The Italian Voice

This morning I thought again about my capital of province, Bologna.

photo-postcard by Alessandro Canova

I can not stop to realize that I will miss it a lot.
Well, this morning, almost involuntarily, I started to note down a list of points about “How to know that you live in Bologna or province” which I absolutely want to share with you now; some of these points are even hilarious, but you can also learn more about the city.
Enjoy!!

• when someone tells you about Neptune, you do not think only about the god of the sea, but also about the big statue in the middle of the Piazza Maggiore (Major Square), which is one of the symbols of the city;
• when someone tells you about the Piccola Venezia (Little Venice), you immediately understand that he/she tells about part of the Aposa torrent which flows at the open air between the buildings of the city;
• when someone tells you about the Due Torri (Two Towers), you do not remember only the ones which collapsed in NY, but also the Twin ones downtown (called Garisenda and Asinelli, from the ancient two families’ names who owned them), which are other symbols of the city;
• when you think about the most ancient university of the Western world, you picture in your mind all the ones of the city;
• when you can not decide if the appellation of La Rossa (The Red One) is attributed more to the colour of the red houses and their roofs or more to the historical preference for the Left wing of the citizens (both true);
• when you do not worry too much about reaching every place you want in Italy, because the major part of the trains passes through the Central Railway Station of Bologna;
• when it rains, you do not soak even if you do not have an umbrella, because you can walk along the long porches almost everywhere;
• when you do not find into the menu the dish called “spaghetti bologna” which does not exist, because here spaghetti are eaten with tomatoes, vegetables and other sauces, everything but not ragù (!!!);
• when you can not breathe because of the dampness all day and night long for at least 4-5 months a year, when the fan becomes your best friend in that period and when you see never-saw sort of African insects walking onto your mosquito nets;
• when you have to leave, driving along the A14 highway, at improbable hours of day and night to avoid the traffic jams everywhere, especially from Easter to the beginning of school;
• when you can not find open shops and shopping centres on Sundays (except during Christmas holidays) in the whole province, except the Outlet Factory Store and the Ikea Store;
• when, driving to the Ikea Store coming from the Eastern part of the province, you turn your eyes trying to catch sight of football players at the head office of the Bologna Football Club;
• when you speak the bolognese dialect, you are totally able to talk with French people.

I could go on until tomorrow, hahaha!!
I hope you liked these points, they are very important to remember if you decide to move here =)
Have a nice weekend and see you soon with great news!!

There are places which you can not forget.

For me one of those places is one which I could not imagine to remember and miss: the building of my high school.

I have always lived in a small town in province of Bologna, called Medicina; when I started to attend the high school, I had to decide between the one in Bologna and the one in Lugo, in province of Ravenna.
I chose the second one because I was too young to walk alone along the streets of a big city. I chose the second one because my friends decided for it too. I chose the second one because everybody told that it was great for a nice career.
Onword I realized that I chose the wrong one, because it was not the right school for my own dreams, but I always remember those years like some of the most beautiful ones of my young life.

So I ended up attending the high school for accountants in Lugo, after the meeting of the pre-enrolment for students at the junior high school.

I must say that, if I was asked to decide just after the first glimpse, I would never have chose that one.
The building impressed me, but surely not for its outer face: the walls were azure-blue and pink !!
I could imagine everything but missing that high school, but hey..it is the truth and also because if its walls!

You have to know that the building was entitled to Mr Giuseppe Compagnoni, I had never known nothing about this man until that moment, but I quickly discovered that he suggested the adoption of the Italian flag as national Italian flag on January 7th, 1797.
It is very cool, do not you think?

Mr Giuseppe Compagnoni

Since that moment, I appreciated that high school ever more.

Now at the least, after my long preamble, are you curious enough to have a look at a small picture of the odd building where I spent five years of my life studying, waiting for a better one which I will take soon just on-the-spot?
Enjoy and leave your unmerciful comments, hihihi!

I.T.C. G. Compagnoni in Lugo
(province of Ravenna)

Tonight I was not able to sleep properly, I did it only for a couple of hours and then I had to stand up to finish what I started yesterday afternoon: the translation and transcription of a sensational interview made two evenings ago by Striscia la Notizia, an Italian famous satirical newscast (which in reality is more serious than the real ones), to the nephew of the Padre Pio’s doctor.

I guess you all know who is Padre Pio, the Italian friar who received stigmata, who has been proclaimed Saint and who has been recently exhumed by the religious authorities.

shot by Darriuss Royce

Tonight I could not sleep because I wanted to finish my important translation and transcription to let you know what that man told at the tv, which really could cause an investigation about the wonderful things which he told about and, I guess, even convert more people than how much the Saint’s life and death already did.

I place here the original video of the interview in Italian, which lasts 7 minutes, and below you can find the whole translation, I hope that you will appreciate my work and that you will leave me your opinions about these incredible news. Enjoy!

Showman: …citizens, because it’s the moment of the exclusive interview to the nephew of the Saint Padre Pio’s doctor; in addition to some unexplainable facts which are about the exhumation of the Saint, we are about to listen to different exstraordinary revelations. Do follow carefully this shoot.

Q: Well, friends of Striscia (“Striscia la Notizia”, editor’s note), today we will tell you about Padre Pio. We are with Alberto Festa, nephew of the doctor Giorgio Festa, the Padre Pio’s doctor for 21 years. Good morning, Alberto.
A: Hello.

Q: You called us because lately..people always spread rumors about Padre Pio, but lately we talk more about him because his body has been exhumed. You called us to tell us something sensational.
A: I noticed a very strange thing.

Q: Yes…
A: In the reliquary where the Padre Pio’s body is placed, it’s very clearly visible that onto the reliquary they places some seals (red rounds, editor’s note). The seals are placed by the authorities of the Vatican, Friars Capuchin, but surely the ones of the Vatican just to seal up (red rounds, editor’s note) something which mustn’t be profaned in time. Here there is also in this quite big photo of the Padre Pio’s sister who pray, then you see…(white rounds, editor’snote).

Q: And also in this photo in black and white you see…(red rounds, editor’s note).
A: The strange thing which I noticed is that at the opening of the Padre Pio’s reliquary at his exhumation, which is called canonical inspection…

Q: There is a plate of zinc…
A: There is a plate of zinc which has been placed onto it. When they removed the plate of zinc - and it is clearly visible - uncannily you can not see the seals anymore. It is clearly visible, these seals (white rounds, editor’s note) are not present, in any way! In addition this is the official photo.

Q: And let’s talk about these books. Are they abducted?
A: Yes, i.e. this is a book which at the beginning was labeled by the Vatican. This book is of the 1933 (entitled “Among the misteries of the Science and the lights of the Faith” by Giorgio Festa, editor’s note), when a few people knew who was Padre Pio.

Q: And…what you can find in this book?
A: In this book there is a fact which is well-know not really by everybody, but..let’s say..surely by the experts about Padre Pio, that is that my uncle operated Padre Pio twice. He operated him in quite particular circumstances because he operated him into his cell, into the cell n°5, which was used as operating room without any kind of anaesthesia because Padre Pio refused the anaesthesia, also the topical one.

Q: What kind of…?
A: The first operation, which was the most important one, was due to peritonitis with complications of hernias, so it was a quite complicated operation because it also had some complications, etc. (white rounds, editor’s note). I repeat, this scenario suggests some hypothesis: could the Padre Pio’s body be moved? I tell that do not know it, but I say another thing, that there would be a proof, that is my uncle operated him…onto this Padre Pio’s body…

Q: There would be…
A: The signs must be visible…

Q: The scars…
A: They found also signs of operations also onto the mummies, so..

Q: So, theories…
A: In theory the proof would be present, now..

Q: Exact, so you say that, if the corpse has been moved somewhere else, the corpse that they found at the opening of reliquary could be another one.
A: I repeat, I do not know it, I can not affirm it.

Q: The theory is that, you told me with the cameras off, that (the body, editor’s note) could be moved even at the Vatican..?!
A: This are rumors which are spreading for several years, which surely does not come from me but, among the different hypothesis which I heard, they said also this one.

Q: You inherited a lot of objects from Padre Pio: the first glove, the lints of the operation…(relics in the frame, editor’s note)
A: Yes, a lot of objects.

Q: Very important objects, but we know that you also have a letter from Padre Pio.
A: Yes.

Q: Could you tell us about it?
A: Yes, I tell about it in complete way..finally..after long time, about which there has been a big misinformation and also, I must tell the truth, they created a ponderous journalistic and television censorship.

Q: It is ok. Now we have the chance in this moment to talk about this letter.
A: Great. Finally, finally.

Q: Ok. Can we see it?
A: Yes. This letter is a letter written by Padre Pio on March 20th, 1968, that was a few months before his death (red round, editor’s note), and it is the content which is, for me, the one which is absolutely shocking, it can be defined a spiritual testament of the friar.

Q: Do we want to read it?
A: Well, the letter is addressed to the Father Cristoforo Arrigo from Vico del Gargano and the letter quotes:-”Brother, God calls me and I put in your hands the remains which humble secrets which were given to me by faithful Christians to deliver: to Father Fortunato from Serra Capriola the bowl which, with its water, wet our Lord’s lips onto the Calvary; to Mr Manuelino, approached to the sacred altar, the lamp which enlightened the path of the Christians at the Colosseum; for you I give the little greek jar of the Apostle Peter, kept secret in me, because God’s present to my father and witness of the immense light, hold it for the poor ones in faith“.
Vice versa, I think that these poor ones in faith do not know nothing at all about this story, but not for my will, which is exactly the contrary but, I want to tell it, for the religious authorities’ will, who did not want in any way to let people talk about this story.
He gives objects which are strictly linked to Jesus Christ! The bowl which wet the Lord’s lips onto the Calvary! The jar of the Apostle Peter containing the God’s immense light!
That is..the God’s immense light in the Christianity, if you allow me…

Q: I am sorry, we’re talking about the Holy Grail…?!
A: This is what several people claim, I can not do this statement, but if you want my own opinion…

Q: Can I turn it?
A: This would be the object (little jar, editor’s note) that Padre Pio enclosed to this letter.

Q: I am sorry, Alberto. Now, we..the tv audience at home..in this moment I jump onto the chair and also the tv audience at home because, if all this would be true, you tell me that anyway this letter has received assessments, there are some assessments and the object is actually that one…
A: Yes, well, I immediately tell you.

Q: I do not know, we take everything cautiously.
A: I take it upon myself about what I am telling, but I really take it upon myself, because I show you two things. There is a report of 60 pages of the doctor Brown, who affirms absolutely (red round, editor’s note) that there is no doubt that this letter has been written by Padre Pio. But there is something more, because there is also the assessment by the doctor De Rossi, in which he claims that this object is placeable in the Roman period, that is about 2000 years old. I do not need absolutely notoriety for this thing. What I am interested in is that the Padre Pio’s devotees know that this thing exists and that…

Q: Clear.
A: …the authority does not want that this thing be revealed, they do not want..for what reason?

Q: Why?
A: You do not have to ask it to me.

Q: Did you also receive menaces, did not you?
A: Yes. I received menaces also for physical retaliation.

Q: Ok. I shake hands with you. If all this would be true…who knows?!
[Jimmy Ghione, Striscia la Notizia, Rome]

There is a nice highway stop in my area, just between Bologna and Imola. In Italy the major part of them is called autogrill.
Every time I pass through that road I see it.
I start to peer at it from the bridge onto the highway, I observe the cars darting and the people over there like little ants, I wonder what will be the destination of who stops off there and have long have they had on the road.

The autogrill for me is a place which always represented a sort of freedom, for me this is the reason for travelling, stop off there is like stopping after a long hard day of work and tasting the air onto the skin, listening to the clatter of the people who are crowded at the bar, imagining the taste of the typical foods and touching the softness of the plushes set onto the shelves of the mini market, glancing at the headlines of the newspapers and of the magazines which are displayed before the exit door.

shot by A. Guandalini

In this area, only a few people know the access to the highway stop, even if it situated outside the highway, maybe only who works there and who arrived by chance and friends who spread the word.
To me it happened the last case.

For me that autogrill is so much tempting that often, passing onto that bridge, I even try to make me come to mind some good reasons to enter by car the tiny and not paved street which takes to the highway stop, sometimes I desist to avoid to spend money or to get left behind in my daily tasks, but other times I can not resist.

What I feel entering the gate behind the autogrill from the parking and entering the door of that public place is almost indescribable, it sounds odd to feel such a strong emotion, but I really arrive there with such a big sense of excitement that the adrenaline stays in my body for several minutes also after my visit there.

I am not embarrassed to say that, in these cases, I feel like a kid who is able to obtain what she wants: that sense of freedom which sometimes I need to taste to feel alive.

Have you ever tried to enter a highway stop when you were not on vacation?