Between Salt Water and Holy Water: A History of Southern Italy

Between Salt Water and Holy Water: A History of Southern Italy

by Tommaso Astarita

WW Norton, $195

Is southern Italy an unmitigated disaster area? It's afflicted by virulent underworlds: in Sicily the Mafia, in Calabria the 'Ndrangheta and in Naples the Camorra, which all corrode civil society. In recent years the use of mafiosi turned state witnesses has severely damaged the Sicilian underworld but the Camorra has regained strength, while the 'Ndrangheta has become the most insidious of all, controlling most of Europe's cocaine traffic.

There are healthy elements in the south, of course: civic groups resist these underworlds and prosperous enterprises are to be found. Recent Sicilian experience has proved the underworlds are not invincible and Sicily's economic growth rate is now higher than the national average. But Calabria languishes with 27 per cent unemployment, the highest of any European region.

The south has been called Italy's Third World but it has a rich cultural heritage, unique monuments and beautiful landscapes. For classical Greece it was at the forefront of civilisation, as can be seen from the peerless Greek temples in Sicily and at Paestum, south of Naples. Pompeii was a resort area of imperial Rome while other monuments recall periods of Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Swabian, French and Spanish control. The rich history lives on in the customs and the cuisine which, from the pizza to the Mediterranean diet, has acquired worldwide renown.