Sapri, 1857: the landing of Carlo Pisacane and his three hundred, in a song inspired by «La spigolatrice di Sapri».
On 25 June 1857 Carlo Pisacane, a patriot from Naples, set sail with twenty-four companions aboard the steamer Cagliari. During the voyage he took control of the ship, landed on Ponza and freed more than three hundred prisoners, then made for Sapri, hoping for an uprising that never came.
The expedition was over within days. On 2 July, at Sanza, Pisacane died; his surviving companions were tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The song is dedicated to him and draws on Luigi Mercantini's «La spigolatrice di Sapri», the poem that fixed the episode in Italian memory. Unlike the rest of the album it is sung in Italian, and it ends on a question: what a united country cost.
In the book you will find
- the full lyrics of this song
- photographs of the places and the people
- Salvatore Mazzei's own account and the Italy 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.