Valentina Vanitosa – Irpinia Coda Di Volpe D.O.P.

Valentina was arrogant, conceited, pretentious, just like her beauty, pure, lively, unique. To define her in one word, no adjective could be more suitable: vain. At every step there wasn’t any mirror in which she did not like to reflect herself, the windows of the stores were her favorite mirrors because the whole city was full of them. The mirrors of the boutiques and the beauty salons represented a daily practice of mirroring. Even the pure porcelain saucers of the bistrots were an excellent mirror for her, when, lifting the cup to sip the tea, she admired her reflected image. She spent long time of her day taking care of herself, rather than caring for others. In fact, there were no friends around her. There were no games that gain her attention. What fed her was a spasmodic attention to herself and a constant satisfaction of that. She bought bigger and bigger mirrors because those she had were never enough to reflect her image. She bought arc mirrors, mirrors as big as doors, mirrors that covered entire walls. But day by day, her reflected image became dimmer, duller. Valentina didn’t understand what was happening. She couldn’t see her image in those many mirrors any longer. One day, shen went out and found a dark, red-colored puddle, in front of her. A jug containing wine had been poured and the dark stain covered the road and formed a large mirror. In that red and intense image, Valentina revived herself. But it was not a bright and candid image like the one she had always seen in her many mirrors, but a new image. No longer ephemeral, elusive, inconcrete. The dark pool had given her true image, her true identity. She was given the opportunity to understand that the beauty of cosmo reflects in the beauty of her soul. Since then, Valentina Vanitosa (Vain Valentine) made love and friendship her main virtues. Still today, in folktales the beautiful Valentina is recalled as an emblem of noble and virtuous feelings.