Fantasy of kids...

When I see a child, when I speak to him/her, I'm hit by the fantasy they can have. They can figure out witches, and wizards, and misterious animals, and set up a fantastic scenery full of mistery and fun. Differently from us, they can see the world from a different perspective: it's strange to consider mad somebody who has the same fantasy of a child, but is adult.


When I'm in Offagna, near Ancona, I always remember when I was a child and thought it was a castle with the king and the queen, who were living inside, without coming out because they were scared about cars! And we stayed on the bottom of the tower, calling them out, but nobody would reply.

Likewise, we thought there was a man in the moon, calling us, and asking to reach him. To reach the moon... is still in my mind...

E' giunto fino a me, e - senza spamming - lo riporto nel mio blog.

Mi piacerebbe che su questo pezzo uscisse un monologo, qualcosa di artistico, ed incisivo, perché - nella sua drammaticità, è eloquentissimo.

*********************************

Mamma, sono uscita con amici. Sono andata ad una festa e mi sono ricordata
quello che mi avevi detto: di non bere alcolici. Mi hai chiesto di non
bere visto che dovevo guidare, cosi ho bevuto una Sprite.

Mi sono sentita orgogliosa di me stessa, anche per aver ascoltato il modo
in cui, dolcemente, mi hai suggerito di non bere se dovevo guidare, al
contrario di quello che mi dicono alcuni amici. Ho fatto una scelta sana
ed il tuo consiglio e' stato giusto. Quando la festa e' finita, la gente
ha iniziato a guidare senza essere in condizioni di farlo. Io ho preso la
mia macchina con la certezza che ero sobria. Non potevo immaginare, mamma, cio' che mi aspettava... Qualcosa di inaspettato !

Ora sono qui sdraiata sull'asfalto e sento un poliziotto che dice: "Il
ragazzo che ha provocato l'incidente era ubriaco".
Mamma, la sua voce sembra cosi' lontana... Il mio sangue e' sparso
dappertutto e sto cercando, con tutte le mie forze, di non piangere. Posso
sentire i medici che dicono: "Questa ragazza non ce la fara'".

Sono certa che il ragazzo alla guida dell'altra macchina non se lo
immaginava neanche, mentre andava a tutta velocita'. Alla fine lui ha
deciso di bere ed io adesso devo morire http://www.mednat.org/filosofia/morte_cosasei.htm>...

Perche' le persone fanno tutto questo, mamma ? Sapendo che
distruggeranno delle vite ? Il dolore e' come se mi pugnalasse con un centinaio di
coltelli contemporaneamente. Di' a mia sorella di non spaventarsi, mamma,
di a papa' di essere forte. Qualcuno doveva dire a quel ragazzo che non si
deve bere e guidare... Forse, se i suoi glielo avessero detto, io adesso
sarei viva... La mia respirazione si fa sempre piu debole e incomincio ad
avere veramente paura...

Questi sono i miei ultimi momenti, e mi sento cosi' disperata...Mi
piacerebbe poterti abbracciare mamma, mentre sono sdraiata, qui, morente.
Mi piacerebbe dirti che ti voglio bene per questo... Ti voglio bene e....
arrivederci.

********************

Queste parole sono state raccolte da un giornalista che era presente
all'incidente. La ragazza, mentre moriva, sussurrava queste parole ed il
giornalista scriveva... scioccato.

Questo giornalista ha iniziato una campagna contro la guida in stato di
ebbrezza.

This is "brutta figura"

I receive and I forward. No duel, just this "brutta figura".

Tonight there is a TV duel between Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi.

This is what Berlusconi is capable to do in a Parliament:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-926629105834987595

This is a real brutta figura!

Is it a "brutta figura"?

After the post with my grandparents' picture, somebody asked me whether it is a bad impression to eat using the hands. It's an interesting matter, which involves the Italian tradition.

Indeed, Italy is a former agricultural country, where eating with the hands was not only admitted, but also a sign of genuine way of living, of feast, of abundance. In short, is the sign to belong to the common people. That's why is welcomed within agriturismi, country houses (in general), sagre and so on.

On the contrary, eating bones of chickens, ducks or game with fork and knife is considered a sign of nobility, because it means that you can afford to waste the meat around the bone, which is considered the best part. To show off signs of nobility is seen as a "gap" from the (common) people, and it is welcomed in high level restaurants, but not very appreciated in agriturismi and similar. Moreover, somebody may take fun of you if you are caught to eat bones with fork and knife in an agriturismo.

Differences are lower remarked in case of young people, because travelling and the higher quality of life have cancelled much differences, so it is more and more common to see people between 20 and 45 years old eating in more refined manners. But still, while it is more and more common to see them in comfort in high level restaurants (except for the bill!), it's still common to see them eating with hands in agriturismi, especially in family dinners.

In conclusion, when you see someone eating bones with hands in Italy, don't look badly at him, because the tradition and the culture which made and still make Italy famous in the world for cuisine passed through his or her dirty and hardened hands, much more than through the refined hands of the nobility.

Two real Italian NONNI !!!

This is the picture of my grandparents. We celebrated my grandfather, Nonno Mauro's 85th birthday. It's a typical scene from an over-80 birthday: my grandmother has no more energies to cook for 15 people (most of them big boys), but she keeps the strenght to savage a piece of brontosaurus with her mouth. As for himself, my granpa still has the freshness and the vitality to keep us laughing all the time with his jokes and his loud calabresi (from Calabria) songs, an authentic show for those who happen to pass by!

...especially after finishing the red wine bottle on the edge of the picture...

Syria, two years later, life is going on...

This is Syria. For those of you who didn't read this post, the advice to click here and go there. Smiling, like every kid of her age, reminding us to smile, since life is beautiful.

Sometimes, however, we don't remember it. We think life is a sequence of days, a sequence of duties, a stressful flow of time. But try to suspend your breathe, watching a panorama, a child, or simply a picture. It's the best experience, living the present, the moment, the instant, caring less about the future (less than now, I mean).

Last Saturday: the Libertine

Last saturday I've been to Palarossini to watch "The Libertine". Well, except from the great performance of Johnny Depp (the best male actor of the moment, together with Jim Carrey), I found it a bit boring. Maybe for the dinner (fish and white wine - especially the Verdicchio Loretello - doesn't go well with cinema...), maybe for the time, sometimes I was about to fall asleep, despite of Francy's enthusiastic opinion about the movie.

But the worst thing was at the exit. Indeed, upstairs there was a show by Gigi Proietti, a famous Italian theathre actor. Therefore, we went out the empty cinema together with 7,000 people: 1 hour to get back home...

... but still a nice night! :-)