Do you know that Franco-Provençal is spoken in Puglia? Celle San Vito and Faeto, in the Dauni mountains, represent a linguistic island where this language has been spoken for hundreds of years. There are various theories on the presence of this language of Gallo-Romance origins in Puglia: according to some scholars it seems to have been brought by a group of soldiers who moved here, following the Angevins, after the fall of Frederick II, at the end of 1200; according to others, however, the Franco-Provençal language was brought here by a group of Waldensian exiles, who came to find salvation from religious persecution, around 1400. To listen and learn a few words of Franco-Provençal I went to visit Assuntina and Erminia, who have lived nearby for half a century in Faeto. Here, however, Franco-Provençal, mixing with local idioms, gave life to this truly unique language of which few still retain the knowledge of its sound and accents. Another surprising encounter occurred during my Puglia Fuorirotta journey created in collaboration with WeAreinPuglia.
Fuori Rotta Italia
A day with Luigi, a young shepherd from Gargano. From the Puglia Fuori Rotta trip