Wild " Scorzoni" for a good Cause. Our conscience of history often matures along the paths of memory that leave little space for the benefit of the doubt. Time is not given except to war or peace, the future is always at a crossroad between the direction of the right and the left. The same fate touched the Colle dell'Inferno or "Hill of Hell", a cruel spot, delegated for capital punishments without the possibility of the remission of the sentence, neither on earth nor in the eternal. This hill is now known as the Hill of Paradise, because it was the chosen site on which to erect the Basilica for the glorification of Francis. And yet, whether we like it or not, the Doctrine teaches, Dante remembers well, of the existence of Purgatory. Actually, even if it is true that that hill constitutes an extraordinary viaticum for souls near to beatification, it is documented that for the Assisians it represented the first place to sustain in penance the hard trial of illness. From the time that the basilica appeared in its splendour and until the Caldari and Cogolli families, knowledgeable pharmacists in Assisi, did not reach fame, the afflicted of obscure illnesses placed every hope in the Selva dei Frati, a genuine pharmacy under the open sky and a inexhaustible source of medicaments in the guise of plants with coloured flowers and herbs. The Assisians, having always had more care for corporal ills, neglecting the wounds of the soul, ended up with an ever increasing relationship with the Guardian Father of the Selva rather than with the Custodian Father of the Holy Convent. Even just by hearsay, many remember Frate Benfratelli that made the Selva his mission and many in Rome speculated on his fame, underhandedly using his name to start an otherwise anonymous hospital. Miraculous, and even today his prescriptions are efficacious. The root of albanello is a cure-all for malaria, the compresses of elder will calm an inflammation, an enema of mallow eliminates intestinal catarrh, for jaundice the only remedy is chicory roots, briar leaves are applied on stab wounds, rue ground between stones is for worming, weakness of the stomach is fought with the flowers and leaves of hare-hound, relief from whooping cough comes only by drinking a decoction of couch grass, pleurisy regresses with plasters of pellitory. It may seem incredible but even Frate Benfratelli had his human troubles. The popular benevolence corresponded with an equal amount of envy on the part of a little loved Custodian, ignored by the city. This man, with the aim of driving away the friar, never lost an occasion to refer to the General whatever he heard with his ears. By word of the populace, the Guardian of the Selva used overly strong manners with children who refused food. These tots were said to have been encouraged by the loudest of blows, better known as "scorzoni". A trial was called not without some theatrical sensation. It soon became clear that, yes, the small Assisians without appetite received some "scorzoni" but in the form of the perfumed black truffles typical of our countryside, impossible to resist and that grow wild in the Selva where the trees send deep their roots. Nevertheless, ubi maior… : since the sentence was emitted before the trial began, to exile the friar it was sufficient to accuse him of leading the youths to the sin of gluttony.

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