L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano I n Valloria, a small v i l l a g e i n t h e h i l l s behind Imperia, even the doors of old cel- lars and storerooms h a v e b e c o m e s o m e t h i n g worth stopping to look at. Some are painted with land- scapes, others with portraits, animals, religious figures or scenes from everyday life, and no two are quite alike, b e c a u s e e a c h h a s b e e n entrusted to a different artist. There are now more than 160 of them, scattered along the narrow caruggi of a village with only a few dozen perma- nent residents. T h i s p e c u l i a r v i l l a g e belongs to the municipality of P r e l à , a b o u t n i n e m i l e s inland from Imperia, in the V a l P r i n o , a n a r e a w h e r e olive cultivation supported generations of farming fami- lies. Its name is traditionally traced to Vallis Aurea, or Valley of Gold, a reference to the olive oil that once provid- ed much of the local econo- my. The village grew around its stone houses and agricul- tural buildings, but like many communities in the Ligurian hinterland, it suffered consid- erably during the twentieth century as farming declined and younger residents left in search of work. By the late 1980s, its future was becom- ing increasingly uncertain. The first response came from a group of people with family ties to Valloria who wanted to bring some activity b a c k t o t h e v i l l a g e . T h e y began organizing a summer festival, preparing a space a m o n g t h e o l i v e t e r r a c e s where people could gather, eat and dance, and in 1991 the celebration that became known as A Valloria fai baldoria was inaugurated. Three years later came the idea that would give Valloria its new identity: inviting artists to paint the old wooden doors of houses, stables, warehouses and cel- lars. The project began in 1994 w i t h a s m a l l g r o u p o f painters, many of them from Milan, and soon attracted a r t i s t s f r o m e l s e w h e r e i n Italy and abroad. They were given considerable freedom in choosing their subjects, w h i c h e x p l a i n s w h y t h e doors are so different from one another. A visitor might encounter a traditional Lig- urian landscape followed by an abstract composition, a p o r t r a i t o r a f a n t a s t i c a l scene, all painted on surfaces that were originally intended for entirely practical purpos- e s : t h e a r t i s t s d e c i d e d t o make the old doors part of the village's own attractive- ness. The paintings have contin- ued to accumulate over the years, and visitors can follow a m a r k e d w a l k i n g r o u t e through the village to discov- er them. The doors are num- b e r e d , w i t h i n f o r m a t i o n about the artists, making the walk something of an infor- mal exhibition, although the setting remains unmistak- ably that of a small agricul- tural community. During the s u m m e r f e s t i v i t i e s , n e w works have traditionally been created in public, allowing r e s i d e n t s a n d v i s i t o r s t o watch the painters at work before joining the celebra- tions. Valloria has also preserved another part of its history in t h e M u s e o d e l l e C o s e Dimenticate, housed in the f o r m e r O r a t o r y o f S a n t a Croce. Its collection includes domestic objects, agricultural implements and equipment associated with olive cultiva- t i o n a n d o i l p r o d u c t i o n , recalling the work that sus- tained the village long before it turned into a somewhat popular and quirky artistic destination. Needless to say, the paint- ed doors have not reversed all the difficulties facing a small rural community, but they have brought visitors, attention and renewed activi- ty to a place that was steadily losing its population. Valloria remains a tiny village, with i t s o l d c e l l a r s a n d s t o r e - rooms, and few residents. But its once simple wooden d o o r s n o w h a v e a s e c o n d purpose: they give people a r e a s o n t o w a l k t h r o u g h streets they might otherwise never have visited, and to discover something of the vil- lage behind the paintings. E very December 13, many Sicilian families observe a rather unusual f o o d t r a d i t i o n : they avoid bread and pasta, two foods that would ordi- narily be difficult to imagine an Italian table without, and prepare cuccìa, a dish made from whole grains of boiled wheat. The custom is particu- larly strong in Palermo and Syracuse, where the feast of Santa Lucia has long b e e n a s s o c i a t e d w i t h t h e memory of hunger and the arrival of food when it was desperately needed. A c c o r d i n g t o a p o p u l a r legend, Sicily was suffering from a terrible famine when a ship carrying wheat unex- pectedly entered the harbor, an event attributed to the intervention of Saint Lucy. The inhabitants were so hun- gry that they could not wait for the grain to be milled into flour and baked into bread, so they boiled it and ate it immediately. Palermo tradi- tionally places the event in 1646, while Syracuse has its o w n v e r s i o n o f t h e s t o r y , a l t h o u g h t h e h i s t o r i c a l d e t a i l s r e m a i n u n c e r t a i n . E a t i n g w h o l e w h e a t o n December 13 became a way o f r e m e m b e r i n g b e i n g relieved from hunger, while a v o i d i n g b r e a d a n d p a s t a recalled the grain that had b e e n e a t e n w i t h o u t f i r s t being milled. The original preparation was very simple, but over time cuccìa developed into the sweet dish now familiar in much of Sicily. The wheat is soaked, sometimes for sev- eral days, then cooked slowly until tender and mixed with sweetened sheep's milk ricot- ta, chocolate pieces, cinna- mon or candied fruit. Some families prefer a milk-based cream, while elsewhere the dish retains a more modest character, occasionally pre- p a r e d w i t h c h i c k p e a s o r other legumes. Recipes vary considerably, and the version served in Palermo is not nec- essarily the one a family in T r a p a n i o r C a l t a n i s s e t t a would recognize. Preparing cuccìa has tra- d i t i o n a l l y b e e n a f a m i l y undertaking, often begun well before the feast because the wheat requires time to soften and cook. Bowls are also shared with relatives and neighbors. And while December 13 has become an occasion for eating arancine and other flour-free speciali- ties, cuccìa remains the food most closely associated with the old story of the famine, preserving in a sweet prepa- ration the memory of a time when a bowl of boiled wheat was enough to inspire grati- tude. Cuccìa is traditionally made to be shared, with bowls passed among relatives and neighbors as part of Sicily's Saint Lucy's Day customs (Original image created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI) Cuccìa: Sicily's sweet tradition for Saint Lucy's Day Valloria, the Ligurian village where every door tells a different story Painted doors can transform an ordinary entrance into a small work of public art, much as they have done in Valloria (Photo: Dziewul/Dreamstime) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE TRADITIONS

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