Special bell cast to ring in The Rotary Foundation’s next century

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By Rotary International

The Rotary Foundation Centennial Bell. Photo by Danilo Di Nucci

By Francesco Bruno, Communications Specialist, RI Staff

While we still need to use our fantasy to search for that hidden gateway that can launch us into the future, finding one that takes you back in history is at our reach if you happen to be at the right place, at the right time. Upon entering the large wooden door of the Marinelli Foundry in the hilltop city of Agnone, Italy, it took only a few seconds to feel like I was stepping back in time. The scene I witnessed was one my ancestors could have observed a thousand years ago.

Four silent workers formed a circle inside a knee-high hole, stomping the ground with their feet and a stick attached to a 10 inch round wooden base. Their motion caused finer dust to lift into the air.

It was mid-March, and while the air outside was being cooled down by the winds that swept through the snow-capped mountains, the heat inside the foundry was rising fast as the day of the casting of The Rotary Foundation Centennial Bell was approaching.

The Marinelli family has been making bells for about a thousand years and …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog