A line in the baptismal register of the parish of Santa Maria Assunta, in Carovilli, dated 28 September 1903, records a day out of the ordinary: the translation of the relics of Saint Stephen, celebrated in the presence of Bishop Carlo Pietropaoli. Duke Giovanni d'Alessandro of Pescolanciano, seventy-nine years old and by then financially ruined, saw to it that a new silver urn was bought for the occasion, paid for ‘with the offering of the townspeople's piety'. Not a lordly gift handed down from above, then, but a village collection: the church where baptisms were written down was also where the community kept safe whatever everyone agreed was precious.
What to see
The object with the most to say is the marble holy water font of the parish church, carved with the portraits of Agapito d'Alessandro (1595-1655), baron of Pescolanciano, and his wife. It is worth pausing over where it sits. Not above an altar, not in a reserved chapel, but on the basin every single person brushed on the way in, fingers wet, before even sitting down. In a fief that paid the baron dues for Carovilli and Castiglione, that daily gesture reminded the whole parish, without a word, whose hands held the land outside.
Our editors' tip
Come in mid-August, for the feast of the Assumption the church is named after: the ducal papers show that the payment orders for masses at Carovilli, Castiglione and Civitanova arrived precisely in those days. It is the date the village calendar has turned around for centuries. If you come out of season, walk on to piazza Municipio anyway: beside the civic tower stands the palazzetto d'Alessandro, its doorway carved with the d'Alessandro-Ruffo Scilla coat of arms. The same family as the font, a couple of centuries later.