talent without show

DOLCENERA
TALENT WITHOUT SHOW
In a cozy, friendly atmosphere
the art of eating well
Via C. Battisti 4, Lecce | www.osteriadeglispiriti.it
leccellente magazine #2
DECEMBER-JANUARY 2012/13
i n d e x
DOLCENERA 6
CIOCCOLATO HISTOIRE 10
PIMAR 14
LUCA CAPILUNGO 18
NO-MISSPEND 22
PURCIDDHRUZZI 26
FEDERICO PRIMICERI 30
DIV.ERGO 36
città del libro 38
IL PUNTO DI PINO DE LUCA 43
COVER STORY
Dolcenera photographed by Silvio Bursomanno
PU B L I S H E R M U S TL A B
DI R E CTO R L E DA CESA RI
AS S I S TA N T D I R E CTOR PIN O D E LUCA
NE WS E D I TO R M O N ICA N E GRO
G R A P H I CS & w e b M UST LA B
PHOTO S S I LV I O B U RSOM A N N O
PR I N TI N G G R A F I CA ZE ROT TA N TA
EDITORIAL STAFF
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Waiting for 2013
with a heart full
of hope
It has been a very tough year, both on a personal and a global level. We have gone through a lot of bad things, and looking into the future, we cannot really see anything that may
give us some hope, and hope is the only thing that would
help us carry on in this dark, often incomprehensible world.
And yet… at the end of such a complicated year, I want to
think – and write – positive, because if you give in to fear
and despair, you are only feeding that potentially dangerous
collective fear. Therefore I wish myself and all of you readers of LECCELLENTE, a bright, peaceful, and loving 2013.
This is not one of those rhetorical, cheesy wishes you text
each other at Christmas, this is a wish from the bottom of
my heart. Because we all need to feel alive again, we all need
to make this our goal for 2013: make a collective, global effort to come out of this dark tunnel we are in, on all levels.
A palingenesis that will force us to face the dark moods we
have created globally, to hopefully neutralise them – but we
have yet to make this happen. We have reached a point of no
return in this classic game of “jump or die”. And so, in spite
of the Mayan prophecy, I hope that at the dawn of 22nd December 2012, we will all be moving on to create a new, better
world, or at least a less gloomy one. A world that will be
saved by a giant and collective effort to change the state of
things, a world that will be saved by beauty, as Dostoyevsky
used to say: a beauty that everyone at “LECCELLENTE” will
hopefully keep writing about. You will find many examples
of beauty in this issue. So, let us try to enjoy all this beauty,
because, as Oscar Wilde once said, “We are all in the gutter,
but some of us are looking at the stars”.
«I wish myself and
all of you readers
of LECCELLENTE, a bright,
peaceful, and loving 2013.
This is not one of those
rhetorical, cheesy wishes
you text each other at
Christmas, this is a wish
from the bottom
of my heart»
F
MUSIC
IS MY DRUG
or singer and songwriter Dolcenera, “Modern age”
rhymes with…
“Knowledge! This is a moment in time where you need
to be aware of yourself and the world around you. You need to
know what’s going on around you, and develop your own critical
sense. A thorough knowledge of what is going on in the world is
the only way for you to make the right choices, both on a personal
and a social level”.
Future on the other hand…
“Future rhymes with…torture! Sad, isn’t it?”. The civilisation of a
country is measured by its ability to create opportunities for its
younger population in every aspect, not only job-wise. Work,
sports, music, personal interests are nothing but ways to express
your own personality. When you express yourself you truly feel
like part of a community, you feel like you’re not alone”.
What does it feel like to watch your colleagues – some being
from the same latitude as you – become famous thanks to
talent shows? What do you say? Do you thank God you have
slowly climbed the ladder to success or curse yourself you
didn’t grow up in the era of the famous talent show “Amici”?
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing to climb the ladder from the bot-
tom to the top; in fact, it’s highly formative: it’s like knowing you
have to read tons of books, as many as possible, before you can
write one of your own! It’s your personal artistic journey, where
you haven’t got any audience for long periods of time – and you
really don’t have to – but that takes you along hidden and intimate
paths. Talent shows are a great opportunity as a starting point,
and a good way to create your own musical path, but that’s about
it. It’s not coincidental that all those talent show contestants that
don’t follow a certain path, eventually disappear from the music
scene. Success is very fragile: it peaks with talent shows, but when
the lights go out, you need to have developed your own culture
and your own musical awareness, or at least try to develop them
with time”.
What is your favourite talent show? If you watch any, that
is.
“I don’t watch any talent shows. I don’t really watch that much
TV. I only watch informative TV shows and American series in
their original language, on the internet”.
Would you ever accept a role as a judge in a talent show?
“I don’t know. Maybe not in those that have too many seasons
behind. Well, if being a judge means becoming a sideshow fre-
ak, then there’s no way I’d ever accept…But if being a judge is an
opportunity to discover new talents, collaborate with them once
the show has ended, write new songs, arrangements and artistic
production with them, then yes, I’d like to be a judge. Actually,
people often contact me and ask me if I’d be willing to collaborate
with them or be their producer, but I always stress the importance
of beautiful songwriting”.
Do you think it’s good for music to be all about the show?
“First of all, music isn’t about the show, even though it has been
overused and abused for movies, TV shows, commercials…almost as a mere stopgap. This “American” trend has been going
on for the past thirty years, and Italian and European music has
obviously suffered from it. Whereas in Hong Kong, for example,
the day after my own show, I went to the same theatre to see a
classical pianist, and spotted a lot of families with young children
in the audience. This is culturally unimaginable nowadays in Italy”.
Why do female singers – but this is not your case – appear to
be better at singing than at songwriting, even though they’re
naturally good at conveying feelings and emotions?
“This is an old and entrenched cultural problem – women have
always been seen as perfect interpreters of Bel Canto, but never as
autonomous artists: we have very few female songwriters in Italy,
but we do have lots of female singers. This is why I always say that
my musical path is, by choice, a very long one, both from a musical
and a personal point of view: after all, you can’t write anything
if you haven’t got anything to say. There is no definite road to
follow for female songwriters, but a path you need to walk, day
by day, carrying your credibility and beautiful songwriting with
you. What is hideous about these new generation singers is that
they read the lyrics to their songs from an autocue…If you want
to sing a song, you have to know it in its entirety, from the tune to
the story behind it. You can’t read a song from an autocue and just
get away with it!
Can you tell us something about your musical background?
“Oh dear…where do I begin? I’ll just say that I’ve played piano
and the clarinet since I was 6 years old, and that I can also play the
guitar; I love playing the theremin and I listen to music so much
that I feel autistic at times! I’ve always loved and studied the lyrics
of the greatest Italian songrwiters: De Andrè, De Gregori, Vasco
Rossi, Guccini, etc.; I’ve always loved the sound of early Litfiba,
CCCP, The Cure, and used to jump on the sofa to David Bowie,
Bruce Springsteen and Genesis. I love Skrillex’s electro music and
bands that feature bits of it in their songs, and anything written by
Marquez, Proust and Pessoa is my Bible”.
You live in Florence. What kind of relationship have you got
with Salento, your homeland?
“I love it, I go back whenever I can, and every time I’m there I
feel a sort of primordial connection with it. I know everything not
only about its beauties and contradictions, but also its unknown
arts, literature and characters. I love Vittorio Bodini’s poetry and
Carmelo Bene’s theatrical production…Musically, “Siamo tutti là
fuori”, the song for which I won the Sanremo Music Festival in
2003, was nothing but a Salentinian “pizzica”, this is why we had
tambourines on stage with us at the Ariston Theatre”.
Yet you are not one of those artists who feel the need to bring
their origins up any time they can…Is there any particular
reason behind that?
“I’m no sycophant, I don’t like to exploit my own people or origins
to get more votes in music competitions, even though I know people from my homeland are – like many others – very generous
when it comes to televoting. I’m very careful not to exploit my
people’s finances with cheap parochialism! If they like my song,
I hope they’ll support it and share it no matter what, without me
having to proclaim my devotion for my homeland and speak dialect all the time”
«To me music is like an
arm, there’s no way you
will ever forget
you have one»
Why do you think bands like The Rolling Stones are still big
in the news today, in 2012?
“For many reasons. Maybe because we’re all old-fashioned, nostalgic people, we love idols from the past but can hardly find any in
this era of apathy; because The Stones are still pretty cool, because
it’s cool to say you like The Stones, even if you don’t know pretty
much anything about them, because no one digs into music and
its new stars anymore”.
How do you feed your hunger for music in everyday life, besides writing your own music?
“To me music is like an arm, there’s no way you will ever forget
you have one! Music is in every single moment of my life, and every time I’m thinking about something, I realise that there’s always
music playing in the background of my head. I come up with lots
of melodies in my head, and if only I could write them down instantly, I’d probably write many more songs.
I personally listen to a lot of music: today, thanks to the internet,
you can have access to a wide choice of music from all over the
world. I especially enjoy listening to bands I come across while
surfing the net, that are still unknown to the general public. The
first listen is always very critical and scientific: I always analyse
chords, melodies, arrangement and production”.
Is it better to have a good musical background or a good manager nowadays in Italy?
“I’m not going to lie: both. Granted, if you have a good manager
but no artistic identity whatsoever, you career is not going to last
long, although it may have a few high peaks. No hypocrisy here
– in Italy, due to the small dimensions of local music business –
now snubbed by all the other European countries (which is quite
a humiliating defeat for Italian music and its glorious past) –, the
role of the manager is losing more and more importance. We are
finally going back to the way it was in the 1970s, when music was
made by musicians, not labels and managers”.
«MUSIC IS IN EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF MY LIFE,
AND EVERY TIME I’M THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING,
I REALISE THAT THERE’S ALWAYS MUSIC PLAYING
IN THE BACKGROUND OF MY HEAD»
cioccolato
histoire
From everywhere, in every way, chocolate
t
The elite of the Aztec warriors were the Cuahchiqueh, endowed with ichuaipilli, chimalli and aacuahuitl; they were the only professional soldiers
and often they left for war, as they could do only that. The
“eagle” or “jaguar” warriors were warriors who used to
fight in battle but then went back to their business.
The legend tells about a prince Cuahchiqueh who set out
against his enemies leaving the beautiful princess to guard
his treasure. The enemies escaped the prince with a trick
and caught the princess. They tortured her but she didn’t
say a word, until she was butchered and from her blood,
dropped on the floor, was born a plant with seeds as bitter as
her pain, as strong as her virtue, as red as her blood. Cocoa
was born.
It is an Aztec story, clearly a legend. But the Maya used to
prepare with cocoa a drink called “Xocolatl”. The first European who tried it was called Girolamo Benzoni, and in “Historia de lo Nuovo Mondo” (1565) he wrote about this plant
and its use: “It doesn’t survive if the place isn’t warm enough, and shady, as if it is touched by the sun it would die.....
its fruit is almond-shaped, and is born in a sort of pumpkin,
very similar to a cucumber....they put it in the sun to dry
and if they want to drink it, they dry it on the fire, and then,
with stones, they grind it, put it in mugs and little by little
add water, and then drink it, but it is actually a drink for
pigs, not for men.”
Benzoni was short-sighted; Colombo was sharper, as he
grabbed lots of cocoa beans because they were used as money in the mesoamerican civilizations.
The Aztecs sold 4 corn cobs for a seed, a pumpkin for 4
seeds, for ten, a rabbit and for 12, a night of sex. A canoe
costed 100 beans, as a grateful slave, who, if not purchased,
was destined to human sacrifice.
Except for other uses, more or less private. In 1528 Cortes
presented it to the Royals of Spain.
He seized beans and tools to go back to central America
with huge quanity of cocoa which would allow him to buy
anything.
But they used it for medicine and nutrition: energising, stimulating and aphrodisiac kept secret for years. the secret
was later revealed: general of Spain Emanuele Filiberto di
Savoia brought some beans to the capital of his dukedom,
Tourin, which quickly became the european capital of chocolate. Founding also a school, where Francois-Louis Cailler
studied, creating in Vivery the first chocolate factory.
The growth is fast: the first load of cocoa beans coming from
Veracruz to Siviglia dates back to 1585. At the court of France, under Louis XIII and Anne from Austria, his wife, people
drink hot chocolate. It is 1615. In1657, in London, the first
store selling chocolate was opened. And in 1659 Pope Pio V
finds it disgusting, but cardinal Brancaccio says that also for
chocolate “Liquidum non frangit jejunum” – “a liquid can’t
break the fast time” and Antonio Carletti, Florence trader,
starts to sell it to Abbeys, for the penitance time. The monks
added sugar to sweeten it.
After a while (1671) in the kitchen of the Duke of PlesslinPraslin the assistent of the chef drops some hot sugar on
a mixture of cocoa and almonds.The delightful result was
named by the Duke “praline”, and since then has the name.
It was around 1700, when Charles VI moved his Court from
Madrid to Vienna, and also the use of chocolate. Chocolate
shops in Florence and Venice bocomes the most important
in Europe and in the world.
Except for Germany, opposing this product, the rest of Europe is invaded.
One century later, the engineer Bozzelli finds a way to create chocolate bars. the method is used by a londoner, but it is
Paul Caffarel who refines it and is able to produce up to 300
kg of chocolate a day.
In Switzerland was created milk chocolate by Daniel Peter
and his father-in-law, as their neighbour used to produce
aliments for babies: he was Henry Nestlé. We are in Vivery…
In tourin they mix chocolate and nuts creating gianduia;
mixing nuts and a little chocolate, they obtain the famous
chocolate spread. In 1879 Rudolph Lindt created the conching, starting the production of dark chocolate.
Cocoa plantations moved from MesoAmerica to Africa
(Ghana) and Philippines . In the XX century, chocolate,
food of Gods, (Theobroma cacao) - as Linneo calls it and as
Motecuhzoma meant when he offered it to Cortez, mistaken
for the God Quetzalcoàtl - becomes a common food, in different forms, so that often we have lost its sense.
Butter extracts, blending, toasting, chemical proceedings
made chocolate something indefinable.
LECCELLENTE 11
OUR GOLD MATCHES THE TRADITION
www.lesaittole.com
Risorgimento Resort, Lecce
LECCELLENTE 14
pimar
Giuseppe Marrocco,
heart of stone, from Lecce.
t
he wide blacktop flows smoothly under the new tyres of
the old, just washed Getz .
Going from Lecce to Maglie, just a bit after- exit Melpignano - in front of a huge building : Pi.Mar.. We roam the streets
to find the way in. There’s a wide parking lot and a little black
dog welcomes us, and she alone is worth the journey. Then you
enter a sort of “piled exposition” of real sculptures, some really
precious, which in my opinion, would deserve a better place than
resting against a wall. And attracting the greedy gaze of the customers.
An office with people at work, and then comes Giuseppe. Giuseppe Marrocco: 50 years of intimacy with the bowels of the earth.
He slowly tells his story, the story of his company and of Lecce
stone. He’s calm and still, Giuseppe, when tells us the story of fifty years of life. He never says “I”, Giuseppe, he always says “we”,
and then you ask yourself wether he is conceited or weird, wether
he feels like a rector or the wizard Otelma.
But Giuseppe copes with colossal sizes which teach you that without “we”, you can’t do anything.
And despite his imposing weight and his hands, he’s sensitive
when he talks about “ the boy who’s just in charge of dusting
down the works of art.”, as if he was an essential element for the
team work. Everybody as an important role, and each piece of
stone brings a piece of culture and skill of each person.
And you realize why architects from all around the world come
here to Pi.Mar: Giuseppe’s Lecce stone is excellent for different
uses, but it is also a living body, which tells a story.
A century-old story, made of ancient traditions, of know-how
stored in mind, in the hands of real Masters,
And also Giuseppe, strong with his studies, formally incomplete,
but actually very accurate, succeeded in using advanced technologies.
So, at Pi.Mar.people design according to the need, with a skilled
analysis, and after that, they go to the mine and choose the suitable block.
Easy rule: by Michelangelo: “choose the block which contains
your work and remove what you don’t need”.
Powerful machines extract in the mine between Cursi and
Melpignano, for centuries managed by Marrocco family,
these giant blocks, and bring them to the workshop, where
lots of precise machines change them into the desired product.
Then the product goes into the hand of the master, who refines it with chisel and rasp, little by little, because the stone
always need human hands.
Like the sweet little puppy, who comes near to be pet.
Giuseppe goes on still with his narration, and after a while he is fluent, his voice is placid, but his eyes are sparling
while he tealls us about the stone which tells the story of
salento.
He talks about the need to change urban architecture, and
wonders wether tourists need to live the beauty or choose
to go around in areas of coucil housing.
And talks about his cooperation with the Univeristy, all
over the world, in order to use this stone as a modern building material.
Advanced research allowed Giuseppe to create a protptype
of house .which produces energy instead of using it, thanks
to a mixture of carbon fibres and Lecce stone. the inyterlocutor, looking at the huge figure of this man , who lives next
to the factory.
The company is on the most important foreign markets and
Hilton Garden Inn, Lecce
this could lead to a certain tendency to presumption and
arrongance.
But the stone doesn’t lie, and reminds you that “a man, alone
in not worth a dime.”, and if you have beauty and richness,
is because somebody else, before you, has been working for
it, leaving a mark in the eternal stone.
Lecce stone is more than a witness of Salento, it is a basic
feature of it. Showing it all around the world is just one way
to tell the story of a beautiful land. Giuseppe Marrocco is
the dictionary where many people finds the words to write
their poems and stome novels, in the world.
Also in Lecce, recently. Because, using Giuseppe’s words,
those who come after us, have the right to discover salento,
the sun, the sea, the wind and also the stone.
«Lecce stone is more
than a witness
of Salento, it is a basic
feature of it»
«BUT THE STONE DOESN’T LIE, AND REMINDS YOU
THAT “A MAN, ALONE IS NOT
WORTH A DIME”»
Eos Hotel, Lecce
LUCA CAPILUNGO
That unique pasticciotto of Via Bari
LECCELLENTE 19
i
n music, art and literature, the “Pastiche” is quite
young. XVIII century, until in Italian the meaning is
enlarged by Carlo Emilio Gadda. Pasticcio becomes
“Pasticciaccio” and happens in Rome, via Merulana.
Pastiche and patty, until pasticciaccio, are terms which Emerico Giachery (Motivo e Parola – Guido Ed. – 1990) analyses
in etymon lliterature, music and arts, finding out that yet in
the XVI Century there were “pasticci”, of colours. Pasticci
that painters kept secret.
But about the transition from patty (that is a dish in which
past serves as a container) and pastry-making, from “le pastiche” and “pâtisserie” we know very little.
Even because the basis of pastry-making has known a widespread recently.
Before the growing of the beetroot, sugar was rare, precious
and prerogative of the richer classes. Only in XVIII century
the first maître pâtissier appear, as we intend them.
Earlier, the sweet was created cooking the must. (caroeno,
sapa or defrutum).
Or, honey and fruits. Dried fruits or jams.
Time generated the pastry-making art, which spread like
wildfire. Above all in courts and cloisters of Europe.
Patisserie, is actually, exclusively European. No other continent has a tradition in the field. In Europe there are thousands of spots where maîtres pâtissiers make practice and
create delights. The best way to understand patisserie, is to
go inside.
A good pastry-chef is not afraid of fatigue, can communicate with the topic, can listen and waits for the answers. But is
it true? Is pastry-making “chemistry, physics and monotony
in the recipes?”
Luca laughs. Loudly. “If this nonsense was true somebody
will tell me why I sell 300 pasticciotti every morning, while
somebody else sells 30. This means they are different, aren’t
they?”
When he was 13, Luca went to school at … Franchini (one
of the oldest pastry-chefs in Lecce) and he doesn’t know
anything about the definitions of pastiche, pies and patties,
luckily. But now that he has got over 30 years of experience,
he’s a bit stooped but he oozes passion.
In the beautiful outskirts of Lecce (maybe beautiful thanks
to Luca’s pastry shop) in front of a glass door, two huge
stuffed animals: polar bears welcome you in a room whose
scent could be a good anti-depressant therapy.
A team of fast and very polite misses assist an infinite queue
of customers. Wise customers, who know the names of every delight on display.
There’s also a cultural exchange. Conversations between customers, or customers and salespeople about details which
may seem unreal: “the colour of the pasticciotto of last night
was a bit too dark”, “the almond of my cake wasn’t Filippo
Cea but californian…”; “are you joking? Maybe we used a
little less bitter almonds but we only use high-quality products from Puglia.”...
These are conversations that you catch even if you don’t
want to. Luca talks about his pastries, not just the ones he
makes, but those he “imagines” because “I always think,
whatever I make, I think over and over, and try many times”. His enthusiasm wanes when he talks about “common”
sweets, those following the trend. Because in his opinion
there are “our” sweets and the trendy ones. The latter are
made as well, but go out of fashion quickly, whiule ours,
always resist. For the trendy ones, they choose high quality
ingredients, but they don’t need to be “imagined”. They are
excellent but silent, they don’t have a story to tell, like that
of the quince, or pears or figs.
“I come from Franchini’s school, I make the jam from local pears which I buy from local farmers, many quintals of
quince jam stored in capase … because we make “our” sweets, made with figs, come, come...” and enthusiasm comes
out again.
Finally we leave the small room called “ management” and
takes me to the pastry workshop, with many busy people.
He keeps talking, but I can’t listen any longer.
I am captivated by tidiness, cleanliness and work of the teams”. I approach a team of 4 chefs making “130 almond fishes”. Two huge steel bowls, on a steel table, fone filled with
pear jam, the other with faldacchiera, real one, made with
200 eggs, says Mister Gianni, in charge of stuffing the fishes
with it, in a mould made by Luca 30 years ago.
The job of pastry chef is hard, but I see in the face of those
people the joy of making the same things in a different way,
adding their own know-how and passion.
Maybe such a place should have a touristic valorisation, I
guess working here for a few hours could be a great experience. Then Luca tells me that they do that. A girl often
brings tourists and he teaches them his art.
times flies with Luca, it is hard to go out from this sweet trap
of scents, flavours and kindness.
A trap created by a young man who after junior high school
went as apprentice at Franchini’s , where he learnt to “imagine” and work, learning tradition with his extraordinary
ability of innovating and his obsession for cleanliness.
In this trap real patisserie was born, which is not essential to
life but adds joy, making a day, a feast day.
A trap where almond paste and jams are the masters of the
display case, and where if you ask Luca, the best product is
“my pasticciotto” but you need to leave it for one day. But do
that only with “my pasticciotto”, not with any. You can find
Luca Capilungo, with his arms coloured as his marzipan fruits, 44 years-old and a story of hard work to sweeten other
people’s life, in Lecce, via Bari, 7. I am happy as I leave with
some purceddhruzzi… but this is another story .
NO-MISSPEND
Ecological Lecce: If you want it, you can achieve it
i
t’s not okay, it’s wrong. Look at that man, just look
at him. He has been glued to his seat for years, like
the parasite that he is. They are all incompetent. Dishonest and thieves, all of them. Corruption is spreading all
over the country, and politicians are all the same. You have
no idea how disgustingly rich bureaucrats can get at public
expense, at the expense of poor taxpayers, as if we hadn’t
already been squeezed and crushed enough. We could go on
forever and still earn a lot of praise and appreciation - it’s
always the same old song, after all. Who knows though, there
may be some truth to it. Every contumely has some truth to
it. But do we really live in a world where good and evil are so
diametrically opposed? Are we all to believe that good people
are really that different from bad people?
The reality here, in our humble opinion, is that we need to
take a hard look at ourselves, each and everyone of us, again
and again. We need to take a look at the life we live and see if
it is ethically correct, ask ourselves if we have always stayed
on the trail or have ever been tempted to take any shortcuts,
any easy-way-outs that our conscience tends to keep quiet.
Good practices have actually nothing to do with ‘sacrifice’: in
fact, they usually are worthwhile and amusing. But you have
to be in the right frame of mind to understand that, and this
can only be achieved with the right information and education, from childhood on.
Paradoxically, some good practices are ingrained in us at an
early age, but instead of developing them, we lose them as
we grow up, leaving idiocy and rudeness as real indicators of
adulthood, just like beard and breasts.
These are scattered thoughts and sprinkled words that I sha-
red with a few old friends on a November Sunday afternoon,
namely last Sunday, while sipping coffee just off Sant’Oronzo
Square. Lecce can be very mild even in late autumn, as in
jacket-and-cotton-trousers mild. The few sparse clouds that
chase each other across the sky cast a wonderful chiaroscuro
effect on this magic-soaked place. Right in the middle of the
square were a number of white stalls – what now, another
fundraising event? A propaganda spot for this or that political party? Apparently not. “MissPend”, read the board, which
was fairly self-explanatory. You would think it was yet another form of protest, but if you got a closer look you could
find things that would make you feel like an idiot, like us
adults can be sometimes. The truth is that “MissPend” marks
a road, a path that is not only ethical, but also very interesting
from an economic point of view. It brings human impact back
to a positive interaction with the ecosystem, by reducing not
only its extent but also its entropy.
One of the stalls was a bicycle workshop, which was there to
show how wonderful the velocipede is as a vehicle – it is very
easy to keep maintained and is far more efficient than any
other means of transport, as well as having beneficial effects
on everyone’s health. Further down was the gift bazaar, where you could drop things you don’t want anymore and pick
up things you might need that someone else didn’t want. The
gift bazaar was promoted by “Il Formicaio” (The Ant-heap),
a group of young, vibrant, well-educated people who have
made social communication and recycling culture their main
target, and with great success, no less.
Looking further, I soon realised that we were in the middle of
the European Week for Waste Reduction, and that although
LECCELLENTE 23
Lecce is one of those cities where waste sorting is still far
from being a common practice, more and more awareness
and professionalism are springing up every day. Problems
are tackled with a new holistic approach, and each activity
is now seen as a system interacting with other systems, as
well as a way to encourage fantasy and creativity – and
in that respect our younger population is hardly second to
any in the world. They came up with the idea of an award
called “Riccio dell’Angelo” (Angel Curl), which saw the interaction of companies, institutions, artists and municipalities. Their main activity was to redistribute anything that
couldn’t be sold anymore. For example, food that was still
good to eat but had lost its commercial appeal was distributed to help people and pets, old and rejected clothes were
used to create burlesque dresses, etc; it takes a lot of sensibleness and competence to organise a series of events without producing any waste, and this is what really deserves
an award. The event, promoted by the Department for Environmental Policies, decided to give a “Riccio dell’Angelo”,
Premio Efferidi 2012 award to Andrea Guido, the assessor
for Environmental Policies of the city of Lecce; Fernando
Bonocuore, director of the Environmental unit; Federico
Zilli, director-general of Ecotecnica LLC; artist Mario Catalano, whose paintings “Mondo Fragile” (Fragile World)
and “Cuore Fragile” (Fragile Heart) have been printed on
merchandise t-shirts for the event, and Damiano D’Autilia,
president of “Alba service”. The award was created by Effemeridi, and later developed with “Il Formicaio” and, - I’m
very proud to say - with the amazing help of “MustLab”,
which also happens to be the publisher of this magazine.
Me, I haven’t got any awards to give out, but what I do
have to do is give credit to those who have worked behind
the scenes, and without whose help this would have never been possible: Luca Sanapo from Effemeridi, Monica
Negrodi from MustLab, all the men and women from “Il
Formicaio”: Umberto Cataldo, Francesco De Carlo, Roberto
Ingrosso, Simone Linciano, Rosaria Lovecchio, Chiara Cota,
and many more. Anyways, the activities of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, all taking place in Lecce’s most beautiful
square, have produced carbon dioxide, and this debt, from a
holistic point of view, needs to be paid. It can easily be paid
by installing a 3KW photovoltaic system for our friends in
Ortoporto. What? You haven’t got a clue what Ortoporto
is? Ortoporto is a world of peculiar characters often labelled as mere dreamers. But these dreamers have shown us
that dreams can become reality…a whole different story for
the so-called pun-tastic ‘LECCELLENTE’ and its journey
through those places – like this place – where we try our
best to imagine a much brighter future than the dark and
grim future the Lords of Fear want to show us. We do not
wait for the future to happen to us, we construct it together.
A brand which grows creating your emotions
w w w. ba r ba r red i . i t
purciddhruzzi
You can call them, if you want.....temptations
h
Has autem terras Italique hanc litoris oram/ proxima
quae nostri perfunditur aequoris aestu/ effuge; cuncta
malis habitantur moenia Grais.?Hic et Narycii posuerunt moenia Locri/ et Sallentinos obsedit milite campos/
Lyctius Idomeneus; hic illa ducis Meliboei/ parva Philoctetae
subnixa Petelia muro.
(But these next borders of the Italian shores/ on whose rough rocky sides our ocean roars; avoid with caution, for the
Grecian train possess those realms that stretch along the
main. Here, the fierce Locrians hold their dreadful seat/
there, brave Idomeneus, expelled from Crete, has fixed his
armies on Salentine ground, and awes the wide Calabrian
realms around; Here Philoctetes from Thessalian shores/ rears strong Petilia fenced with walls and towers).
From Virgil’s-Aeneid, Book III, where Virgil describes, to
some extent, the portion of land once known as Magna Grecia. History as told by the book contains some inaccuracy,
but this is not the right place nor the right time to shed any
light on it. Magna Grecia is only a starting point for us to introduce the so-called “loukoumades”: flour mixed with water, milk and salt to form a sweet dough, which is then left
to rise for a few hours, shaped to little balls and fried in hot
olive oil, until well golden. Once the dough has been completely drained from oil, all that is left to do is add honey
and sprinkle with cinnamon. The story takes place between
the 6th and 11th centuries Before Christ, when from Cuma
(Calchis) all the way to Ancona (Grecians from Syracuse),
the Peninsula was dotted with Grecian colonies. These fried
little dough balls literally followed these colonies on their
journey across the area, and due to their round shape, they
soon became known as “stroggoulos” (round) in the Parthenopaean area, and later on “struffoli”.
The Grecians were installed everywhere in Grecian colonies,
and as a result loukoumades were everywhere too: they
soon became known as “ciciriata” in Basilicata and Calabria,
“cicerchiata” in The Marches, “ciceriata” again in Abruzzo,
“pignolata” in Calabria. But linguistically speaking, the loukoumade fever hit Apulia more than any other region. It
was in Apulia that indigenous populations, - divided into
thousands of other groups and factions, all established by
ancient civilisations - came up with “pizzi cunfritti”, “sannacchiudere” and several other variations of the word pork:
“purciddhruzzu”, “purceddhruzzu”, “purcidduzzu” and “purcedduzzu”.
“Loukoumades” take their name from their shape, time and
history. Pignolata is obtained by placing small dough balls in
a paper bag which is then turned over; ciciriata or cicerchiata (made of small dough balls shaped as chickpeas or grass
peas) is obtained by placing small dough balls around a glass
in the shape of a volcano or a bundt cake, and so on.
It is safe to say that every county, country, family and person has its own variation of purciddhruzzi. From the use
of white wine for the dough, to personal choices when it
comes to choosing and melting the perfect type of honey
and shaping the purciddhruzzu (rounded, cylindric, curled
or knotted); from the debate whether the dough should be
thick and divided into uneven parts or soft and divided into
perfectly shaped little balls; to the debate whether to add
laurel or candied fruit, or even small anise seeds. And more,
purceddhruzzu with powdered honey or proper liquid honey? Some people use fig vincotto instead of honey, or even
cooked grape must. What to use, lemon, orange, or tangerine peel? Or bergamot peel?
Some people bake them (terrible!), some add chocolate or
“mendule ricce” (sugar-glazed almonds); in any case, starting from the Feast of the Immaculate Conception up until
the Epiphany, purciddhruzzi can be found in every Salentine household; purciddhruzzi become “cartiddhrate” at
Carnival. No other place is like Salento everywhere else,
ingredients are randomly added to the mix when making
purciddhruzzi: honey, marmalade, fried dough balls and
sugar glazed pastry sticks. A little too elaborate. The purciddhruzzo is a whole different thing, it is social in both its
preparation and his consume, it is a sign of cheerfulness and
prosperity. The purciddhruzzo never lets you down, it tastes
good even when it tastes bad, it never goes bad, and it gets
better with time. You have to eat it slowly and taste it fully
- you could go on forever. In the land of the Oikist Phalanthus, due to their overwhelming appeal, they were known
as “sannacchiudere” (to be kept hidden) among the Spartans.
For reasons unknown to us, San Pietro Island has its own
“giggeri”, very similar in shape and preparation methods
to struffoli. Very different are, on the other hand, the socalled “castagnole”, both in origin (much more recent) and
preparation. We, for one, will keep making our golden Purceddhruzzo, as we have to protect its cultural background
and long-time tradition. And then maybe, one day, the Loukoumade community will gather and decree, from time to
time, who made the best version. Idomeneusís Sallentini can
surely have their say about that.
The golden “purciddhruzzo”, a prize for the winner of the third “P-day”, created by Lorenzo Primiceri, Luxury Project
LECCELLENTE 27
Collier “Fantasy Travel” Collection
Jewellery as a piece of art
M
umble, mumble…goes the brain of Federico Primiceri – a goldsmith designer from the prolific town
of Nardò – who, following the huge success of his
precious works, is now planning to conquer the United
Kingdom. Next February.
He will be moving to London for a while, “for a personal
research”, contrary to what is in the nature of a Cancer
man, that is a special bond with his homeland. He is planning to do what he likes so much to do: travelling (“Paris,
Moscow, Barcelona, anywhere”), learning, importing, seeking inspiration and applying it to his own work, with the
aim of creating more and more amazing pieces of work.
If you look at his collections, you will likely notice a striking symbiosis between craftsmanship and avant-garde
design, that Federico Primiceri conveys in his collections
made of gold, silver and gem stones, through a detailed
and meticulous search for exclusiveness; his aim is to fulfil every woman’s desire to wear ethereal, unique jewellery, whose class and personality are like no other in the
world; a proper mix of values of the past and aesthetics of
the future.
Federico Primiceri’s jewels are like beautiful dreams. They
tickled the fancy of the French at the “Designer Showcase” event organised by New York’s “National Jewelry Institute” in 2009; they delighted the Russians at “Flavours
of Mediterraneo”, held in Saint Petersburg, in 2010; they
inspired Italians in the halls of the charming Torrione
delle Saline, in the town of Margherita di Savoia, in 2011
(the exhibition was dedicated to Queen Margherita of Savoy, and held in that modern work of art to celebrate the
150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy); they dazzled
everyone in Cavallo, Corsica, in 2012; they were celebrated – as it should be for every work of high jewellery – in
the boutique of the famous “Hôtel & Spa des Pechêurs” in
2012.
Last but not least, they were featured in “Fantasy Travel”
and “Level 256” at the 18th edition of “Vendôme Luxury
tradeshow” which took place during Fashion Week last
September-October, at the prestigious Hôtel Park Hyatt
Paris‐Vendôme in rue de la Paix. Quite impressive. Especially since these events may lead to possible future collaborations that would make your head spin with excitement. “Customers, journalists and buyers have always
praised my jewellery, but they are not the only ones. A
gallery manager I met recently asked me if he could display a few pieces of my work in his museum, as part of
an exclusive exhibition displaying a collection of unique
works made by artists from all over the world”. Luisa Via
Roma, a prestigious boutique based in Florence, asked for
exclusive rights to sell jewels from “Level 256”. “This was
another important Italian success for me, being Luisa Via
Roma one of the most prestigious and acknowledged stores in the world”, Federico says, sipping a cup of coffee.
This is what you achieve when your mind flies high and
comes up with unusual but appealing ideas: an example
for this is “Tube”, a revolutionary wedding ring built as if
made of hydraulic pipes but made of silver and a brown
diamond instead, and created to convey the relationship
between the two parallel universes that are art and design,
“in order to connect creative and emotional flows of every
man and woman who are ready to commit to each other”.
LECCELLENTE 32
«THAT VERY WORLD HELPED
HIM CREATE “FANTASY
TRAVEL” – FAIRIES, ANGELS
AND BUTTERFLIES RESTING ON
A GOLD CHOCKER ENCRUSTED
WITH 2712 PRECIOUS STONES,
THAT CAUGHT THE ATTENTION
OF RUSSIA AND CHINA»
Federico Primiceri, High Jewellery Designer
Ramblings of an artist. That being said, Federico is still stuck
in his “mumble mumble”, but this time, being the Cancer
man he is, he digs into his own universe and crawls back
inside his shell, like only a Cancer man can do: “If I don’t
like what I see around me, I bury myself in my favourite
place and create my own world in it”.
«My mission and
satisfaction is to make
people fall in love with
my collections, create
emotions, make everyone
feel special»
That very world helped him create “Fantasy Travel” – fairies, angels and butterflies resting on a gold chocker encrusted with 2712 precious stones, that caught the attention
of Russia and China; or Pac-Man eating the ghost in the
asymmetrical collection “Level 256”. And “Tube”, and who-
Anello “Fantasy Travel” Collection
knows-how-many creative worlds yet to be discovered.
Everything is dictated by the inspiration of the moment:
“It is great to travel around the world, because you get to
meet a lot of people from a lot of different cultures, open
to art and innovation. I started in 2005; over the years, I
have interacted with many foreign cultures, which helped
me understand where Italy is going in the world of fashion
and luxury, with an eye on all those changes happening
outside of it”.
On 16th December, famous concept store and art temporary
museum “Anteprima” held a special exhibition to celebrate
his avant-garde art and uniqueness of his luxury handmade
jewellery. Federico launched the exhibition himself at the
store’s gallery, in Altamura.
Quite a lot of celebrities and music stars have shown their
interest for Federico’s jewellery; Giuliano Sangiorgi and
Andrea Mariano from Negramaro, who wear custom pieces
especially created for them, American drummer Mylious
Johnson – who absolutely loves Federico’s work –
and Italian singer and songwriter Niccolò Fabi, to mention
a few. But the joy of making customers satisfied with his
jewellery is still there for Federico Primiceri: “My mission
and satisfaction is to make people fall in love with my collections, create emotions, make everyone feel special. And
every time this happens, I feel I have achieved my goal,
both on a professional and a personal level”. Like a true
Cancer man: astrology never lies.
THE PLEASURE OF SAILING
www.lhcat.com | [email protected]
div.ergo
The art of diversity, the art of smile
LECCELLENTE 36
i
t is not that difficult to live in a better world. Sometimes you just have to leave your grim and obstinate
burrow, where all you do everyday is ramble about
the ugliness of all that is wrong, only to find – just around
the corner from home!!! – a happy place full of smile and
commitment. A place where the difficulties of everyday life
are not ignored (or worse, denied – typical of our time), but
rather highlighted. They are seen as junctions that lead to
a reassuring place, as dimensional gates that open into and
unexpected and comforting world and help us reconcile
with the entire universe: no limit or obstacle can stop you, if
you really want to smile. And this oasis of genuine, tangible
– not insincere, or just for the cameras – solidarity is all that
it takes to overturn the situation the world is in. To save it
all. This is all it takes.
“Div.ergo” is what it takes. A little creative comet landed
on Earth thanks to the brilliant idea a group of volunteers
from association “C.A.Sa.” came up with on 8th December
2009, right when a series of other activities born a decade
before were coming to an end. They guided and translated
into practice their common wish to value everyone’s personal skills and abilities. This is Div.ergo, a place that welcomes every form of creativity and supports every kind of
ambition, a paradise of widespread creativity, a place where
“you can buy stuff and help us build a world where everyone’s dreams come true”, says someone from the lab, smiling.
Everyday at the lab – to quote an old commercial – thousands of colourful, wonderful things take form: breakfast mugs,
tea sets, fridge magnets, jewellery, photo frames, oil dispensers, nativity scenes and the brand new little owl collection.
All items are entirely made by guests of Div.ergo, with their
colours and little ovens, following their own creativity skills
– you will be so surprised by their beautiful works, that you
will want to buy them all.
“A world where there is room for everyone, a world where
your diversity is your strength”, a world that has just celebrated its third anniversary (third, that is, since the lab moved to a Council-owned building located in 36 corso Vittorio
Emanuele II, Lecce). A cheery place – not that any place
would actually cheer: but Div.ergo truly does – that even
Rai, Italian’s national TV, celebrated in a long special broadcast on the day of its anniversary, featuring interviews
with volunteers and guests with disability, as well as with
a few of their parents. This year, works made at Div.ergo
(mainly creativity scenes) will be displayed at the traditional
Fiera di Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy’s Fair), held and promoted
by Lecce City Council at the former convent of Teatini. And
here is more: over the past three years, Div.ergo works have
been exported to five continents, from New Zealand to Uruguay, from Egypt to Scotland, from Japan (“where we just
delivered a clock”, someone happily tells us on the day of
the lab’s anniversary), to the United States. The thousands of
people who cross the door of the lab really seem to enjoy Federica’s talk, Tony’s wit, Laura’s kindness, and the passion
every volunteer puts into their work at Div.ergo, every single day. And everyone’s smile. Div.ergo, where diversity is
strength; a place for sensibility, expressive forms, art forms.
This is what Div.ergo is about. A place where you can buy
Francesca’s funny mugs, but mainly that one place that will
give everyone a reason to smile again.
LECCELLENTE 38
CITTà DEL
LIBRO
Where culture comes to life
Almost twenty years have passed since Campi Salentina –
under the guide of its then mayor Egidio Zacheo – first came
up with the idea of Città del Libro. The first editions were
marked by enthusiasm, difficulties, and an unattractive setting. A former colleague of mine – whose name was Franco
Dell’Atti – literally begged us to “lend a hand…”.
And we did. We brought technology into the fair, as well
as a number of young students who were all very happy to
leave school – even if only for a few days – , the place that
contained their desire for freedom.
Over the years, Città del Libro has got bigger and bigger, a
proper national exhibition, where both big and small publishers are given a chance to display their books, in the very
heart of Salento. Despite thousands of difficulties, mainly
due to the fact that this small piece of land by the sea is
– fortunately but unfortunately – far from everything, the
event got bigger and was enriched by more and more people,
life and energy. The fair can now count more than a hundred
publishers – either participating in person or by proxy –
and the collaboration with schools has strengthened over
the years. Workshops now have their own building, and a
large number of schools come to visit this cultural paradise
everyday, during the fair.
Cultural paradise has suffered from the huge impact of
technology, which can be tough at times, but like many
other things in this world, it is unavoidable: culture has therefore decided to follow the same path, moving through the
same evolution: books have become e-books, and posters,
flyers, and all door-to-door activities have become social
networking activities. We talk about this with the woman
behind this new form of communication, namely Marcella Negro, a young woman with brown hair and deep black
eyes. When she tells me “I have been following Città del Libro since the beginning” it is hard to tell whose ‘beginning’
she is referring to – hers or that of the fair. The truth is that
over the years, Marcella has witnessed the development of
the fair as an exhibitor, a visitor and a supporter. At some
point, she decided to actively help with its development,
with full support from Maria Novella Guarino, President of
the Foundation.
Marcella has no hierarchical role, and you will not find her
name in any organogram, but she is both an operator and
an observer of a phenomenon that has finally settled down
– although with many difficulties – in the small town of far
Salento that is Campi Salentina. As she articulates a number
of thoughts and ideas, Marcella shows her enthusiasm for
the attention and participation of younger generations, but
slips into pessimism when we mention the lack of participation from adults. And although she tries her best to find
reasons to justify the idle, inert adult generations, she refuses to accept the fact that adults have never really grown up
or matured, all they have done over the years is live in their
crude, crass ignorance.
With her incursions into social networks, Marcella has gathered quite a lot of people – both groups and individuals
– and promoted Città del Libro and its many events. Something particularly interesting emerges from our sociological discussion, and we would like to focus our attention on
it: her strong passion for literature and Chinese culture, for
silky and scented tomo, for pixels, for bits, and a number of
other off-limits fantasies from the Land of the Rising Sun,
all tangled as warp and weft in the heart of a young woman.
This is Marcella. She now sees Città del Libro with the eyes
of someone who is ready to take action after a long-time
observation.
What do Simona’s eyes see? “When you have had enough,
when you cannot stand anyone anymore, when you see
hypocrisy everywhere, you do not picture yourself in an
ivory tower, you picture yourself locked up in a little cellar
hidden somewhere. It is there that you will see Simona’s
eyes – we are not talking about a random Simona, we are
talking about our Simona – , eyes as black as in the fur of a
panther, eyes that will make you realise the ridiculousness
of those things you call difficulties, as well as the importance of optimism and strength of willpower”.
A pair of eyes is obviously not enough to understand, so I
guess I had better go and look for more eyes. I am going to
start with mine - it is time pay the fair a visit. There is an
important event going on, with important guests, to present important writers of important books. The arena soon
catches my attention – all those lights, those hostesses,
those stewards. All dressed up, and as still as mannequins.
The rather snobby elegance of the people standing next to a
hall called Nostra Signora dei Turchi. I decide to leave and,
through a corridor of debilitated plants, I start walking to
the outbuilding. Here I find a number of “workshops” and,
above all, Simona who works there and is the guest of a
group called Ambarabà. She may not be dressed as a hostess, but she sure makes a formidable one. She shows me
a few drawings made by herself and her friends, their little creations made of rope and fabric; this happens in that
outbuilding where schools and people with disability can
be far from hostesses and stewards, far from the publishing
spotlight. There, right there is the culture that makes you
feel alive.
Città del Libro is beautiful, and so is everything about books. It is a very ambitious programme, a patchwork of initiatives, dialogues, performances, launches and discussions,
that never fails to leave you breathless, year after year. Its
only flaw is maybe its provincialism – it should develop a
more international character, starting with the introduction
of English in its events. Or maybe by transferring Marcella
and Simona’s enthusiasm to all those young (or less young)
generations that seem to be there as mere window decorations. Books and book fairs are always objects of debate and
controversy, or maybe they are just self-celebrations whose
purpose is to sell prestigious furniture for prestigious homes.
We need to feed ourselves and the whole world with optimism. Us, we are optimist by nature, it is natural for LECCELLENTE to offer to help every Marcella and Simona out
there, or everyone who cares for the development of a more
cultural and a more important Salentinian enclave.
For 10 years SBM has benn assuring efficincy, quality and continuous supply of products and services
for the National Health system, thanks to the partnership with the biggest multinational groups
w w w . s b m s r l . i t
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WOMEN WILL SAVE US FROM
THE CRISIS
AND LECCELLENTE
announces change
by PINO DE LUCA
By the time you read this editorial, you will have realised that that little Mayan thing about the end of the
world was nothing but a giant joke. I find it strange that
millions of people ñ including those with a certain level
of education ñ would get all worried just for the heck of
it, and believe urban legends and tall tales without even
making the effort to ask themselves if they are true or
not. Tall tales that involve the whole world can be seducing. They use your hopes and fears. There is a band
of rogues ready to take advantage of those who have
excessive, unnecessary hopes and fears, and those who
have lost their trust in the only trustworthy people they
know: themselves.
Education, life and history taught me to be extremely
rational. You may say I am missing the best part of being
ìhumanî, I know. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe this just
helps me appreciate its essence more.
Let me just mention as an example the case of LECCELLENTE. I am not going to praise it, as we all know that
no man can be a good judge of himself. But the LECCELLENTE experience tells us the story of a very difficult challenge, in a very difficult setting, at the worst
possible time, otherwise known as THE CRISIS. Right.
This is the Golem of our time. Our monsters have weird
names: SPREAD, SPENDING REVIEW, GDP, etc. It is not
up to me to explain the reasons and solutions to that,
as I would never be able to do so anyway. But the main
aim of an editorial is to indicate the way. A rational way,
an extremely rational one, yet capable of unleashing the
biggest possible power: the power of passion.
The first approach to this issue was quite contingent: we
wanted to explain what it was about the Terra díOtranto
province that actually made sense, unlike the unnatural unification of all those colonies, that marked borders
where there were no borders to be seen, and built bridges
where there were no bridges needed. And then comes
that moment when you go shopping for panettone and
notice the sky is full of anger: you suddenly feel you
have to stop for a minute and feed your soul instead of
your body. Before me is a painting exhibition displaying
works by artists of different social extractions: COEXI-
ST is the name, as if to underline the point. Beautiful
paintings. One of them catches your attention. I am no
expert, and cannot therefore say if it is a good one or a
bad one.
It is dark and tormented, but dominated by such an intense light as if lit by a lamp, and to think that it is just
oil on canvas. And the gloomy background is something
else, it is just background. It was painted by an artist
from Lecce, I think Carlo was his name. What profound
hope and confidence. Crisis means change, you can either accept it or learn to put up with it. Or even reject it,
if you wish. But it is foolish to think you can fight it. It is
better to deal with it than build a wall to try and stop it.
Change is about actually changing, both inside and outside, it is about overturning things so that you can build
new ones. No one can say which one will work better
than the other, but what is sure is that one of them does
not work anymore.
Artists are proper prophets, they see farther than our
eyes can see. What a great exhibition. It was organised
by two women: one of them is a beautiful, determined
woman named Claudia, mother to two amazing young
girls, both portrayed in one of these paintings. The sky
has cleared, and so has pessimism. It is nice to go see
exhibitions sometimes, other than just restaurants all the
timeÖAnd when I think about Claudia, Mary, Letizia, my
Machare sisters, I realise change is happening. Organisation and responsibility in the hands of women. Activities
that carry on in spite of the crisis. Maybe this is the real
change for us: women stepping up to take power and
responsibility. Will it get better, will it get worse? I do
not feel like making any prophecies, but I am dead certain that women can be more than mere ìolgettineî, and
men can be more than mere ìend-usersî. But the road is
long, and who knows if I will live long enough to see
this change actually happenÖAnd that is it, I am going to
leave you with this pessimistic note. I think I may have
to send this article to Leda, my manager, and Monica, my
editor very soonÖ.which makes me laugh. Change has
come, for me. I have not quite realised it, but I feel very
happy about it.
LECCELLENTE 43
ORIGINAL VINCOTTO,
ITALIAN DELIGHT KNOWN
ALL OVER THE WORLD
w w w. v i n c o t t o . c o m