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I Racconti di Azzurrina by Daniela Conti

Literary Feature

“I Racconti di Azzurrina”

Daniela Conti

It is an illustrated book available in either black-and-white or full color. This work is included in the cultural project “100 Author Books,” curated by Gioia Lomasti and Emanuele Marcuccio.

I Racconti di Azzurrina (The Tales of Azzurrina) is inspired by the famous Romagna legend of Guendalina, known as Azzurrina, the little girl of Montebello Castle who mysteriously disappeared in the castle’s icehouse during the Middle Ages while chasing a small ball made of rags.

According to the legend, the little girl—or rather, her ghost—is still present and appears at certain moments and to particularly sensitive people.

In the book, the gentle little girl tells her own story, suspended between the past and the present. These are stories suitable for everyone, created to convey tenderness, poetry, and love.

Guendalina, known as Azzurrina, is the central character of an ancient and famous legend from Romagna, set in Montebello Castle in Torriana during the Late Middle Ages.

According to the legend, she was an albino child and was therefore regarded at the time as a “child of the devil,” an ill-fated or unnatural child. Her parents kept her hidden from the world, perhaps out of fear or shame.

It is also said that, on a stormy night, the little girl mysteriously disappeared into the deep icehouse of the castle while she was chasing her little ball of rags.

What is known is that, centuries later, Guendalina’s voice has remained suspended in the still air of Montebello. It is said to echo through the rooms, along the guards’ walkway, and farther down toward the green valley of the Marecchia River.

Montebello is the place of my heart. Its castle lives and breathes, and with it, Azzurrina.

More than once, I have felt as though I could hear her laughing among the drafts passing through the walls, and then speaking, playing, and singing. I have seen her running, caressing the creatures of the forest in the light morning air and through the darkness of long winter nights, mingling with today’s tourists and their children.

These stories were born in this way: beneath the great tree in the castle courtyard.

They are gentle stories, and every word seeks to evoke that Azure world that I feel so close to me. They are stories that wish to convey tenderness, poetry, and love—the infinite love I feel for Montebello and its little girl.

About Daniela Conti

Daniela Conti, from Milan, holds a degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures. She is involved in writing, particularly in relation to developmental disorders and characteristics of childhood and adolescence, including selective mutism and specific learning disorders (SLD).

She currently represents her municipality within the Milan North-East Library System.

She has published several books and contributed to projects addressing childhood, learning difficulties, and selective mutism.

She was the editor of the collective volume “I Quaderni. Dal silenzio il canto: storie di mutismo selettivo” (The Notebooks: From Silence, Song — Stories of Selective Mutism, 2015).

Her other works include “Piccole storie di dislessia” (Little Stories of Dyslexia), a collection of moving stories featuring children, young people, parents, and teachers confronting specific learning disorders (SLD).

She also wrote “Ti hanno mangiato la lingua?” (Did They Eat Your Tongue?), a diary-book telling a mother’s journey toward accepting her daughter’s selective mutism. The volume includes a story written by a child with selective mutism and a letter addressed to her teachers.

Another work, “La fragolina di Nicholas” (Nicholas’s Little Strawberry), is an illustrated story designed to help children understand selective mutism and discover the superpowers that each of us possesses.

From the Book to the Stage

The book I Racconti di Azzurrina has also inspired a theatrical recital of the same title by Priscilla Casadei, a singer from Romagna.

The recital combines music, songs, piano, violin, dance, and dramatic interpretation, bringing the world of Azzurrina from the pages of the book into a live artistic performance.

Vetrina delle Emozioni
Wednesday, August 12, 2026