Italy's greatest treasures are its undiscovered villages – and I should know

Telegraph

4 hours ago

I was born in a little town by the sea, between Rome and Naples. This is the English sentence I uttered the most throughout my school years and later in my academic life when, as a young mathematician, I used to leave the Università di Napoli for summer schools and conferences abroad.
The scholars I met never knew the name of my town, Scauri. Some had heard about nearby Gaeta (because of the prison, and the Nazi who was imprisoned there, and his escape in a suitcase), but no one knew Scauri.
Scauri is a hamlet in the district of Minturno, a coastal town at the very edge of the province of Lazio. As I write these lines, there is no Wikipedia page about Scauri in English.
Nor is there an English page about Minturnae, Minturno's ancient ruins. Both sit along the Via Appia, the main artery of Roman Italy – the Romans called it regina viarum, the queen of all roads.
You may not have heard of them, but it is these tiny, barely noticed places which remain the heart and soul of Italy – and to visit them remains the finest way to get beneath my country's skin.
Anyone who spends a morning in Scauri will be captured by the disjointed grace of this place – my place. As if on a chessboard, you will find: a Saracen tower (Torre Saracens), black and white horses galloping on the shore, pawns strolling on the boardwalk, sometimes a bishop – and definitely nuns: there are two churches.
And, of course, countless people who see themselves as kings and queens, probably as a consequence of the fact that Scauri's roots stretch back to ancient times, to Roman antiquity, when Gaius Marius himself had sought refuge from Silla's hitmen in Minturnae.
Scauri is a gulf, a curve: six miles of sand and sea, with a tiny marina and various little beach-side restaurants scattered along it. The water is not just blue or green, but blue-green-brown, due to the winds and currents, and the heights of pines that mirror themselves in the waves at both ends of the gulf. The Caribbean, this is not.
Of course, the Italians have known about Scauri's charms for centuries – even now, it grows exponentially from winter (6,000 inhabitants) to summer (100,000 inhabitants, plus commuters from Napoli and her suburbs). It is a vacation spot and has been since the Roman Empire.
But what draws these visitors? The history, for one. You will find Roman ruins here, even pre-Roman walls – the cyclopic walls of the ancient port of Pirae, Villa di Lucio Mamurra (a villa with an ancient cistern in the Parco di Gianola Riviera di Ulisse), Castellum Acquae (once a water source) – as well as Roman bricks and marbles re-used in contemporary houses and apartments. There is also a well-preserved Roman pier and, of course, Roman bones six feet under.
And it's not only ancient history. Explore outdoors, and you'll find criss-crossing hiking trails all across the lovely Parco di Gianola e Monte di Scauri, or take a catamaran tour to the blue waters of Grotta Azzurra, a sea cave.
We have amazing food here, too – from Locanda Rusticone's pizza (735 Via Appia) to Cardillo's pastries (1120 Via Appia), and fresh seafood at Angeli & Marinai (14 Piazza Marco Emilio Scauro) – spaghetti alle vongole; a thick, rich guazzetto; salt cod in a light tempura.
You can spend lazy hours on the sand (Spiaggia di Scauri is well loved, but Lido Aurora has a beach club and playground), then stroll to an obliging ice-cream stall, or to Lo Scoglio (7 Via Porto Scauritano) for a cold, crisp beer with views of the bay and live music.
The Little I Knew is my first novel to be translated into English, and I'm very happy that it is, even though I can write and think only a little in English myself. It is a novel based on and bred in Scauri; a love letter to the comforting claustrophobia of small-town life.
During my youth, I learn that a tiny town is the perfect place to practice tolerance and mediation, because you see everybody all the time, every day. You live with these people – and the familiarity can be a relief, or they can annoy you to your wit's end, even if you love them. But you cannot hate them, because tomorrow you'll see them again.
This is the ultimate social network – a strongly interwoven place where lives overlap. Visit and you will see a place that is truly real – a window into a culture that you will not find in Italy's big cities, or even its towns.
It is a network which has died out in much of the world, but one which is alive and well in its small, ancient villages. Little, undiscovered places, like Scauri.
Essentials
Ryanair flies from London to Naples from £148 return; easyJet flies from London to Naples from £173 return.
Trains from Naples run to Minturno-Scauri, costing from £3 and taking approximately one hour.