PIEDIROSSO GRAPE

The Piedirosso grape is almost entirely utilized in one sole region of Italy, that whose capital is Naples, and takes its name - which can literally be translated as "red feet" - from the characteristically russet color of its stems when full ripeness has been achieved; the alternative name, used in its dialect form of Per' e Palummo or "dove's foot", expresses the same concept, as the feet of a dove or pigeon appear notably reddish beneath the grayish or whitish plumage of the bird. (...)
Piedirosso has a notable predilection for volcanic soils, which abound in Campania, and has always been most intensively cultivated near Naples, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, on the island of Ischia, and in the volcanic plain near the city known as the Phlegrean fields where, according to the legends of the ancient world, Ulysses was first captured by, then blinded and escaped from, the Cyclopean giant known as Polyphemus, a famous episode in Homer's Odyssey. Blasts of sulfureous air escaping from the sub-soil still characterize this outer suburb of Naples and testify that the latent volcanic activity of the entire metropolitan area has, regrettably, by no means entirely subsided.