left the Cagli station. Shortly afterward, the Germans
bombed the Fabriano-Pergola line, destroying tracks, bridges, and tunnels
and cutting off the major connection to this remote hill town.
Though Cagli cleaned up the debris, the railway was never rebuilt and
the mountains around the city have kept it relatively isolated. As a result,
Cagli remains much the way it was half a century ago, even as global communication
and technology have changed the rest of the world.
At 70, Tormino Tavianucci can remember the Cagli before World War II and
says that while new buildings have sprung up around the fringes of the
town, the historic center has changed little from when he was a child:
centuries-old homes passed down from generation to generation; narrow,
cobblestone streets; family-owned shops; and small clusters of people
gathered in the piazza, sharing the news of the day. There is no movie
theater, and people still look to the 19th century opera house for entertainment.
“In the 1950s people left Cagli for fear of no work and the lack
of farming,” says Tavianucci, who worked in other countries laying
highway but has resettled back in his hometown. “Most returned because
of the roots planted here. Tradition will always be the same here; we
remodel old houses and keep a traditional way of living.”
Mario Carnali, who has lived in Cagli all his life, owns several properties
in the city and is hoping he can later pass them down to his 19-year-old
son, Francesco. This year he plans to finish remodeling one of them, the
childhood home of Gaetano Lapis, an 18th century artist.
“Traditionally, children stay home until 25 or 30 years of age,
when they are ready to marry,” says the elder Carnali, who lived
with his parents until his mother died in 2005. “There is a law
here that after your parents pass, the children divide the house and its
contents, unless a ‘promise’ or will was created.”
However, some citizens worry that there won’t be enough young people
left to claim these properties. For every 100 people who die in Cagli,
only 60 are born, Carnali says, and young people are leaving to find work
elsewhere because of the difficulties they have starting businesses in
Cagli. There
are more ‘for sale’ signs in the city than ever before.
Still, some youth eventually returnfor the traditional lifestyle Cagli
offers.
“Deep-rooted traditions are still alive,” Carnali says. “People
are coming back because of the culture. It’s something you get exposed
to, and you never let it go.”
Luigi Boccarini, a local locksmith, says he values these traditions. “Regardless
of any small changes, I can still go to the piazza and appreciate the
same characters I did as a child,” says Boccarini. “It is
the people here that keep this place going – the older man who hums
the same song, the younger woman who drinks a beer every day around the
same time, and the new traditions and customs the youth bring are everything
I love.”
Photos By - Rebecca Albert
Video By - Sarah Sullivan
Designed By - Michael Paine |
