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Kids of all ages and from all over the world
visit the Physik Garden. Here are two stories written by a group of
Italian children in their English lessons at school. They are in the
third year of the Scuola Media (that means "middle school") in
a very small village called Montefalcone Appennino that lies in the
foothills of the Sibillini Mountains. Some of the children live in
Montefalcone and have written a story about their village called
"The Tyrant King" and some of them live in another village
called Smerillo. Their story is called "La Fessa". They hope
that you enjoy their tales!
The Tyrant King1 Local historical legend retold by Alessandra Tomassetti with the assistance of Gloria Ferretta Tidei, Stefano Mercuri, Cristina Tirabassi and Jessica Valentini. Illustration by Fabio Bruni.
Once upon a time there was a town called Fermo, famous because it was governed by a tyrannical king called Rinaldo da Monteverde. One day this man saw amongst his people a girl with whom he fell in love. But the girl was the promised bride of another boy with whom she was really in love! Then one night, Rinaldo, who knew no pity, abducted the girl’s father and shut him up in his castle. The days passed and the girl received no news of her father until one morning, at the front door, she found a message and a basket. The message said: "Here’s your beloved father." In the basket there was her father’s head! The girl cried all the day until the news spread all over the town. The people, tired of the king’s wickedness, attacked the castle and forced Rinaldo to escape with his family and his most trustworthy riders, far from Fermo. Rinaldo was very rich and possessed many courts and he decided to hide in one of them. First he travelled to Porto San Giorgio, but he was discovered. So therefore he hid in Montefalcone Appennino, situated high on a rock. The place was safe and even though the people of Fermo succeeded in surrounding the castle, Rinaldo remained in safety for forty days. One night, however, while the king and his family were resting quietly, a noise woke him up: the people of Fermo had entered the castle! Rinaldo tried to run, but he was captured and brought back to Fermo on the back of a donkey, a crown of thorns on his head. Once back in Fermo, in front of the castle that had housed him for years, Rinaldo was guillotined with his family, to the cheers of the people of Fermo who were free at last.
The merlin flew high in the sky. With the naked eye, no beat of its wings could be seen. The day was clear. The sun was shining on the landscape after the abundant rain of the preceding days. Both grown ups and children could take up work again in the wood. They prepared supplies for the following winter. The merlin, unperturbed, continued his weaving about. Through a hole of blue in the tangle of leaves a boy stared at the fluttering bird. In his heart he envied it, so free out in the immense space. A hundred steps away, in the neighbourhood of the fortress where the boy lived, another faced looked up at the merlin: that of a fifteen year old girl. That evening the two of them talked about the acrobatics of the bird. They were hidden behind a cliff, close together. In time they began to love and respect each other. They liked making plans: a family, a marriage, some sons. But this was an impossible future! Their respective families had hated each other since ancient times! The young couple instead swore eternal fidelity to each other ……….. but somebody saw them whilst they were talking and ran with the news to the castle, arousing the fury of their respective families, so that they rushed to the cliff with weapons to punish them! In front of everybody, the lovers asked for peace and serenity. Whilst the families were advancing on them to punish them, la fessa opened and the lovers fell into it – slowly and delicately. The boy and girl felt the happiness they longed for in their hearts. Today in la fessa there are two fossilised shells that seem nearly to hold each other: they are the lovers of the castle that the castle didn't want. *"La Fessa" is a word in local dialect meaning a cleft or a crack in a rock face. The End The illustrations used in this story are © Copyright The Physik Garden 2000 and may not be reproduced without permission of the artists or The Physik Garden. |
