Vincenzo Gallo was born on August 30, 1951 in the small town of Monsoreto, which covers an area of about 45 km ² on a plateau between the province of Vibo Valentia and the south of Reggio Calabria.

It was founded between 1859 and 1862 by Paolano Scarano, poet and lawyer.

Over the years, due to the economic crisis, most of the inhabitants had to move abroad to look for work, and since that time the village continues to be populated by emigrants who return in summer to spend their vacations in the company of parents or relatives and to attend the feast of San Rocco, which is usually celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of August.

We are in 1934 and Assunta Gallo marries Vito Cirillo, but their time together does not last long. Vito is deployed to war and sent to fight for his country on the battlefields in Africa. Certain that her young husband will return safe and sound from that war destined to end, Assunta waits for him without ever losing hope But the years go by and Vito will never meet his son, Rocco, with whom Assunta was pregnant at the time of his departure. Without ever really resigning herself to his loss, the young woman continues to cherish her best years with Vito; however, he remains only a memory.

Seventeen years eventually passed and Assunta, who had always refused the advances of anyone, falls in love with a local building contractor, Antonio Campisi and from their love Vincenzo and Franco are born. Both proudly carry their mother's surname without ever accepting to carry their father's, respecting to the end the choice of that woman who suffered so much from loneliness, for the love of an unfaithful man and of the distance of her eldest son, who had in the meantime moved to Canada.

Just when Rocco was preparing all the necessary documents to bring his mother and his brothers with him, as if life wasn't harsh enough, an atrocious disease, still unknown at that time and untreatable, will take her away too soon, leaving seven-year-old Vincenzo and four-year-old Franco at the mercy of an uncertain future. But that barbaric fate which for years had ventured on their mother without pity also ventures on them. Vincenzo and Franco, with no one to take care of them, are taken to an orphanage in a village above Tropea. The rules are strict and life is hard, but Vincenzo is consoled by a few things: Franco's hand that is fortunately there with him, the sea that he can glimpse from the windows of the Institute, and Giuseppe Crispo, his mother's cousin, who often visits them and every summer takes them to Monsoreto with him.

Vincenzo looks forward to that return to the village with great anticipation, but then every time he returns there, the melancholy is always felt. The church dominates the square of the village, which during that season is full of tourists, and for Vincenzo the past comes immediately to mind inevitably accompanied with a pang in the stomach: his mother at the river with the other women to wash clothes and him throwing stones just to see them angry for the dirty water. He seems to find his mother in every corner, but all that is left of her are a few remains in a mass grave. The summer passes quickly and the return to the institute is always bad, but it becomes even worse when Vincenzo and Franco are split up and taken to two different institutes. From that moment on Vincenzo grits his teeth with one goal in mind: to do whatever it takes to reunite his family.

It's August 15, 1966 and within a few days Vincenzo will turn sixteen years old, and he finds himself traveling to that distant land that scares him so much. He would never have wanted to leave, abandoning his home was not in his plans, but Rocco had decided for him, and he had no choice but to obey. He spends the hours of the trip deeply sad over what he had left behind and with fear of what awaits him. In Canada, his brother, his pregnant wife and ten nephews are waiting for him. Carving out his own space is, to say the least, impossible and Vincenzo suffers more and more every day from the sadness of being far from home. He starts working, and his fears become reality: "Damned Italian, go back home!" is the only thing he hears.

His heart, already full of pain, gets tighter every day. In the community, respect among all and for all was one of the fundamental rules. Over the years, he had never gauged himself against human wickedness. Society, in this new unknown and incomprehensible world, scares him and Vincenzo feels small. He grits his teeth and makes room for himself among the people who do not appreciate him and love him without ever getting discouraged, promising himself to always carry on the honest values passed on by his mother, as his only legacy. The years go by and Vincenzo has no peace. He can't understand why Christmas is always so empty and melancholic for him. He feels that he cannot live his life to the fullest but his young age and blurred memories don't allow him to understand why.

In the meantime, he begins to understand that incomprehensible language and, timidly, even to speak it. Little Vincenzo, by now a man, begins to make room for himself in that world no longer so unknown. He becomes aware of himself, and after a few years he gets married, but he does not forget his origins. As an homage to his homeland, he opens a restaurant with typical Italian cuisine. The place does not move him, but even so he knows that it is the right choice to carry on those flavors and traditions that he is afraid to lose and forget. After ten years of marriage with a daughter and a restaurant, Vincenzo and his wife divorce. The void which had never left him now becomes a chasm. He closed his business and moved from the East to the West of Canada, the mild climate reminding him so much of his homeland. It is strange how such a great and courageous man can feel extremely small and helpless.

Two years go by and something unexpected happens in Vincenzo's life: while he is preparing the dining room of the restaurant, where he works, for a wedding, he meets MJ. He looks at her, and it is as if he has known her forever. He offers to help her decorate the room and taking her by the hand introduces himself as her partner. From then on MJ will become his partner, and the young man from Calabria is reborn. He looks at her as he has never looked at anyone before. She is so similar to his mother that she almost frightens him.

Two daughters are born from their love, and he is finally grateful for life as perhaps he never was. It is 2012. Vincenzo, holding the hand of his MJ, returns to the country. His heart beats fast and his hands tremble. He stops at the first open florist, buys the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, and while the fireworks in the square celebrate the patron saint, Vincenzo, excited as ever, goes to her, to his mother who, after the help of Biagio Crispo, son of Giuseppe Crispo, has a burial niche like all the others. He delicately lays down the flowers and with a short breath looks at that small marble slab that contains the remains of his mother, his childhood and a large part of his heart. And he realizes why Christmas has always been so melancholy for him: his mom died on December twenty-third, a few days before Christmas.

Probably Vincenzo, in that brief but intense visit, was reborn. There in the presence of his mother, he left the fears that had tormented him for a lifetime. He takes MJ by the hand, and they sit down at the bar in the square. Vincenzo looks around sipping something fresh. The smell of peppers and fried potatoes invade his nostrils, and he thinks about how much that smell has always brought him closer to this land. There is no smell more than that which reminds him of it.

He was concerned that his feelings for his homeland had faded, but instead he is more and more convinced that it is precisely in that place that he would like to grow old, even if perhaps it will never come true and will remain only a dream. Vincenzo is no longer afraid and dreaming makes him free.

He no longer has his mother and neither does Rocco, but he has his Earth that will always be ready to give answers to his questions, relief to his torments and unconditional love. Kissing his Monsoreto is the only thing he wants to do, even if only for once, convinced that that kiss will reach her too.

(Text written by Maria Maiolo)