An immense joy. So big as to be almost irrepressible. Two words, just two, uttered in a flash to summarize the emotion: "Desperately happy." So tells Viviana Lantini, the councilor for social policies chosen by the mayor Paolo Truzzu to represent the Municipality on the day of the feast dedicated to Sant'Efisio. She is the Alter Nos, she will be the second woman in history to wear the Golden Fleece and the tricolor sash and, therefore, represent, in an ideal combination, civil and religious authority.
Profession and faith
Sixty-two years old, a doctor by passion and head of emergency room in Carbonia for merits acquired in the field, Viviana Lantini has a secret that she carries inside, which she would not want to reveal, which has grown since the day Paolo Truzzu called her to his office "to talk about something else »but he decided to communicate his decision to name her Alter Nos. «Okay», she whispers while the emotion makes the word difficult: «I will be Alter Nos for him too, for my husband who died of ALS during the days of Covid. I married him when I was twenty-five. '
Confidentiality
He almost apologizes for the strictly personal references, Lantini, but this is his life in which now the investiture “which honors me, makes me happy but also frightens me, has unexpectedly burst into it. It is all so great ... I am experiencing mixed feelings, joy and fear for what awaits me and for what I will represent in those days. The mayor told me that I deserve all this, that I, also for the profession of doctor, will represent the fight against Covid, the work of all my colleagues in the health sector who have fought and still do, on the front line, against the virus".
Enthusiasm disrupts thoughts. The most serious concepts. And then the story of the days of preparation is born. «Quasimodo already! So it is called. It is the horse that will put the Army at my disposal for May Day », says Lantini. A 17-year-old Saddle Sauro that will accompany the Alter Nos during the Sant'Efisio parade. “Not that I had never ridden a horse before. Don't worry, I love animals very much and I go on calmly. I am naturally taking lessons from an instructor of a riding school in Medau on Cramu and on Tuesday I will ride Quasimodo ».
Religiosity
A practicing Catholic "with some renunciation of Sunday mass due to shifts in the Carbonia emergency room", Lantini admits to having discovered "a magnificent world, that of the Archconfraternity. I come from another parish, that of Santa Lucia, as I used to frequent San Francesco as a child. Now in Stampace I have really met good, committed, devoted people. Of course, for me and my family Sant'Efisio has always been a point of reference, on the day of the feast my family gathered, the grandparents came from Isili and we all went to the procession together.
In the heart of the party
Now that parade will no longer have to see it from the roadside, from makeshift positions chosen from the early hours of the morning to be able to catch the face of Saint Efis martyr with his eyes. Spying on women and men in costume, pointing with a child's finger and then a girl's finger at the group of Isili, her mother's town. It will be she, this time, who will find herself on the other side, in the heart of the party. «I will wear my Alter Nos suit at home, the dealers will come to pick me up at 7.30 am, at 8 am the dealers and together we will go to the semoleria and then go to the Palace for the investiture. From there we will go up to the church of Sant'Efisio to attend the mass and then it will be the party ».
Andrea Piras
