Vigata

Overview

He is the chief of the police station (Italian: commissario) of the fictional town of Vigata. In this role he balances the demands of his superiors and the realities of local crime and life in general. A determining factor of his success as a Sicilian policeman seems to be his ability to bridge different cultures. On one side, there is the "northern" force from Rome and Milan, which attempts to standardize regulations and increase transparency; on the opposite side is the "southern" culture with complex webs of relationships that affect the way things are done. Montalbano excels at balancing these two while being true to his principles.