It was the result both families had dreaded. The two girls had been inadvertently swapped at birth, almost certainly as a result of a confusion over which baby-clothes belonged to which family. The fluctuations in weight had simply been a result of measuring the wrong baby. Three years of love and effort had been lived on a false premise. As the families faced up to a future that had suddenly been turned on its head, the rest of Italy looked on, appalled and fascinated.
News travels fast in a small Sicilian town.
By the beginning of last week, the story of Chiara and Daniela had made the front pages of local newspapers. By the middle of the week, every Italian television station, magazine and newspaper had sent a team to Mazara. A bidding war is already under way to win rights to photographs and an interview. Shocked and in pain, the two families have gone into hiding. Both sets of parents are determined to keep the world at bay, in order to protect the children from further trauma.