Rucioli end Papalla

For more than half a century, I have been collecting, looking after, observing, and looking for the ‘Rollers’ without ever getting tired of it. In English, these stones could be called ‘the Rolling Stones’! In the Carpino dialect, “arruc’là” means to roll because they are so round. At Carpino, they are called “Rucioli” because these stones have a mysterious origin and are so spherical in shape that it leaves you amazed. Inside them, you can see some flint or perhaps another roller inside or you can find some white dust similar to chalk, which , according to the elderly people here, has skin healing properties. Many people have affirmed that they have been made by the effects of the rolling of rocks which have been dragged by the water’s current along the valley.
However, others have stated that they have been created by the physical effect of rocks being fragmented by a volcanic eruption and then decanted into a sea of mixed magma. The more plausible theory , though, is that since the Gargano is formed by sedimentary and not volcanic rocks, their formation has come about by the geological lifting of rock strata that have been compressed with marine sediment, and that at the peak of the lifting, they have begun to roll down to the valley just as a snowball rolls down from the top of a slope. Little by little, as they descend to the valley, they gather matter around them which blocks them or in a particular way, takes them prisoner, or petrifies them. From these, derive the perfect shapes –spherical, oblong, double, teardrop, concave lens, and so on. The Gargano is the only place in the world where you can find rocks like these in such quantities. You can often find rocks joined together like Siamese twins or in the form of a ‘caciocavallo’ cheese. And for those who can still remember the adverts for the old television broadcast of Carosello, I have baptized some rocks with the name of PAPALLA because they have the shape of a double ball.
If you contact me, you can admire them in my exhibition room at Carpino (Fg), arranged in various
ways.