Why I love my hometown Cerignola in Puglia

4 min readAug 23, 2023

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My hometown Cerignola (though I was born in Canosa Di Puglia) gets a ton of negative press in the national media (also because there are some real characters) so I decided to write a few reasons why I love it.

1. My family

I lived in Cerignola until I was 14 then I went to Rome for 3 years, Milan for 5 and abroad for 12…after 20 years I really missed seeing my family. That’s definitely the #1 reason why I’m back

2. Living in my great grandmother’s home

where I grew up with my grandparents whom I’m still very much close to.

I’m in the living room with Vincenzo, my maternal grandfather posing a kid in a garden. He was a professor of piano at the conservatory and a very cultured man indeed.

My grandfather’s beautiful library on 4 walls.

Me playing with cars in my grandparents home as a little kid

3. It’s been incredible to constantly work on improving the building together with my dad.

Renovations of what’s going to be the office

I gotta add a picture of how the office looks like now

4. Living in a big house I own where I have…

My own personal bedroom, bathroom and large office space…oh even a dedicated ping pong room.

And yes plenty of space for guests…you (might be) welcome haha

My personal bedroom and ping pong room with the entrance featuring JFK

5. Il “Cerignolano”…My home town dialect

Cerignola’s dialect is super funny and unique, so many proverbs, phrases and expressions. This deserves a separate post. I’m just adding a few that make me laugh and that randomly come to my mind.

Crs e crs ogn e ghun a la cs
Mazz e panell Fann I fighj bell
Che t na sciout d fioc?
Ghe so ghe tou si tou — I am me you are you…
A scie a rube sop i camion

6. Incredible food traditions

Remind me to try:

My mother’s: lasagna — pasta Al gratin — orecchiette e cime di rape — marquise
Street food: panzerotto
The best Shakerato coffee ever (I can only take you there I won’t tell you more)

7. The duomo: the highest church in Southern Italy

8. The sporting club Cerignola

Where I grew up as a kid playing tennis and soccer (calcio).

9. Il piano delle fosse — the granary holes

The only ones left worldwide, they have been storing grain / wheat there even before the Romans

Il Piano delle Fosse Granarie — Cerignola — This picture evokes so many feelings in me

10. Roman Milestone Rock (pietra Miliare)

though I hate that it was moved from where it orinally was close to my house

11. The countryside

Cerignola boasts Italy’s largest countryside (56,000 hectares) and the 3rd largest overall after Rome and Ravenna.

Some pics I added above show how massive and beautiful it can be.

Other nice stuff

The mercadante theater square

The issues?

Too dirty. Too many trashy people throw trash everywhere and the collection of trash leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a problem that can be solved. We would need a lot more fines and police enforcement.
Crime? Actually not that big of an issue anymore as there is little micro crime and basically no muggings or pick pocketing like in big cities.
Too small for a global citizen like myself at times. Though also a great place to work since there are no distractions.