This is an excerpt for Episode 6: The Black Madonna with Marisa Tomei from the Dream of Italy Season 3 Travel Guide. Get your own PDF copy here.
Kathy’s ancestral hometown, the hilltop Castelvetere sul Calore, was in a memorable Season 2 episode where Kathy explored her roots with her parents and felt a deeper connection to the town’s patron saint, the Madonna delle Grazie. A fiercely beloved statue of the Madonna delle Grazie sits in a church of the same name with a miraculous story. Centuries ago, an old woman had a dream that the Virgin Mary would leave a patch of snow where a church was to be built, and on the morning of April 28th, the snow appeared as promised. Each year on that day and on July 2nd, the adored statue comes out in procession throughout the town. We see Kathy’s 100-year-old cousin, Livio Nargi, read his poems in veneration of the Madonna delle Grazie and his emotion and love for her transmits straight to the heart.