Abruzzo News: 7 January 2000

A new amusement local, "Orient Express", was inaugurated. The peculiar architecture is inspired to a railway station, with an entrance carriage and three lines for trend, commercial and Latin-American music.

Foals, sheep, rabbits and hens in the stables, children dressed in shepherds' clothes, all along the ancient alleys of Chieti from 15 hours yesterday. 50 scenes altogether, visitors from all around. In piazza San Giustino the hut with Mary (Federica Perrucci), Joseph (Davide Iacovella) and Jesus (Simone Diego), surrounded by angels, shepherds and zampognari (Abruzzese addition to the nativity). Also a little stream alongside the hut.

About 30, she lives under a tent, travels by bike and speaks to nobody. She raised the tent on her family's land, people say because she fears someone will appropriate it, and refused a lodging offered free of charge by the municipality. She refuses any help from relatives, which she accepts however form neighbors.

Alongside the Aterno River, the road discovered in the necropolis connected the cemetery to the town. 40 mt have already been digged out of the road which, according to archeologist D'Ercole, is in many layers, corresponding to different periods. In November the necropolis was featured in the National Geographic, and will be soon the subject of a documentary by Rai 2. One of the most interesting findings: the funerary stones positioned from East to West, which might be a kind of calendar.

Very few people have seen three centuries. Antoniella De Dominicis was born in Castelli on 7 january 1893. She will celebrate today her 107th birthday in her son's house in Villa Mosca, Teramo. Her best memories are from her life in Faieto, Cortino, her saddest from the two wars. «Sono contenta di tutto», says Antoniella, who loves kidding. Her secret: hard work and genuine countryside food.