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Via Appulo-Sannitica

Via Appulo-Sannitica (also known as Via Nazionale Appula and Strada Statale No. 17) is the old road -- maybe from the Roman Empire -- the only way there used to be to go from Foggia to Campobasso.  (But now a new provincial roadway (S. 645) between the two cities bypasses Gambatesa just to the village's north.)

The hill in the background of the photograph below is named Colle della Guardia, altitude 1,755 feet (535 meters) above sea level.  Angelo said that there are beautiful views from here.

Via Appulo-Sannitica, Gambatesa, August 2002, 40 KB

The map of Gambatesa from the 1950s shows where these two photographs were taken.  Begin at the lower left of the map and follow S.S. (Strada Statale, "State Road") No. 17 into the village of Gambatesa.  The photograph above shows the view looking south at the second intersection with a right turn.

In the photograph itself, the road to the right is Via S. Angelo, and turning left leads around Largo Fontana to Corso Roma.  (The location of the photograph is also shown on the Street map of the village center of Gambatesa, at the center of the map below Largo Fontana.)

For the photograph below, follow S.S. No. 17 on the map of Gambatesa from the 1950s south, and the photograph below was taken at the first loop (see the 483 altitude number).  In the photograph itself, where the road divides, the route to the right leads to the village center of the Comune of Tufara.  The route to the left (the upper one on the map) leads to the 13 Arches Bridge (Ponte dei 13 Archi) and eventually to the City of Foggia in Puglia.

Via Appulo-Sannitica, Gambatesa, August 2002, 37 KB

The photograph above shows where the donkeys, horses, but nowadays only tractors, gather on the day of La Madonna delle Traglie (the annual wheat festival in Gambatesa).  The people carry the statue of the Madonna from the Chapel of Our Lady of Victory (marked Mad.na della Vittoria on the 1950s map) to this road.  They go through the fields carrying the statue from the fondo valle ("the bottom of the valley below the village"; this is why only people who are "fit" -- i.e. in good physical shape -- take part in the morning half of the procession).

Photographs by Angelo Abiuso (Geneva), 4 August 2002, at between 2 and 2:30 PM

The URL of this Web page: https://www.roangelo.net/valente/appusann.html
Last revised: 28 February 2004 : 2004-02-28 by Robert [Wesley] Angelo.

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