June 1844: two Venetian brothers land at the mouth of the Neto to spark an uprising. Their road passes through Castelsilano. A betrayal is waiting.
Attilio and Emilio Bandiera, patriots of Mazzini's Young Italy, left Corfu on the night of 12–13 June 1844 with seventeen companions, sure they would find Calabria in revolt. On 16 June they landed at the mouth of the river Neto, near Crotone.
One of the group, Pietro Boccheciampe, slipped away to inform on them. The others pressed on towards Cosenza through Santa Severina, Belvedere Spinello, Caccuri and Cerenzia, as far as Casino, the village now called Castelsilano: the author's own. At a place called Stragola, after an exchange of fire, they were captured and taken to San Giovanni in Fiore.
Tried in Cosenza, the two brothers were shot on 25 July 1844 in the Vallone di Rovito. They rest in Venice, their home city. The song tells the expedition through the eyes of the villages that watched it pass.
In the book you will find
- the lyrics of this song in dialect, with an Italian translation
- photographs of the places and the people
- Salvatore Mazzei's own account and the Calabria of those years
Salvatore Mazzei is not a historian: he gathers stories and tells them in music. These lines are a starting point for anyone who wants to look up the sources and form their own view.
