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1968: Famed for its natural beauty and rich history, Sardinia in 1968 is notorious, too…
The Last Concerto
What you need to know before your trail
Famed for its natural beauty and rich history, Sardinia in 1968 is notorious, too, for the bandits who kidnap wealthy landowners for ransom. Eleven-year-old Alba Fresu’s brother, and her father, Bruno, are abducted by criminals who mistake Bruno for a rich man. After a grueling journey through the countryside, the two are eventually released – but the experience leaves Alba shaken and unable to readjust to normal life, or to give voice to her inner turmoil.
Accompanying her mother to cleaning jobs, Alba visits the villa of an eccentric Signora and touches the keys of a piano for the first time. The instrument’s spell is immediate. During secret lessons, forbidden by her mother, Alba is at last able to express emotions too powerful for words alone. Ignoring her parents’ insistence that she work in the family’s car dealership and marry a local boy, Alba accepts a scholarship to the Rome conservatoire. There she immerses herself in a vibrant world of art and a passionate affair.
But her path will lead her to a crossroads, and Alba will have to decide how to reconcile her talent with her longing for love and family, and convey the music of her heart
Locations
Reset- Italy - Sardinia
- A: Ozieri Cathedral
- B: Ozieri Caves
- C: Ozieri Theatre
- D: Lake Coghinas
- Italy - Veneto region
- H: Revine
Travel Guide
Ozieri, Sardinia
The story starts here and the countryside is luscious:
“The grasslands surrounding Ozieri were splattered yellow with blossom.”
Lake Coghinas
“She pictured the cottage behind her as she walked through the vines, down the hills towards the plains, across them, past the Nurragic towers onto Lake Coghinas, its glass surface urging her to step in.”
Rome and the Music Conservatoire:
This musically infused story is all about the all consuming passion for music, what it means, what it brings people, how it moves and unites. Alba has a remarkable talent which is awakened along with her desire to live and have music at the centre of her future. The descriptions of the musical hall, the concerts, the passion and pain of practice.
You can hear the music seeping from every page, the notes of hope, the staccato of pain and the lyrical writing takes readers from one crescendo to the next.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Last Concerto
Destination: Sardinia, Ozieri, Rome Author/guide: Sara Alexander Departure Time: 1968, 1975 onwards
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