«For almost a week his life was like that, he would get up, a cup of hot milk and then go to the tavern, all day.The snow had arrived early that winter and the quarries had been closed earlier than usual.There was very little to do there in Vinca in 1950. He was twenty years old and he was alone, he had always been a quarryman, first as a "whore" who would be a bit like the ship's crewman, and now as a "philist" who he is the one who cuts the blocks, but he was also a “tecchiaiolo”, hanging from a rope to clean the walls of the quarry from the unsafe boulders after the cuts so as not to let them fall on someone's head.After all, at the foot of the Apuan Alps either you did that or you were a farmer, but he didn't even have a meter of land.His men, who had been killed by those carrion of the Nazis and by the black brigades of Carrara in the roundup in August 1944, together with 141 other people from Vinci, had left him only that stone hut of a single room »."How did he manage to save himself?"He asked the little girl as they walked calmly along the beautiful paths of Palmaria.Grandpa had kept his promise.That morning they got up early, went by bus to the landing stage, from there they took the ferry to Portovenere and turned it far and wide.She - who came down from Milan to spend three weeks with her mother's father at the sea - had never been there and was literally enchanted by the beauty of that country, she did nothing but smile and jumped from one glimpse to another almost dancing, her grandfather told her that she looked like a blonde and disheveled butterfly, she jumped on him, risking to make him fall, and hugged him.They then sat down in an old tavern in the carugio and ate an excellent focaccia with anchovies, then took the boat to the island.They had crossed what remains of the portoro quarries and she asked why that beautiful island was reduced to that state.Then he had started to tell him the story of one of her friends, Ardito Menconi.“He was saved because he was fourteen, he was quick as a cat and he knew holes that not even foxes.Anyway, he was there at the tavern and here finally comes the guy he and the others were waiting for.He came from here, from the places where we are now, he knew that in Carrara they could not work for the snow and he was looking for quarrymen for the portoro quarries »."Is portoro like marble?"«I think it is the most beautiful marble there is, deep black, shiny, velvety, with golden veins that seem to have been painted by the best painter.The Etruscans and Romans already knew it;once they called it Giada di Portovenere then the French, when Napoleon arrived here at the beginning of the 19th century, they called it Porte d'or and hence the current name.It is in the most important churches, palaces and palaces.Now I believe there are yes and no two or three active quarries, between Portovenere and Le Grazie, but in the days of Ardito there were thirty of them, including those we saw a little while ago. ""So there was always a need for new quarrymen."“Exactly, and the owners knew where to find the best.So this guy comes up to Vinca, asks who wants to go to work in his quarries, but he makes six-month contracts, so they can't go home until late spring, except, if they feel like it, on Saturdays and Sundays that they don't. you work.A dozen go.They take their few things and leave.They go down to Monzone, from there they take the train to Aulla, change and arrive in Spezia, get on the tram and get off at Cadimare.From there, through paths through the woods on the hills, they reach Bondoni, the abandoned village that will host them. ""An abandoned country?"«Yes, no one lived there anymore, perhaps a family.All the others had gone down to live by the sea at Le Grazie, or in Spezia, more convenient. ""Can we go and see it?"“Not today really, maybe another time.And then you need a car, it's not that close ... "" But the quarrymen didn't have a car. "“But they had better legs than mine and a third of my years!Will you keep me going or not? ""Go Go.But what a bad temper you have… ”They stopped and glared at each other for a moment, then they laughed in unison, he tried to slap her wild hair but she was quick to pull away.Copyright © - 2022 - Publisher: Liguria News Srl - PI 01383400114Newspaper registered in the Press Register of the Court of La Spezia.RAA 59/04, Conc 5376, Reg. Sp 8/04.Advertising: commerciale@ligurianews.com