The little town of Agnone once had 8 bell foundries. This is in Molise, one of the smallest of Italy’s provinces – and the least known to tourists and Italians alike. Famed for top class copper work and for bells, today copper manufacture has declined to a few artisans, and bells to just one foundry. But the Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli is the oldest in the world, and the oldest continuing family business in Europe. In 1924 it was granted the Papal seal and today continues to create bells for the Vatican, and all over the world. These proud artisans are my grandfather’s cousins and as I walk around the town today, I am casually introduced to a distant cousin or the son of a schoolmate of my grandfather’s. Ties are strong, and the Marinelli name important. As kids, we had been called to dinner by a hand-crafted Marinelli bell, and we first came on a visit from the US when I was 8. Our great Uncles were both Silesian priests, and as we were too many for the ancestral home, we children stayed in a large convent along the town walls where we ate fresh pasta and huge plates of artichoke hearts. I loved getting a drop of wine in my water glass. When I went back in 2012 to stay with a cousin and learn some Italian, I was blown away. So completely off the beaten track, this is a historical, fascinating town - where no one speaks