THE SEA AND
WINTER MAGIC unreal
Another Calabria 
Underwater Treasures in the winter sea
There is an entire literature
and there is at least one famous song of the sea in winter.
Place of desire (holiday) when it is summer, which almost
no one looks out of season. But this sea keeps a force without
limits and is quite exciting. In summer, everything seems
to assume, the coastal towns are overrun by tourists and holidaymakers,
the coast is taken by storm. In winter, the sea as a mantle
austere and solemn, an indigo peace and solitude. An indefinite
color, which is not gray, nor blue, nor purple. A color made
of a thousand colors, a thousand states of mind. And a thousand
expectations. The sea in winter is a suspension unreal, voluntary
alienation toward a meditation that is no reason. So dense
an absence of thought, sense of reality. No shadow imprinted
in the sand, just footsteps deep that the sea is quick to
delete. "The sweet taste of the sea, the sublime ecstasy
that every feeling is muted and the pace is mixed with joy."
These things they know very well and Alfina Mario, a young
couple who loves the sea. What they love especially deep sea.
Those of the seas of the South Seas, especially that surrounding
the Calabria, which retain an extraordinary fascination. Mario
and Alfina for some years have opened a dive center, not a
center but in a coastal village old Stilo to a few hundred
meters above sea level, in the middle hill. Diving Center
in Punta Stilo "Mario Alfina and spread the culture of
the sea. In their own way. "Who has known the deep sea
can not be like others". Starting from making it clear
to many who, out of curiosity, crossing the entrance to the
center, which every man has, after all, an unconscious desire
to return attribute in giving rise to life, or feels the need
to discover what was the mystery around him. "In the"
Sea "has focused much of the extraordinary added value
of the interlacement of nature, culture and art." And
'what we read on the first panel that introduces the new documentary
shows that the couple are ending up in the halls of the diving
center. Beautiful photographs taken at the bottom of the seas
Calabrians. A "Sea", yes, with "M" capitalized
like Mario and write Alfina. Sea of love. For the Diving Center
Punta Stilo is one of the axes on which to base a new and
stronger identity. Thanks to the treasures that our fund guard,
collaboration and commitment, we are drawing on paper of a
new underwater territorial geography, which is at the same
time, the rediscovery of a more ancient geography of historical,
cultural, territorial and environmental. Desire for freedom
and a spirit of adventure, have led, over twenty years ago,
Mario and Alfina, a decrease in the deep sea. And the adventure
the freedom of exploring a world that was and the surface
is absolutely unimaginable. But what matters is that the two
sub "hill" will soon have learned to communicate
to all discoveries and feelings. And not only through the
images in their special occasions. Slowly the two were and
are equipped school, are rescues and recoveries. With time
short, has proven very effective, their presence under water.
Mario and Alfina are like Korean women, they love to dive
even in winter. In the sea in winter made a thousand colors,
a thousand states of mind. Their dives become more unpredictable.
And here is also the beauty and fascination in most of the
seas that bathe the Calabria. Ionian and Tyrrhenian Sea, where
the two seas bottom keep secrets and colors that are revealed
in the eyes of Mario and Alfina, most of the others are always
ready to capture the smallest details. The seas of Calabria,
places of legendary stories and fantastic creatures that reign
in the depths. The exploratory curiosity of the two sub is
strong and every time you venture into the depths can always
discover new things. Pure instinct for the "depth"
that you can understand by following the track of some of
the legends and mythology. Mario and Alfina immediately recall
to mind the legend of Glaucus, son of Poseidon and Scylla,
the beautiful and gentle girl, who for the first time the
figure accompanied by nymphs and sirens, but, deceived by
the sorceress Circe, he began to turn into a sea monster ,
with six heads and twelve horrible and deformed legs. His
skin, before smooth and delicate as a petal of rose, began
to cover themselves for rough and shiny scales, and her voice,
sweet and melodious first became hoarse and. Scilla it realized
just to be become a monster, not the interest to despair and
cast into the sea. Glauco, according to legend, was born human,
practiced the business of a fisherman, his immortality and
the nature of divinity marine derived from a herb magic. His
body changed shape, becoming a form of tail fish on the bottom.
Became a triton of the sea, immortal and prophetic. On the
bottom he saw a house surrounded by a beautiful garden, full
of algae and corals, a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors, while
around you heard a gentle and attractive music. We went and
had his palace. Going under water is able to exert the same
influence that we find magic in the stories and legends of
the sea and perhaps this could explain the fascination that
attracts divers to experience diving. Jules Verne, the author
of Twenty Leagues Under the Sea, makes the brilliant Captain
Nemo, the protagonist of the novel: "... a few meters
below its level, the power of man ceases! You live, you live
in the womb of the sea, you are free! '.
Between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian
From "Secca del Ciccillo"
the "Fossa del Monaco"
the wonders of our fund
This time, diving in Mario and
Alfina, after proper planning, start at Soverato. Loads of
equipment and the changes upon loading their things on the
boat and a small jump with the legs are already in the raft.
Direction: the "dry Ciccillo. Abandoned the area, is
a magic moment, unique. "We are in another world, silence,
peace, the absence of weight. There seems to fly. E very beautiful
. Formed a small bay, who knows when for earthquake. A ditch
that descends to more than five hundred meters, as appellant
in the Ionian, but that surprises and unimaginable landscapes,
moon. Camouflaged to a twig, the couch grass of the sea, is
stuck with the tail a very rare species of seahorse, used
during the period of the Magna Greece for magic rituals. Here's
a crinoide, looks like a "tree that walks." Its
like you are all extinct millions of years ago. Not far from
the bay is the "Fossa del Monaco." Nearby the "horns
of elk, a very beautiful coral formation is very sensitive
and can not even touch. One can only admire, as a group adorns
the blackest gorges where his rise to polyps feed. E 'where
the fish live parrot, arrived a few years even in the Mediterranean
due to the overheating of the water. It seems that it is happy
with his new abode. To Mario and Alfina comes the moment of
"debriefing" for a collective analysis of mission-dive.
And take advantage to move into a tract to the south coast
jonica catanzarese. E 'forty-four one of the two routes that
carry out sub between the Ionian Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea and
the Straits. However, a route still virgin and unexplored.
He began diving in the "dry Vatro". Fly over the
prairies of Posidonia oceanica "in search of something,
is a fascinating experience. Two Stars serpentine "carry
out their games of love, the classic ritual prior to mating.
They seem great contortions and this feature has allowed them
to resist the time and current. But the surprises do not end.
Nestling on the seabed a torpedo. It seems very swollen, has
a belly full of eggs, in the process of to place her. Mario
and Alfina are careful not to get closer to "sensors"
that you see on the back of the "tremola". Able
to enact real electric shocks can do embossed also divers.
The depths of the heart of Magna Grecia to give surprises
behind surprises. Fortunately, not all divers who frequent
the seas from Calabria, in specific localities, have an eye
for noticing the underwater archaeological heritage, usually
well camouflaged, after millennia, with that place. But Alfina
and Mario, more than two decades ago, have begun to engage
in underwater archeology, and they arrived to make important
discoveries, reported to the competent ministry. But diving
in the area of the temple of the black Kaulon are always new.
The continuous and endless surprises. Among Rock of columns
and blocks of old docks are companies, the pair of diving,
sea urchins and Donzelle, which seem to shelter under a series
of Chinese parasols, a prairie of algae that, in fact "to
umbrellas." The urchins seem to want to recreate an atmosphere
typical of ancient Greece, when they were used to filter some
magic. And what about the Donzelle? The damsel is and then
the young are all female and only later become males. In the
background a sacrificial altar magnogreco. The program of
the holders of the Diving Center Punta Stilo are not under
the usual diving in the usual place. And so, left the Ionian
Sea, and Mario Alfina go to another sea, with other laws,
other forms of life and unique itineraries. And 'the Straits.
Before the charming village of Scilla. E 'a world of high
underwater biology, the one explored by divers and Mario Alfina,
and known under the name "Our Lady of Mercy. Here's the
killer algae ", much sought after by divers. Alfina Tassone
and Mario are the "official warning for Calabria"
they were the first to report the species, exactly ten years
ago, to the competent authorities and from there, the University
of Calabria sent in place of specialists to study the rare
settlements botanists. Beneath the waters of the Strait and
lives a strange lumpy snail, the sea cucumber. According to
an Asian belief still alive, the animal seems to have a miraculous
healing and aphrodisiac properties. Explorations of the underwater
Mario and Alfina culminating in an explosion of colors, including
arborescent colonies of colorful sea fans and a fan in the
midst of a veritable "forest" of spirografi, very
large and majestic, especially for the game of the currents.
The dive computer "of the two divers indicate that the
time available is finite, and gain the surface. "The
language is not enough to say and the hand writing all the
wonders of the sea."
Ancient myths and fervid fantasies
An explosion of colors between arborescent colonies
of gorgonians and spirografi
Published
on pages 1 
,
16
and 17
of the Newspaper of Sunday 8 February 2009 by Francesco Sorgiovanni
Writer
