Part 2: San Martino D' Agri.. The Hole

This post continues on from my last post...

We woke up the next day (Friday) decently early with stuffed bellies. I could not think of any more food at this point. Especially since I had something else on my mind. It was time to go exploring...

Besides the aura of visiting a small town in Italy and eating delicious food, there was another reason in which I was captivated by this town. The story behind it, and especially what lies beneath it. Supposedly the town has been around since the Middle Ages and perhaps earlier. It is believed that the house that we were staying in has been in Carmelina's family one way or another since the 700's. The town was at one point much larger and part of a castle complex. This has all been told to me second hand, and therefore I do not know how true any of the details really are. However, by all accounts, and from what I saw with my own eyes.. they seem quite believable. Carmelina's house was supposedly part of the main unit of houses in the castle. There are several hidden compartments throughout the house, but the most intriguing to me is the tunnel that lies beneath it.

I grabbed my flashlight threw on my clothes and was ready to go. We first went down the staircase to the first level of the basement. We used a brass key that looked like it was straight out of the middle ages to open the big solid metal door. This level seemed to be have been used for storage. I grabbed and large stick and made my way down to the next level. After clearing out some spider webs with my handy stick, I used another key to unlock the very fragile looking wooden door that blocked my path. This level seemed to be used for wine making. There were plenty of empty bottles of wine strewn about, as well as some unused bottles also lying around. There were big wooden barrels and other items that I imagine were used in the winemaking process. This seemed quite interesting and I could have spent a good while looking through all of the various items on this floor. However, this still wasn't why I was here.

I scan with my eyes across ground. Nothing sticks out, everything looks dusty and old, but somewhat normal. I move around some things and still no luck. Then I move a large wooden bench that is covered in a tarp of sorts. Underneath I spot it. Here is where I found the loose pieces of wood I was looking for. I move the wood out of the way and gaze down into the dark hole. I grab my flashlight and shine about and see that it goes about 10 feet down. At this point Carm interjects. "Stu you are not going down there!" of which I'm sure you can imagine what my reply was.

Back when I was on Long Island, before I left for my trip, I had talked to Carmelina's dad about my plans to visit the town. What I thought would be a couple of minutes of a quick conversation, turned into a lengthy talk. He described to me the details of the town and some of the secrets. Most importantly for this story, he told me about the hole. He told of how the hole was actually part of a tunnel. He said that they believed it was used as some kind of escape path for the royalty in the town. He also believed that they used to hang people and then bury there bodies in there. He justified this by sharing the details that he had found some human bones down there. He did not know where the tunnel led, as it has been completely blocked off by dirt. However, he believed it may have led to the original church in the town, but really not much was known about it.

So I looked up at Carm and then shifted my eyes over to the very large and old metal ladder that was on the other side of the room. I grabbed the ladder and with some slightly difficult manoeuvring, I managed to get it down the hole. I slowly descended with my small flashlight in hand. At the bottom I felt a rush come over me. Not because I was seeing anything special or unexpected, but rather I became fully intrigued by the mystery of this tunnel. About 15 feet into this tunnel the wall of dirt blocked the path. I found myself immediately drawn to it and was clawing away it. The dirt was very very loose and could easily be removed. I wanted to find something, anything. But alas it was useless at this point. We had to leave the town as our ride was here to pick us up. The wall of dirt was much too big, and who knows how deep, for me to accomplish anything. I slowly climbed up the ladder and thought to myself, that I would return, and do more to find out the mystery behind this hole.

I would later learn from another family member while I was in Rome, that nobody was quite sure when the tunnel was filled in with dirt. This family member said as far back as she knew, her grandfather, had never even entered the tunnel. She informed me that he was born in the late 1800's. Therefore, the tunnel has not been explored for at least over 100 years, but perhaps many hundreds. Noone is quite sure. Maybe there are treasures in that tunnel that have been hidden for hundreds of years. Maybe there are bones of those who perished inside, or perhaps it was simply used as a burial ground. Maybe even there is nothing in that tunnel, but a ton of dirt. Maybe if it is dug out, it will lead nowhere, but at least then I will know.