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martedì 27 aprile 2021

Inventa & Sogna


Dal mese di dicembre faccio parte dell'Associazione "100mila Ripartenze" con sede a Treviso. In occasione del loro primo crowdfunding, mi sono ritrovata ad usare Linkedin, perché qui si trovava il target della raccolta fondi. Così ho iniziato ad usare Linkedin per la prima volta. Ho pubblicizzato il crowdfunding, ho fatto crowdsourcing, sono entrata in contatto con professioniste e professionisti e ho conosciuto la rivista MILLIONAIRE, fondata nel 1990. Ho iniziato a comprare MILLIONAIRE ogni mese. Nel mese di marzo ho risposto alla candidatura per ricevere gratuitamente un libro cartaceo o un e-book di Jeff Bezos. C'erano 5 libri in palio. Ho scelto "Inventa & Sogna". Il libro mi è arrivato nell'uovo di Pasqua, preceduto dalla mail della redazione. Non potevano farmi un regalo più gradito! 

Immediatamente ho interagito con la redazione tramite email, ringraziandoli. Ho anche espresso loro il mio desiderio di rispondere ad un lettore, che aveva inviato un suo appunto nella rubrica "lettere", proprio riguardo al sogno. Avrei voluto spiegare ciò che significa per me la parola "sogno" nel mondo dell'impresa. Avrei voluto pubblicare qualcosa su MILLIONAIRE. 

La vita è tutta un destino. Basta saper dosare la pazienza! 

Quindi...stamattina ho mandato alla redazione di MILLIONAIRE un mio articolo con un paio di foto e mi auguro proprio che venga pubblicato. Intanto sto leggendo il libro di Jeff Bezos, che tra l'altro è un mio coetaneo. Siamo del mitico 1964. Del libro mi diverto a capire come potrebbe essere scritto il testo originale in inglese. La traduzione del titolo "Inventa & Sogna" per me non spiega già a sufficienza il significato del messaggio, l'invito all'azione da parte di Jeff Bezos. Nel sogno c'è di più e poi...il sogno va pensato con il cervello switchato in inglese. Il titolo originale del libro è: "Invent & Wonder". In  quello wonder c'è lo stupore di un bambino, la genuinità e l'innocenza che sono gli ingredienti da recuperare per fare innovazione d'impresa. Possiamo tutti sognare, se decidiamo di tornare bambini. 


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sabato 23 gennaio 2021

Quel giorno di dieci anni fa

La CAMA (cooperativa artigiana majoliche artistiche)
nella nuova sede in Via Tiberina negli anni Sessanta 

















Sono passati dieci anni da quando con i miei genitori siamo usciti dalla porta di servizio della fabbrica della nostra famiglia. Era arrivato il custode, inviato dal tribunale fallimentare di Perugia, e qualche giorno prima ci aveva comunicato di consegnargli le chiavi.

Abbiamo lasciato tutto com'era, perché il babbo nella sua fabbrica era convinto di tornarci. Quindi sono rimasti dentro al laboratorio le campionature di tutte le majoliche create negli ultimi quarant'anni di storia, in ufficio erano ancora lì i documenti ordinati e custoditi in un armadietto, la carta da imballaggio, gli strumenti da lavoro e anche il tornio di legno a pedale, che non era segnato in inventario ma che non sapevamo dove portare. 

Uno degli decori creati dalla Cama,
l'Antico Deruta
 
Non abbiamo portato via nulla. Abbiamo chiuso la porta a chiave e ce ne siamo andati. La mamma era preoccupata, perché diceva che la stessa cosa ci sarebbe accaduta per la casa. In questi dieci anni io, quando torno a Deruta, evito di passare sulla via Tiberina, per non vedere la fabbrica dove sono nata e cresciuta. 


Qualche volta chiudo gli occhi e rivedo la fabbrica prima dei lavori di ampliamento a ridosso delle crisi. I lavori non erano da farsi ma nessuno ci ha avvisato, né governanti, né politici, né tanto meno le banche, che nel 1999 avevano aderito alla "cartolarizzazione". 

Proprio in quest'anno, nel 1999, la nostra fabbrica contrasse il mutuo ipotecario per i lavori di sistemazione della fabbrica. Dall'Unione Europea stavano arrivando fondi destinati alla muratura. Noi ne facemmo richiesta e i finanziamenti ci vennero assegnati. Le cose andavano più che bene, il lavoro c'era e contavamo di raccogliere i frutti di anni di sacrifici, di fare il grande salto. Eppure mi ricorderò sempre che dicevo al mio papà che qualcosa di anomalo era successo a far data gennaio 1997, prima del terremoto che scosse Assisi: c'era stato un calo nei flussi della clientela privata ma al contrario i negozi americani continuavano a comprare in maniera notevole. 

Il decoro "Senese" che riproduce il pavimento del 
Duomo di Siena, Piace molto agli architetti
Rivedo così la fabbrica della mia infanzia, di quegli anni Settanta tanto cari, i luoghi che avrebbero accompagnato la mia vita: la vecchia fornace a legna, ormai in disuso, la porta di ferro colorata di rosso antico sul retro e che portava all'imballaggio: i trucioli sempre inumiditi, il pavimento sconnesso, una zona quasi all'aperto in fondo alla fabbrica, che poi dava sul verde della campagna. Poi c'era anche uno scantinato nel reparto creazione, dove lo zio torniante teneva i pani di argilla e li portava su per essere lavorati. Mi ricordo quando i miei comprarono una macchina per trasformare i pani rettangolari in cilindri, che poi tagliati potevano essere trasformati più facilmente nelle sfere che servono per forgiare un oggetto, piccolo o grande che sia. 


Della fabbrica porto con me i colori dei pavimenti e delle veneziane, gli odori degli smalti, della terra e dei metalli preziosi, di cui l'oro liquido in bottiglie è inconfondibile, il rosso scuro del pavimento del magazzino, ovvero dello spazio fronte strada, che era adibito alla vendita al pubblico. Invece le veneziane della fabbrica erano turchesi e ho sempre pensato che il mio babbo le avesse scelte così, perché i suoi occhi sono celesti. 

Il decoro classico di Deruta, il 
Raffaellesco. I decori sono come
calligrafiee questa è
la firma della mia mamma
Negli anni Settanta era stata fatta una soprelevazione e la sala di pittura con la smaltatura si trovavano al secondo piano. Prima i pittori lavoravano al piano terra in prossimità del magazzino. Di collegamento tra i due piani c'era un ascensore e anche delle scale esterne di ferro. La fabbrica era fornita di bagni sia al piano superiore che al piano inferiore. Qui erano esterni. 

La fabbrica prima dei lavori era come un piccolo borgo antico, in cui si erano aggiunti dei pezzi volta per volta. Aveva il suo fascino ma venne il giorno in cui il Sindaco del paese ci intimò che se non avessimo dato una sistemata al laboratorio, ci avrebbe mandato le ruspe...era il 1999 e le banche sapevano già che c'era una crisi in atto. Avevano fatto ricorso alla cartolarizzazione dei crediti e potevano dare di nuovo mutui in maniera disinvolta. Tutti noi nella famiglia ci saremmo così messi il cappio al collo...


Il mio saggio del 2018 coi colori rosso scuro e turchese, che porto con me a ricordo della fabbrica della mia famiglia con nuove interpretazioni, simboli di vita, arte e cultura. 

Per un approfondimento sull'argomento della crisi leggi: Sebastiano Barisoni "Terra incognita. Una mappa per il nuovo orizzonte economico", Solferino, 2020, pp. 185. 


Feedback istantanei al post: 

"Ho letto con attenzione il tuo articolo che hai descritto in modo magistrale! Ti auguro il meglio per una grande  ripartenza!" - Marisa, Perugia  

"Buongiorno Roberta, Che storia triste e bellissima per come sei riuscita a raccontarla...in poche righe, mi hai fatto ''vivere'' tutte le emozioni che te e la tua famiglia avete vissuto. Quando dico che sei una grande è perché lo penso veramente e sono certa che, presto avrai il successo meritato così da poter  ''riscattare'' la grande perdita della fabbrica...costruita con tanto lavoro, sacrificio e passione.

Ho compreso bene, come è stata vissuta da te tutta la storia...invece I tuoi genitori come hanno reagito a tutto ciò?

Se ti andrà di raccontarmi...la prossima volta che ci sentiamo...ti ascolto volentieri.

Super Roberta"  - Maristella, Roma 


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martedì 7 novembre 2017

Back to the origins

A very meaningful part of the exhibition IL CINQUECENTO A FIRENZE
Yesterday I was in Florence to visit the exhibition about the Italian Renaissance with a friend of mine, Annette.

What a great opportunity to be back writing on my blog. Indeed from February to October this year, I have been busy with a project for a shopping center here in my area.

I would like to explain that my studies about the Italian Renaissance and my visits to places in Italy have a very practical aim: creating something new in the arts & crafts industry with regards to services and products for the travelers. Therefore beyond any results, my break time was well spent. I am getting there!

Tickets to the exhibition IL CINQUECENTO A FIRENZE cost 12.00 euros. I had a reduction to 9.50 euros as I showed the admission desk my COOP member card. The exhibition will be open until January 21st, 2018.

What struck me about the 70 paintings and sculptures at The Cinquecento in Florence was the paintings' colors: lively and common to each other. Several paintings were restored for the occasion by the Friends of Florence. I particularly like the name Friends of Florence as I think of you, the Friends of Cama.

The CHIUSI-CHIANCIANO
TERME train station
 
The so-called 'Porcellino' (sweet pig) is actually
a...wild boar! 
Annette and I, we went to Florence by train leaving from the Chiusi train station at 09:09am and took the 07:13pm train back home.

The rest of the day in Florence we visited the Medici-Riccardi palace with the marvelous Benozzo Gozzoli chapel.

Then we attended a conference about Botticelli and Dante at the palace that is located in front of it, the seat of the Region of Tuscany. It's called Palazzo del Pegaso.

Lastly, we paid a visit to the Mercato del Porcellino and touched the wild boar nose!

A famous detail from the Benozzo Gozzoli chapel at Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. It took the artist 20 years to paint one of the most beautiful chapels in the world. What an amazing place to visit! 






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martedì 11 ottobre 2016

"That's Another Pair of Sleeves!"

"That's another pair of sleeves" is a colorful expression that we use in Italian to describe something that is about a completely different thing with no connection to a previous one. The expression comes from the Medieval and Renaissance use of interchangeable sleeves in men's and women's dress in particular.

Agnolo Bronzino, Maria di Cosimo I de' Medici, 1551, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
In Europe, British English provides the expression: "That's a different kettle of fish", while French and other European languages use the idiomatic expression with the sleeves. Other English sayings that are similar to "That's another pair of sleeves" are: "It's a whole new ballgame", "That's a horse of a different color" or simply "It's another thing" and "It's something else", where the else in this idiom means "other than ordinary."

For us in Italy "That's another pair of sleeves" is the expression that to us makes more sense of all the above translations. The reason is that most of the time we use idiomatic expressions by way of tradition without being aware of where they come from. We feel comfortable with using these expressions that our ancestors have used before we did.

We learn idiomatic expressions from our grandparents, our parents, and our community. As idiomatic expressions are often related to arts and history, they can be thoroughly understood only by researching the expression's origin. However, we fully understand what we say without going into the etymology of it. It's the use of the idiom that tells us it is the correct thing to say.

For us in Italy "That's another pair of sleeves" has a positive connotation, probably coming from the beauty of the example it is related to. In terms of comparison of the two things we are mentioning, the second term of comparison is way better than the first one, the best of the two, the right thing.

The interchangeable sleeve tradition in the Renaissance was also part of the lover's cup tradition of giving an engagement token of love to one's beloved for their wedding. Interchangeable sleeves could be so valuable that they were kept in safes.




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giovedì 22 settembre 2016

Peace and Plenty

Guido Reni, Peace and Plenty (1627) 
I didn't know that we celebrated the International Day of Peace on September 21st. Is this something new? From what I know facebook participated in the Day of Peace celebrations by making love filled with hearts. I am sure you noticed it, too. Today the heart function is back to normal. Clicking on hearts on Facebook yesterday was much fun!

When I think of peace I envision the etching by Italian artist Guido Reni with the personalizations of Peace next to Plenty. The allegory is meant to express the alliance between the two. To me everything beautiful comes in pairs: peace and plenty is the best example to express this concept that is very often depicted in art. 

Other pairs that come to my mind right now are Venus and Mars, Aurora and Helios, Spring and Hermes. This latter is very interesting with regards to reviving something (spring) as Hermes is the messenger of success. 

Now I have a little story to share. By observing the coat of arms of a local family called Misciattelli, I thought of it as an expression of the alliance of peace and plenty. Colors were reinforcing the idea: blue for the dove's background and red for the cat's. Look at the coat of arms with me:
The Misciattelli coat of arms (colored by me for the Friends of Cama)

The cat was the symbol of the Miscìattelli family because their name comes from 'miscio', onomatopeic for a cat in Italian. The cat is the symbol of abundance as a fat cat means that the neighborhood is feeding him well, that there is food available.  

The dove is the international symbol of peace and the olive tree sprig is an additional element to prove this meaning as true. So when I first saw this coat of arms I thought of being in front of the alliance of peace and plenty again. 

Soon after I asked a heraldic association to let me know if what I thought could be real. I sent them an email. They got back to me and said that coat of arms does not go this far as to allegories. It was just a coincidence. The only thing they said to me is that the dove in a coat of arms is a feminine symbol. 

Indeed what had happened is that the Marquis Misciattelli had gotten married to a local young lady who was invited to select a symbol for herself to be added to the coat of arms on the day of their marriage: she selected the dove of peace. 



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giovedì 15 settembre 2016

FIVE YEARLY WINDOWS FOR TWELVE MONTHS

Simone Martini, Saint Martin of Tours, 1322-1326, Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi, Italy 

My favorite day of the year is New Year's Eve. To me, this day is the first window into my life journey's renewal. Celebrating a new start to the journey with the rest of the world is definitely a great event. 
The egg is a symbol of rebirth and renewal. 

However, there are other important windows during the year. Among all celebrations in Italy, we can list FIVE important occasions to celebrate the yearly revivals: 1. New Year's Eve, Easter, August 15th - also known as 'Ferragosto', November 11th - also known as 'St. Martin's day' and Christmas. Most recently I heard people rename 'Ferragosto': 'Summer New Year's, probably because of the fireworks closing the day's celebrations just like we do on New Year's Eve. 

We are now way ahead towards autumn. Our next yearly renewal appointment is November 11th. In Italy, on this day we celebrate Saint Martin of Tours. The reason is that we remind ourselves of being charitable in order to face the seasons' craziness.

Fireworks in Italy are part of the Ferragosto celebrations
on  August 15th 
These five-yearly celebrations became part of the religious and political calendar in classical ages already- such as the case of Ferragosto, which was the name given to this celebration by Emperor Augustus - Feriae Augusti --> Ferragosto in Italian ---> etymology from Latin: Augustus vacations. However in the beginning these celebrations were part of nature's revival cycles. These cycles were described by the fruits of the earth, among which wheat was indispensable for survival since the dawn of time. Ferragosto was meant to celebrate the closing of the wheat harvesting period. 
Christmas atmosphere in Sicily 


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giovedì 6 agosto 2015

A visit to the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria on a very hot summer day

Entrance door to the GALLERIA NAZIONALE DELL'UMBRIA, 
Perugia, Italy 
I am writing this post as I promised one of my best Facebook friends I would write a dedicated post about my recent visit to the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria. In this blog post, I would have explained a concept I had originally written in Umbrian dialect on Facebook. Indeed my friend commented that the explanation for the picture at Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria I had posted didn't get translated. The reason for disabling an automated translation is that I wrote in Umbrian dialect indeed. Dialects are codes that in Italy belong to family and friends only. That's why dialects are not listed on international translators. They are like handy communication short-cuts.

I also write in Umbrian dialect as part of my Facebook friends are Italian and I feel like using dialect in Italy makes people come closer to each other. This said I am going to try and 'translate' what I originally wrote in Umbrian dialect, namely Perugino dialect. In general, the most difficult part is translating idiomatic expressions and play-on-words from dialect to any other language but I will try to do my best. 

Benedetto Bonfigli, Angels offering roses, 1466,
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy
In my Facebook dialect post, I meant to say that last Sunday I would have met friends at the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria downtown Perugia. 
On the first Sunday of the month admission to the Italian public museums are free and we had a mission to accomplish. Therefore we thought of free admission as an invitation to accomplish our goal. Then I added that if beauty will save the world, it is most important to cultivate beauty. I also said that I don't mind at all nourishing beauty. I used an Italian idiomatic expression that goes: buttarsi a peso morto, which means 'to fling oneself into something'. However, in Italian peso translates 'weight' and the idiomatic expression 'buttarsi a peso morto' visually communicates the image of someone investing all his/her body weight into something. Right now I am a little overweight, therefore the play-on-word was that by being pretty heavy, my flinging myself into beauty would be a more efficient contribution thanks to my weight indeed. 

Giovan Battista Caporali, Saint Jerome's altarpiece, 1510-1515
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy



I have no idea if this explanation would make sense to an English speaking reader. I do not even know if I was the only Italian who enjoyed reading my post by making some self-irony. Therefore I continued my post by saying that because I used all my body weight to fling myself into cultivating beauty, there is no way I could benefit from this action of mine. One of the immediate benefits is that I can refine my body's inside, which is in my mind and soul. As a second step, I will be able to refine the outside which means losing weight. However, I wrote I can do one thing at a time only. Therefore for the second refinement, there is still some time to go. I hope I will still be on time to recover my ideal weight. Finally, I apologized to beauty if I was too much of a burden on her, still referring to my weight. The irony won't save the world, however, it helps feel much lighter! 

This is not the end of the story. I will write a new post describing the reason why we visited the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria last Sunday. What our mission was. It's a story that for the time being I have shared only with my new Facebook friend who has just become our new contributor to the Friends of Cama page on Facebook.  She is very knowledgeable and passionate about art. Follow our page and share it with friends. Help us keep beauty alive!



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venerdì 11 aprile 2014

'C' FOR CINEMA



For those of you who are following my story, you know that by tomorrow I will have been here in the United States for ten weeks. I came here to accomplish my mission of getting my startup going. It's been an amazing experience. 

While spending my time researching and networking - between virtual time and events in the city and in the Silicon Valley - I have dedicated some of my free time to watching movies. I have seen a total of nine movies in a beautiful art deco theater fully restaured and with the brightest screen in the world. 



This is the list of movies I have seen and I wish to understand why I selected them. For sure they are part of my startup story: 


1. American Hustle  (It was intriguing. I wanted to see it from the time I left Italy)
2. Pompeii (I was curious to see Pompeii's town reconstruction. Never seen it before)
3. Frozen (getting over my fears was a great accomplishment of mine in these five years)
4. Monuments Men (recommended by a new business contact. We will be in touch again and I will tell this person that I followed her suggestion)
5. Twelve Years A Slave (I wanted to see this movie following to its success at the Oscars Night)
6. 300: Rise of An Empire  (It was the only movie available when I went by the theater. I ended up liking it.)
7. NOAH  (I liked the preview and Noah's line: "I'm not alone")
8. Grand Budapest Hotel (I found it by searching a good movie to watch. Stefan Zweig is one of my favorite writers. The movie is inspired by his work.)
9. Captain America (My second 3D experience and a beautiful memory with one of my favorite actors: Robert Redford). 


There is an additional movie that I saw in these ten weeks and is linked to my startup story more than anything: Forrest Gump (1994). I wanted to see this movie and my friends set up a movie night at their home. The reason is that one of my best friends who is now our Cama business development assistant calls me Forrestina. Additionally the movie goes back to twenty years ago when I was in the United States for the first time. But this is part of a different story and it would take too long to write about it here.  Forrest Gump was my 10th movie and I loved it! I am definitely feeling like a Forrestina! 



The famous selfie at the Oscars Night 2014 that was published on twitter and went viral.
























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This is my second edition  of short  stories entitled "Cake Stands for Cama": stories about my favorites starting with the letter "C". 



martedì 8 aprile 2014

'R' FOR 'ROBIN'

Ardenwood Historic Farm was named after a forest
area described in Shakespeare's play 'As You Like It'.
 


On Sunday I saw an American robin for the first time in my life. I saw it in a dream place. It is called 'Ardenwood Historic Farm' and is located in Fremont, on the way to Palo Alto. The farm takes its name from the William Shakepeare's play: 'As you like it'. I also saw a peacock and a ram for the first time. Big butteflies I had never seen before. These animals were all so close I could touch them.  

I was so happy to see robins hopping on the ground freely and confident in their own habitat. They live with other 99 species of birds spotted in the Ardenwood historic farm. Robins here are definitely in good company. 

I told the robins there that I have dedicated a few of my posts to them. I told them that I love them. I added that in Italy they are called 'red brests', pettirosso. I said that their cousins over in Europe are slightly different and do not lay blue eggs. However they are called the same: Robins. 

Hardenwood Historic Farm is huge. It's beautiful. I would live there. 

Ardenwood founder was George Patterson, an American 49er who came to California in search of gold. He ended up getting rich by way of the hard work coming from his art: farming. What a beautiful story! 
                          
George Patterson came to California with a dream like many other Americans in that time: finding gold. He ended up making his fortune with his own art: farming. This is the Patterson's family home. It's now part of the East Bay Regional Park District

To know more about 'Ardenwood Historic Farm' visit: http://www.ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood
                                                                           
American Robin 

ROAR STANDS FOR ROBIN:  My new series of posts is inspired by my name: Roberta. In the United States Robin is the most common name variation for Roberta.


Robin's new borns
This is what I mean by roar. So sweet!
       
American Robin's eggs 
                          
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venerdì 17 gennaio 2014

Good reasons for keeping traditions alive

January 17th is pet's feast day. St. Antonio Abate is pets' saint protector



Today is St. Antonio Abate feast day in Italy, the saint protector of animals. I will always remember this day because I take my dog Paquita to the animals' reunion in Deruta for the animals' blessing. 

We do a parade with our priest on a truck holding the saint's plaster statue and leading cars from downtown Deruta to the lower part of town, known as borough. There's a large parking lot there, on main street's north side turning useful for community events. 

Paquita looks so beautiful on this day! She is one of the many pets in town and she makes her way pretty well among other animals. She is twelve years old but still young in her spirit. She likes greeting other animals, playing with them and sharing her energy with everybody. The only thing I could teach her - and I do not know how I made it - is that she doesn't answer back to other dogs barking at her. This happens when these dogs are doing their job of watching their territory or when we cross into other dogs along the river Tiber's walking trails.  We go there for our daily walk and we meet other people with dogs. Paquita is a lady!

A classical image of St. Antonio Abate,
St. protector of animals.
I wish to add that January 17th was originally a pagan feast day preparing for springtime. This is the reason why in many places in Italy people burn bonfires that in Italian are called: 'falò'. There is another piece of information I wish to add to the pagan side of this feast day. It is related to single women and to my personal experience as an Italian young lady. 

I have to make an introduction to what I am about to narrate: you may be aware of how Italians can be straight forward. Much different from Americans who have a reputation for being polite. Indeed right after the Second World War two Italians arguing would use the expression: "What do you think that I'm American?". This was a warning about the fact that the person in front of you would not be using all his/her bonton good manners. Thank goodness instances are not usually aggressive in Italy. Just take it easy and not take words too seriously. 

This said, when I was younger and not meeting my soul mate, for the people in my town I was an old made. They did not hesitate to remark my single status. A few decades later the term in Italy turned to the English word: 'single'. However not much had changed in my fellows' attitude. Why am I writing this introduction? Because in Italy in times past if you were an old maid you would have your saint protector: Sant'Antonio abate! 
Saturn is the furthest planet away that is still visible to
the naked eye. 
Galileo first saw the distinctive rings through
his telescope in the early 1600s.

So if you were single in Italy in the old days your feast day would be on January 17th. I am wondering why. As a matter of fact all this stress could have been avoided if someone told my soul mate about a Deruta tradition. This would have made us enjoy at least twenty-five years of beautiful life together at least. Life is not the same without your soulmate. All this time I have been feeling like half of a planet. I could not rotate at best. That was the feeling. 

Tradition narrates that Deruta was the perfect place to find your spouse. Probably because of the joke that comes from ceramic making. You can order custom made pieces in Deruta just the way you want it. So people would address you to Deruta when in trouble finding your perfect better half. It was kind of a joke. If you can't find you perfect better half, just have it custom made in Deruta. If my soul mate had been aware of this tradion he would have come towards the river Tiber instead of taking the opposite direction. 

That's exactly why we didn't meet any earlier. Why in the world aren't we keeping our traditions alive? 


Roberta & Daniele  have reunited against all expectations.


What happened is that a few years ago destiny brought me over to where he lived and I could meet him at last! While waiting I had told my nieces that he had to be somewhere out there and that there must have been some technical issue that prevented him to come to me. In that case I said to them he had to go all the way around the world again and repeat his journey looking for each other. My nieces loved this story so much that when I introduced my fiancé to them they were thrilled and made thumbs up to uncle Daniele. They knew exactly what we were talking about. 





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