The true story of Lando Vinicio Giusfredi and the four Ragazzi della Fortezza
Four yellow daffodils were the last thing young Vinicio saw before he died. The cruel spring is brimming with life.
Vinicio looks at them. He realises that the new is about to rise from the miseries of the old: four daffodils, four boys, four murders, four hopes cut short.
Emotion overwhelms him. He too, dripping with rain, will soon become dew. Lieutenant Jemolo’s voice summons the firing squad, and in the delirium of his final moments, his feelings blur whilst, at the same time, images crowd his mind, clear and vivid.
Life, his whole short life – the faces of Mum and Dad, Fedora’s lips, the runs through the fields and the laughter at dawn – like a speeding train, life flashes by in an unstoppable diorama.
Then the volley. The boys fall but are not mortally wounded. Other images race by in a frenzy and take his breath away.
A second volley. One of the young men gets back to his feet. He looks like a giant. He falls forward. On his knees,
the fascists shoot him in the head and body. Everyone falls to the ground, writhing. A burst of machine-gun fire from the front and behind. Fedora’s warm smile envelops Vinicio’s body.
Then, silence.
When
31 March 2017
10:30
Where
Fortezza Santa Barbara – Pistoia
