Calcata’s Second Act

Calcata (40 miles north of Rome) is a town of rebirth. Old yet young. It was last summer that I visited with my family and walked its narrow, winding medieval streets of stone. The town was abandoned in the 1930’s for fear that it would tumble from it’s high, rocky perch. Residents moved up the street and away from cliff, building a new town: Calcata Nuovo. Until the 1960’s only cats lived in the small cluster of buildings, but things changed when artists and craftsman moved in and established a kind of hippie town. Eventually, they bought the houses they were occupying and convinced the government to rescind their abandonment orders. Today, it’s still a funky town, complete with galleries, shops, cafes and restaurants. All the ponytails that I saw while creating this drawing, were grey.