l’ve left my home in Vitulano 20 years ago, but I continue to consider myself fully Vitulanese and, just like every Samnites, to be proud of my origins.
Thick woods surround the sides of the mountains rising all around. Far higher than the hamlet of Foiano nestled in the valley crossed by the river Fortore from which it takes its name from.
Similar to Castel Nuovo, the great fortress on the sea of the capital, albeit smaller in size.
According to the myth, in its proximity, in one of the grottoes of Taburno, Hercules succeeded one of his twelve labours killing the lion of which he would have worn the hide.
According to Titus Livius, it was a Samnites invention. Then the Romans admired it to the point that they make its name, cupedia, derive from the verb cupio, in other words “wish”.
On the southern slope of the Matese, Cusano Mutri is a magnificent Middle Ages hamlet which remained unchanged over the years, except for the Castle of the XIII century from which there is only picturesque ruins remaining.
The Saticula of the Samnites is dominating Valle Caudina from the rock outcrop, which rises along the slopes of Monte Taburno.