Sarah Day

San Domino

I visited San Domino - the former prison island where much of Mussolini’s Island is based - relatively late in the writing process. In fact, I already had a publishing contract by the time I made the trip. Many of the notes from my editor had pointed to the fact that, whilst the scenes in Catania were vivid, there was less sense of place in San Domino. I don’t think she knew I had never been, but editors are clever like that - somehow, the difference between the two locations was very clear in the writing of them.

I panicked a little when I worked this out - I had just a few months left to knock the book into shape, and San Domino isn’t the most straight forward of places to get to. But it turned out to be easier than I had expected - with some googling and exploring of Italian train timetables, I had a trip planned within a couple of weeks. It’s not often you have to sheepishly explain to your boss that you need to take a few days off at short notice for an emergency trip to the Adriatic. (Thanks again Nic.)

London - Pescara - Termoli - San Domino

My suggestion, for those wishing to take the scenic route, is a flight to Pescara (a very touristy seaside city which looked like a slightly stressful place to take a holiday!) then a train to Termoli (a beautiful, very tiny seaside town which is worth a visit, though you probably wouldn’t find much to do for more than a few days), then a ferry across to San Domino. There’s an easier option involving a helicopter which I’m told is a much more sensible option, but it didn’t feel particularly authentic for my purposes!

It is indescribably weird to see a place you’ve spent several years imagining - I sat on the top deck of a little boat from Termoli taking endless pictures as the tiny blur on the horizon slowly turned into a blob and then the discernible shape of an island, whilst everyone around me looked distinctly uninterested.

(You can read more about how visiting San Domino affected the book on Isabel Costello’s Literary Sofa blog here.)

The prison - attempt one

My first goal was to try and track down the building in which the men were housed - and locked into at night. My research suggested there were two dormitories, one of which had been converted into a hotel, and the other of which was still intact as well. I wandered around a lot in what I thought was roughly the right area, and found various outbuildings and other constructions which turned out to be false alarms…

I decided to chalk this one up to experience - after all, it wasn’t all that important to find exactly the right building. Still, it was frustrating, given I knew it had to be here somewhere! As for the hotel, I could get no further than the fact that there were only about 4 hotels on the island - at least I knew it was one of them!

None of these buildings are the building you’re looking for…

Living memory

Something had been hanging over me since I decided to make the trip to San Domino - an article I had read about the island’s history indicated that there were still some life long residents on the island who had been alive during the time the island was used as a prison under fascism - and they had shared their memories of that time with journalists. Was I brave enough to try to track them down?

I had pretty much decided I wasn’t - after all, i was here to get a sense of place, not to research more historical facts, given the book was nearly finished and ready to go. But at the same time, I was here for such a short time, and it had been something of a faff to get here at all - it seemed like a waste not to at least try.

I started by asking a waitress at dinner - seemed like as good an option as any - who immediately recognised one of the names, Attilio Carducci. In fact, she attempted to take me to his house on the spot, which, given his age and the fact we had never met/he wasn’t expecting me/it was 10 o’clock at night, seemed a little rude. Somewhat to my relief, he didn’t answer the door…

I tried again at another restaurant the next day, during lunch. Language in general was a problem - I don’t speak Italian and unlike many parts of Italy, it was rare to find an english speaker on San Domino. I thought the waiter had understood me, but I was a bit confused as to why he took me to a balcony above his restaurant and…left me there.

Eventually I decided the balcony thing had been a misunderstanding so I left, took a deep breath and knocked on Attilio’s door.

Attilio Carducci

Attilio was surprisingly cool about a stranger who couldn’t speak Italian knocking on his door (I found out later than there was a film crew on the island and he thought I was involved somehow, which might partially explain things…) We had a very jolly time laughing about how we couldn’t talk to each other, and wandering around the island trying to find someone who could help us communicate