Anghiari si racconta

Well! I was born in Chiusi, in the province of Siena, on the 23rd of November 1937, so I have just turned 80. I was born into a family of farm workers (contadini), and my dad was a gamekeeper in a reserve owned by a big landowner. This was one of 12 farms owned by the grand duke Leopold, who had reclaimed the marshes, from Arezzo to Chiusi, and established these farms. The farm where I was born was called Dolciano, and there were 24 families of farm workers living there. I was the only boy in the family, I had 4 sisters.

So, I was born in this milieu, and grew up in this environment till I was 16. After elementary school I studied for 3 years only, so I didn’t attend a lyceum, I don’t have a diploma, I didn’t go to University. I went to work in a hotel, in Chianciano Terme. Chianciano was a thermal town, which was very important immediately after the war – people went there, from all over the world, to treat liver diseases. So, I worked for 3 or 4 years in this hotel, first as an assistant waiter, then as a waiter. Then, in 1956 I took an exam and got a licence, and I was employed at the customhouse, the dazio, where excise taxes were paid on all the goods you bought. I didn’t like this job very much because it was very dry … anyway, I had to do it. I worked in my hometown, Chiusi, and in Castiglion del Lago, and Radicofani, and Amiata … the years of my youth – I was 20, 22, 23 years old.

At 22 I got married with that beautiful lady (smiling towards Anna), and the first daughter was born, and the second daughter. And I was transferred to Buonconvento near Siena. These were all beautiful towns, where I worked. Even if I had never studied, I was always interested in where I lived, basically from an anthropological point of view. In every town, I learned the history of that town, the origins … so, a wonderful experience.

From Buonconvento, in 1969, I was transferred by the customhouse here, to Anghiari. Next year it will be 50 years that we have lived here. What can I say? These 50 years have been the most important of my life, because, when we arrived here, I had just turned 30, the family was small, and then we stayed here permanently. Because the system changed, I went to work in Sansepolcro, in the direct tax office, a state office. But in 1983 I applied for retirement, very young – I was 45, it was possible at that time in Italy – because I loved freedom very much. I never wanted wealth, money… freedom is the greatest thing that a person can have.

Freedom, to do…well, for example, in 1980 the family set up a shop – we made pasta, we really like cooking. But I am passionate about cakes, sweets, so I started to make pastries, cakes, and we had a patisserie for 12 years. And, I love the environment very much – walking, fishing, hunting, the woods, the mushrooms. And I have always been interested in politics, in the wider sense of politics as history of humankind. Politics speaks about us: in the morning, when we get up, every action is a political action.

 So, when was I mayor? Well, as I’ve said, I’ve always had this passion for the history of a town, the politics. And, it happened that, in 1975, I was elected to the city council and became mayor. This was a hugely important experience for me, because, even if it is a small town, you come in contact with all the problems of humankind. For example, you have to provide water, and one of the problems was that there was no water in town, and so I organised new aqueducts…and gas and street lighting ….

Soon after I had become mayor, there was a big discussion in town about building new schools, about whether schools should be here in the old town or out of town in new buildings. I was opposed to this idea because if you build new buildings out of town, you occupy part of the land and you take away from nature. On the contrary, if you renovate the old, in the old historical centre, you bring the school, services … you bring life to the historical centre. Otherwise what has happened all over Italy could have happened here – the historical centres, the old houses, many towns in the south, are crumbling to pieces. So, here we started to renovate schools, establish agreements with the banks so that people could get finance to renovate their houses, and the council paid part of the interest. So, it was really a cultural process, an urban vision of the town. We have a huge heritage in Italy that needs to be preserved – cultural, but also environmental. We have ruined so much of it, but people come to Italy for the landscape, for the environment, the history, the cultural heritage. If you don’t love these things, you lose so much.

So, I was in that position from ’75 till ’92, with a break of a year and half, altogether 18 years, a long time. And I met people from the world of culture – in ’78 we founded an international cultural prize, and we had la crème de la crème of the national and international cultural world visiting Anghiari. Every month we had an event in the Council Hall and personalities like Umberto Eco, Professor Veronesi, came and spoke. (Umberto Veronesi pioneered a non-invasive approach to the treatment of breast cancer.) Umberto Eco spoke about the semiology of Piero della Francesca, and not everyone would have understood that, but we also had more popular things. A theatre company started, and the Council bought the Anghiari theatre, which was built in 1789 and privately owned. We had it restored, and now the theatre company performs all year.

Despite not having studied, I have a love of culture and learning. I have met many people who have taught me many things. Till the last day of our life, there are new things to learn. Always, always, there are things to be learned. So, curiosity is very important…it leads to knowledge, and knowledge takes you to… life. I tell youngsters to learn, to understand, to travel the world when it is possible, because this opens the mind and that is important for peace.  When I see things like egoism, stupidity, that generate rage, well they happen because there is closed-mindedness. But if you open your mind to understanding… So in my small, very small way, when I had that role, I tried to apply these ideas.

I was elected mayor as a member of the communist party, but in 1990 I broke with the party, and I was re-elected. After the war, the communist party played a big role in the struggle against fascism. And here in Tuscany there was a major issue of mezzadria, sharecropping, which meant that the landowner and the farmer took half each. There was a big battle against the landowners, who didn’t want to give the farmers their share, and the communist party had a huge role in that struggle. Throughout Tuscany, cities like Florence, have always been run by the left, in my opinion, with great results; then slowly, slowly, things fizzled out. Why? Perhaps, and this is just my opinion, perhaps because we live under the rule of consumerism, of capitalism. I lived in the times of the Soviet-Russian block that gave … perhaps wrongly, a vision, more justice. We were wrong about the Soviet Union because it caused suffering and pain. But now, we only have the laws of capitalism, and the ideals of equality are gone. Certainly, in small towns like Anghiari there is less consumerism, we still resist it, but even here I see it – the god of money, a new car, trendy clothes … . In small towns, though, we are also more protected from the economic crisis and poverty than in the cities. At our level, we are rich because there is land, perhaps granddad grows tobacco, then one has the orto (kitchen garden) ….

A month ago, I spoke to kids in an elementary school in Città di Castello, but I didn’t know what to say, because I am not used to… and then I told them what I did when I was a boy, and they were really interested… . Since I was born in the country, the closest house was 800 meters away, and in the evening, after sunset, if you went somewhere, you had to walk, so there were many fears. Now kids move by car, always by car, and they don’t know what this is like…  they don’t see the moon when it is full, full. When I was a kid, dad took me with him hunting and taught me, look, that is the Polar star, the Big and Little Dipper, Sirius, this wind has this name, this is called tramontana. This was a life that was real. Instead, unfortunately, today tutututut (tapping on his computer). This is ok, the computer is a great tool but you must have the server here (pointing to his head). I explained to the youngsters: if you want to know something about Dante, for example – The Divine Comedy, I love it – if you want to know Dante, you must know it yourself, then if you need a date or something, go and look for it. We don’t live a real life.

I’m really happy when I’m working in my orto, and I like it, not so much for the produce, but because I can live in the country, I can listen to crickets, smell the freshly cut grass, the perfumes…. When I work in the orto, I become a child again, because as a child, being a farmers’ son, all my relatives were farmers, my games, my pastimes, were in the orto, I was there, together with the men who worked it, the smell of cut hay…this is one of the reasons I’m happy there. And, I’m doing something real, because, you see, in spring, in May, you sow the seed, don’t you? You prepare the soil and then you see something to grow, you pick that fruit, it is alive, a real thing. This is the reason for my interest; otherwise everything is virtual.

Yes, yes! I still go hunting. Hunting has been part of my whole life because I grew up on this game reserve, this farm where my father was a gamekeeper, and from when I was small he took me with him, hunting. But, I don’t agree with the way it is done today. It is not hunting. Hunting is the environment, cold, hot, the woods – you’re immersed in the environment. Instead today hunting has become…the car, the shotgun. Hunting isn’t anymore…. Because dad took me hunting when I was small, I learnt so many things, many things about nature, types of herb…  what is the wind, what is nature, what is… .  Now mainly I hunt wild boars, only wild boars are left.

Coming back to my connection with Anghiari, developing a bond with this town was easy for me. Even if, when we arrived 50 years ago, it felt more closed than the towns around Siena. You know how Italy is … especially in Tuscany, there are many bell towers in small villages – there is a lot of campanilismo, as we say (‘my bell tower is better than yours’). But, developing a bond, I think, depends a lot on a person’s nature. I am very open, I talk with everyone, I talk with a cat, I talk with a dog, so I immediately made friends, I easily bonded with other young people. Then, most of all, it was because of politics, during my time at the Council: being interested in public life, means you meet people, you get in touch and learn people’s needs, and help provide for those needs. People would come to me even for private matters, if they wanted advice…  I consider myself lucky.

We have been very happy here. We brought up our daughters; I have grandchildren, great-granddaughters …. My granddaughters, Armida and Margherita, as you know, run the bistro here with Cinzia. My first granddaughter, Elisa, who is 38, graduated in art history, but couldn’t get any work, so she had to retrain. She attended some courses in Rome, and now she teaches ballet to small children, in a nice school. Another granddaughter works in Paris – she is good with languages and works in a big hotel. Despite the distance, in the evening, with the computer, we can see each other, and she shows me her daughter.

If someone were to ask me ‘What would you like to do if you could go back?’, I’d say, I’d like to study Greek, Latin, get a degree in Arts. I have a great passion for literature, I read all the time, but I don’t have the foundations, I am like one who plays by ear. If I had studied, I would have liked very much to study literature and history. Instead, they are just hobbies. For example, in the orto, for a couple of years, I wrote. I wrote the thoughts of the orto in ottava rima, a traditional Tuscan verse that is also sung.

Well, the future, I am optimistic, I am optimistic in life, but the future, not only for Anghiari, doesn’t look good. What’s happening in the world at the moment is not good, but there have been dark periods in the past…  I stay positive. Where you see evil you have to transform it into something beautiful. The meaning of life is that this life is the only possibility that nature has given us, and so it has to be lived to the full, with intelligence. At my age, I see things, you see things with more peace, with less ardour, with fewer battles.

The first years, as science tells us, the first years in life are so important, and I had a wonderful childhood – I was free, I had no constraints, and then in those times, in the country… I fear nothing.