That Campanone: the “Real Voice of Gubbio”
The bell tower is the focal point of any Italian town and the loyalty to one’s bell tower – that is, one’s town – supplants nationalism in Italy. Campanilismo (literally, “belltower-ism”) is directly linked to how the Italians define themselves. Having only been a unified nation since 1861 and a democratic republic only since 1946, most Italians feel…