Saturday, September 26, 2015

Genzano history, as we know it

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, Genzano history as we know it
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Genzano history, as we know it



This is the oldest church in Genzano, it was built from Aquilina Sancia queen of Monteserico and also Genzano, it is attached to the monastery of the Clarisse, where Aquilina Sancia retired in her old age and she died in this monastery that she founded.
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This is one of the old fountain in Genzano di Lucania, it is called la Cavallina, as you can see there is this very large trough where the horse and other large animals were watered in the old times, and even today if somebody still has animals to be watered.



This old building, today is called 'il municipio', which would translate in the town hall; but this old building was once the castle of Genzano, so it has seen many leading families owning it, as it was used in the old days.






This is one of the main streets of Genzano, we call is the 'Corso' even though in this photo it seems deserted, at certain times of the day and especially Sundays afternoon is full of people, strolling up and down while chatting with their friends.



Genzano history, as we know it


Welcome to, Genzano history as we know it:

Dear readers, we would like to write a few things about the history of my native town, Genzano di Lucania; so I am going to write a few posts for this reason; so, this post is being mostly written for the people that come from Genzano di Lucania most of all, since for these people it is easy to visualise and remember what we are going to talk about in this article, I know this because I have come from this town myself and today I would like to say a few things about my native town. What I am going to write here is not an exact history article, because I am going to write this article just the way I know it and what I remember.
While I am writing this article, one of the first things that come to my mind is my school teacher, because when I was at school in Genzano di Lucania, my teacher (Ettore Lorito) who was also a writer was writing a book about Genzano di Lucania, So, I wish I had this book with me now, so that I could find many more things to say about Genzano, but this book is very hard to find these days, so I have to say only those things that I remember and know.
So, let us begin; since there isn’t a real history written about this place, therefore, for the people of Genzano’s town, how Genzano came into existence is not exactly known today; there are a few very ancient stories that go around, but they may just be myths, one of these stories tells us that there was a youth called Yens, he was an excellent flute player, he fell in love with a princes called San who also fell in love with him; because they loved each other one day this princess San ran away from home with the help of Yens and she joined Yens and Yens family from there on; they lived in the caves in the chasm below the future Genzano of today.
Knowing that this girl was a real princess, Yens and his family decided to give her a better place to live in, so they started to build something fit for a princess on the hill above the caves. This is how Genzano started the very first time and the name of Genzano is the name of the two lover put together (Yens-San) I know this might be just another folklore story, but that is how I know it. We believe that we have mentioned this in another hub in a more detailed way and this is the link: The heritage chapter
Of course there are other more recent story that leave this story behind and say that it was the princess Aquilina Sancia that found Genzano, and of course other stories as well and some of them we will tell you as we keep writing about the story of Genzano, the other stories that will be left behind do not matter, because we don’t see why we need to tell them all, since the one we have told seems most fitting for our story. Anyhow let us continue to tell more stories, where some written evidence has been found about Genzano history.
Some Genzano written history
Apart what we have said above, let us see what other sources say about Genzano history:
Now, there is no certainty about the following, because as we all know the origins of places and things sometimes are very hard to know with certainty, but what follow here is a very compact history of Genzano di Lucania. So, let us write this compact version down:
Some historian says that perhaps were the Romans that started Genzano town about the VI centure BC when they had this ‘Pagus Gentianum settlement to control this part of their territories. There are a lot of things left unsaid here, but we want to keep this compact and jump several centuries. Next most important historic event is the Normans in Italy, this part of Italy was under the Normans control for a while and they ran most of their conquest from the castle of Monteserico, one of the names of these Normans leaders was Roberto il Guiscardo; Anyhow after the Normans this part of the country passed several other owners, as it was used in the old system of feudality; this lasted until the year 1806 when the king of Naples Giuseppe Banaparte, abrogated feudality; so today everything is under modern current system. This is just a very short history of Genzano di Lucania.
 Now let us start to tell other stories in between what we have not said above. Another one of the earliest and first written stories about Genzano, goes back to Roman times again, or about when the Roman Empire started to crumble, see the report below that I have found on the Internet, where it states when the Western Roman Empire collapsed.
The Western Roman Empirecollapsed in 476 as Romulus Augustus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer.
But even before the Roman Empire collapsed there is an event somewhere in the Roman history where they talk about a Genzano town, whether that Genzano is Genzano di Lucania or Genzano di Roma as we know them today is not clear, but anyhow there was a Genzano town during the Roman Empire, since I am talking about Genzano di Lucania, let us assume that it could well be Genzano di Lucania.
There is also another comment that I have written already somewhere about two martyrs that were definitely in Genzano the Lucania, and this is what I said: let us talk for a moment about more recent history that a recent write has discovered in the archive of Potenza; one of the first times that Genzano is mentioned in the archives is that of two brothers Secondo and Donato who were Christian martyr in the year 258 AD, as they were beheaded in Genzano ordered from council Valeriano, which I guess was a Roman council for that part of Italy, this event has also been mentioned in our hub called, The heritage chapter the link is within these article. This seems to be the oldest written record found about Genzano history and not much else; now, let us go back to talk about Genzano of today. 
Apart the fact that these articles are being written for the first time for Hub Pages readers, we hope also that our countrymen Genzanesi will come across these hubs or post about Genzano town and follow us and our articles and also write a few comments if they feel like writing anything.
There is a lot more that could be said, for a start beside here there are a couple of photos about Genzano the way we remember and it is today, but there is more that could be said, therefore we invite you to continue reading and if you would like to know more about Genzano di Lucania, click on the link below.
Here we need to say that there are many stories and legends about this town of Genzano; it is just like many other ancient towns, some of these stories are going to be written in our next posts and next post we are going to talk about, Saint Anthony protector of Genzano town.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Welcome to Genzano di Lucania

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, welcome to Genzano di Lucania
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Welcome to Genzano di Lucania


This is the oldest part of Genzano di Lucania town, as you can see it has been built on a high hill between two chasms; in the old times this was done for safety reasons.






In Southern Italy, as well in other parts of the world they have religious feasts. This statue here is The Madonna statue that is taken around town when there is this feast of the Madonna.











Welcome to Genzano di Lucania

Dear readers; let me welcome you again to read about my native town, as we all know every one of us is proud of our own heritage, and so am I of course and I am proud to say that  Genzano di Lucania, is my native town, because this is the town where I was born. So I hope that in this post I will be able to describe to you the best way possible my home town where I was born and where I lived when I was young, so that you may understand me better when I am talking about many other things in the future including my home town, my life story and those events that were taking place when I was young, which made me what I am today. Now apart what I have said, I hope also that I would be able to find some photos of my town on the Internet to show you as much as I can.
Now let me explain, just to make it easy to see what this hub is all about and what Genzano can offer to those that don’t know much about this part of the world, hereunder are some links, please point to the link and then click on the links as prompted by your computer, if you see a few of them, you may start to have the right opinion about this place.
Genzano di Lucania, Youtube link, I say it is an excellent video to start with.
For more information click on the links below:
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Genzano soccer field


Now what else I can say that would be of interest to other people in general. I suppose that we should look at those things that most people follow during their lives and one of these is sport. As we all know, in Italy one of the main sports that everybody follows is what we call here soccer, so most town have their soccer field, also Genzano di Lucania has its own soccer field, which the inhabitant would be proud to show you; of course there are lot of other things to see in Genzano, but let us start to show you some photos; as we all know Italian people love soccer, so, Genzano as far as I remember has had a soccer team, and today they have a proper soccer field as well. We need to say here that when I was a teenager there was not a proper soccer field yet, anyone that was interested in soccer had to wait after the wheat harvest to get the soccer field going for that season. After the wheat harvest in a field at the outskirt of the town they would flatten the ground level enough to play for that season. It was okay then just the same, because in Southern Italy in summer is usually very dry, so the soccer matches were on just the same, but there were times when a thunder storm would come and ruin the sporting event. I remember this because it happened to me when I was very young, we all had to run and find shelter wherever we could at the nearest houses in town, we got wet, but it was fun.

Old Genzano photos

Now let me show you an aerial photos of the oldest part of Genzano town: This first photo here shows you the oldest part of Genzano; anyhow one has to look at the history of the region to understand the way these old towns were built in the past. In the article shown in this link; Now let me show you an aerial photos of the oldest part of Genzano town: This first photo here shows you the oldest part of Genzano, which is very ancient and there are a few stories how this town was started, so we may have a couple of stories to tell how it came about; So, let me say this, in my later posts there will be a story or two written how this town was started from people living nearby perhaps in caves or other make shift dwellings.
Anyhow one has to look at the history of the region to understand the way that these old towns were built in the past. In this link shown here; The town I came from, there are a few things and a few photos showing what we mean.

About Genzano and about me

Now let me introduce myself who I am: My real name is Francesco Menchise and I migrated to Australia a very long time ago, but I have never forgotten my original home town of Genzano, therefore now as you can see I am writing my memories of my life and therefore also my home town. Now, since I am writing this article to talk about the town where I came from, I would appreciate very much if any of my countrymen (paesani Genzanesi) that come across this article would like to leave a comment, and also anyone with a family name Menchise I would appreciate if they leave a comment, since there are reasons to believe that all people in the world with their family name Menchise are originally from the town of Genzano di Lucania; so, come on let us hear from you all, I will appreciate it very much. I am sure that some of you who left Genzano old enough would remember thing like this feast, (festa della Madonna) See photos
In my life memories I will be writing several things about Genzano whenever the occasion arises, I would also be writing all those hearsay and stories that went around town while I lived in Genzano when I was young, perhaps what I am going to say here might very well surprise even a modern Genzanese person since thing have changed a lot in the last 50 years or so, therefore don’t be surprised if you learn something from me about my original home town of Genzano di Lucania in these articles.

Other stuff

Now that I have talked a bit about my native town of Genzano, let me tell you a bit more about myself and what I am going to write in these posts, you see I have already published a few articles, where I am writing about my memories and other things as well; you are all invited to check them out and here are the links, please click on the links below to view and read our (articles) hubs:

Genzano twin town

My dearer readers and Genzanesi folks I have to say that while I was looking for Genzano di Lucania on the Internet, I have found on the Internet also Genzano di Roma, which is a larger town and seems to be important in art, so allow me to introduce you to this artistic town including what I found on You tube videos, here is a link to see and enjoy ballet with the several links that are attached to it.
Anyhow I believe that I have said enough in this post about both Genzanos, so see you our next post, where we will be talking about, Genzano di Lucania history.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Genzano di Lucania, post

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it
and this post, my post Genzano di Lucania
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My post Genzano di Lucania

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These is the old fountain called la Cavallina; it is one of the old place that everybody from Genzano would know about and remember it.








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Arial photo of Genzano, we are posting a few photos of Genzano, so that they will remind us of the town.








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The Madonna of Genzano church












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Monteserico castle, is just another place that reminds us of our town.









 My post Genzano di Lucania

Welcome to our post, Genzano di lucania
You are invited to read these memories of my home town;
So, let me welcome all those who would like to read these articles, perhaps some readers would like to read these posts just to remember the town that they came from, others would read them just because it is a new article and are curious of its content, whatever it is let us hope that it is interesting enough for you to read them.
Now let me explain the situation here, since I am an Italian born in this town of Genzano di Lucania, I suppose that most of my town people would have liked to see this article written in Italian, but that has not been possible for a couple of reasons, first of all because our computer programs are in English and therefore it would be hard to write in another language other than English, the other reason is that the English language has a very large audience, then there is also the fact that the Italians that reside in other countries are the most likely people that would read these articles, so, I am saying sorry to our Italian friends, I am sorry that my hub pages are written in English, but it is easier for me as I happen to be in Australia, however not only I am writing this blog in blogger about Genzano and this is the link; http://genzanoit.blogspot.com, you can visit it there is a lot more about this Genzano town written in it, we also are writing some of the stories of my life in our website, http://frankmenchise.com ,where you are welcome to visit it, as there is a lot more to read about Genzano and my life story.
Now let me introduce myself again in this post, so that my countrymen could know who I am, my name is, Francesco Menchise and I was born in Genzano di Lucania and lived there when I was young, So I would like to salute all those who remember me, since I remember most of you even today; greetings and all the best to you all. While I am writing this article I feel that I miss something and I wish I could see you all once again even if it is for a short while.
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We hope that in these posts we would be able to talk about all the interesting things of Genzano di Lucania and for those that don't know where Genzano di Lucania is, you will find a Google map here under to help you find it; here-under is also my welcome text and a few links about Genzano and all you have to do is click on these links to see their content; and other things. We wish you that our post brings to you joy and understanding and remembrance of Genzano di Lucania that is if you happen to come from this town and if you are not from this town just enjoy your reading anyhow.
Here are some interesting links:
Here under is another Video of a concert at this fountain
And again a feast of this Madonna showing it in the old town
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I believe that this post is already long enough for the people to read, so we plan to write another post soon, where we will continue to welcome you to our posts about Genzano and also our life story that we will be writing as we go on. So, see you in our next post, welcome to Genzano di Lucania. 

Signed by author, Frank M.  

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Genzano it story
Genzano di Lucania post
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, Genzano di Lucania history
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Some other useful links
Some of our hub links

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Harvesting the very old ways

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.
This is how people harvested a long time ago.  

Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and this post, Harvesting the very old ways
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Dear readers, usually here we paste some photos that belong to this event, but unfortunately we are having difficulty to do that, so if you would like to see some of the photo that we had in mind, you have to go to this web address in hub pages, where the entire article is shown;  Farming today compared to the old way, I hope it works for you.

Harvesting the very old ways


Now, before we come to a close, because we want to compare the old ways of farming with today farming, we need to say how harvesting wheat was done before; here we need to say also that I have witnessed the last part of this old practice when I was young. You see, when I was young we were already using a horse drawn harvester, and it was very helpful; but there were people that had some very small holdings and we had one of these ourselves, so we had to use the old ways of harvesting our wheat for that small wheat field, because that was the only way to do it for one reason or another.

So, let me describe how harvesting was done in those old bygone days; at harvesting time strange as it may seem today, one could hire some specialized people that were good at using the sickle, these people usually went from town to town to do this seasonal harvesting job; we need also to explain that in Southern Italy because the terrain has different altitude the wheat reaches maturity at different times, this was helping these seasonal workers to have a longer span of work, now just to compare those very hard times with today times, I have to tell you that these workers were sleeping anywhere they could on a sack filled up with straws under a shelter if they could find one, as they could not afford anything else. In the morning they would get up early and wait in the town square hoping that somebody would hire them for the day.

Now let us say that we had a small plot about one acre and we could not use the harvester of those time, because it was not possible to go there, we would then hire four people and form a gang that could harvest one acre in one day and collect it in hips that would be later on taken on a cart to the farm house to be threshed one way or another.

In the old times anything that had grown in the field was collected, it needed to be collected for the people to survive, it was the only way because the fields did not produce as much as they do today, because they could not be cultivated as good as we do today. You see today we have the tractor to cultivate the fields and we have many types of fertilizer to help us grow more wheat, but let us go back to talk about old harvest times.

Wheat trashing the very old time

Now I suppose I have to say briefly how the older generations used to thresh their harvests, in order to collect all their produce. Now, let us suppose that it was only a few bundles of wheat to be threshed one could even extract the wheat by hitting them with a stick, but let us say that we had a cartful, or many cartful’s for that matter, then we had to use a different method, which is the way that most farm used in the very old times for centuries, so let me tell you how it was done.

I happen to know this procedure, because in the farms when I was young we were still using this method with smaller crops most likely broad beans, lentils, chick peas, linseed, and other farm produce, and the elder would always be telling us that this was the way that they used to collect their wheat as well and usually it took them a few months to collect all the season produce. So now let me describe this to you, so that we would be able to compare the great difference.

In order to do this, first of all we needed to prepare a piece of ground that is very solid and smooth, this could be achieved by stripping the old dry grass on a piece of land that had a large clay content, then wet it with a little bit of water to make it compact; once that was ready we would place our wheat or whatever was to be threshed and collected on this clean ground, then we would get our horses mule and donkeys whatever animals were available and drive them around and around until everything was threshed. Of course there was a lot more to say, but let us make it short otherwise it would become too boring.

Now, once the threshing was done we has to separate the produce from the straw and any other foreign matter, this was achieved by removing the straws from the top layer making sure that no produce was left with the straws, at the same time we would collect the bottom layer in a hip, once that was done we would have to clean that produce by using the wind, to take away the finer parts that were still mixed with the wheat or whatever it was, and there were many other things that we could use to get this wheat clean, by the end of the day we could have collected two or three hundred kilograms of produce.

In the very ancient times was even worse, see what they were using in the Medieval Times, here is a link to check out some ancient farm tools including the Flail and Winnowing Basket used to collect and clean wheat.


I hope that this gives the modern reader a view of how thing were done in the old times, so I do not want to say much more about how all this threshing and cleaning of the wheat was done, because even writing about it is boring today, but anyhow it needed to be done in those days, because that was the only way to collect our wheat to make bread and other things. Now, my dear reader’s do you see how hard was then even to collect wheat for ourselves.

I hope I have been able to write something that really sets up the great difference of the ways of life that we were living then and the ways of life that we are living now, for this I want you to compare and judge for yourself how much better off we are today.

To the young people who think that today life is hard, let me describe to you what I have witnessed when I was young, because then life really was harder then today, you see those days everybody had to find how to earn enough to feed themselves there were no handover from the government. So, the very poor people of those days were trying to collect anything they could to feed themselves.

So at harvest time this is what I have witnessed, I have seen old and poor people mainly old ladies go around the fields and pick up any ear of wheat that was left behind in the fields, one ear of wheat here and anther there until they had the strength, each day until harvest time was over and there was nothing else to collect; and I tell you what these poor people were happy if in the end they had collected enough ears of wheat that they could trash and clean themselves, perhaps they could have collected enough to make 50 to 100 kilos of wheat during harvest time and they were happy because, they could make bread from this wheat and not go hungry for a few months.

Now I hope that you see what I mean when I say that the youths of today don’t know anything about hard times?

Anyhow as you can see this is just another story of my life, which I am telling in Hub-Pages, and I am posting some links for the other stories here under, if you like to read them?

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Genzano it story
Farming the old way
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, framing the very old way
------------------------------ Some useful links


Some hub links