«The sea has no country, not even he,
it is of all those who know how to listen it»
Giovanni Verga
Third appointment with the prestigious tourist-literary review Sea Landscapes, the traveling project in the name of literature, music and theater, exploring Sicily through five cultural encounters and five itineraries, starting from the seaside town, from the suggestions of great writers and the multiple cultural influences from the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Normans.
Following authors such as Tahar Ben Jelloun, Marco Aime, Santo Piazzese, Gaetano Savatteri and Giovanni Brizzi, the third meeting of Landscapes Sea, Saturday, November 5, 2016 starring in Syracuse (International Institute of Criminal Sciences, at 5 p.m.): the writer and journalist Matteo Collura, biographer of Leonardo Sciascia of which he was a close friend; the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, opinionist and writer with more than sixty books devoted to art;the pianist and trumpeter Dino Rubino, from early career; the movie and theater actor Pippo Pattavina. Moderates the meeting Rosario Castelli, literary scholar at the University of Catania.
The appointment will open in the name of the look on the world of Giovanni Verga, in his own words «The sea has no country, not even he, it is of all those who know how to listen it», and exploration proposed by book. “Unknown Sicily. Unusual and curious itineraries”, written by Matteo Collura (Rizzoli, 2009). Different languages once again cross paths to tell the spirit of Sicily and for a confrontation with the public on current issues and always at the center of the island identity: the welcome, the exchange of cultures and experiences, openness to new peoples and traditions, sensitivity to integration.
The event will be an opportunity to present the third route of Landscapes Sea: Places of memory. Salt flats, tuna fishery, watch towers. Salt flats, tuna fishery and coastal towers in Sicily and in the Mediterranean have always been essential references for understanding the relationship between man and sea. Traces of ancient stories but witnesses Sicilian identity. The salt flats are concentrated on the western tip of Sicily, between Trapani and Mozia, where Phoenicians and Carthaginians developed the extraction of salt from the sea. The whiteness of the landscape reflects the sunlight that blinds and dazzles. Wherever the watch towers, built in the time of Charles V and Philip II, 119 silent guardians of the Sicilian coast. Finally tuna fishery scattered around the island (there were 80 in the Seventeenth Century), the memory of a past that is also contemporary, as in the case of the Museum on the island of Favignana in Ancient Tonnara Florio.
Sea Landscapes is sponsored by Department of Tourism Sports and Entertainment of Sicily Region, chaired by Anthony Emanuele Barbagallo who has strongly backed the initiative, in the context of the interregional project Sea and sea mines that will harness the natural excellence linked to coastal resources with their hinterland. The art direction is entrusted to Antonella Ferrara, President of Taobuk-Taormina International Book Festival.
The identification of the routes is the responsibility of the Phoenicians’ Route – Cultural Route of the Council of Europe and the World Tourism Organization, directed by Antonio Barone.
The five routes offer an experience journey, imbued with suggestions and sensations, through the many places of historical, artistic, landscape and culinary relevance, related to the sea, with tourism potential not yet explored. Cultural events, develop a basic theme that characterizes the works of the Italian and international guests present, by binding with the territory and culture of Sicily, to create moments of reflection on current affairs and pay tribute to the emblematic places that inspired many pages of literature. The authors expected to upcoming events: the writer Dacia Maraini, the journalist Felice Cavallaro, the Nello Toscano Quintet, the actress and film director Lucia Sardo (Sunday, November 6, Agrigento); the Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda, the journalist Alberto Bilà, the saxophonist Francesco Cafiso, the actor Mariano Rigillo (Thursday, November 17, Catania).
Matteo Collura, writer and journalist
Vittorio Sgarbi, art critic, opinionist and writer
