Location(map)
 
 

Santa Maria del Molise is the birthplace of my maternal grandmother, my mother, and two of her sisters. It is the sister village of Sant’Angelo in Grotte  which is located approximately half way between Isernia and Campobasso. Santa Maria del Molise is a small group of houses located at the bottom of a hill (altitude of 450m) just a few hundred meters southeast of Sant'Angelo, which is perched on top of the hill (altitude of 973m), and in between Castelpetroso and Cantalupo nel Sannio. A cemetary separates the viallges of Sant'Angelo and Santa Maria.

My mother's family moved to Cantalupo nel Sannio in 1939 when she was about 8 years old. Cantalupo (which means "singing wolf") is the birthplace of my maternal grandfather and 5 of my mother's younger siblings. It is located at the foot of the Matese mountain on a hill (altitude of 587m) near the small river Rio. In the south, it is bordered by the Roccamandolfi plain, by San Massimo in the south-east, by Macchiagódena in the north, and by Santa Maria in the north-west.
 
 

History

A detailed history of Santa Maria del Molise and Sant'Angelo in Grotte can be found in The Bertone Book - The Story of the Bertone family of Molise' by Kurt Bertone.
A detailed history of Cantalupo nel Sannio can be found in a web page by Donald P. Crivellone.
 

Photos - Cantalupo nel Sannio and Santa Maria del Molise