Alma discovered Pantelleria for the first time when she was 6 months old. Since then she went there every year for the summer or for other short period of vacation.
Pantelleria was for her ‘the sea’ but also the place where she grew deep roots, in the nature and with the people. Swimming, underwater fishing, picking fruit, figs and blackberries, grapes, almonds, plums and peaches were unmissable events to go on and for making jams, oil and dried figs. With these natural home produced products she usually prepared cakes to be given as gift to local friends, generally farmers or fishermen. People were the connection with local traditions that she beloved. The old people were like grandparents for her, and she was getting around in the local community always finding stories and narratives that were nurturing her imagination.
She was getting around barefooted, jumping on the volcanic stones and dried stone walls that limited vineyards and orchards. In her dammuso of Monastero the freezer was always full of the fish she caught, and the home full of the music she played on her piano.
During a big fire that devastated part of the woods and was hard to tame, Alma was abroad for work, and she wrote a poem (Incendio) that remains a mark of her love for the small rocky island in the middle of Mediterranean Sea.
From the video of Arte: Les iles italiennes – Pantelleria, 2022 07 20
Con i funghi del Monte Gibele
