The Appleseed Cast
Mare Vitalis

Despite my Nordic origins, there are several reasons why it is wonderful to keep breathing the air here in the deep South: among these the culinary tradition, the artistic-cultural heritage of the Val di Noto with its cities recognizable for their late-Baroque architecture (also a UNESCO heritage site), and our coasts.

In recent years, I have especially rediscovered the pleasure of living close to the marine environment. It is a landscape I find immensely fascinating both in the high season when tourists from all over Italy and beyond crowd our shores, but especially in spring and autumn when the sea becomes like a bare plant left to itself.

It is always nice to dive in, have a healthy swim in August, but it is just as satisfying to take long walks along the shore with the gentle background of waves crashing placidly on the shore, while the beach is semi-deserted. It certainly has something melancholic about it, but it is a state of wonderful quiet and silence that regenerates the body and mind.

What better setting, when you want to take a walk away from the urban smog and reflect by isolating yourself from the rest that surrounds us. And it is then that I find myself taking the car and those 10/15 minutes on the road are a moment before receiving a warm and tight embrace.

Now the small seaside hamlet that not long ago was in the grip of noise and the chaos of nightlife is once again a quiet sleeping refuge for the few inhabitants who live there year-round.
Scicli can boast the largest coastal stretch in the Ragusa area and the Sampieri beach which extends from the waterfront to what are today the remains of an ancient and now disused furnace, is tangible proof of this. Continuing eastward you head towards Pozzallo (which in recent years has been awarded the Legambiente blue flag) often making headlines for the tragedies of migrants.
To the west, passing the touristy Marina di Ragusa with its small port, you reach Punta Secca, a hideaway made famous by the television series of Inspector Montalbano.

Putting the geography book back in the backpack, now it is time to take a long walk and as a soundtrack I choose “Mare Vitalis” and The Appleseed Cast as further traveling companions among grains of sand, crabs, and foam.

Thoughts blend with the notes and the surrounding landscape, The Appleseed Cast are good at giving voice to their souls, they manage to make it sing, they evoke dormant memories over time, drawing a scenario of melancholy and blessed quiet at the same time as only a beach in April or September can do. And then there are those dilated post-rock sounds, warm, marine that lull you and those sometimes airy refrains that make you scream at the top of your lungs in the middle of the desert.

The sea is somewhat like that mother perhaps moody and not always close, but whom you always know is there when needed, ready to warm you with an enveloping embrace. And it matters little if it is not made of flesh but is liquid and blue.

Despite the slowness of my steps, the journey is over and it is time to say goodbye and return to the city. It will be only a goodbye, yet another, with the promise to visit again soon. Still, I return to the parking lot satisfied because this journey has been useful to me, it has helped me confront my inner self and see things clearly and lucidly, giving me awareness.

The season is a tyrant and the days are shorter. On the horizon, the sun now not so strong gradually disappears swallowed by the water seeking its moment of rest among a soft pillow of seaweed. It's just an optical illusion but it's magnificent.