«Popen did not realize what he was doing the first time he took me to the top of the castle that dominates the island, so high as to allow the gaze to embrace it all »he writes Rosita Manugerrara in the debut book Ailment (Feltrinelli). An set training novel In Favignana, in Sicily, where the protagonist, mine, moves on the stage of the islanda place of the soul that tends to the universality of the story. Because the real protagonists are human relationships and how they decline in the context of an island.
Favignana di Rosita Manuguerra: “Here the direction establishes the wind”
“I couldn’t really imagine – says the Manuguerra – that the diroccato castle of Santa Caterina, on the homonymous hill, that mine discovers the father’s hand, would have liked the director so much Christopher Nolan to make him the Castle of Penelope. Will be one of the main sets of the filming of his new film, The Odysseycoming out next summer. Filming gave us the dream of a restored monument, even if only in cinematographic fiction. The one I tell in a malanima is A fictional favigna, inventing places and rework folklore. But in the description, the references to some of its most characterizing places, such as Cala Rossa, the Marino ox, the Castle of Santa Caterina … ».
Rosita Manugerra has grown in Favignana, “between the will to stay and the desire to leave”. When she was little someone suggested that the best way to find yourself is to write. Since then, he tells stories. “Malanima” is his first novel.
Favignana, the pearl of the Egadi
Mediterranean island, pearl of the Egadi, rich in perfumes, colors and traditions, she returned to the honors of the news with the historical novel The lions of Sicily by Stefania Auci: The ancient tonnara is one of the symbols of the vast and wealth of the Florio family, captains of industry who crossed the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in blazing ascent and disastrous fall.
In addition to tonnaraspectacular example of industrial archeology, remain The vestiges of the Florio buildingamong whose rooms they frustrated the spectacular clothes of Donna Franca, wife of Ignazio, places rich in indelible charm.
The tonnara dei Florio, Favignana
But Above all, the sea is lived on the island. By bicycle, at dawn, to see the sun from the coast of Cala San Nicola is born (where the beginning of Malanima is set) and dive into its refreshing waters. And then, by pedaling by pedaling, pass from one cove to another always keeping the opposite direction to the one from which the wind blows, to avoid, during the bathroom, any jellyfish.
In the seafood village of Punta Long, the fishermen work the goals and have a chat with the curious. In the afternoon, on the west coast, The sunset in the height of summer goes out on Marettimo (Another island of the archipelago together with Levanzo and Formica). Wonderful places, spectacular views that however seem not to erase certain shadows, certain restlessness.
A story of friendship between two young women in the novel by Rosita Manuguerra.
Malanima, or the sense of restlessness of islanders and foreigners
“The ailment is that sense of restlessness that we islanders feel, always in the balance between the will to stay and the desire to leave,” says Rosita. “But it is also what the foreigners who have fallen in love withwho return every year and very often love the island more than us “.
In the book of Manuguerra, on the island he unravels The story of friendship between two peersMine, island, and Marina, the girl from the city who will not leave with the rains of September, but in fact she will start attending that school that is opened by the principal, “be that it blows the sirocco and that the mistral blows”.
The Punta Marsala Faro (IPA)
I am The winds to be listened to to choose the most repaired beach: Cala Azzurra, Lido Burrone and Cala Rotonda if the mistral, north-west wind spies. La Praia, Cala Rossa or Cavallo airport if the sirocco, southeast wind blows. “Sometimes they ask me how to live here in winter … I replied with the novel, describing a glimpse of the islands outside the summer clamor and all that – traditions, family, friendships, places of the soul – which keeps us linked to them. Including many gaps, such as the difficulty of accessing education and health. “
The Rosters of the Romans
For its form Favignana recalls a butterfly Divided to the center from Mount Santa Caterina with different characteristics in the two wings. In the east, in the area of the plain, where Mia lives, the most flat and agricultural, you go to the discovery of beautiful coves with fine sand and golden tuff rocks that throw themselves into the water. Like Cala Rossa, the most suggestive thanks to the story that gives her its name.
The Castle of Santa Caterina (photo IPA)
«He dates back to the final naval battle of the First Punic War (264 – 241 BC) won by the Romans led by the commander Gaio Lutazio Catulo. In the museum annexed to Tonnara Florio, finds of boats and the rostrums that allowed the Romans the victory are preserved. The red blood of the wounded, driven by the current towards the Cala, baptized it like this ».
Today it is a very blue and welcoming bay. But on the master days the sea pours on her and becomes dangerous. «It is difficult to explain the sea. The truth is that it is not explained. We are born, with its constant presence, a sensitivity underground that makes the day predict the day good or bad ».
In the old part of the country, the houses are so close to each other that in the silence of the early morning or at the time of the siesta, the steps rumble. In the west, called forest in memory of the disappeared Lecceti, there are small heads of cattle, but above all The splendid Cala Rotonda and Cala Grande. So the plot of Ailment It unrolls on a real and imaginary island. And perhaps, after having lived it, we could do as a navy, that “when the time came to leave, he left no longer”.
View on Cala Rossa (photo IPA)
Where to sleep in Favignana
The house of the lemon grove, alley Cimarosa.
Six Shabby -style rooms near the town, with breakfast in the garden based on quality products, cakes and handmade desserts. lacasadellimoneto.it
Dreamed Cala del Pozzo, Contrada Pozzo Vecchio.
Eight rooms 400 meters from the sea, first royal breakfasts with organic products from the Terre del Favonio company of the same property.
dwelling of
The slaughter of tuna (1904) illustrated by Eugenio Interguglielmi.
Where to eat in Favignana
Formica Osteria, via Roma 52.
It is easy to meet the chef at the port, early in the morning, to buy the best from the fishing boats for his cuisine that combines the origin
Japanese with the best Sicilian raw material.
Formicaosteria.com
Ristorante Isola-Mangiari, Baia di Marasolo.
Favignanesi strong and sincere Favignanesi who find themselves in the caponata or in sweet and sour tuna, and to follow in the fish at the barbecue.
Tel. 328.7365590