Baiano

In the lovely Campanian countryside, amid verdant hills and mountains...where Virgil stopped to rest,while jeourneying to visit Cybele's temple, lie a fertile valley where chestnut and walnut trees abound...there is hidden the bustling town of my birth! Narrow streets overlooked by bell towers, and whenever the sturdy bronze bells ring in the fragrant air of early spring: young and old from windows and balconies, in the twelfth hour, engage in the sweet thanksgiving prayer... while the tricolor flags sway in the warmest breeze! The town's friendly people will welcome you with song, untill you feel wonderful and touched by all; this town has seen invasion, pestilences and a dire year... an almost fatal hurricane that prevented a fierce battle from being fought during World War II; was Divine Intervention a factor to be acknowledged? It spared this town being bombarded by air, and it saved my mother's life to tell this truth! God blessed this unknown place, and sent Mary with the infant Jesus, four days after He was born, on a long jeourney through that valley filled with peace and beauty: to find a revered and holy mountain... much closer to Heaven! And She shed many tears to give all the dull flowers a brilliance of their own! Deep in the hills there was a very special place I choose, where I would rever the magnificence of the valley... revealing a superb panorama with the Vesuvius in sight, was there another creation as magnificent as that ? And that owesome view perked up my inspiration inside, teaching my tiny fingers to write with a human heart! O Baiano, don't strip this name from your walls and stones: I am a forgotten native who will return before he'll die!