Legends
Every town has a written history and a told one. The second is not found in books: it lives in grandparents' voices, in evenings by the fireplace, in the names given to an alley, a fountain, a boulder by the road. The legends of San Vito Romano are made this way: witches who turn into cats at night, creatures that play tricks on those fetching water, brigands, lucky simpletons and figures that seem to have stepped out of a fairy tale.
It does not matter how much of it is true. Their beauty lies in the way a whole community has been able to look at its own places with wonder, and in the thread that still ties those who listen to those who used to tell them. Reading them is a way to know the town from the inside, and to keep passing them on.
The legends collected on this page are written by Marco Maccaroni.
The Griffin Bird
The sick king, the griffin bird's feather that could save him, and the youngest son who never came back: until a bone found in the forest began to sing the truth.
The Legend of the Cat and Scucchia
The old woman who was a witch by day and turned into a cat at night, to eavesdrop by the fireplaces and spread families' private affairs around the village.
La Scifella
The black winged creature that lived down by the Canale, playing tricks on the village women who came to wash clothes and fetch water, until one evening the villagers taught her a lesson.
The Legend of Ciunna
The village woman who lived at the top of the Borgo, with corn leaves in her hair and a glass eye, and who looked like a fairy as she walked through town surrounded by sparrows.
Tobia, the Brigand of the Two Boulders
The legend of the brigand who hid by day beneath two great boulders between the hillside and the village, and came out at night to steal chickens, vegetables and fruit.
The Tale of Pecciu Mattu
The folk tale of the simple-minded boy who, sent to the market to sell honey, "sold" it to a statue, and came home with a fortune.