Over many years, we have enjoyed following Andrea Camilleri’s investigator Salvo Montalbano in the TV series of the same name. First with great effort and interpretation problems (many were without subtitles). But even with gaps in understanding, we liked the crime series so much that we watched everything we could find – with or without subtitles.
Inspector Montalbano has a big heart for those who are struggling, and little respect for authorities and the mafia. In order to solve the cases, great cleverness and the ability to balance between the necessary investigative steps and the limitations of those in power are needed.
The first episode based on the novels (don’t put too much emphasis on the word episode here, we’re talking about one and a half hour movies…) was broadcasted in 1999 with Luca Zingaretti in the leading role. It was an instant success, and a total of 36 films of varying lengths have been released. We have seen most of them, but we still haven’t been able to get hold of all, so the search continues!
At least one woman tries to seduce Montalbano in every episode, but for the most part he keeps his distance from all beautiful women, including his fiancée Livia, who lives in Genoa, 1,400 km away. Many of the approaches take place in the house (bed), on the terrace or in the bay outside. He lives in an iconic house located in Punta Secca in the south-west of Sicily.
The Montalbano House has now (2024) become somewhat of a pilgrimage destination, and for Badebadebade a natural place to visit – since Montalbano in the TV series swims both often and long.
In Camilleri’s books, much of the action takes place in fictional cities in and around his hometown of Agrigento, but in the TV series, many of the recordings are made in and around the cities of Ragusa and Scicli as well as Punta Secca. There are long lists of locations – everyone wants a hand into the tourist industry that has arisen in the series’ wake.
The scenes in the town hall in Scicli still exist and can be visited for a small fee. The police chief’s office on the floor above is used as a ceremony room, with the same interior as in the films.
Scicli. If you are thinking: Indeed, there are only a few letters that separate the town name Scicli and the island name Sicilia, then you are absolutely right. Both names arrive from the Sicelene, an Indo-European people who lived in Sicily before Greek colonization began around 700 BC. In 1693, the southwestern part of Sicily was hit by a severe earthquake, and many of the towns were completely destroyed. The reconstruction in the 18th century was done in Baroque style, and with building material of light Sicilian sandstone, these UNESCO cities are wonderful places to visit – and also widely used as film sets.
What was the Montalbano bath like? We had rented the apartment on the ground floor (the first floor is a B&B and was not available to us, nor was the top floor). The house and apartment were nice, some wooden details around the windows and doors are painted white now, not brown as in the series. The access to the sea is as you see in the movies, the lower terrace actually touches the sand. So it was just a matter of strolling down to the sea. The water was a little shallow close to the house, but if you walk a few meters to the side before entering, it’s sand almost all the way. Awesome! We had been strongly warned: The sand is not as nice and golden as in the film, it is too shallow, the water is grey due to sea grass etc. With low expectations, we were happily surprised! We found the beach nice, great for swimming and the water clear.
Living on the ground floor of the Montalbano House is what it is: Living in a pilgrimage destination. There is a steady stream of people coming close up to the terrace taking pictures, they knock on the door and try to look in, absolutely all the time. And by that we mean all the time, now you know.
