Happy Halloween from Gothic Italy

Vampires, Catacombs, Saints' Bones, Castles with Moving Coats of Arms

Roman Catacombs

European pagans called this day Samhain, and lit bonfires at night to mark the end of the harvest, the beginning of winter, the time of year when the souls of the dead were supposed to mingle with the living. Christianity rebranded these days All Souls and All Saints, commemorating the same natural cycle.

I’m in Rome today, where Italians don’t really “celebrate” Halloween the way we do. Tomorrow many will gather with their families and bring chrysanthemums to the graves of their ancestors, dressed for church, not in witch and vampire costumes. That doesn’t mean Italians don’t believe in spells, hauntings, witches (see my book on the Amanda Knox trial for more on that).

As a kid I was a fan of scary movies and Gothic literature. I didn’t realize until later that many horror movie cliches - haunted castles, portraits with eyes that move, tunnels, crypts, vampires - originated in the minds of 18th and 19th Century English and American writers imagining Italy. Ancient ruins and macabre Catholic traditions, hooded monks and saint’s bones venerated as relics, the ghastly martyrization of some of the saints … all of it provided fodder for pre-Freudian fables grappling with desire, fear, sex and death.

A few years ago, I did a tour of Gothic Italy, visiting some of the sites that feature in the writings of Poe, Walpole, Hawthorne, and the lesser known but significant female writers in the genre, Ann Radcliffe and Anne Crawford. The essay, part literary history and part modern day tour of Naples, Otranto, Venice and Rome, was published in the New York Times, with amazing photos by Ruth Fremson.

I am republishing it below for subscribers. Enjoy.

Photo by Ruth Fremson for the New York Times