Pietro Barliario was a physician and alchemist who lived in Salerno in the twelfth century. Local tradition credits him with the construction of the city's medieval aqueduct - the Arco dei Diavoli, still standing in the hills above the centro storico - completed, according to legend, in a single night through a pact with the devil. What fewer people know is what the legend says came next.

His children found his books of necromancy and died of fright. Barliario, undone by guilt, walked to the church of San Benedetto and knelt before the crucifix. He remained there for three days and three nights. On the third night, according to the account that has been passed down in Salerno for centuries, the Christ figure lowered his head toward him and opened his eyes. The crucifix still exists. It is kept today in the Museo Diocesano, two streets from where the event is said to have taken place.

Every spring, the medieval fair of Il Crocifisso Ritrovato (The Rediscovered Crucifix) returns to the centro storico of Salerno. Merchants, flag-throwers, fire-eaters, and falconers fill the streets of the old city. Food is cooked over open wood. The streets take on the form they held for centuries. The event takes place each year in April or May, and the crucifix, as always, watches from its case in the museum.