Visciano

Visciano is the easternmost municipality of the metropolitan city of Naples, and it is so by a thread: its territory is almost entirely surrounded by the province of Avellino, it stays attached to Naples along only a short stretch, and it reaches as far as the border with Monteforte Irpino, cutting the mountain community of Vallo di Lauro e Baianese in two. People live by hazelnuts, grown with craftsman's care: the local varieties are the mortarella and the san giovanni, with long fruit, and the camponica, big and good for the table.

The town's cult was born under a tree. The panel of the Dark Madonna was found at the foot of a hornbeam — hence the name Madonna del Carpinello — and it bears the date 1616; the finding, which local tradition tells as miraculous, set off the Marian devotion of this small farming community. Today the picture stands on a high marble throne inside the sanctuary built around it, raised in December 1986 to the dignity of minor basilica. Visciano's other trade was born of festivals: since the post-war years the town has made fireworks, and has made them known well beyond Italy.