The earthquake began on a dark, cold night, between January 14th and January 15th, 1968. The fury of the earthquake demolished 14 towns in the Belice Valley, causing 370 deaths, thousands of wounded and leaving approximately 70-thousand people homeless. The ruins of the city of Montevago have been irrigated by the tears of the survivors. Today, some ruins remain standing, exposing their devastated viscera to the viewer’s gaze. Here memory is linked to new life. Yes, the presence of new life in the one-hundred pine trees in the city’s main square that have been planted to remember the victims of this tragedy. The long trunks of the trees reach towards the sky, while their roots are anchored deep inside the soil. Almost as if to remind the sky that, here on this land, life goes on.
