This is how the profession of acciugai (anchovy peddlers) was born, when, at the end of the summer season, when the work in the fields was over, men went to the coast to get anchovies and preserved fish and went inland to resell it.
These men didn’t work the fish, they only sold it, wandering all over Liguria but also in Piedmont and nearby Lombardy.
It was a migration that often did not aim at increasing the wealth of the family, because working as fish peddlers was only a seasonal profession, born to cope with the daily problem of survival, during the winter when it was not possible to work the land because of snow and frost.
Not to burden the already poor family budget and to earn some money, from around September to May the men and boys would get a license to become fish peddlers and left for the Ligurian coast. Only the women stayed at home to take care of the children, the old ones and the cattle.
There actually are many hypotheses on how the acciugai came to be and they are destined to remain legends. And the trade of anchovies and preserved fish in salt in those times does not give an answer of how and why it started in Valle Mara in Liguria.
Some theories say that it originated from the sale of salt, on which heavy duties were charged: some clever people thought to fill a barrel of salt to half, placing a layer of salted anchovies on top of it to hide the precious good. Upon discovering that the sale of anchovies provided a good income, some smugglers devoted themselves to the new trade which was also less risky because there weren’t limitations on the sale of fish.
All we know is that wherever there was a market there was always someone willing to trade goods such as cotton, knitwear, cheese, shoes and, of course, anchovies.
Anchovies preserved in salt sold at markets
At the market people would hear “Oooohhh anciue, anciue” (Ligurian dialect for anchovies) and knew fish was sold there.
The image was pretty much always the same: a sack of white canvas on the shoulders and a barrel of anciue. The peddlers brought with them their characteristic carts, called caruss, usually light but resistant, mostly colored with blue hues to recall the colors of the sea.
Once the anchovies were sold, the valley dwellers faced the return journey by train to the points of distribution, and then transported their street cart to the street, from fair to fair, from village to village, where they sold their fish.
Only the arrival of the beautiful season matched with the return to the mountain pastures for the harvest.
But it’s true that for some it was the beginning of a fortune: some were able to give life to real economic empires with numerous employees and companies all of them working on fish and started to export it, some even to Spain.
After World War II, most acciugai abandoned for good their villages of origin, and descended to the plains to devote themselves exclusively to the trade of fish.
The carts were gone, replaced by motor vehicles, gradually more and more comfortable and equipped. Even today it is possible to find some anchovies peddlers from the Mara Valley among the markets’ stalls, but they are fewer and fewer. It was and it is hard work, so very few children have taken on the job of their fathers because, thanks to the economic well-being achieved, they preferred to devote themselves to other types of work.
In order not to lose this tradition and leave it to the older generations, a mountain community in Liguria has set up multimedia posts with a theme and an itinerary in the valley to rediscover local artists, artisans, breeders and fish peddlers.
The anchovy is a humble fish and so were the men who used to sell it, but their story should not be forgotten because it’s part of this region’s tradition.
