Her wish was to rest forever at Capo Mannu, by "her" sea, that paradise she loved so much and where she had spent her holidays for 50 years, our favorite place. My wife always told me this, and I can't help but do what she told me every time she saw that beach: I will have her cremated and her ashes scattered at Capo Mannu.

Carlo Sommacal speaks with difficulty as he awaits the return to Italy of his wife, marine biologist and university professor Monica Montefalcon , and of his daughter Giorgia , who died tragically during a dive in the caves of the Vaavu atoll in the Maldives .

Reached by phone, Sommacal recounts the bond his wife, Monica, a diving expert and head of some of the most important marine conservation projects, had with the seaside villages of San Vero Milis: "Monica was so in love with Mandriola and Capo Mannu that, for a couple of years, she had been saying that, once she retired, she would move there permanently. She also said she wanted to rest forever in the sea after her cremation, even though she was Catholic. And so it will be. Once all the bureaucratic procedures are completed."

In the Sinis village, Monica Montefalcone had many friends: "The dearest ones, actually," says her husband Carlo, who struggles to imagine his life without her. " Here Monica regenerated, relaxed, became even more beautiful, shone. Like my daughter. They were my princesses, my mermaids."

Monica Montefalcone was so beloved that one of her dearest friends, Gianni Lutzu , her neighbor in Mandriola, launched the idea of asking the Municipality of San Vero Milis to name the Mandriola pine forest after her: "After all, Monica spent 50 years of her life here, three months a year," says his friend Gianni. " We're talking about a woman who dedicated her life to discovering and studying the wonders that lie beneath the surface of the sea."

An autopsy will also be performed on the teacher's body in the coming days. A funeral will then be held, followed by cremation, and finally her final journey to Sardinia: destination Capo Mannu.

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