Borgese genius loci...
"I grew up before those vast horizons and heard sounds from afar. The rivers, flowing through the woods at night, had voices of love; the lights of the farmhouses were dimmed on the cliffs to let the stars come closer.
In the summer, when my brother and I would come from Palermo on holiday, we would stop at the Forrione pass and ride into the wind. From there, Polizzi, our village, appeared to us at the top of a climb.
A suspended air, a silence composed of secret humming, enveloped it. The air was mixed with honey and freshness.
The houses, grey and pink, lined up all over the mountain peak, looked like a ship about to set sail. Ours was the last one; clinging with stone pillars to the edge of the cliff.
Red earth, vividly coloured, under the mule pass! The last gorse bushes, still aflame, on the top, with sacred flowers!
The mint and thyme, the herbs beloved of goats, spread religious aromas along our path. Just before arriving home, the vineyards of La Scaletta were such a dark green that they gave off flashes of indigo, like a piece of the sea".
G.A. Borgese, Tempesta nel nulla, Milano, La nave di Teseo, 2023 [I ed. Milano, Mondadori, 1931], edited by Gandolfo Librizzi – Preface Salvatore Ferlita, p. 698.)
