Camilleri, Rosso and the real Vigàta

Agrigento, June 26, 2025, 6:30 p.m., the west breeze rustles the olive trees of the Bishop's Garden just as Lorenzo Rosso opens his notebook of stories. The time of a breath, and this green space, once reserved for the Redemptorist Fathers, today the beating heart of the Diocesan Museum of Agrigento , is transformed into the literary "piazza" of Vigàta.

As director of VGS Libri , I confess that sharing My Vigàta in this place has the flavor of a small editorial miracle. An enchanted corner, where the phrase by Camilleri that we all repeat to ourselves seemed to resonate in the air: «Vigàta is a town, partly true, of the most invented Sicily».

In conversation with the journalist Marilisa Della Monica , Rosso intertwined anecdotes and glimpses of Porto Empedocle with the gentle irony of the Maestro. The result was an emotional map in which the paper Vigàta becomes a compass to read the real city right in the year of the Camillerian Centenary .

To close the meeting, an aperitif in perfect island style: hot rotisserie and glasses of fragrant white served under the lights of the cloister. A coincidence? While we were tasting, less than a kilometer away the Teatro Pirandello was hosting the 78th National Congress of Assoenologi . The Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida reminded us that "wine is part of our identity, culture and economy". We, with a sip of wine, silently agreed with him.

In a single postcard: a reborn garden, a book that makes you travel, a glass that tells the story of the winemakers' hard work and beauty

Those who were not there can still bridge the gap: My Vigàta is already in bookstores. Take it with you, perhaps to this or other gardens, to discover that the imagined places really exist.

A heartfelt thanks to the Agrigento Provincial Secretariat of the Sicilian Press Association , and the joint union of journalists who, in collaboration with the Diocesan Museum and the Catholic weekly L'Amico del Popolo , made this special meeting possible in the suggestive.

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