CAKE THE LEGEND CRISTALDA AND PIZZOMUNNO
The legend Cristalda and Pizzomunno. In ancient times the population of Vieste was mostly composed of fishermen, who lived in huts on the edge of the sea to facilitate the transport of fish from their boats. Among these fishermen, stood out for its strength, beauty and vigor, the young Pizzomunno. All the girls of the village had eyes and attention only for him.
Tall, handsome, good-natured, he was not enticed by the courtship of his peers. His heart was only for the sea, which he ploughed every day with his boat, and for Cristalda, the most beautiful of the village: her hair was as blond as the sun, her skin the color of roses and her eyes the color of the sea.
Even the girl's heart was only for him. A feeling in all and for all reciprocated, pure. The two were seen holding each other and love on the seashore every evening. When Pizzomunno returned with his boat, the young girl was already there waiting for him.
An indissoluble love that aroused envy in the girls of the village ... and not only.
During his fishing trips, in fact, Pizzomunno had to face other dangers in addition to the force of the sea and its capricious waves. Every day, bewitched by his beauty, a group of mermaids tried to entice Pizzomunno with their songs, promising to become his servants, to give him eternal life, to make him the king of their magical kingdom. But the love that bound the young man to Cristalda was so strong as to resist the snares of the sirens and always return home safe and sound. His passion for the girl was so powerful to make vain the efforts of those enchantresses, making him deaf to their song bewitching, blind and indifferent to the beauty of their naked bodies, which generously showed him in the waves, to flatter him, provoke him, take him forever. To their temptations Pizzomunno answered that his love for Cristalda could not end, not even after their death.
When he was sitting on the beach embracing Cristalda, looking out to sea during the calm summer nights, just to hear the song of the sirens in the distance, Pizzomunno laughed, pity them. But the anger of a mermaid can not be pitied, you can only fear.
Refused, feeling that the presumptuous Pizzomunno always frustrated their efforts to entice him, the sirens decided that his affront, and love so pure, should be punished. Resolute disdainful, after having consulted, they devised a terrible revenge to put an end to the love between the two lovers forever.
One night that seemed to be like any other, the two lovers were embracing on the seashore watching the stars, unaware of the danger that was about to hit them. The sirens approached the two lovers and, with a flick of the wrist, ripped the beautiful Cristalda from his arms, chaining her and dragging her with them to the bottom of the sea.
In vain Pizzomunno launched himself in pursuit of the sirens, but worry and fatigue gradually drained his strength. The desperation for having lost Cristalda assailed him and in the end he was petrified... blocked, inanimate... transformed forever in that imposing stack in front of the beach of Vieste. At the sight of her beloved in a huge motionless rock, Cristalda, chained and heartbroken, began to cry and some say that she was transformed into a pink coral, from the top of which came tears and laments.
The sudden transformation of the young man and the desperate cry of Cristalda deeply affected the sirens, who realized the pain they had caused and took pity on the strength of such a love. Although they had managed to separate them, everything on that beach was imbued with that strength, from the sea to the beach everything continued to speak of them. So the sirens allowed them to embrace again, but only for one night, every hundred years.
Since then, every hundred years, and for one night only, Pizzomunno returns human and Cristalda re-emerges from the depths of the sea, so they can re-embrace and love each other on their beloved beach.
If passing by that beach on the night of August 15th (they say) it seems to you that Pizzomunno is not where he should be, then it means that it is a night of love, compassion and passion; a special night in which the two reunited lovers clasp each other, knowing that at dawn they will return to be separated for another hundred years.
This legend, which will be sung by Max Gazzè during the sixty-eighth edition of the Sanremo Festival, contains a less known variant. It is said that Cristalda was also a mermaid and that her love, reciprocated by the beautiful Pizzomunno, caused the envy and disdain of the sisters, who, jealous of the fortune of their love, transformed the young man into a rock, allowing the two to reunite only for one night every hundred years. The stacks of Pizzomunno is also linked to another peculiarity: it is said that turning around the rock and expressing a desire, this comes true.
This story gives us the opportunity to congratulate Max Gazzè, his brother Francesco and the well-known author Francesco De Benedettis (co-authors of the lyrics of the song), and appreciate their attempt to bring on the most famous stage of the Italian song a story linked to tradition, love, territory, but above all, to a village.