"But do you believe in ghosts?" ... who hasn't heard this question asked at least once in their life. All - or almost - usually respond by resorting to the most absolute rationality, in fact denying the existence of ectoplasms and the like and by being superiors. Except then experience sudden chills at every creak or unexpected noise if we find ourselves in an old house or worse still in a manor.
So let's face it: however skeptical we may be, ghosts fascinate and frighten us, attract us and repel us at the same time. And, although they represent our deepest fear, we cannot take our eyes off the great darkness that hides them.
A darkness that becomes even more dense in the fifty locations presented in a perfect book for Halloween night: "Atlas of haunted places" (Bompiani, 2021, pp. 160) written by Giulio D'Antona and enriched by the illustrations by “thrill ”By Daria Petrilli.
As the title already implies, the volume collects some of the scariest places on the planet and tells the cursed stories that haunt them. From the United Kingdom, which boasts the numerical record in terms of infestations, to the most remote locations in Africa and Asia and as far as Antarctica, we explore old castles, forests, portions of desert, cemeteries, abandoned villages, ancient bridges in the jungle , very modern buildings. An exploration that always has a hidden hope combined with fear: coming face to face with a ghost. Hope and fear that surely also accompanied Giulio D'Antona to whom we ask how the idea of such a particular atlas was born:
“Ever since I was a child I have always been fascinated (terrified, actually) by the idea of ghosts and haunted places. To indulge this passion of mine, or perhaps to try to exorcise my fear, I deepened the subject with every means at my disposal: reading, looking for and visiting haunted places. What I missed was a means of consulting and cataloging the places populated by ghosts. That's why an atlas ”.
What is a haunted place?
“In summary, it is a place where paranormal presences have been sighted or perceived. It is obviously very difficult to scientifically certify the state of a haunted place and historically those who have tried it have given the most disparate explanations, both to the apparitions and to the sensations one feels inside it. The ghost hunter Peter Underwood argued that a haunted place was a place where certain very intense emotions persist, to the point of surviving the death of those who lived them ”.
What was the first haunted place you visited?
“The very first haunted place I visited is not in the atlas: it is the castle of Montebello, in Romagna. I believe that the first of those I have described is the Serbelloni villa in Taino, near Varese, because I grew up next to it and we often explored it as children ”.
Which of the places described in the book are you most connected to?
“Probably the Congress Plaza in Chicago: it was the first haunted place I explored with the idea of meeting something or someone. It didn't happen because I ran out in an inexplicable panic after a few minutes ”.
But why do we love being afraid so much?
“That's what I'm wondering too and why I decided to dedicate a part of my thankless profession to ghosts and fear in general. It is the paradox of ghosts: entities that embody our greatest hope (that there is life after death) and our terror (to collect irrefutable proof) ”.
But do you believe in ghosts?
I believe that the possibility can be admitted. Scientifically, all opportunities should be kept open until there is clear proof of their impossibility. Paraphrasing Roger Clarke, a great expert on ghosts: 'Too many witnesses swear they have seen or sensed a presence to completely dismiss the possibility that the existence of an otherworldly reality is real' ”.