Scurcola Marsicana is one the most beautiful villages we visited during the Walk. IT lays on a high ground and its name means “sentinel” exactly for its location. In the first year of the 19th Century, the domination of these areas passed many times back and forth from Borboni to the French, until its annexation to Regno d’Italia.
In the entire Kingdom of Naples, for voting this annexation, just one million and seven hundred thousand people were admitted (women and day labourers were excluded). Only ten thousand votes were contrary to the annexation to the Savoys, a sign that the opposition couldn’t express itself. In these lands, in Marsica, Vittorio Emanuele was proclaimed King among protests and scams. The attempts to suppress the revolt failed and in 1861 rebels gathered energy again.
The Piedmontese response to the rebels’ attacks against Savoy troops arrived soon and in Scurcola Marsicana it was a massacre. The army didn’t make distinction between rebels and the unarmed population and sources are still discordant about the number of deaths.
With all these stories, also sad, in our heads, suddenly hearing the chant of tens of birds on a street of this village at dawn looks something magical to us.