Start: 20080514 [20:3|135] 1709 UTC
End: 20080514 [20:3|135] 1950 UTC
Location: Traversa Giulio Cesare, 80125, Napoli, Campania, Italia
Timezone: UTC+2

I’m writing this entry about a week after the events happened, so I might be missing in some details.

I went to sleep late, my guess is sometime around 0200. I rose at 0745 and showered, hygiened and dressed. I had packed the night before.

I left a little too late, at 0825. Running, I made it to Bologna Centrale in time for the train. I boarded at 0840– just when it was supposed to leave. Did not have time to get my ticket. The train stayed on the platform for another five minutes before leaving the station, so I would have had time. I made the best decision with what I knew at time, so I was not too bothered. I informed the capotreno about my lack of a ticket, and he told me it was fine.

The train started moving. It was a nice day, sunny, clear, high visibility. The train ride to Forlì is nice, passing through the farmland with hills in the distance. I thought a lot, especially about KJB, since then it had just been 3 days since it had been over. A girl came to check tickets afterwards, and told me that apparently I must have informed the previous capotreno. Despite her mild skepticism, I payed no fine (but did pay the on train prices). Otherwise the journey was uneventful.

I arrived in Forlì around 0930. I got out a snapped a photograph of the tracks, then went to the arrival hall. I met SM and we got into the car and drove towards the center. We parked our car near some hotel with some interesting architecture, then walked through the town center. Though I had driven with SM through Forlì to get to Bertinoro on 20070911, I had not been in the center. It was prettier than what I had thought previously, seeing only areas further out. We walked to a cartoleria to pick up a guest book. SM got a nice one even though it was not quite what he was looking for.

We then walked across the street to the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì headquarter’s building, where the exhibit that SM had organized was on display.

The exhibit was on Rodrigo Pais, an Italian photographer who’s career and photographs spanned from around 1955-1998. Specifically, the exhibit covered a selection of the photographer’s first 5 years– capturing most of all Italy’s period the “boom economico”. SM ad been put in charge of archiving, restoring and digitizing Pais’ 360,000+ photographs by the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities) and by the Università di Bologna. The exhibit was thus also a showcase of the first set of photographs that had been restored and digitized.

We entered the building, but having arrived before the actual opening hours of the exhibit, had to go get the key to the exhibition area. We did so, on the way SM showing me a few of the smaller meeting rooms of the building. The building was elegant and the design was good– a blend of high-tech and modern design with wood and the building’s fresco’s and layout (I am guessing the building was from the early Renaissance). It was nice and one could tell quite well that this was a center of financial power (though not in a nouveau-riche kind of way, thank god). Still, I could not hold back the usual thoughts on how much is wasted for the sake of appearance– the functionalist in me could not help but criticize the excess.

We picked up the key and proceeded back to the exhibition area. On the way down, SM informed me that, now having seen the level of investment in the headquarters and the high tech gear, he could tell me that the place had no way of playing MP3’s for the exhibit. He had to make do, in fact, with an iMac G3. He complained that the foundation had in fact made the exhibit hard to plan, giving him only two weeks to set it up and failing to provide many things. Besides the MP3, for example, the guest book that he had just acquired was with his own money. On the other hand, the other exhibit currently being hosted by the foundation, on Cagnacci (who’s paintings all look the same, he joked) was generously funded. He commented that this showed how in Italy photography is still considered a lesser art. He said, in fact, that he had projects to try to bring the exhibit (modified and expanded) elsewhere– the United States, if possible– where he thought the exhibit will probably be received better than Italy itself. He asked me to keep in mind while seeing the exhibit if I thought it would be possible for it to have an American audience.

When we got there, he setup the music while I started on the exhibition. The photographs, in much reduced size and quality, are available here: http://www.almapress.unibo.it/pais_italia/index.html. The exhibit was very good and quite interesting. The photographs were great and beyond their artistic value had incredible historical one. One really got a sensation of a society in transformation, the coming of modernity, one could say. On the one hand– cars, jets, advertising, celebrities, politicians, media. On the other– farmers, religion, poverty, the Lira currency and inflation, the lack of automation. Of course even the more modern aspects had their own sense of history– the way the cars looked, celebrities and politicians which are now dead and recognized just by their last names.

The images were all Rome oriented, as that was Pais’ main hunting ground. I could not help but think of the last time I was there with KJB, in 200802 and with JAB in 200712.

After the exhibit I finally saw the iMac that had played the music for the exhibition. I was surprised to see that the iMac had not only been running the software to play the tracks, but was using it’s little speakers to cover the whole exhibition ground. I can’t say I was not impressed by what I have always considered a junk computer (which I was tortured by having to use in 8^th grade at Horace Mann). The playlist for the exhibition was composed of music from the era, and was nice. The music be downloaded here: http://dwrz.net/archival/multimedia/audio/music/PaisItaliaExhibitionMusic.zip.

As we were closing up, we noticed an elderly man had gotten in and started seeing the exhibition. He seemed to have been of the age where he was perhaps an adolescent at the time the photographs were taken, and seemed taken by them. Unfortunately as the exhibition was not really open to the public at the time and we were closing up we had to ask him out. He said he would come back later; he seemed interested in the photographs. On the way to return the key to the management we stopped by the press room of the foundation. Again, impressive. SM told me that it was here that his book (Soglie) had been revealed.

Afterwards we walked back to the car– stopping on the way to see Canova’s Ebe– and drove off. SM said we would go eat a good restaurant, but admitted he was not sure if it was open or not. When I asked him a few minutes later where we were heading, he’ll replied, “You’ll see.” Some time after (enjoying the beautiful landscape and sun) I noticed that most signs were pointing towards– Predappio. I recalled the name but did not know why I could, and asked SM, who gave me the same answer as earlier, with a smile. Shortly after passing a sign marking the town, we pulled up on a road and got out. I had only to look into the first store window to start laughing and to recall what the place was known for.

We walked into one store and I picked up 4 postcards from the era. The stuff they had for sale was sometimes extreme and it was, to say the least, a unique place. I payed, and noticed that the store girl was rather pretty (brown hair, blue eyes) but also that she did not really give the same impression the rest of the store did. After we got back in the car, SM told me that in fact it is doubtful as to whether many of the shops are even of that cultural-political affiliation, and probably it is just a case of wise merchants. The area, in fact, had voted for the Partito Democratico in the last elections, and the mayor was a known leftist (who is apparently annoyed when people confuse him as otherwise).

We drove forwards a bit and arrived at the house where Mussolini was born. It was a nice house. Pointing up to the hill it lay on was a monumental like structure. SM told me that it was originally a grand kind of triumphal arc on axis with the house, but that it had been so over the top that Mussolini himself asked the architects to tone down the monument.

We got back in and drove on, going to the cemetery where Mussolini’s mausoleum lay. The cemetery was nice, but the mausoleum was nothing much, and rather simple. It was almost kind of homey, and what one could tell more than anything else was the large presence of his family, who had equally large tombs around his. Ho Chi Minh– whom I saw in 2001– is buried in grander style (and, of course, alone).

We drove on to see a few examples of the Nationalist/Rationalist style of architecture in the city, then an abandoned plane factory. We then proceeded to the ristorante-enoteca, called La Vëcia Cantêna d’la Prè (previously called Cà dè Sanzves) and located in Predappio Alta.

It was a nice place, with a unique, quiet, countryside feel to it. One large window faced some green hills, and the entire place was surrounded with old wine bottles. We ordered, then went down to the basement to see a place where wine was once made. Huge wooden barrels and other wine making equipment all on three different floors. The temperature was cool and quite a surprising difference from the surface. After taking a few photographs we went back upstairs and chatted, contiuing after the food arrived. We had some crostini, then I had some tortelli with meat and zucca (SM had tagliatelle with porcini), then some chicken breast and potatoes, and a desert. I don’t remember the name of the wine. It was all good, a rustic feel with exceptional ingredients. Though it was simple, it was done well. It was the best meal I had had in a long time.

Full, we walked back to the car, I enjoyed the fresh air. We drove to SM’s office in Bertinoro. He gave me two copies of the catalog for the Pais exhibit and two copies of his most recent book, Il Sorriso e la Maschera, on the Romagna region of Italy. My memory card was full so we made a backup of the photographs (with some music SM wanted to share) on a DVD. I browsed the net and then took a nap while SM did some work. Later I talked to SM’s brother, MM who is in the Marina and lives in Cagliari, Sardinia. He again extended his invite to come over any time, and it was good to hear from him and, as with SM, have contact with the extended family.

We drove to Cesena and took a walk, then stopped for an aperitivo on a bar by a park. I had a Paulaner and some small pizzette and peanuts and a few chips (my first in years, probably). It was nice and relaxing. Cesena was also a rather pretty town. I was impressed that both Forlì and Cesena were so much cleaner and quieter than Bologna. We drove to SM’s house, which was large and thankfully (unlike the dormitory in Bologna or my aunt’s place in Napoli)– dead quiet. SM gave me two books, one on Schackleton, one by Shackleton. He then prepared a quick dinner (refusing my offer to help), so I watched a National Geographic documentary on Shackleton, then proceeded to read his South. It was inspirational, especially in light of the coming journey’s I plan to make to the arctic circle and the Alps.

Dinner was a good minestrone. I put some red pepper into mine, and mate note to take some on my trips– a good way to heat up when cold. I then had some pecorino with a type of red pepper preserve called fuoco di Calabria (fire of Calabria). It was hot (nothing outrageous, a shy weaker than habanero Tabasco) but absolutely delicious, especially with the cheese. I had some wine made by a neighbor and topped everything off with a liquer from Benevento, Strega. SM had been to Chamonix and Zermatt before, so I asked him a few questions about the area. We made plans for the next morning, made my bed in the guest room, and said goodnight. I read a few more pages of Shackleton’s South, then knocked out pleasantly in absolute darkness and silence.