Excursion to Tindari

domestic and foreign, are controlled by government monopoly.

3 defending the police against the students at Valle Giulia: On March 1, 1968, at the University of Rome at Valle Giulia, protesting students reacted to heavy-handed tactics by riot police by hurling stones and setting fire to automobiles, resulting in injuries to both sides. In a now-famous poem written in response to this event, the radical poet, author, and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), while acknowledging the reasons behind the demonstration, declared his sympathies for the policemen, whom he called “children of the poor,” against the students, who for him were “spoiled rich kids.”

3 with the exception of one who ... had been putting up with trials and incarceration ... and another who’d died in obscure circumstances: The author is alluding to the celebrated cases of Adriano Sofri (born 1942) and Mauro Rostagno (1942-1988). Sofri—founder and ex-leader of the now-defunct extreme left-wing group Lotta Continua—is currently serving a twenty-two-year sentence for having allegedly ordered the murder, in 1972, of police inspector Luigi Calabresi, himself widely believed responsible for the “suicide” of an anarchist, Giuseppe Pinelli, who supposedly threw himself out the window of a police interrogation room when being questioned by the same Calabresi. (This latter event was immortalized by Nobel laureate Dario Fo in the play The Accidental Death of an Anarchist.) Sofri’s ultimate conviction in 1996, after no less than eight trials—one of which came on a prior prosecutor’s appeal of an acquittal, a judicial option that still exists in contemporary Italy—rested only on the much-belated confession (in 1988) and inconsistent testimony of one of Calabresi’s killers, Leonardo Marino. There was no material evidence. The procedures and results of the case have been widely decried by both Italian and international legal experts. Sofri, a distinguished author and journalist, has always steadfastly maintained his innocence and even refuses to ask for a pardon—which would probably be granted if requested—since this would imply guilt.

Mauro Rostagno, another former member of Lotta Continua, was murdered in 1988, in a case that has never been officially solved despite the fact that several Mafia turncoats have testified that the mob was behind the killing. Originally from the north of Italy, Rostagno had moved to Sicily in the 1980s, working as a journalist and commentator for an independent left-wing television station he had helped to found. His nearly nightly critiques of the local power alliances between the Mafia, business interests, and government quickly won him the enmity of local chieftains. Curiously, there was a blackout on the night of his murder. Eight years later, it was discovered that Vincenzo Mastrantonio, technician and manager of the local chapter of the national power-grid company Enel at the time of the murder, had been the most trusted driver of Mafia boss Vincenzo Virga. Mastrantonio himself was murdered eight months after Rostagno.

4 burglars of Boccadasse ... Genoa’s thieves: Boccadasse, where Livia resides, is a district of Genoa.

5 a tray full of ten-thousand-lire notes: In 1968, ten thousand lire was worth about sixteen U.S. dollars.

5 “lupara”: A sawed-off shotgun, traditionally the weapon of choice among mafiosi and bandits in Sicily. Modern times have witnessed the advent of more sophisticated weaponry.

11 Paolo Villaggio’s immortal Fantozzi: Ugo Fantozzi is an obsequious, tough-luck character created for television and films by comic actor Paolo Villagio (born 1932).

15 “Eight hundred thousand lire a month”: About four hundred U.S. dollars. At the time of the novel’s writing (1999), one dollar equaled approximately two thousand lire.

16 “Duetto”: A classic model of the Alfa Romeo Spider of the early 1970s, popularized by Dustin Hoffinan in the film The Graduate.

19 “Madunnuzza santa!”: Blessed little Madonna (Sicilian dialect).

33 Via Crucis: The path traveled by Christ on his way up to Mount Calvary, while carrying the cross.

45 “three million ... two million”: About fifteen hundred and a thousand dollars, respectively, at the time of the novel’s writing.

46 Quasimodo: Poet Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-1968), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959, was a native Sicilian.

59 everyone ... was repenting about something: Montalbano has his own ongoing polemic against the phenomenon of Mafia turncoats and other criminals who turn state’s witness (called pentiti, or “repenters”) and are thereafter coddled and protected by the government. See, in particular, A. Camilleri, The Snack Thief.

73 “sfincione”: Also called sfinciuni in dialect, this is a thick-crust sort of pizza or focaccia originally from the Palermo area. It was traditionally served during the Christmas season among the poor folk as a way of presenting bread in a festive manner, with a variety of toppings. Versions differ all over Sicily, but typical toppings include chopped onions, tomatoes, black olives, anchovies, eggplant, caciocavallo cheese.

83 “vu cumpra”: Term used for African street peddlers in Italy, in whose accent the question Vuoi comprare (“Do you want to buy?”) comes out as vu cumpra.

88 four to five billion lire: Two to two and a half million dollars.

109 “Having faith is always best” ... “If you don’t sleep, you still can rest”: Montalbano is simultaneously mocking religion and the comforting adage for insomniacs: Il letto e una gran cosalSe non si dorme s‘arriposa (Of all things the bed is best / If you can’t sleep you still can rest), quoted in A. Camilleri, Voice of the Violin.

116 couldn’t bring himself to call them “repenters,” much less state’s witnesses: See note to page 59.

119 medical-service cards: In order to use the public healthcare system in Italy, one must present a government-issued medical card.

119 “certificate of living existence”: Certificato di esistenza in vita, in Italian. This bureaucratic oddity was created, among other reasons, to prevent retirement pensions from being paid out to people who are dead.

123 “the ROS”: The Reperto Operativo Speciale, an elite unit of the carabinieri, the national police force.

128 “I’ve got a heart like a lion and another like a donkey”: This is the literal translation of a Sicilian expression that means, more or less, “I’m of two minds” or “I’m torn.” Montalbano here purposely uses a Sicilian idiom to confuse the commissioner, who he knows will not understand it.

132 It was as if they were at Pontida: On April 7, 1167, the Lombard League, a federation of North Italian communes in the province of Lombardy (Brescia, Bergamo, Cremona, Mantua, and later Milan), was founded at the Convent of Pontida to fight the hegemonic designs of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa across the region. The solemn Oath of Pontida, taken on this occasion, has been grotesquely re-created in our time by the right-wing separatist, anti-immigrant party of Umberto Bossi, originally also called the Lombard League, now renamed the Northern League, which re-enacts the oath annually.

134 “Pisello districk” ... Fava district: Pisello means pea and fava is fava bean, hence Catarella’s confusion.

138 goat-tying: My rendering of the Sicilian verb incaprettare (containing the word for goat, capra), which refers to a particularly cruel method of execution used by the Mafia. Lying facedown, the victim has a rope looped around his neck and then tied to his feet, which are raised behind his back, as in hog-tying. Fatigue eventually forces him to lower his feet, strangling him in the process.

146 “These words content me much”: Henry VI, Part II, act 3, scene 2.

183 “Beddra Matre santissima!”: Most holy beautiful Mother (Sicilian dialect).

186 “passbook with the post office”: In Italy one can conduct a variety of transactions with the postal service, including banking.