The slow-paced villages that make up Salento boast a stunning landscape, deep-blue seas, centuries of history — and are blissfully isolated from the 21st century.

普利亚的萨伦托由诸多小村庄构成。这些村落生活节奏缓慢，有着令人惊叹的风景、深蓝色的大海和数百上千年的悠久历史，人们过着远离21世纪的幸福生活。

AT THE START of the Italian film director Edoardo Winspeare’s ‘‘Quiet Bliss,’’ a world-weary woman moves her family to live in an olive grove. Italy’s enduring recession has brought the family to its knees and, forced to close their textile factory, they’ve come to work the land. Here — amid the cream of stone, the green of olive, the blue of sea — the women discover the ancient grace of agricultural Salento, long the humblest region within Puglia, the rough-hewn, rocky area in the country’s south. If the premise seems pat, the film is exquisite: visually arresting, emotionally raw. Minutes into meeting its director, I understand why.

在意大利导演爱德华多·温斯皮尔(Edoardo Winspeare)的影片《静谧的幸福》(Quiet Bliss)的开片部分，一名厌倦了俗世喧嚣的女子带着家人搬去一片橄榄林里居住。意大利经济的持续衰退导致这个家庭陷入困境。他们被迫关闭了纺织厂，回来耕种田地。在米色石头、绿色橄榄树和蓝色大海的映衬下，影片的女性角色发现了尚处在农业社会的萨伦托的古色古香之处。普利亚位于意大利南部，地势崎岖，多岩石。而长期以来，萨伦托一直是普利亚最不起眼的地区。虽说其构思有些穿凿附会，这部电影仍属精致之作：视觉上引人入胜，感情强烈。在见到导演几分钟后，我便明白了其中的缘由。

‘‘I’m obsessed with this place,’’ Winspeare tells me, his gray-blue eyes alight. We are sitting in the dining room of his palazzo in Depressa, a Salentine village 10 minutes from the seaside, where his family has lived for generations. The Winspeare home is the first of several I’ll visit over the next few days as I make my way through the tip of the stiletto heel of the Italian boot, a necklace of sparkling villages strung along the limestone peninsula dividing the Adriatic and Ionian seas.

“这个地方让我着迷，”温斯皮尔对我说，他那灰蓝色的眼睛开始闪闪发亮。我们当时正坐在他家的餐厅里。这座大宅位于萨伦托的迪普雷萨村，离海边10分钟路程。他的家人世代生活在这个村子里。意大利的版图呈靴子状，萨伦托便位于这只靴子的鞋跟处。这里由一串熠熠生辉的村落构成。它们镶嵌在石灰岩遍布的半岛上，把爱奥尼亚海和亚得里亚海分隔开来。在接下来的几天里，我将穿越这片地区，并去参观多处房屋院落。温斯皮尔家正是我的第一站。

Salento is having its day, exalted as one of Italy’s last undiscovered gems. In reality, it has been so unendingly trafficked — by Romans, Normans, Germans and more — that to call Salento undiscovered demands a rather narrow view of history. Gemlike, yes: a dazzling display of nature’s way with color. But the region is more precisely described as many gems, not one. There’s a reason Italians call Puglia ‘‘le Puglie,’’ in the plural. Just as there are many Puglias, of which Salento is one, there are also many Salentos: small hamlets spread over hundreds of miles. From the Baroque city of Lecce, known as the Florence of the South, to southernmost Santa Maria di Leuca, which is lapped by a Caribbean-like sea, to the inland Grottaglie, with its vineyards and ceramics, Salento is vast and various.

眼下，萨伦托风头正盛，被誉为意大利最后几颗尚未被发现的宝石之一。实际上，这里一直有源源不断的罗马人、诺曼人和德国人等往来不息。说萨伦托未被人发现所参照的历史视角实在狭隘。但这里的确像宝石一样：它用自然界的各种色彩令人目眩神迷。其实，说这片地区是很多宝石，而不是一颗宝石会更准确。意大利人在说到普利亚时用复数形式是有原因的。就像有很多个普利亚，萨伦托是其中之一一样，也有很多个萨伦托：那些小村庄四散分布，绵延数百英里。从有“南方的佛罗伦萨”之称的巴洛克风格城镇莱切，到最南边被一片类似加勒比海的海洋环绕的圣玛丽亚迪莱乌卡，再到内陆随处可见葡萄园和陶瓷器的格罗塔列，萨伦托地域广阔，风格多样。

‘‘In the 18th century, my father’s family were British Catholics — there’s been a lot of mixing since then,’’ Winspeare says, gesturing to their portraits as we pass them in a hall. This house is plainly a family home, impressively grand but lived in, filled with portraits, porcelain, plants — and people speaking French and English.

“18世纪时，我的父系家族是英国的天主教徒，但从那以后，发生了很多通婚，”温斯皮尔说道，并在我们走过一个大厅时把他们的肖像指给我看。这栋房子明显是一处家庭住宅。它的雄伟令人印象深刻，但同时散发着生活气息，屋里摆满了人物肖像、瓷器和植物，还会响起法语和英语的声音。

His 5-year-old daughter points to one of the portraits. ‘‘That’s my great-grandfather,’’ she tells me in Italian.

他五岁的女儿指着其中一幅肖像用意大利语对我说，“那是我曾祖父。”

‘‘No, darling,’’ Winspeare says, and to me: ‘‘That’s Davide Winspeare, our most famous relative. He wrote ‘The History of Feudal Abuses,’ in 1811, a treatise arguing for the abolishment of the title system — for which they offered him a title.’’

“不对，亲爱的，”温斯皮尔对女儿，同时也是对我说，“那是达维德·温斯皮尔(Davide Winspeare)，是我们最有名的一位祖先。他在1811年写了名为《封建滥权史》(Feudal Abuses)的文章，阐述了废除头衔制度的理由。为此，他被授予头衔。”

‘‘Did he accept it?’’

“他接受了吗？”

‘‘Of course he did.’’ Winspeare laughs that particular laugh I’ve come to associate with Italy: at once joyful and cynical, weary and light, a wordless ‘‘nobody’s perfect.’’

“当然接受了，”温斯皮尔笑着说。这是一种特别的笑。我已经逐渐地把它和意大利联系在了一起。这种笑既表达了开心，又有些许愤世嫉俗，显得见惯不惊、轻松自若，像是在无言地表达着“孰能无过”。

When I ask him what he considers himself — Italian? — he laughs again.

我问他，他认为自己算是哪里人，是意大利人吗？他又笑了。

‘‘To be Italian is one thing. To be Salentino is something else. I’m Salentino. Cosmopolitan Salentino.’’

“意大利人是一回事。萨伦托人又是另一回事。我是萨伦托人，一个多种文化造就的萨伦托人。”

IN A SENSE, the term is redundant. I spent two years in Rome and never encountered the kind of cosmopolitanism that I observe, at all levels of society, in two days in Salento. Winspeare, the son of an Italian baron and Liechtensteiner princess, is exceptional in his lineage, but the norm is not so different; the history of Salento is one of hybridity.

在某种意义上，这个说法是多余的。我在罗马待了两年，但从未遇到过我在萨伦托待的两天时间里，在社会各个阶层中注意到的那种多种文化揉和的情况。父亲是意大利男爵、母亲是列支敦士登公主的温斯皮尔有着不同寻常的血统，但与这里的社会常态并没有太大差别。萨伦托的历史是一部民族杂揉史。

In brief: Ancient Salento belonged to Magna Graecia, that part of southern Italy settled by the Greeks. Its original inhabitants were Messapii, an Indo-European people later called Salentini. The Messapii were not of Greek origin — historians tie them to Illyria, of ‘‘Twelfth Night’’ fame — but associated with the Hellenics to create a vibrant culture. When the Romans conquered Messapia, they admired the local art: the sculpture and painting. With the fall of the Roman Empire came successive waves of conquerers: Byzantines, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragoneses, the Spanish, Ottoman Turks. When Italy was unified in the mid-to-late 19th century, the region was plunged into poverty. For decades, Salento witnessed a massive migration. But unlike the Sicilians and Neapolitans who settled permanently in America, many Salentini returned after World War II.

简而言之，在古代，萨伦托属于大希腊(Magna Graecia)，即意大利南部的希腊人定居区。萨伦托的原住民是梅萨皮人。这是一个印欧民族，后来被叫做萨伦托人。梅萨皮人没有希腊血统——历史学家认为他们和因《第十二夜》(Twelfth Night)而声名远扬的伊利里亚人关系密切——但他们和希腊人往来，创造出了充满活力的文化。占领梅萨皮亚时，希腊人曾对当地的雕塑和绘画艺术赞赏不已。随着罗马帝国的灭亡，这里接连迎来了一波又一波的征服者：拜占庭人、诺曼人、斯瓦比亚人、安如望人、阿拉贡人、西班牙人和奥斯曼土耳其人。19世纪中后期意大利统一时，这片地区陷入了贫困。此后数十年间，萨伦托见证了一场大规模移民。但不同于在美国永久定居的西西里人和那不勒斯人，很多萨伦托人在“二战”后回归故土。

What makes Salento unique is the living presence of this history: from its denizens’ contrasting North African and Northern European phenotypes to the Greek dialect still spoken in its villages. In one such — Calimera — stands a Greek statue. Inscribed in the stone are the words ‘‘Zeni sù en ise ettù sti Kalimera,’’ meaning, ‘‘You are not a stranger here in Calimera.’’

让萨伦托与众不同的是，你能看到其历史留下的鲜活印记：从居民脸上那些截然不同的北非和北欧面部特征，到村里依然有人在说的希腊方言。卡利梅拉便是这样一个村庄。这里还树立着一尊希腊雕像，石头上刻着“Zeni sù en ise ettù sti Kalimera”的字样。这句话的意思是“在卡利梅拉这里，你不是陌生人”。

It is this easy blending of cultures, more than its hotels or restaurants, that has made Salento so attractive to its most recent arrivals: designers and filmmakers and artists and authors (not to mention the odd farmer). Andrea del Genio is a Neapolitan who inherited a working farm from his Puglian grandmother. ‘‘I thought, ‘I’ll just go there for 15 days every year,’’’ he says. ‘‘I’ve been here 15 years so far.’’ From under a massive fig tree, we gaze out at his land: Here, the grapes may be grown for wine, but they’re still the sweetest I’ve ever tasted. Lunch is friselle, a local dish made entirely with ingredients from the farm: wheat, tomatoes, olive oil. ‘‘Farm-to-table eating? Back-to-nature living? It’s all very chic right now,’’ he says. ‘‘But the Salentini have been living this way for centuries.’’ When I ask whether he thinks tourists will change Salento, he laughs. ‘‘More likely Salento will change them. Many come. But only some go home.’’

正是这种文化的融合，而非当地的旅馆和餐厅，让新来的设计师、电影制作人、艺术家和作家（更别说间或到来的农夫）觉得萨伦托极具魅力。安德烈亚·德杰尼奥(Andrea del Genio)是那不勒斯人，他从生活在普利亚的祖母那里继承了一座仍在耕种的农场。“我当时想，‘我每年就去那里待15天’”，他说。“但到现在，我已经在这里待了15年了。”在一棵巨大的无花果树下，我们凝视远方，那里是属于他的土地：种的葡萄可能是用来酿酒的，但依然是我吃过的最甜的。午饭时，我们吃的是当地菜肴番茄麦饼(friselle)，食材全部来自农场：小麦、西红柿和橄榄油。“从田地直接到餐桌的饮食？回归自然的居住环境？当下这些都非常时髦，”他说。“但成百上千年以来，萨伦托人一直都是这么过的。”当我问他，是否认为游客会改变萨伦托时，他笑了。“更可能是萨伦托改变他们。来了很多人，但只有一部分人回了家。”

The region is not picture-perfect; it doesn’t attract perfectionists. Though its various towns are lovely, one needs a car to travel between them, the roads lined with scraggly farmland and industrial warehouses. One of its primary crops — olives — grows in harsh conditions; in place of the manicured hills of Tuscany, arid groves stretch across the peninsula. Donkeys roamed the unpaved street outside my B&B. And yet here, in Salento, I found things I’ve yet to see elsewhere in Italy: a rural simplicity, an unconditional warmth, true open-mindedness. I was reminded of Ghana and India, two countries I visit every year, and where, in certain farming towns, one finds the same worldly-wise sense of innocence. The fashion crowd, forever searching for the newest thing, may have fallen in love with Salento—but these arrivées are nothing new to the Salentines.

这片地区并非风景如画般完美，也不会吸引完美主义者。尽管这里各个小镇景致怡人，但需要乘车才能在它们之间穿行往来。而公路两旁散布着凌乱的农田和工业仓库。作为这里主要的作物之一，橄榄树生长在恶劣的环境里。这里没有托斯卡纳那种修剪整齐的小山，取而代之的是贫瘠的林地，在整个半岛绵延不绝。我住的含早餐旅馆外，几头驴在土路上游荡。但在萨伦托这里，我也发现了意大利其他地方没有看到过的东西：简单的乡村生活、无条件的友善和真正的开明思维。这让我想起了加纳和印度，两个我每年都会去的国家。在它们的某些农业城镇，你也会发现这种练达的纯真感。永远都在寻找最新潮流的时尚界人士，可能已经爱上了萨伦托，但对萨伦托人来说，来的这些人并不算新鲜。

WINSPEARE FINDS ME a driver, Amerigo Russo, a chatty handyman who the director cast in ‘‘Quiet Bliss,’’ and we head toward the village of Melpignano. In the piazza, old men sit in plastic chairs, chatting, shaded by an 18th-century church. Alongside sits Stefano Aluffi-Pentini’s palazzo, hidden behind a low door.

温斯皮尔给我找了个司机，名叫阿梅里戈·鲁索(Amerigo Russo)，他颇为健谈，有着一双巧手。在《静谧的幸福》中，导演还让他出演了一个角色。我们一起驾车前往梅尔皮尼亚诺村。在广场上，建于18世纪的教堂投下了一片阴凉，坐在塑料椅子上的老人们闲聊着。斯特凡诺·阿卢菲-彭蒂尼(Stefano Aluffi-Pentini)的院落就坐落在教堂旁边，隐没在一道低矮的门后。

‘‘In the 16th century this was a market,’’ says Aluffi-Pentini, an art historian and expert in European palazzi who’s from Rome, gesturing with one hand to the piazza while serving rosé with the other. The wine, Castel di Salve, is made by Francesco Winspeare, Edoardo’s brother (and co-owner, with the director Taylor Hackford, of a wine bar in nearby Tricase). From the terrace, one can all but touch the arcades. ‘‘Merchants from the kingdom of Naples signed their contracts there.’’

“16世纪时，这里是一个市场，”阿卢菲-彭蒂尼说。他既是一名艺术历史学家，又是研究欧洲华丽建筑的专家。来自罗马的他一手倒着玫瑰葡萄酒，一手指向广场。Castel di Salve这款葡萄酒是爱德华多的兄弟弗朗切斯科·温斯皮尔(Francesco Winspeare)生产的。（弗朗切斯科还和导演泰勒·海克福德[Taylor Hackford]一起，在附近的特里卡塞开了一家葡萄酒酒吧。）站在露台上的时候，很容易就能想象出当年商铺林立的景象。“从那不勒斯王国来的商人就是在这里签合同的。”

Coming from Rome, I know what it is to live with history. But here, he says, history lives with him. ‘‘Salento is a place that still belongs to the daily life of its inhabitants. Many cities in Italy are better preserved, but overrun with tourists. I prefer Salento to Capri. Here the sea is not the focus. Did Edoardo tell you the story? He knows an old woman who’s never seen the sea. This land was attacked by pirates; the sea was dangerous. Life here happens inland.’’

在罗马待过一段时间之后，我知道和历史相伴是什么感觉，但在这里，历史融入了生活。“居民的日常生活依然占据着萨伦托。意大利有很多城市保护得更好，但却游客泛滥。和卡普里岛相比，我更喜欢萨伦托。在这里，大海不是焦点。爱德华多给你讲过那个故事吗？他认识一个老太太，从来没见过大海的。这片土地被海盗袭击过，海上也很危险。人们的生活围绕着内陆运转。”

Indeed, of all the towns I visit, only Otranto has a classic beach: a veritable Miami compared to tiny Depressa and Melpignano. Here, at their beach club, I find the brother-and-sister duo of Carlo and Rita Capasa, two thirds of the threesome behind Costume National. Russo has driven me here from the rockier coast of Tricase Porto, where I stopped to chat with the graphic artist Anna Guarini. Villa Guarini, like the Winspeares’ palazzo, is as relaxed as it is regal: Guarini’s adult children, dog Léon and swimsuit-clad boyfriend pass through. Guarini herself — impeccably elegant — grew up in this house, spent decades in Paris and recently moved to Rome.

的确，在去过的所有当地城镇中，只有奥特朗托有一片典型的海滩。相比于狭小的迪普雷萨和梅尔皮尼亚诺，那片海滩堪称迈阿密。在这里的海滩俱乐部里，我看到了卡洛(Carlo)和丽塔·卡帕萨(Rita Capasa)兄妹，就是时尚品牌Costume National背后那三兄妹中的其中两人。鲁索开车把我从特里卡塞波尔图的岩石海岸送到了这里。在特里卡塞波尔图，我曾驻足与平面设计师安娜·瓜里尼(Anna Guarini)闲聊。和温斯皮尔家的大宅一样，“瓜里尼庄园”的风格既轻松，又庄严：瓜里尼已长大成人的孩子、家里养的狗里昂和她那身穿泳衣的男友在屋里走过。瓜里尼优雅得无可挑剔。从小就在这栋房子里长大的她，去巴黎生活了几十年，前不久回到了罗马。

‘‘My mother always spoke of Villa Guarini,’’ Russo tells me as we’re parking. Once inside, he greets Guarini deferentially, mentioning that his mother once worked for her parents. She in turn greets him warmly, asking, ‘‘Who is your mother?’’ He tells her. ‘‘But of course!’’ she cries. ‘‘You’re Lucia’s son. How is your aunt Cesarina?’’

“我母亲总会说起‘瓜里尼庄园’，”停车时鲁索对我说。一进门，他就恭敬地和瓜里尼打招呼，并提到他母亲曾为瓜里尼的父母工作。瓜里尼随后热情地招呼了他，并问道，“您母亲是？”他告诉了她答案。“当然，当然！”她大声喊道。“你是露西娅的儿子。你们家的亲戚切萨里纳(Cesarina)还好吗？”

It isn’t every lady that remembers the names of her household staff’s relations — but, as Guarini explains, the Salentino aristocracy is peculiar. ‘‘Historically, the landowners had very intimate relationships with the workers. As a girl, I went to public school with all the other children.’’ Though she lives in Rome, Guarini spends months at a time in Tricase Porto. The upside of the sea’s downplayed role is that summer is not the season: One can live here all year long, and some adventurous people do.

不是所有女主人都记得家里佣工的亲戚的名字，但就像瓜里尼解释的那样，萨伦托的贵族阶层很特别。“历史上，土地所有者和佣工关系亲密。小时候，我和其他所有孩子一样，上公立学校。”尽管生活在罗马，但瓜里尼每次回来都会在特里卡塞波尔图住上几个月。大海的角色被淡化带来的积极影响是，夏天不是唯一的黄金季节：你可以一年四季都待在这里，而且的确有一些具备冒险精神的人这么做着。

That, of course, is not to say that the sea is not spectacular. I’m enthralled by it, a swath of azure, as we climb the coast to Otranto en route to the Capasas for dinner. Dressed all in white, a long white braid down her back, Signora Capasa, the matriarch of the family, is impossibly chic. She is relaxing by the water with Carlo and Rita when we arrive (their middle brother, the designer Ennio, has returned to Milan). ‘‘People often ask how a family from Salento creates such minimal clothes,’’ Carlo says. ‘‘They imagine southern Italy as baroque, as over the top. But it can also be quite simple. Our parents were always minimal.’’

当然，这并不是说当地的海景不壮阔。在去卡帕萨家吃饭的路上，我们沿着通向奥特兰托的海岸行驶。那片蔚蓝的大海让我如痴如醉。卡帕萨家族的女族长西尼奥拉·卡帕萨(Signora Capasa)穿着一袭白衣，白发长辫垂在背上，时尚得令人难以置信。我们到的时候，她正和卡洛及丽塔在水边放松（三兄妹中的老二，即设计师恩尼奥已经回米兰了）。“人们总会问，一个来自萨伦托的家族是如何制作出这么简约的衣服的，”卡洛说。“他们想象中的意大利南部是巴洛克风格的，装饰过度。但这里也可以很简单。我们的父母就一直奉行简约风格。”

The Capasa siblings grew up in Lecce, that cream-walled dream of a city, and spent their vacations in Otranto, where their parents were born. Though neither their mother nor father spoke French nor English, they both traveled often, fascinated by the fashions coming out of Paris and London. For their children, an international clothing line renowned for its minimal aesthetic is classically Salentine. ‘‘We grew up in Lecce,’’ Carlo continues. ‘‘It’s baroque, but minimalist baroque. All one color, all one stone. International, minimal. These are our roots.’’

卡帕萨兄妹在莱切长大，那里像是一个有着米黄色墙壁的梦幻城镇。他们还会去父母的出生地奥特兰托度假 。尽管都不会说法语和英语，但他们的父母经常去旅行，并为来自巴黎和伦敦的服装所倾倒。对他们的子女来说，一个以简约美扬名的国际服装品牌，体现的是标准的萨伦托风格。“我们在莱切长大，”卡洛接着说。“那里是巴洛克风格，不过是简约的巴洛克风格。通通只有一种颜色，一种石头。既是国际的，又是简约的。这些是我们的根。”

IT IS THIS MIXTURE — of minimalism and multiculturalism — that enchants Olga of Greece. Seven years ago the Greek princess, raised in Paris and New York, and her Italian husband, Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta, bought a crumbling palazzo in Giuggianello. ‘‘His being Italian, my being Greek, Salento is the perfect place to be both,’’ she says, dispatching their three children to the pool: one of the only finished sections of the compound. I’ve come to visit their three-wing palazzo, which is undergoing a slow and deliberate renovation; we sip coffee in a parlor cluttered with toys and lined with original editions of the Enciclopedia Treccani (I’m thrilled to find Davide Winspeare’s name among the brittle pages). The windows and doors have yet to arrive but the frescoes are ready for viewing: a gorgeous display of pastel pinks and peeling sea-foam greens. Having studied architecture at Columbia, Olga adores Salento’s villas.

正是这种简约主义和多元文化的融合让来自希腊的奥尔加陶醉其中。奥尔加是希腊的公主，她的丈夫是意大利的萨伏伊-奥斯塔王子艾蒙内(Aimone)。七年前，夫妇两人在朱贾内洛买下了一处日渐破败的大宅。“他是意大利人，我是希腊人，对我俩来说，萨伦托是最完美的选择，”她一边说，一边把三个孩子打发到泳池边。院子里只有少数几个地方已完工，泳池是其中之一。我是来参观他们这栋拥有三个侧翼的房子的，这里正在进行缓慢、慎重的翻修。其中一间起居室里塞满了玩具，还有成排的原版《特雷卡尼百科全书》(Enciclopedia Treccani)（这些书的纸张已经发脆，但在书里发现达维德·温斯皮尔的名字让我兴奋不已）。我们在这里一边谈话一边小口喝着咖啡。窗户和门都还没到，但壁画已经准备好让来客欣赏了，放眼望去，一片绚烂的淡粉色和淡绿色迎面而来。曾在哥伦比亚大学研习建筑学的奥尔加对萨伦托的乡间庄园很是钟情。

After we finish our coffee, she takes me to the roof. Seen from here, it could be Greece or even Morocco: the desert-like landscape, the low white houses, the olive groves, a single goat. Like Salento itself, the view is utterly captivating — quiet, unchanged by time, unspoiled by perfection.

喝完咖啡，她带我去了屋顶。站在这里，能看到像沙漠一样的景色、低矮的白色房屋、橄榄园和一只羊。这样的景观可能是希腊，甚至还可能是摩洛哥。如同萨伦托一样，此情此景令人迷恋：静谧，没被时间改变，并不完美，却真切动人。

‘‘You can look all you want, but you don’t find houses like this anywhere else. There are beautiful houses in Greece, but not in this style. Take our facade. It’s simple, minimal, protected.’’

“你想怎么看就怎么看，但你不会在其他任何地方找到这样的房子。希腊也有漂亮房子，但不是这种风格。拿我们家房子的正面来说，简单、简约、得到了完好的保护。”

Much like life in Salento itself.

这一切，像极了萨伦托这里的生活。