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Marche People & Land
By Dante Ferretti
Edited By Virginia Ponciroli
October 2007
Mondadori Electa, Milan, Italy
Distributed By Trans-Atlantic Publications
9788837054632
248 Pages, Illustrated, 10 x 11 1/4"
$75.00 Hardcover
Reflecting on my childhood and adolescence spent in the Marche, in Macerata, where I was born, the first and most vivid memory that comes to mind is the desire I had to travel beyond the region's boundaries, which seemed so cramped, an urge to go further, to get out. I believe it was a need inevitably bound up with the years of youth, the irrepressible desire to discover what lies beyond the limits of one's own world.
Today I recognize my determination to get ahead without ever giving in, without compromising - yet always seeking to use my own abilities - this inclination to look at what lies beyond one's horizon, as the distinctive trait of the Marchigiano character. Tenacity always accompanied by intellectual honesty.
Over the years I have come to realize that this land is truly rooted in myself; the landscape of the Marche, laid out as beautifully as a garden, the sea at Porto Civitanova where I spent my vacations in childhood, seemed to be carved within me. I have travelled the world bearing within me the colors, perfumes and scenery of my region; the Marche are an inner landscape. In this way I have discovered that the nature of the place is truly closely bound up with the soul. So I inevitably feel that tender yearning, a longing and nostalgia that bring me back, whenever I can, to the places where I was born and grew up.
Whenever I arrive at Colfiorito from Rome and descend towards
Toletino, I rediscover a landscape that has certainly changed, but which
I recognize as a familiar face, filled with extraordinary poetry. Then the
natural landscape disappears and gives way to a representation of an inner
landscape: no longer tilled fields, villages, fortresses, and the sea, but
nostalgia, emotion, and excitement.
-Dante Ferretti
