Crossing the wide avenues, the enormous squares and the spaces between the blocks of flats, you are immediately struck by the silence that reigns in these places. On the night between 14 and 15 January 1968, a series of tremors devastated the Belìce valley. It destroyed some towns and seriously damaged others. The signs of this enormous and sudden tragedy are still there. The old towns too compromised by the earthquake were abandoned, the remains left as collective memory. They were built on new sites according to modern and visionary logic, calling together world-famous architects and urban planners. But this reconstruction did not take into account the old urban systems, nor did it respect the way of life of its inhabitants. This new concept, totally different from the old one, led the inhabitants into a state of confusion and disaffection. The new squares, the new churches, the new homes, did not have the same aggregative and social power as the old places. And so, over time, the great works lost their appeal, the first houses were abandoned and a progressive emptying began in the valley. Life has resumed as before but flows elsewhere, among the countryside, now further away. And a heavy and silent blanket of oblivion seems to have fallen on the inhabited centers.