The Italian joke is this: "Il Molise non esiste". Molise doesn't exist. The punchline is that Molise is so small, so poor, and so overlooked that it might as well not be there. The actual Molise, the smallest Italian region by area and second-smallest by population (300,000 inhabitants), squeezed between Abruzzo, Campania, Puglia, Lazio, and the Adriatic, has one of the finest bronze sculptures from the ancient world (the Warrior of Capestrano is nearby, the Italic Warriors are in Campobasso), some of the most intact medieval hill towns in southern Italy, an extraordinary truffle-hunting tradition, and an agricultural economy that produces food of quality inversely proportional to its visibility. The joke is about neglect. The reality is about discovery. Molise rewards the traveler who finds it.
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Campobasso and the Museo Sannitico
Campobasso (50,000 inhabitants, regional capital) isn't a beautiful city in the conventional sense, the lower modern city is undistinguished. The upper medieval borough (borgomediavale) with the Monforte castle above it is worth 2 hours. But the museum is the reason to come: the Museo Sannitico di Campobasso (Palazzo Gil, free entry, closed Monday) contains the Molise region's finest Samnite artefacts, the Samnites being the Italic people who for centuries resisted Roman expansion and were eventually absorbed. The bronze helmets, the belt-plates, the funerary armour, and most importantly the terracotta votive figures of extraordinary craftsmanship: these are objects that belong in any consideration of pre-Roman Italy and are almost unknown outside the region.
The Hill Towns of Molise
The Molise hill towns have preserved their medieval structure more completely than comparable towns in more prosperous regions, precisely because economic stagnation prevented the demolitions and replacements that modernization typically produces. Civitacampomarano (a partially abandoned village in the Biferno valley that hosts an annual street art festival, artists from across Italy come to paint the walls of abandoned houses), Sepino (the only Roman city in Molise, the ruins of Saepinum, extraordinarily well-preserved, still partially inhabited, entered through two original Roman gates), Pietrabbondante (the major Samnite religious sanctuary, with a theater-temple complex carved into the mountain, free access, extraordinary isolation), and Venafro (Roman amphitheater, Norman castle, good local olive oil) form an itinerary that few travelers have ever completed.
Questions About Molise
Does Molise really not exist?
The joke refers to the region's invisibility in Italian media and cultural life rather than its literal non-existence. Molise was separated from Abruzzo and became an autonomous region in 1963. It has a regional government, a capital (Campobasso), two provinces, and 136 comuni. It has a regional football team that occasionally qualifies for Serie B. It exists. The joke is about how little attention it receives, and the growing tourism interest in the joke itself is one of the reasons the region is becoming slightly more visible.
How do I get to Molise?
By train from Rome to Campobasso: 2h45 (with change at Isernia or direct Intercity, check Trenitalia). From Naples to Campobasso: 2h15 (with change). From Pescara: 2h. By car from Rome: A1 south to Cassino, then SS6 east through Venafro to Isernia, then SS17 north to Campobasso, approximately 3h. From Naples: A16 east to Benevento, then SS88 north. 2h15. Molise has no airport and no motorway of its own, the infrastructure deficit is one of the region's primary development constraints and one of the reasons it remains as isolated as it does.
What food is Molise known for?
The Molise food tradition is the food of the Samnite-Italic-Lombard shepherding culture: lamb (agnello alla molisana, cooked with local herbs), pork preparations (scamorza molisana, the local stretched-curd cheese, excellent smoked or fresh), cavatelli (the Molisano pasta format, small, rolled, chewy, infinitely better than the industrial version), and the exceptional truffles of the Isernia area (black truffle, fresh in season, available in restaurants throughout the region at prices that make Umbrian truffle prices look extravagant). The Tintilia del Molise DOC is the regional red wine, an indigenous grape almost extinct elsewhere, now being revived with considerable success.
Curiosità sul Molise
Il Molise ha uno dei tassi di emigrazione più alti d'Italia, la regione ha perso il 20% della sua popolazione tra il 1970 e il 2020. Questa emigrazione (verso il nord Italia, verso la Germania, verso l'Argentina, dove la comunità molisana è particolarmente radicata) ha lasciato borghi (historic villages) parzialmente svuotati che ora vendono case per €1 al fine di attrarre nuovi abitanti (Montefalcone nel Sannio, Agnone, e altri comuni hanno attivato programmi di questo tipo). Il fenomeno dei "comuni che vendono case a €1" è iniziato proprio in Molise prima di diffondersi ad altre regioni italiane e internazionali. Il prezzo simbolico nasconde i costi reali (ristrutturazione obbligatoria entro 3 anni, residenza obbligatoria) ma ha comunque attratto un discreto numero di stranieri, soprattutto americani e britannici, che hanno trasformato case abbandonate in abitazioni di qualità. Vedi anche: Abruzzo · Basilicata · borghi italiani.
