Great emotion in Fertilia for the visit of the mayor of Ferrara, Alan Fabbri, who arrived yesterday to reconnect with his fellow countrymen who brought the experience of land reclamation to Sardinia in the 1930s. «A historical moment that has never happened before», defined it as Mauro Manca, director of the Egea ecomuseum, a place created with donations of documents, photos, testimonies of the founding families and located along the ridge that leads to Capo Caccia.
Among the participants in the meeting were the descendants of the 56 families who reclaimed the territory. Today there are around twenty remaining nuclei, they bear typical surnames such as Bellodi, Castaldelli, Farinelli, Finetti, Gavioli, Gnani, Govoni, Pozzati, Rosa.
Among them there is also a direct witness of that long journey from their lands of origin to Sardinia: Elodia Vincenzi, 95 years old, born in Vigarano on 11 February 1928. She left for Fertilia in 1939, she was 11 years old. «I learned to marry cappelletti with pork» she jokes today, remembering her Sardinian husband, Carlo Moro, alongside his son Novello Moro. Vincenzi is the longest-lasting direct witness, but the memory of that journey to Sardinia has been handed down to many heirs of historic families: Ermes Pozzati's father, born in 1948, arrived here as early as 1922. Lucia Gnani is also the second generation ( her father Giannetto Gnani was from Ferrara): born in the land of the Quattro Mori, she went to third grade in Gualdo and is in love with the Estense area, the last time she returned recently, to Voghiera for the garlic fair at the Belriguardo Castle . Another Gnani, Corrado, 68 years old, father of Masi Torello and mother of Codigoro, despite having never been to Ferrara, knows the dialect perfectly, so much so that he won first prize in a playful quiz launched by the mayor on the vernacular.
«Here you can breathe living roots. Here the identity bond with the land of their fathers is extraordinary", said Fabbri, present with councilor Marco Gulinelli. «A fascinating and exciting fact», underlined the mayor, thanking the people of Ferrara overseas for their affection and welcome and the vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Ferrara and Ravenna, Paolo Govoni, for having created this connection between lands friends, in the name of common roots. Fabbri also announced an upcoming shipment of booklets created for schools on the history of Ferrara, illustrated by Alberto Lunghini, to "bring knowledge of our roots here too". Exchanges that the president of the regional council Michele Pais defined as «cultural actions that strengthen peace, because Fertilia was and is a great model of happy coexistence and integration between different peoples, an example for the world».