Mandolino. A mandolin – an instrument that consists of three families: Emiliano, Napolitano and Puglieze. Michele Bertoni plays a mandolin of the Emiliano family. The body of it is shaped as an almond (mandola). Michele received that instrument (built in 1920) as a gift of his fathers uncle (born in 1886 in Ferrara) and plays the way his father teached him to.

You can see the Emiliano next to a Napolitano family mandolin on the picture as well as the origin of the Emiliano one. I have made some sessions with Michele and his beautiful sounding mandolino. The black mask I am wearing on the last picture is a wooden Mamuthones mask from a mountain village of Mamoiada.