Iddu
Winter – Stromboli – There are just over 300 inhabitants on the island, or at least they should. Many of them, mainly mothers and children, had gone to follow the studies in Messina or Lipari – the schools here do not go beyond the third grade – and they come home for holidays or weekends.
People do not land at Stromboli, they have been cast away there. They come from all over the globe, from Australia, the United States, France, Germany, because of an ended love story, to not disappear in a metropolis, or to feel less alone or isolated.
Living here requires courage and spirit of adaptation. The water is ransomed, brought by a ship in the morning. People used to warm up with wood-burning stove. There is no hospital, the closest one is in Messina, twenty minutes away by helicopter. The wind, the sea and the volcano significantly affect islanders’ lives. Nevertheless, when you arrive at Stromboli, you can guess what drives people to stay here, what it means to be an islander, to feel an individual: the atmosphere is surreal, the silent deafening.
