“Quel senso ospitale che è in noi”: “That sense of hospitality inside us” these words by Ennio Flaiano are written like a graffiti on one of the entrance wall to the old town and in the “Museo del peperone dolce”, Museum of Sweet Pepper, which is the symbol and the pride of the territory. The museum of pepper was opened in 2015 as a project by the architect Giuseppe Manzi, but the original idea is of the artist of “Arte Natura” Mr. Sebastiano Antonio De Laurentiis, known as Capobianco, who was born in the nearby Roccascalegna. Mr. De Laurentiis conceived a miniature of the “House of chili pepper”, an unbelievable structure entirely covered by red pepper which one could reach, like the myth of the “Ariadne’s thread”, a route marked by peppers from the square throughout the town.

The “Museo del peperone dolce” keeps the historical memory and the transformations of the territory surrounding Altino and collects all the equipment to grow and preserve this food excellence. It also shows samples of the several processes the product undergoes before being placed on the market. Actually, the typical pepper “a cocce capammonte” head-on-pepper, as it grows upward, is harvested in August and is left to air-dry for several days, when all humidity is gone it is oven-toasted. Dried and toasted peppers get a typical sweet flavour and are grounded and powdered. That pepper powder can be broadly used to dress pasta, for cured meats, to savour meat, to dress vegetables and salads and for the typical “pizz e foje” (local green leaves vegetables with corn pizza).

In 2009 an association was established to promote the study, preservation and enhancement of the Altino’s sweet pepper, that’s the “Associazione del Peperone dolce di Altino Oasi della Serranella”. Dulcis in fundo, last but not least, every summer a popular Festival is held in the old town of Altino when all the hamlets play a challenge on the best recipe with the sweet pepper.

[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Translation: Mirella Rapa | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]