L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano MARIELLA RADAELLI S ant'Agnello is an unmissable experience if you're planning a trip to Sorrento, the sophisticated seaside town high above the Med that has the iconic Amalfi coast to the east, a magnet for the rich and famous for more than a century. The clifftop town of Sant'Ag- nello, perched midway along the beautiful Sorrentine Peninsula, is a seamless continuation of Sor- rento. Its small-town atmosphere has a cosmopolitan feel thanks to all the glitz, glamour and beauty of the spectacular coast. "When the tourists flock down here, they feel themselves in Sor- rento. Sant'Agnello is an autonomous town but it is per- ceived as a hamlet of Sorrento," says Antonino De Angelis, histo- rian and president of the Centro Studi e Ricerche Francis Marion Crawford in Sant'Agnello. The picturesque locale became a permanent home to prolific American gothic novelist Francis Marion Crawford, who was born in 1854 in Bagni di Lucca, Tus- cany, to expatriate parents. A master of horror and the supernat- ural, he was envied by his friend and rival Henry James for his ability to churn out bestsellers. Even though Crawford didn't have the stature of James, he sur- passed the author of The Portrait of a Lady in sales and popularity in their lifetimes. Today Craw- ford's sometimes gruesome nov- els are considered classics. The Upper Berth, a ghost story, is the most commonly reprinted, fol- lowed by the tale For the Blood is the Life that features a female vampire. In his day, he was also admired by Robert Louis Steven- son for his vivid portrayals of for- eign lands. "Some of his books contained specific urbanist fea- tures that you could read almost as tourist guides," says De Ange- lis. The author published 44 nov- els, short stories, plays and histor- ical works that include a trilogy on papal Rome called Ave Roma Immortalis (1898). Also, they say Crawford may be the first author to portray Sicily's mafia in an English-language novel entitled Corleone. "Crawford was such a best- seller author in his day that his publishing house Macmillan paid a lot of money to rent him a pent- house in Manhattan," De Angelis explains. He was also a polyglot. Fluent in 15 different languages, he could easily converse in German, Urdu, French, Sanskrit and many other tongues. He studied Sanskrit in India where he was an editor at the daily Allahabad Indian Herald newspaper. "Mr. Isaacs: A Tale of Modern India (1882) was his first novel, a study of the development of a man's higher nature through a woman. After discovering Sant'Agnel- lo during his honeymoon, he never left the paradise for any other permanent home. At first, he stayed at the oldest and most aris- tocratic hotel on the peninsula, the Grand Hotel Cucumella, original- ly built as a 16th century Jesuit monastery. He woke in his fancy room enchanted by the beauty of the landscape and ocean. He was so beguiled that he decided to pur- chase a villa that he transformed into a distinctive neo-gothic man- sion known as Villa Crawford. In the stone, he engraved the Latin words In Tempestate Securitas, which translates as "Safety in the Storm." "He lived there all year- round," says De Angelis. "Villa Crawford was his 'Buen Retiro,' the place he always longed to return to after his travels all over the world."  Henry James was among his guests at lively Villa Crawford. Today, it is a Christian home meant to renew you on the spec- tacular coast, whether for a spiri- tual retreat, a fun family holiday or a weekend away. On Mr. Crawford's death in 1909, his daughter Eleonora, wife of the nobleman Pietro Rocca di Roccapadula, inherited the villa, which she later donated to the Catholic Institute of Maria Ausili- atrice. Mr. Crawford is buried in the Sant'Agnello cemetery.  Crawford had four children: Eleonora, Harold, Clara and Bertram. "Harold and Bertrand emigrated to England, while Clara became a nun and moved to Japan where she helped found the Uni- versity of Tokyo," explains De Angelis. The work of Crawford was rediscovered in 1997. Ten years ago in 2009, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death, the Centro Studi e Ricerche Fran- cis Marion Crawford hosted an international symposium to cele- brate his work and legacy. Ameri- can novelist Gore Vidal, a long- time honorary citizen of Ravello on the Amalfi Coast, was among the panelists. The Centro Studi e Ricerche Francis Marion Crawford is locat- ed in an old building in the histor- ical center of Sant'Agnello. The town derived its name from a Neapolitan saint in the Middle Ages who is the patron saint of a beautiful baroque church. Agnello of Naples was a Basilian and later Augustinian monk. He became more and more popular among the inhabitants of Naples, so much so that they asked him to save the city during the Lombard invasion of 581. He appeared carrying a banner of the cross to defend Naples. Entering Sant'Agnello, one passes the Pizzo on the right, an archeological site with Roman ruins. Villa Il Pizzo is nearby with its beautiful orange grove. "The movie Love is All You Need (2012) was filmed there," says De Angelis, who has just finished writing Sorrento Movie, a com- prehensive guide to some 120 movies set in the Sorrentine Peninsula.  "The villages here are com- pletely interconnected. Beauty is a whole here. And visitors are ecstatic." The Annunziata Church in Sant'Agnello (Photo: Centro Studi e Ricerche Marion Crawford) A view of Villa Crawford, in Sant'Agnello (Photo: Villa Crawford) The beautiful panorama from the villa (Photo: Villa Crawford) A portrait of Francis Marion Crawford (Photo: Ceentro Studi e Ricerche Marion Crawford) Sant'Agnello, where American gothic novelist Francis Marion Crawford found peace LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE

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