On the quiet and sweet waters of Lake Iseo from time to time, between spring and summer, the «sarneghera» rages. It is violent storm of wind that shakes the Sebino ...

(other name for Lake Iseo) and the countries that surround it causing considerable damage and arousing fear. Over the centuries the story has been translated into legend. The event, with its dark shades in an apocalyptic scenery, is linked to the sad story of a beautiful girl from Montisola (a small island in Lake Iseo) betrothed to a nobleman of Franciacorta. That girl did not want to marry the wealthy young man and, helpless in front of her father, every day she went to Sensòle (a little village) in front of the lake to cry over her destiny.
One day the girl inadvertently slipped into the lake and was rescued by a fisherman from Sarnico, who had noticed the scene from his boat. The two began to secretly meet and fell in love, but when the father discovered their bond he locked the girl in the castle of Sensole and imprisoned the fisherman in a deep cave among the woods in the area. When the day of the marriage arranged by the family arrived, the father and the bridegroom decided to eliminate the fisherman by throwing him into the lake. The girl learned from a handmaid what had happened and, overcome by despair, took advantage of her father's inattention to throw herself into the lake and rejoin her love.
Even today, the two young people live in love at the bottom of the waters of Lake Iseo and when they are looking for each other, the «sarneghera» rages: on the lake the darkness falls and a strong wind rises uprooting trees and uncovering roofs, the waters are boiling, threatening the boats, hail and disruptive rains spill out of the sky that evoke the tears of the unfortunate girl. The violence of nature intertwine with the violence of the feelings of the two unhappy lovers. It is the revenge of the sky that, from Sarnico (from which sarneghera takes its name) falls on Montisola and on Franciacorta. (Felice d'Adamo)

© Italia Italy, 2018