After saying goodbye to Al and Des on the platform, we watched them through the train window with the usual and awkward conversation, "Permisso, you are in my reserved seat." Only this time, as the train doors sealed and it inched out of the station, Al with angst pasted on his face managed to communicate to us that their tickets were mistakenly made for tomorrow, not today..... Ah, the joys of travel. We are sure the conductor would help them on their trip to Lago di Como, as we noticed a few empty seats in other cars.
From there our day took off. Previous entries have alluded to the passion of the Italian culture, heart and mind. In one day, we experienced its full force and multi-dimensionally, making the sum greater than the parts, and all the more rich.
First, it was the grand Mille Miglia. A 1000 mile round trip race from Brescia to Rome and back, in vintage race cars. 377 cars to be exact. Lots of early 1920's automobiles, up to 1957 models. Vintage motor cars by Bugatti, Haley, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, with a few old Jags, Porsches and BMW's and the odd Volkswagen and Citroen thrown in. It made for a balanced feast of leggendas! Check out the video.
They cruised over the Santa Trinita Bridge and along the Arno. The support cars were new Ferraris , Maseratis and BMW's. I am not sure who was enjoying the race more, the drivers themselves, or all the masses of fans lining the roadsides. Passion of design excellence over generations was showcased.
Immediately after the race, which just happened to be re-routed a few days prior because of the next passionate event, was the "Dante 100 Canti." It was a highly organized celebration of oral recitations and readings, happening simultaneously at various places in the historic centre, of Dante's Divine Comedy. Dante was a Florentine in the early 1300's. His writing was the first literature to be written in the Italian spoken vernacular. Up till then, all literature had been in Latin, thus the Divina Comedia established the Tuscan dialect. School age children, teens, senior citizens, amateur and professional, all participated, performing their cantos with similar passion. Based on inferno, purgatorio and paradiso, all afterlife views, made for more profound performances. So as we are awaiting a canto to start in a tiny piazza, we hear a band and loud chanting along a main shopping street. Not skipping a beat, we scurried out to watch a massive anti-police protest, peace demonstration and march by the Communist party and other supportive groups and tag-a-longs. In front of us was political passion, behind us, literary passion and yet to come was the passionate La Boheme Opera.
Yup, why not, we asked ourselves. Only in Italy we figured, would we embrace a full Italian opera. So our Saturday culminated in a beautiful and tender opera of passion and poverty. We all loved it. As we strolled home in the warm evening, we marveled and celebrated the passionate heart of the Italian people. It is a beauty to behold. The final act of passion we witnessed was just outside our door. A young guy was riding along on his pink bicycle when he wiped out. Oh, he was okay. He took a few seconds to pull himself out from under his bike, and when he did, the first thing he did was to search out his fallen, stubby cigarette and get those last few passionate draws out of it. Who said all passion was wise?
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