Introduction / History

This ethnically Albanian community lives in Italy's southern mountians, especially in Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Molise and Sicily.

One author's remembers a visit to the village of Barile: "In the 70s, when I found my grandmother's sister and her husband still alive and living there, the village had just only recieved single strand electricity. The electric service consisted of a few lights bulbs and an open air coffee cafe with a couple of electic light bulbs. The only other commerical enterprise was a stone oven bakery where the village bread was baked. It too was more open air than housed; a couple of half walls made of rubble brick. The houses are small and made from stone with small stone fireplaces. They lived off the land. My family had a small piece of land with olive trees. They traded olives and gathered twigs, wild mushrooms and wild onions. They had a son who worked as an electrician in Naples. He visited on weekends maybe twice a month and helped out financially."

Prayer Points

Scripture Prayers for the Arbereshe in Italy.