Of Dust and Light

No Wilder Place

Palizzi Superiore, Calabria

Black and white photograph of Palizzi Superiore, a hillside village in Calabria, Italy, showing stone buildings clinging to a rocky slope beneath a dramatic cliffside mansion, surrounded by wild vegetation and rugged terrain.

“No wilder nor more extraordinary place than Palizzi can well greet an artist’s eye,” Edward Lear wrote in 1847.

Lear sketched it too. The village rises sharp and bare in his drawing.

Black and white illustration of Palizzi, Calabria, drawn by Edward Lear in 1847. The image shows a steep rock formation above a hillside village with flat-roofed buildings, a stone bridge crossing a stream, and rugged mountains in the background.
Palizzi, 1847 — Lear’s quiet sketch of stone, stream, and solitude.

In his time, Palizzi was full of people. Today it’s quiet. Wind slips through empty streets as I follow the path he once walked.

I’m trying to find where he stood.

From the sketch, it looks like low ground near the riverbed. I take the old stone steps down toward the bridge.

Broken pomegranates lie on the path. The air is sweet, overripe.
Two crows chase each other above the houses, their calls cutting against the cliff.

Black-and-white photo of Palizzi Superiore, Calabria, showing a hillside village with tiled roofs and stone buildings

The riverbed is almost dry. A thin stream runs through reeds four meters tall.
I push into the reeds, guessing this was the view.

It’s gone. Green fills everything. Nature kept going.

I lower the camera.
The wind moves where the river once ran.

Black-and-white photo of a stone bridge in Palizzi, Calabria, partially obscured by tall reeds and dense vegetation. In the background, buildings including a small bell tower are visible, contrasting with the overgrown riverbed in the foreground.

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Antonio Violi | Seeking stories in dust, light, and time.