Dalla rupe: novella

A stark strip of limestone cliffs crowns the Ligurian sea, where the little village of Varigotto clings half on the rock and half below the tide. Once an island, the land was reshaped by relentless winds and the tide’s pressure into a narrow peninsula, its shore dotted with ancient Roman ruins, battered cannon emplacements, and a lone 16th‑century tower that watches over the waters. The narrator’s vivid geography turns the landscape itself into a character, recalling old chroniclers who noted the place’s destruction by the Lombard Rotari and its later rebirth as a modest fishing hamlet.

Every sunrise finds the women of Varigotto sweeping the sand, mending nets, while the men launch their boats to chase anchovies along the same glittering horizon. Local lore whispers that the night belongs to witches, a superstition that colors the villagers’ hard‑won routine with an undercurrent of mystery. As the story unfolds, listeners are drawn into the rhythms of a community that balances its ancient past with the relentless demand of the sea.