Borgo Mezzanone: The Ghetto of Italy

A journey through the Tavoliere plain reveals the ghetto of Borgo Mezzanone, a fraction of Manfredonia in the province of Foggia. Founded in 1934 as a fascist reclamation village, its first stone laid during the regime, the borgo features rationalist architecture, a brutalist church, and a supermarket with red cursive signage. The landscape is flat, yellow and green, scorched by the sun, with sparse farmhouses in eccentric styles and vaguely Middle Eastern touches. The area appears deserted, with no living soul or breeze. The text describes the optical illusion of an airplane appearing and disappearing, and the sudden unfolding of the ghetto like a spell.