Where the "spigolatrice" which witnessed the arrival of the Three Hundred now gazes out across a sea consistently awarded the European Blue Flag
Situated on the southern most point of the Cilento, Sapri is a splendid bathing resort in Italy's Campagnia region, known for its crystal clear waters, but also for having been the stage of a heroic and tragic feat. It was here, in fact, in the distant 1857, that Carlo Pisacane with more than three hundred men, attempted to defeat the Bourbons. "They were three hundred, they were young, strong and dead!", Luigi Mercantini thus reassumed the dismal fate of Pisacane's army in his celebrated poem "La Spigolatrice di Sapri". Despite the failure, the episode nevertheless sparked a growing anti-bourbon sentiment which led to the enrolment of the "Thousand of Garibaldi" and the unification of Italy.
The inhabitants of Sapri have not forgotten the event and have dedicated more than one monument to Pisacane and his three hundred men. In the Piazza dei Trecento, in fact, there is a memorial obelisk, erected so as to commemorate the battle. In the Villa Comunale there is a statue of Carlo Pisacane whilst, resting on the Scoglio dello Scialando, there is a bronze statue of the Spigolatrice of Sapri which observes the sea as if still awaiting the arrival of the three hundred. Every summer, in August, a re-enactment of the battle of 1857 is held.
