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On an island off the coast of Rome, locals have lived in cozy caves since time immemorial.
The coast and fishing village of Ponza, the largest island of the Pontine Islands, located off the coast between Rome and Naples, is dotted with cave dwellings carved into the rugged sea cliffs and offers spectacular views. I can.
This house is refreshing in the summer and warm in the winter, with no need for heating or cooling. These are the jewels of the island and are now popular with vacationers.
Since the 19th century, local people have migrated abroad, primarily to the United States, in search of a new life. However, they have continued to preserve their traditions, including traditional housing styles.
One family that immigrated was the Avelino family. Luigi Avellino was the first of his family to leave Ponza in the early 20th century, initially moving back and forth between the island and New York, but then settling permanently in the United States.
Attilio Avellino – one of his nine children, born in Ponza – joined his father in the Big Apple in 1946.
But now, after decades in the United States, their descendants have returned to the island and are living in their old homes. Casa Grotta (cave house) renovated to modern standards.
Loredana Romano
Brigida Avellino and Loredana Romano traded the United States for their ancestral “cave house” in Ponza.
Attilio’s daughter Brigida Avellino (70) lives with her daughter Loredana Romano (44) in one of the most beautiful cave houses in Ponza. It has thick, rough whitewashed walls and a terrace with views over the deserted island of Palmarola. Sofas, chairs, benches, stairs, beds, tables and cupboards are all cut from the cave.
“These caves are part of our DNA and heritage. With each baby, the parents dug another room inside the cliff and expanded their cave home,” Romano told CNN Travel. Ta.
In 1980, when Attilio Avellino suffered a heart attack in New York, the younger generation moved to Ponza. Doctors there recommended a quiet place to live with fresh air and no smog, so the family returned to his hometown.
Loredana Romano
The cave has a terrace with views of the nearby islands.
Avellino has fond memories of her childhood in the United States. Although Ponza offers a slower-paced lifestyle, she misses the busy world of the Big Apple.
“I learned that you can take a girl away from a big city, but you can’t take a big city away from her. Even if you return to Ponza for decades, you won’t forget it,” she says. .
Avellino moved to New York with his mother in 1955, when he was two years old. Her father and grandfather already lived and worked there, along with her uncle and aunt.
“I worked in a steel mill for 22 years. I loved all the chaos, the traffic, the bustle, the noise, and people rushing to work all day long,” Avelino says now.
When her father and grandfather landed in the United States, they worked all sorts of jobs, from running fisheries to working on container ships, cooking Italian food, and building skyscrapers.
Loredana Romano
The cave has recently been renovated.
“Call me crazy, but I really miss the beat of New York. I spend all my weekends walking around, taking the train, going to the movies with friends, going to restaurants, going to the hair salon. “I still dream of the energy of that city,” Avelino says. On Ponza Island, she says, there are no hair salons in winter.
Even as she gets older and has more health issues, she says she wants to relive the thrill of the enthusiastic, active New York lifestyle that allowed her to meet so many people.
“New York has given me so many experiences and work opportunities. It’s been an exciting life,” says Avellino.
“I miss everything about the Big Apple: the workaholics, the traffic jams, the constant noise. The buzz of the steel mills and the quick beat of the supermarkets where I also worked. I was always on the run. Ponza is beautiful and the panoramas are It’s great, but there’s no one here.”
During the summer months, the island’s population increases to more than 20,000, and hordes of swimmers flock to Ponza’s paradisiacal beaches. However, the Le Forna district, home to Avellino and Romano, has barely 1,000 residents in winter. It is the most exotic area, far from the tourist attractions, and is still home to some of Ponza’s oldest families.
Loredana Romano
Their homes were carved out of rock by their ancestors.
The inhabitants of Ponza make a living from agriculture and fishing, but mainly engage in seasonal tourism. The island is lively from June to October, and the rest of the year it is, in Romano’s words, “dead and sleepy.”
Avelino, who feels more American than Ponzese, said she is happy to have been educated in the United States and to have a passport, which she keeps in her bedside closet.
In fact, she says it was a huge blow for her when her father had a heart attack and eventually had to return to Ponza. On the island of Ponza, she met her future husband Silverio (a native Ponze) and gave birth to Loredana, who remained connected to her relatives in the United States.
Loredana Romano
Each time a new child was born, the cave dwellers dug a new chamber out of the cliff.
She moved back and forth between the United States and Ponza from the age of 20 to 30, working as a waitress at her aunt’s restaurant in Florida. Now she is proud to live in a cave house that her great-grandfather carved out of a cliff with his bare hands.
She is now on a mission to recover the origins of her ancestors.
“I inherited this cave and recently lavishly renovated it. My great-grandfather built it right before he went to America for work. He wasn’t really an economic immigrant, and he wasn’t poor either. I just wanted to change my life and look for new opportunities on the other side of the Atlantic,” Romano says.
The 860 square foot cave dwelling is located in one of Ponza’s most beautiful locations, overlooking two natural sea pools protected by white granite cliffs. Direct access to the tropical ocean.
In the living room is an old well that was used in the past as a cistern to collect rainwater, and Romano still uses it in the summer when running water is low.
Image Professionals GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
Ponza goes from “dead” in the winter to packed in the summer.
This year, she redid the cave’s facade, planted a small garden and a vegetable patch of eggplant and zucchini, and used it to create local recipes.
Unlike her mother, Romano, who works in Ponza’s tourism department, doesn’t miss the American lifestyle.
“In Florida, I lived in an Italian neighborhood. Americans are very nice and always say hello, but when you live in a big city with a lot of people and you don’t know many people, you feel really alone and on an island. I find myself more isolated than I would have been inside,” she says.
Loredana Romano
Brigida Avelino says she misses New York.
In her opinion, Americans live only to work. They don’t have time to go to the supermarket for fresh produce or spend quality time with friends and relatives. They don’t cook, she says, but prefer to eat out.
Ponza, on the other hand, is a small island, so Romano feels safer. Neighbors look out for each other and share their sorrows and joys.
“Here, when there is good news such as a marriage or a birth, all the neighbors throw a party and we become a big family. Everyone is sad at funerals.”
