If you have not been introduced to the greatest ever Sicilian crime writer, let me do the honors.
Andrea Camilleri was born in the southern Sicilian coastal town of Porto Empedocle. When he died six months ago at age 93, he was still writing. During his life, he was a screenwriter, stage and film director, and professor film direction. His first novels, published when he was 43 and 45, received little notice.
Then, twelve years later, he wrote a best-seller called La Stagione della Caccia (The Hunting Season), which he followed up with the first of his Commissario Salvo Montalbano mysteries.
After that, according to Camilleri, Montalbano would not leave him alone.
He had to write a Montalbano story every once in a while or Montalbano would hound him until he did. I fully understand this. I don't like to be away from Montalbano for very long myself.
Fortunately for those addicted like me, RAI - the national television company of Italy, has produced a series based on Camilleri's stories, where the Commissario of the fictional town of Vigàta is played by Luca Zinagaretti.
Zingaretti has the acting chops needed to portray the complex Montalbano, giving him both the sense of humor and the relentlessness of Camilleri's creation. I love even the opening credits of the shows - a helicopter ride over my beautiful ancestral part of Sicily.
On TV, the fictional setting, based on Camilleri's native town, is played - largely - by the South Eastern Sicilian city of Ragusa, which I visited on this trip. One of the characters in my WIP goes there, and after writing those scenes from memory, I wanted go back to check out the details. I found myself in the both the historic setting of my story and in Montalbanoland. What fun!.
With the Commissario in the picture:
My shots:
