Time.news – “The Cinque Terre are the way to say fast holiday, nature still today as God made it, and a human intervention of genius” but “the Cinque Terre are also the outlet to the sea of an equally curious and rich hinterland” . It is the premise to 111 places in the Cinque Terre that you really have to discover “, the thirty-first title and tourist route of a rich series of guides just published by Emons, the Italian branch of a German publisher, edited by Dante Matelli, cultural journalist, first in la Repubblica for three years, then a whole life at L’Espresso.
Columbia degree, some lectures, film and literature expert, foreign correspondent, correspondent from New York for a few years, cultured and refined pen. Writer of three Marco Ferreri films. Character himself, as singular as those he likes to describe. In a masterfully written guide.
There are 111 frescoes, 111 brushstrokes, 111 portraits of places and characters told in less than two thousand characters each. An essential writing, where adjectives and nouns weigh and make the difference. They carve and sculpt the page, stripping it of the frills. Writing by subtraction.
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Vernazza
But Matelli’s strength is all due to his historical memory and to the many stories he knows and governs, the result of a direct connection, made up of listening, human contacts, lived life and consummate experience. Fruit of his sincere and genuine boyish curiosity, he was cultivated throughout his life until the age of 82.
In this anomalous guide also La Spezia liberty, Roman Luni, Napoleonic Sarzana, the Gulf of Poets, Byron, Shelley, DH Lawrence and Mario Soldati chase each other, each with its own why, a part, a role in the stories told; and then Porto Venere, “overlooking a series of virginal and disdainful localities” (an example of description), such as Schiara, Persino, Navone, Monesteroli, i bozi. Which are natural pools on the sea, “of the sancta sanctorum” and “like all the roads that lead to the Holy Grail, the way is difficult but the reward is immense”.
But beyond the myth, over time “it is as if Arcadia had vanished” and in the meantime “there was an evident struggle of man with nature, which instead of following it violated it” because “to pass vertical slabs have been placed on the coast and it is necessary to cling to rocks and shrubs to keep pace “.
In the guide there are all these elements mixed together in 111 true stories full of quotes and references. Journeys in the journey, paths in the path.
Matelli does not hide anything, it reveals and reveals the transformations of the past that flows into the present, not always edifying for the fate of a territory that has actually also been progressively built up. But there are also singular and positive aspects, such as the case of Val di Vara, “the organic capital in Italy that excels in landscapes, food, craftsmanship and medieval imprints”, where the mayor of Varese Ligure “focused on sustainability. Far-sighted “, underlines the author, so much so that Varese” was the first country in Europe to obtain environmental quality certification “. And now there are about ninety companies dedicated to organic farming: cheese, salami, honey, beans, onions, hides, cattle ”. Finally, the wine: “Throughout the valley it is strictly organic, even in tiny farms”.
The guide should be read like a novel. With valuable information and details.