L'Italo-Americano

LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE O ne of the funniest stereotypes about Italy says that if you start digging deep enough any- where in the country, you're bound to find something archaeo- logically relevant. And it couldn't be otherwise, in a place with so much history. Funny thing is, this is exactly how it went for the Faggiano family, from Lecce, in Puglia. At the very beginning of the 2000s, the Faggianos had decided to open a restaurant right there, in the Salento capital of Baroque, but things went quite differently, when they discovered a whole, millennia-old underground world and eventually, after a few years, they inaugurated their own archaeological museum, the Museo Faggiano. The Faggianos' adventure started, quite prosaically, with the need to fix the plumbing of a building they owned in Via Ascanio Grandi where Luciano, chef and main character of this amazing tale, had decided to open his restaurant. It was 2001, and things didn't go quite as planned. Marco Faggiano, Luciano's eldest son, tells L'Italo-Americano how, by chance, his family moved from food to archaeology, with a twist that only confirms how that funny stereotype about Italy and its underground trea- sures is, in the end, quite true. Your museum has a fantas- tic, but relatively unknown his- tory behind. Can you tell our readers about it? Yes, our story is pretty pecu- liar and unique. My father Luciano, the owner of the house since 1984, says it was all written in the stars. Today, thinking about how it all happened it seems impossible. But in spite of how extraordinary the whole thing is, our museum is not really known, probably because it remains a very private reality, based on a discovery made by a humble man, who thinks about culture and not business. It all happened by chance in 2001 when my father, who is a chef, decided to open a restaurant with myself, Andrea and Davide, his three sons. To make sure the building could be used for com- mercial purposes, we had to fix some plumbing and that's when dad discovered there was a Mess- apian tomb dating back to the 6th century BC right under the house (the Messapians were an ancient Italic civilizations, who lived in today's Murgia and Salento). Italy's Cultural Heritage Department got involved and my father had to continue excavating at his own expenses. It took seven years of work, during which we unearthed 25 centuries of history, from the Messapians to the Romans, all the way to the Mid- dle Ages, the Renaissance and our own times. We recovered more than 4000 artifacts. As a sign of respect for the place and its history, we gave up the idea of opening a restaurant and, in 2008, we created an Archaeological Museum instead. What were your first thoughts when, while digging, you started finding all those artifacts? At the beginning, myself and my brothers helped with the exca- vation. We were supervised by an archaeologist sent by the Cultural Heritage Department. We kept on finding things and, to be honest with you, we didn't really care that much. We just wanted to be done with it quickly. Little by little though, thanks to the support of the archaeologist who worked with us, things changed a lot: she would explain to us the origin and importance of what we had found and it all got more interesting, thrilling even. We would discover dozens and dozens of artifacts every day and my brothers and I started this lit- tle competition to guess the right period they all belonged to. Every day was a whole new discovery, because we couldn't imagine what we were to find, what histo- ry had kept hidden for us to dis- cover. There was a lot of surprise, of marvel, along with a whole lot of euphoria. All findings were initially sent to the Museo Sigismondo Castromediano and to the Castello di Lecce. Why? In Italy, all that lies in the underground belongs to the State, so even if we were the ones dig- ging, all artifacts were collected daily by the archaeologist who worked with us, and brought to deposits in the basement of the Castello Carlo V and of the Museo Castromediano. Of the 4000 artifacts discovered, about 3200 were stored there, because considered valuable and in good shape. Broken or damaged arti- facts were left to us to be pre- served in our museum, which opened in 2008. Unfortunately, we never really brought anything back home with us. So, what's inside your muse- um? To be honest, ours is not a typ- ical museum, it's more of an archaeological site. Visitors can see the Messapian foundations and tomb, what remains of a 17th century convent and even traces of the presence of the Templars, who were here in the 13th centu- ry. There are tombs, silos, barns, frescoes, underground paths, water tanks: the whole itinerary develops over four levels. You walk down nine meters below street level, where you can see even a drying room used to mum- mify the dead naturally, and then you find your way up to a watch- tower, whose rooms are decorated with a fresco of Templar origins. The watchtower was used to check for potential threats coming from the sea, especially from Otranto. This summer, you finally managed to make a family dream come true: you opened a restaurant, Quo Vadis, just beside the museum. What's the connection between these two activities, between archaeology and food? Yes! This summer we opened a small restaurant just beside the museum. Among other things, we also organize guided tours to the museum, with aperitivo and pizzi- ca dance; pizzica is our traditional folk music, played with tam- bourines, it's very addictive! My father is a chef by training, so cooking remains his first and true love, but archaeology is a passion that all the family shares now, for obvious reasons. Fate wanted us to discover and follow this path and we still don't know exactly where it'll lead us: if everything pans out fine, we should begin a new excavation in November 2020, under a property we bought a few months ago, just beside the museum. I'd say our adventure is not quite over, yet! If you want more information about the Museo Faggiano and its history, visit: http://www.muse- ofaggiano.it/en/home/ FRANCESCA BEZZONE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano From food to archaeology: the incredible story of the Faggiano family and their museum The Museo Faggiano is a real archaeological site (Ⓒ: Rebecca Arnold, courtesy of the Faggiano Family) The Faggiano Family poses in front of its museum(Ⓒ: Faggiano Family)

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