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Bevie Hardy is proud of her cheese balls.

Carunchio in Abruzzo

Chef Dino in the teaching kitchen.

Pizza night is the highlight, with music and singing.

Saluda’s entry into the Flower Festival.

Two Saluda students to be selected as student ambassadors to Carunchio

SALUDA—Saluda’s Sister City organization is currently organizing two trips to Italy. One trip will be for students to serve as Saluda Ambassadors to Saluda’s Sister City, Carunchio, and the other is for anyone who has always dreamed of an Italian vacation and wants an amazing adventure at an excellent price.

Two students from Saluda are being selected as student ambassadors and will travel to Carunchio, Italy, in June for a two-week stay. They will experience all that Italy has to offer, from cooking lessons to truffle hunting to exploration of the province of Abruzzo.

Saluda started this exchange in 2019 with its first visiting student and has continued to send or host every year except during the pandemic. In the summer of 2024, Saluda welcomed two girls from Italy who stayed with local families. They traveled Polk, Henderson and Buncombe counties, taking in the sights and experiencing everything from plays at Flat Rock Playhouse and Tryon Fine Arts Center to the Gorge zip line, Blue Ridge Parkway, Biltmore House, glider flights, art lessons, and more.  

Benedetta Formisano, Saluda’s first exchange student, will return to Saluda in mid-March for her long-awaited visit to the Gorge. Sister City is planning a reception for her on March 22.  

Everyone is invited to Sister City’s annual week-long trip to Carunchio to stay in a restored palazzo built in the early 1700s. What makes the trip special is that it is timed to coincide with the annual Infiorata, or Flower Festival, in Carunchio. There are still rooms available for departure on June 20. Participants get transportation within Italy, accommodations, all gourmet meals with unlimited red wine, and cooking lessons; excursions to the historic town of Vasto, a cheese factory, a famous bell foundry, a seafood meal on an ancient trabocco on the edge of the Adriatic Sea, and more.   

Saluda Sister City facilitates this travel as a way to support the Carunchio economy and provide an opportunity for people to experience the real Italy. All monies paid go to the Carunchio Palazzo. The cost is about $2,500 per person, inclusive of everything except airfare. Sister City travel planners will help participants design a longer stay if they wish.  

Saluda and Carunchio both have a single school, an elementary school, and Saluda Sister City works to connect the children of the two schools and provide cultural activities and materials to help children of two very small towns become aware of and appreciate the wider world and different cultures. 

Learn more about Saluda Sister City, a non-profit, and its programs at saludasistercity.org. For more information on this year’s trip to the Carunchio Flower Festival, contact saludasistercity@gmail.com.

Submitted by Judy Thompson

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