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Corbaro Park, between nature and magic

Two stories that cross, that one of Max and Nino, driven by the same desire to catch their time, their spaces, and their desire to decide their own lives. On the wave of a synchronous inner change, they decide to say good-bye to their old life, made of noise, chaos, and horns that sound like crazy and devote themselves to nature; a therapeutic way to dedicate themselves to autonomy, independence, freedom, without deadlines and without bosses.

Massimo de Michele is a desiner in Naples who works in the furniture sector, a job that is not satisfied with satisfaction, but with relentless rhythms, rhythms that no longer satisfy his needs; he wants to be quiet and to give his time a different cadence. The choice that will change his life is the result of an inner metamorphosis that will take him to Corbaro, a handkerchief in the Forio municipality. At only one hour and twenty by ferry there is Gaetano Cotugno who lives in his kingdom: the kitchen. He loves his work but does not feel it his own; the kitchen seems to him a box from which he sees his time, days, seasons, as in a sort of hellish automation. It is like watching TV where the scene is always the same. Max and Nino want to twist their lives and the fate put them on the same path. The first time they go to the place that will become Corbaro Park, they seem to be in the presence of an old, knackered and crumbling woman...

This story seems unrealistic if listened to the farmhouse square that has now assumed the features of an agrarian paradise. Overlooking the sea, in the presence of rocky rockets that release steam – witnesses of the uninterrupted volcano activity - the thrill of plants of rare beauty and the scent of mysterious fragrances infuse harmony, serenity, a cozy place just like Nino And Max wanted it to be. There is no price to enjoy the delicious dishes prepared by chef Nino, made with the products of their garden and packed with so much imagination, sheltered by the shadowy ‘pagliarella’, overlooking the Citara Bay, which falls under the eyes of the guests. In this atmosphere, everything is better: salami that melt in the mouth, creamy cheeses and genuine bread. Everything here becomes a mystical experience mixed with the magic scents that change in the seasons, a profusion of flowers, mixed with the smell of goat acres. Just so, goats are the protagonists of this surreal film, 35 of them belonging to an ancient breed: the Mediterranean Red.

Raising a flock of goats is not easy; you have to understand their needs, their rhythms and sometimes their mood. In Corbaro sterile numbers does not distinguish goats but have a name, an identity. When it is time for milking, Max and Nino call the cute little goats by name, and they almost seem to be in line waiting to be milked. Nancy, Cecilia, Rosa are the most charismatic, while Ilaria is the most fickle, just like a real diva.
The milk just moistened is brought to the kitchen, this time it is not a cage from which to escape, but a cozy laboratory with a small window on a wonderful view of the gulf. It is precisely here that Nino and Max prepare their cheeses; observe them while molding milk to become all they want seems almost a magic ritual. Milk is a living substance and it almost seems to feel its breath reaching the right temperature to activate the flora and start the cheese making process. Meanwhile, when the milk warms on mysterious fragrances, milk is a distillate of the essences and aromatic herbs that have colonized this place.
Once the time has come to break the curd, Nino and Max are working on purely handmade cheese making; the ways to produce them are as many as are the types of cheese: soft dough like formagelle, hard pasta as Primo sale, caciottine. From the advanced serum produces a spectacular ricotta in fuscella. Delicious: ricotta cheese, tomato aromatized, cacio-ricotta, but the real goodies is chèvre yogurt.
From the window that turns into the small kitchen, you hear the bells ringing that the goats are ready to go pasture. The goats are privileged to graze in a chestnut tree at 400 m in height at Santa Maria al Monte, the noise of the bells, the woods, the mossy smell give the idea of ​​a Gothic scenery, a magical place like everything else. Corbaro Park is a place out of time and space where love and tranquility rule over everything, a special place that reminds us that the island is not only made of spa and cement, but also of mysterious colors and fragrances. A magical place where nature becomes milk to drink, food to eat and scents to breathe, a spell that can exist - according to the noble thought of Max and Nino - only if shared with all of us ...

 By Roberta Raja