Legend of the Bellina of Erice
According to the legend, if walking through the streets of Erice a snake crosses the road, one has come across the spirit of Bellina.
The legend of the Bellina tells that in the thirteenth century in Erice lived a beautiful girl with raven hair and the face of an angel. The girl was always surrounded by a large number of suitors but her heart belonged to a young man forced to leave for the war who had left her a token of love, a ring. The young woman spent her days looking out the window, with her gaze constantly turned to the sea, waiting for her love to return.
Among the many suitors of the girl, there was a rich and perfidious baron who did not accept the refusal of the lass. He thus made a pact with a dark wizard to obtain Bellina's love through a spell. He took possession of the ring so loved by the girl, with the help of a jeweler allied to him, and used it to trap Bellina. In exchange for the ring, the baron demanded a kiss from Bellina, which, thanks to the spell performed by the magician, would have made the girl fall in love with him. Bellina refused to kiss him, however, and the baron, full of anger, threw the ring in a bush of brambles. The girl, looking for her token of love among the brambles, stung herself with a thorn and, as a result of the spell, turned into a black snake. Dark magic punished the evil baron who was dragged into the Underworld by a host of vengeful demons.
Since that day it is said that, whenever a passerby comes across a black snake in the streets of Erice, he actually finds himself in the presence of Bellina's soul. The girl was trapped in the humble animal and wanders among the brambles and abandoned places of the village in search of its ring. Only when the pledge of love is able to find it, Bellina will be able to find peace, resume her human form and reunite with her beloved.
