Word: viscianesi
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Most of the Viscianesi do not seem to mind, but it bothered the mayor of Visciano to be chief of a community so regarded. He badgered the government in Rome into replacing the mountain mule track with a real road down to Nola and arranged for a rickety bus to make the run once a day. But the people of Visciano thought he was slightly mad to wish them onto such a terrifying machine, and they stuck to their mules...
...famed institutes for abandoned children, and he had noted that the Waldensians drew Protestant youth from all over Europe and America to build a summer camp in the Alps. "Are you going to let it be said that Protestants build better things than you?" he cried to the Viscianesi. "You have a reputation for never protesting. Are you going to let it be said that you also never build anything? Are things going to be built in the Alps but not around the place on Monte Vergine where the Virgin Mary appeared in 1597 to save Visciano from pestilence...
...Viscianesi understood Don Arturo very well. At once they began to carry stones up the hill, mostly on their heads. On May Day the village's few Communists joined them in a big procession that moved more stones than ever in honor of the Virgin. Even plainsmen from Nola admired the headwork of the Viscianesi and came to lend a hand from time to time in supplying material for an orphanage for 200 children from three to seven...
Last week Don Arturo raised his hand. "Well done, Viscianesi," he said. "We have all the stone we need." The new orphanage was under way, the Viscianesi were quietly pleased, and the mayor was happy to be mayor of such a smart town. "If more people used their heads this way," he said in praise of Don Arturo, "far more would be accomplished in the world. And there would be less talk...
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