Anghiari si racconta

I was born in Sansepolcro, a small town nearby, on the 27th June 1992, but I have always lived here in Anghiari.

I don’t want to go away like my brother has, but I like going on holiday, 10 days, 2 weeks, even a month…particularly to the seaside. But to decide to go away for a year, a year and a half … well perhaps as an idea… but, for now, I like being here. I am very attached to my family, my girlfriend, my friends, my job, so I am fine here (sto bene). I have everything I like here. I like my job, which is ours… I like it a lot working with my family.

When I finished school, I came here directly, I was working here the next day. I studied at IPSIA, a technical college, for electricians, and when I finished, I started here with the idea of helping my mother with her new shop. Then it grew more and more, and I liked it, and now, in 10 days it will be 7 years.

I like working in the shop because I like being with people, smiling … time flies, you can chat while working. And, here in Anghiari, we all know each other … and, when a tourist arrives, we always try to welcome them too. So we know people who perhaps aren’t from Anghiari, and they come back the following year, and we greet each other again, we talk together again – I like it, I like the contact with people a lot.  And, we take care of each other here in Anghiari, we are very close. Perhaps you’ll know one person better then another, but we always greet everybody, when possible.

Tourism is very important, both the social aspect – it is always good to meet more people – and also for work. For us, tourism is very important – we work the whole year with the locals, the people from Anghiari, perhaps from Sansepolcro, anyway, locals, but from the beginning of the warmer period, spring, through summer, and also a good bit of autumn, then there are lots of different things, fairs, exhibitions, and tourists help our business. With a tourist, we are friends, in inverted commas, in the sense that we know each other – they might be here for a month, and come here for shopping, and then I’ll see them again after a year, so…

There are the English, the Southbank, I don’t know if you know of them, they are an orchestra, and they come every year in July. They are quite young, and we see them again and again, but perhaps not the same people – they can change from one year to the next, but anyway, it is nice to have people … when there are visitors it is nice for everybody.

When I’m not working, I spend time with my friends, and my girlfriend.  She is not from Anghiari, but she lives nearby, 10 minutes by car, and in the evenings I go to her house, or she comes to mine. When we are with friends, we don’t always stay in Anghiari because it is a small town. We like it here, it is not that … but if we want to go for dinner, perhaps we’ll go where there are more people, to a bigger town, Arezzo, Perugia, or to the seaside, to Rimini, Riccione, Milano Marittima.

To be honest, yes, I miss my brother a bit, it is normal… but I know he is having fun. We are in touch … then, when he comes back, it’s better, but… he must do what he wants. I wouldn’t like it if he came here only to please us. But, if he remained there for good, I would be a bit sorry – we are very close…