Daniele Polidoro published an interview titled “The man who is recreating the shire of half-men in Abruzzo” on wired.it
An interview with Nicolas Gentile, the 37-year-old pastry chef and lover of the Tolkien saga who decided to build a real shire a few kilometers from Chieti. Also facing his dragon: Italian bureaucracy.
Italy also has its own Middle Earth. A region made of mountains, forests and castles: Abruzzo. And for a few years now in Bucchianico, a small town a few kilometers from Chieti, a shire of half-men has also been born. The idea came to Nicolas Gentile, a 37-year-old pastry chef. Over the years, Nicolas has organized many themed events in his community, which has just over 5,000 inhabitants. At a certain point, however, he understood that his life in the village is made of small habits, of a ritual immersed in nature... "Over the years I realized that the half-men could only be from Abruzzo - says Gentile - the lifestyle of our villages is very similar...