Published on 17 luglio 2008
i swear this is all true: today i came back from capri. you have an account of the work i did there on the other blog, the serious one. but because this is the backstage of the backstage and we fuck around, i want to tell you, but i even more want to tell myself when i will be reading this in ten years time, and maybe i will have forgotten about this july 17, 2008, what has happened today. i want to start from the very beginning. the job ended yesterday, this morning then i woke up nicely relaxed, that only happens when the job is over, and one doesn’t have any more angiushes, small or big, on how the weather will be, how will be the outcome … etc….. i wake up, my hotel room was facing the swimming pool, i dive into the water, i swim few lengths and i lie in the sun. then i realize it is getting late, i rush to get my suitcase ready, go to the reception, pay the extra (23, 50 euros) and i ask for a taxi. i’m lucky, the taxi one of the last historical, red with a canopy above. we rush to the harbour, where i catch the ferry by a close shave, perfect crossing, beautiful sunshine, the “amerigo vespucci” navy ship with unfurled sails, a group of dolphins happily jumping. and after all this unuseful preamble, the real story starts: i get off the ferry and here was only one taxi waiting for the passengers. i go near but i see there is already a person sitting inside. the taxi driver shouts to me: “a guaglio’, where are you going?”. “to the airport” i say. “ perfect! come on board, the lady also sitting in the back goes there, there are no others taxis, and i’ll take you both”. perfect, i also say, and i sit in front. we start chatting, his name is antonio. i soon realize that is not the road to the airport, and i discover that the leady sitting in the back is not going to the airport, but to downtown naples. “but settimio, (antonio learnt quickly my name) i drop the lady on the road to the airport, we don’t even waist one minute!” and down in the caos and the absurd traffic of naples, small alleys, tiny roads … we drop the lady and while talking antonio discovers i didn’t have any breakfast (in fact you haven’t heard any breakfast mentioned before!) so we stop at a bar (nice and good, i don’t know where it was, near the university) to have breakfast, and in the meantime we talk and talk, and antonio tells me all his life story. like for instance that he met his wife dialling the wrong number on the cell phone …. we leave the bar nicely satisfied and antonio’s cell phone rings. “ settimio, you don’t mind if you go and fetch this client of mine, he is also going to the airport..” “not at all anotnio, let’s go and fetch your client!” and down again through small alleys, tiny roads, naples’ outskirts, with unending tales about his life, some sort of tour guiding, (this square is called like that but we call it like this …), camorra’s (here lives the famous boss called so and so), erotica’s (here is full of whores at night…) but along the road antonio reveals his strategy: “setttimio my dear, we have to tell my client that you are my cousin, otherwise he will not want to pay the whole journey!” “ok antonio my dear, from now on i’m your cousin” and i pay him for the run, so that it will be clear that the “cousin” doesn’t pay. we arrive in the middle of the wrecked outskirts, full of cines hypermarkets, at the factory where antonio’s “client” had been waiting. the dude was a technician specialized in fixing industrial bread ovens, and he was from padua. once on board, i greet him kindly, and antonio tells him “sir this is my cousin, leaving for milan” “nice to meet you!” “nice to meet you!” and we start the conversation. after a while the fellow from padua tells me (all right, try the venetian accent”) : “excuse me, but you don’t seem to have a neapolitan accent”. so, caught between two fires (on one side not to give problems to antonio and on the other already his accomplice), i start to chatter in an improbable neapolitan that i was neapolitan but it had already been twenty years since i moved to milan. in neapolitan. and the dude was giving me a nasty look. and i would have liked to tell him: “i’m sorry, i’m also a passenger like you, i pay the whole run and we finish here …. “ but on the other hand antonio was staring at me, showing complicity and enjoyment. a hell of a journey. finally we arrive at the airport, i get out quickly, take my luggage and in front of the suspicious guy from padua, antonio and i hg each others and we kiss like two cousins that haven’t seen each others for twenty years. “and say hi to carmela! and say hi to ciro! and come and visit more often!” we were just about to start crying. this is the story of my trip from naples to milan today, july 17, 2008. the rest is a tale on its own, like to go to the alitalia aircraft there was no bus or tunnel, but we went on foot. but this is another story…. P.S. : this has nothing to do with the story above, but the day, july 17, 2008, ended really with a flourish: back from capri i went at the studio to work a bit, then to the arcimboldi theater here in milan (very ugly theater, with horrendous acustics, no parking) to attend an exceptional concert: the great tom waits! next july 17 i’ll be ready……
