The Scent Tells

THE SCENT TELLS… the author’s collection: between history and legend.

DAMANTI: THE SCENT OF A SECRET (from the interweaving of history and Sicilian tradition on the life of the Baroness of Carini).
Laura Lanza eldest daughter of Cesare Lanza Barone di Trabia and Conte di Mussomeli, he lived happily his adolescence in the Palazzo Noble in Palermo, until the greedy father combined his marriage with the member of a wealthy and noble family, Don Vincenzo la Grua – Talamanca, son of the Baron of Carini. So on 21 December 1543, at the age of only 14, Laura married Don Vincenzo, becoming the Baroness of Carini and moved to their castle where she lived for twenty years and where her eight children were born.
Victim of a mismatched marriage Laura however met love and, despite the great fear of being discovered by the suspicious and treacherous father, he interweaved a long relationship with Ludovico Vernagallo, cousin of the husband and of lower rank, of which he fell madly to the first glance.
According to some storytellers during the frequent visits of the cousin, the two lovers loved to take long walks in the garden of the castle among the mandarin trees and away from prying eyes, and under the accomplices leaves of a majestic fig tree they dwelt to exchange fleeting and passionate kisses.
According to tradition a sad day the father surprised them together and killed them or made them kill and the Sicilian storytellers told that the baroness, struck in the chest, touched the wound and, leaning on the wall with his hand, left a bloody imprint…
This tells us the fragrance of the Dama: the resilient sweetness of a love represented by the taste of our vanilla Mandarin, and the bitterness adrenaline of a secret, hidden among the fragrant and fresh leaves of the most discreet fig tree, in an emotional dualism that at least once was the protagonist of the experience of each one of us.

DAMURI: THE SCENT OF A PRODIGY (from the Sicilian tradition on Sant’Agata Patrona of Catania).
A tradition now disappeared is that of the sale of Jasmine during the festivities Agatini of mid August. Until the sixties of the last century hawkers offered in town bunches of Jasmine to the faithful. The nobles and wealthy devotees wore jewels depicting the flower of Jasmine blossomed during the celebrations. The balconies of the houses on the streets crossed by the devotees with the coffin of Sant’Aiutuzza in the shoulder, were adorned with plants of jasmine climbing whose delicate fragrance pervaded the streets on the hot nights of August.
This fragrant custom handed down by the people draws its origins from a suggestive legend linked to the return of the sacred relics Agatine from Constantinople to Catania by Ganesan and Goselmo, two soldiers and devotees who after carefully concealed the sacred cargo, fled precipitously. They faced a long and insidious journey before crossing the Adriatic to arrive on the coasts of Puglia and during the journey they were stopped by a group of Imperial soldiers in patrol service. The Emperor’s men interrogated the two devoted soldiers about the cargo carried and these without losing heart replied: “We carry flowers!”. It was thus that by miracle from within their quivers sprang an intense and prolonged scent of jasmine invading the air of delicate fragrance. The two soldiers perpetrated by the company, caught by surprise for the miraculous prodigy, did not leave their emotion, and thus they obtained the coveted pass. This miracle goes to add to others that between history and legend characterize that sacred halo of holiness that envelops since its “dies Natalis” Our beloved holy Virgin and martyr Agata.
To her and to her immense love for her hometown and her fellow citizens is dedicated the Damuri fragrance that smells of jasmine and amber in memory of the long journey that from the Orient brought “to the heart” to the beloved Catania.

LEMON and SALT: THE SCENT OF A SIREN (freely taken from the history of the Paternò Castello Princes – by F.G.)
The eclectic Prince of Catania Ignazio Paternò Castello was a lover of music, arts and beauty … It is said that the prince had a dream in which a wave of the sea crossed the windows, entered the palace and, wrapping himself in a spiral, he came up to his rooms carrying with him all the sirens of the sea. So he built a spiral staircase that depicted a petrified wave, which connected his room to that of his wife. The passionate Ignatius, however, also built another staircase that connected his hanging garden to the palace that had given the siren the protagonist of his dream, the daring and sensual Bocca di fuoco. Whenever his favorite mermaid entered the stairs that led to his desire, a light sea breeze smelled of lemon blew from the windows of the prince’s rooms, overlooking the garden … lemon and salt is the scent that quenches the heat of passion.

SCIARA: THE PERFUME OF PASSION (tale of fantasy – by F.G.)
A young lost Saracen seeks shelter from the cold in the caves in the lava desert of the summits “do Mungibeddu” (of the Etna volcano). A girl of an androgynous beauty, red hair gathered and tied with hemp threads, green eyes like the moss of the barks on which she carves her dreams, meets those black eyes like the “sciara” (lava stone). The lips hatch, their bodies intertwine in the silence of a language that does not need words, abandoning both for the first time to the fire of passion. When he wakes up he will find hemp threads that tenderly knot his wrist and that he will never melt …
From this rude, fleeting and passionate meeting Sciara is born a fragrance with woody and spicy notes, warm, intense and enveloping like the embrace from which we would never melt.

ZAGARÌA: THE SCENT OF A FORBIDDEN LOVE (tale of fantasy).
A sprig of blossoms of orange blossom marks the pages of a diary, inseparable companion and Discreet guardian of the memoirs of a woman forced to leave her beloved island.
He opens the diary, closes his eyes and breathes the pages, rewriting them with his melancholy sighs that tell of an impossible love.
He, Nanni, is a flower of fresh blossom, bursting in his candor, decided and determined to devour the passion for her, Rosaria, a wonderful creature aware of her beauty as the most succulent and fragrant fruit of the land of Sicily that already mature offers generous between the leaves and the tender flowers.
But this unstoppable passion has a sweet and bitter taste, forbidden by the belongings of tradition that does not forgive those who move away from his “Bona Crianza”.
The unique scent of this wonderful land will always remain in its heart, and while the courier moves away she caresses by smiling her round belly that is preparing to make blossom a new flower of blossom there where they never knew the candor.
The freshness of the orange blossom and the sensuality of the bitter Apple are intertwined in the plot of this passion to happy ending.