Anghiari si racconta

 I was born in 1962, in Motina, a small village, a hamlet really, 3 km from Anghiari, and I lived there with my parents until I was 18. I met my husband when I was 14 and we were engaged for 8 year. After we married, in 1984, I came to live here, in Anghiari.

I have my heart in this town … I like the relationship I have with the anghiaresi – we are all family… We are all friends, we always have a smile on our faces when we meet, and we greet each other; we know each other, it is lovely – a sincere smile. This is very positive – it gives you confidence, you can trust the people you meet, which is a beautiful thing.

A typical encounter with friends in Anghiari would go like this: we greet each other, ‘Oh, ciao, let’s go to the bar’, we have a coffee, we chat about this and that, we tell each other about the positive and negative things, always within the limits of what we can say; we spend about an hour together and this is really nice. It doesn’t happen every day, it might happen once a month, because we are always in too much of a hurry. Here, in the shop, there is just time for a quick greeting and then… . Instead, when we are out, there is a bit more freedom and we can dedicate more time to our friends – half an hour, an hour, to talk, to have a coffee together, sitting down at a table in a bar, and this is lovely (bello).

Trust takes time to develop, but in our little town we have known each other for years and so … it comes with familiarity. Obviously we can’t be liked by everybody or vice versa, but there is this honest, straightforward relationship between people here, a relationship of mutual respect. And also a desire to help – if we can do each other a favour, we do so very happily. In fact, when people come into our shop, tourists often, they compliment us because we are radiant, we smile…

Greeting those you meet with a smile is typical in Anghiari. And visitors tell us that they find a welcome, a warmth here. That is why so many come back, every year – they come back because they find this warmth. Also, of course, because they like the town, which is pretty …

Tourism is a very positive thing here, because, without it, Anghiari would die. We live through the winter months, I’m talking about our business, we live during the winter months with little takings, because there are now less than 6000 residents, not very many of us, and in winter, without tourists, it is dead … very sad. We wouldn’t be able to live, you understand? We live off tourism. It starts in March, in spring, and lasts till the end of September.

As commercial activities, we are committed to creating things that attract tourists – festivals, fairs, markets… . In winter, we do small things, what can I say, at Christmas we do mulled wine, we roast chestnuts, but everything is for those of us who live here. In summer, on the other hand, we organize more things – music, markets, the flower festival, there are many, many things, there is the Palio of the battle of Anghiari in June, and then the antiques fair in April, and then the 100 flavours in November… there is always something nice, bringing in lots of people. People come from everywhere, and also from Italy, because Anghiari, as you know, has been classified one of the most beautiful towns in Italy. So, people have started to talk about it….

We’ve had this shop for 7 years now, in April it will be 7 years. My husband works in Monterchi, in a bank where he has been working for many years. This business is mine with the children. I worked for 20 years in a shoe factory; then it went broke and closed down, so they sacked us. I always had in my heart a love for a business, because I like to be with people, to talk… and we found this shop, they were giving it away.

At the beginning I worked alone, because Lorenzo was still in school. Then, when he finished school, he came to work here, but two wasn’t enough because the work increased. So, we suggested to our daughter, Monica, that she resign from her job to come here. As you know, employing another person is expensive, but working as a family we can say: this month we take 500, and the 3 of us will share it, another month, 2 thousand, and we can take a bit more. We work together and we wait. Yes, there is some squabbling, but nothing special – I think it is normal being together all day, all these hours. If there is something, we clarify it and that’s it, finished.

Monica is married, and she lives here, in Anghiari, very close to the shop. Lorenzo still lives with me, in San Lorenzo, a small suburb of Anghiari, 2 and half km away, in the countryside. I don’t know how long he’ll stay at home because he is engaged and, sooner or later, he will also decide to have his own life, rightly.

Our other son, Roberto, went to Australia in 2012, for a year. He went there because he’d always had the desire to see the world. It wasn’t because he didn’t have a job, because he did have a job, a permanent job. He worked nearby, in a factory, Sensus, where they produce (hair) dye. And, because he speaks different languages, they employed him to send parcels abroad. But he had this desire to travel the world, to see everything, from a museum to archaeology, everything, so the first stop was Australia.

Before leaving for Australia, he already had a job, in Perth, then in Albany. He worked in hostels, in farms, in the forest – he moved around to see different places and he liked it a lot, and he was well paid…. He came back after a year, and then he went back to Australia after a year because, he said, ‘I have left my heart there’. Here, he has his heart for us, the family, there he has his heart for the land, the people – he has told us that you are very sincere people, smiling, friendly … he liked it there, very, very much.

He met his future wife, a Thai girl, there, and I was happier because I knew he had company, he wasn’t alone anymore… Now they are in New Zealand. He couldn’t be any farther away, in the antipodes. I feel… on the one hand, I am happy because I know that he is happy, on the other hand, I miss him. But I see him all the time, with the cell phone nowadays … every day, we can send messages, photos, news about this and that… He knows that I will never come to visit ‘I am sorry, but I can’t come to visit you because I don’t go on planes, I get panic attacks.’ He and his wife were here together in Italy for 3 months. When they left, they stayed a while in Thailand, then they went to Australia and then to New Zealand, where they’ll stay for a year. And then they will come back, at least for a visit … I don’t know!

There’s something I’d like to add about the sense of family, community here. In Anghiari we have formed a Caritas, for people in need. It means that there are 4-5 volunteers who take care of finding food, clothing, sometimes even paying for the utilities, for people who can’t make ends meet. It is the church that has made a space available, and the priests themselves organize the reception centre to give humanitarian help to people in need. Mostly for people who find it difficult providing food. Italians and non-Italians, everybody, there isn’t any racism, no. It is a place open to everybody, and there are many migrants here.

Yes, yes, religion is very important here in Anghiari… . The church is always full on Sundays. Many kids are brought to church, so it becomes part of their lives, and this contributes to creating, maintaining, a close family. And, at Christmas, Easter, we always have lunch together, all generations get together, everybody. Some might have relatives in Rome, so either they go there or relatives come here from Rome … these are the occasions for all generations to get together.