Big night
Tonight on TV the governement is going to be killed. Prepare popcorns,
and then luggage.
Addio, which does not exist
Un nodo alla gola ed un ultimo sguardo alla vecchia Anna Liffey e alle strade del porto.
Un sorso di birra per le verdi brughiere e un altro ai mocciosi coperti di fango,
e un brindisi anche agli gnomi a alle fate, ai folletti che corrono sulle tue strade.Hai i fianchi robusti di una vecchia signora e i modi un po’ rudi della gente di mare,
ti trascini tra fango, sudore e risate e la puzza di alcool nelle notti d’estate.
Un vecchio compagno ti segue paziente, il mare si sdraia fedele ai tuoi piedi,
ti culla leggero nelle sere d’inverno, ti riporta le voci degli amanti di ieri.
E’ in un giorno di pioggia che ti ho conosciuta,il vento dell’ovest rideva gentile
e in un giorno di pioggia ho imparato ad amarti
mi hai preso per mano portandomi via.
Hai occhi di ghiaccio ed un cuore di terra, hai il passo pesante di un vecchio ubriacone,
ti chiudi a sognare nelle notti d’inverno e ti copri di rosso e fiorisci d’estate.
I tuoi esuli parlano lingue straniere, si addormentano soli sognando i tuoi cieli,
si ritrovano persi in paesi lontani a cantare una terra di profughi e santi.
E’ in un giorno di pioggia che ti ho conosciuta,
il vento dell’ovest rideva gentile
e in un giorno di pioggia ho imparato ad amarti
mi hai preso per mano portandomi via.
E in un giorno di pioggia ti rivedrò ancora
e potrò consolare i tuoi occhi bagnati.
In un giorno di pioggia saremo vicini,
balleremo leggeri sull’aria di un Reel.
* Addio means goodbye when you are sure you will never ever see the other person again.
Day 18&19 – Il bel Paese
-After the UN’ moratorium on death penalty, the Pope is asking a moratorium on abortion. And I live in a country where people applaud these kind of guys!
- Padre Pio’s corpse will be exhumed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his death (!?)
Là, dove’l si sona
Basically, New Zealand is a country that is so much beautiful as it is different from Italy: a real lot.
To get things even worse, it’s raining dogs and cats: the sky is grey as grey can be and we will lose the last sunsets of the Shump-Pearces. I wonder when, and if, I’ll be able to see another one.
Day 17 – LA LIGERA
We go back home, in Wellington, listening to Ry Cooder and Bob Dylan (I’ve decided I don’t like Joni Michell and Van Morrison, feel free to judge me). Explorations are now over, we only have the city left to see. And cities are all the same all over the world in too many ways. Right on time, it arrived: the greatest travel story me and my sister we will ever be able to listen to in our whole lives. The most incredible thing is that it comes out from our beloved dad’s mouth. When he and all over parents in the world were little boys and girls, the word was much different than nowadays (so far it’s easy). In Terruggia, were daddy was born, people never locked the doors of their houses, everyone was coming over at anytime, the inhabitants shared everything they owned with the others (these are not banalities, think about our daytime). And then there was la ligera. The roamer, who travelled light because he did not own anything and he lived day by day. He wandered through the villages asking for hospitality, and more or less once in a month he turned up in Terruggia. He crashed for a couples of days at someone’s house, asking for some food and a bed, and then he went away. It was a tradition that brought back up to the pilgrims and that got permanently lost with the economic boom. The indians actually call the roamer “someone who is carrying out a spiritual journey”: definetely they don’t call him homeless. Anyway, one day la ligera arrives at aunt Aurelia’s house, grandma Martina’s sister, and ask her for food. Aunt Aurelia is running late, she has to go to the city for some errands, so she quickly prepares a meal with the remnants (please note: she was leaving him alone in the house). When she’s about to serve him, she realizes she has almost no wine left: she should go down to the basement and get another bottle, but she has no time left, she’s already running very very late. Not to look like the one who did not serve la ligera wine, she waters it down. She runs away for her errands…but when she gets back, she has a very bad surprise: la ligera is at the door, wainting for her to get back: “you gave me watered-down wine: I’m never coming back here!” he shouts leaving for good. And he never showed up again. For aunt Aurelia loosing her roamer was a very bad slap in the face. And nothing else matters. Day 16 – Northern island: other volcanos
For sure without a catholic church in the middle of one of the village squares.
Day 15 – Rotorua
A part from this, we took a walk through woods and falls which I believed only existed in my immagination, especially those thick forets that hide amazing fields of green grass. I became a child again, when I dreamt of being a princess at war in a middle of a bewitched forest to save my prince charming, trapped by the bad guy. So now I know the locations of my dreams truly exist. I still miss Prince Charming and the Bad Guy.Day 14 – We all are glowworms
In New Zealand there are caves in which, about 6 metres deep in the ground, you can see a starry sky as you would never see everywhere else in the world, during the day as during the night. The show is indescribable and you can’t take pictures, otherwise it would vanish: the only way to see it is by descending there. This wonder is made by worms that during their larval state glow in the dark to attract small insects that believe of having found their way out of the cave. The worms let a gluey thread dangling down of their body and the insect stiuck themselves in it. In other words, there are worms who fish up. After they grow up they stop glowing; the female leaves the celining of the cave and flyes around looking for a male to fecundate the eggs with. As soon as they let the new larvas they die. BUT: if while she’s looking for the male the female remains stuck y accidents in the larvas threads, they eat her. I’m pretty sure it was only a coincidence, but all around the cave there where notices against family violence.
Day 13 – Nothern Island: Mount Doom
Day 12 part 2- Remembering the last year
