VicenzaPiù - Notizie, Inchieste, Analisi su Vicenza e provincia

St. Mark's Day is traditionally the day the inhabitants of the Serenissima take heart and throw themselves into the Adriatic for the first swim of the season. I didn't quite make it, lured as I was to see the new Peace Park opposite the Del Din or Dal Molin US base. Dalla Pozza's men were out in force, perhaps to discourage any enterprising beggars. I've noticed in the past their alacrity at holding up the mothers and children coming out of the school just after the first US base, Ederle, in Viale della Pace (Peace Avenue!) from using the zebra crossing outside, in order to allow the kids to inhale the exhaust fumes of the traffic roaring past.

It struck me that there being no such crossing at the entrance to the Peace Park, that they might have delegated one of their large number to create an impromptu crossing and stop the traffic from time to time - particularly as we were encouraged not to come by car.
Still, I crossed over from the cycle-lane opposite, and was about to park my bike, when an officious little chap in a luminous vest, a steward, presumably, began to lecture me on where I could or couldn't take it. He pointed to an area where a large number of cyclists had already left, or were in the process of leaving their bikes, and told me it was off limits. To me.
I told him he could do as he liked with his park, and cycled off. Wondering whether the park is to become a sort of sop to the pride of those disillusioned by the predictable impossibility of Variati preventing the base being built. Will it be a park like Querini, where anyone can go from dawn to dusk, or is it to be an area used by some specific groups linked to No Dal Molin? My thoughts then moved to the vexed issue of the day, known outside Venice as Liberation Day, regarding the blacking of the word ‘Resistenza' from a number of street signs around the town commemorating the role of anti-fascist partisans at the end of World War 2.
When I arrived in Italy in the early eighties, there was a strong feeling that the Christian Democrat party, with Variati among them, had forfeited the right to claim inspiration from the anti-fascist resistance movement. To many, this was symbolised by the party's top people ordering the massacre in Sicily, in 1947 at Portella, of villagers celebrating May Day after electing Communist representatives seeking land reform. Later, Senator Andreotti is widely believed to have used, if not ordered, the Red Brigade's kidnapping of Aldo Moro, who sought reconciliation with the Communists, to get rid of his rival altogether. The Communists themselves then voted legislation allowing people to be jailed for life for their journalistic and academic activities. Particularly Professor Negri, of Padua University. Italy was not then considered a free country, France in particular giving Negri and others political asylum. Not to mention Variati's party's involvement in the murder of former partisan General Dalla Chiesa, who took too much to heart the attempt to free Sicily, indeed Italy, from the Mafia. In this light, is it really pertinent to have the current mayor on a podium in Piazza dei Signori linking himself to those who fought for Italy's freedom? A freedom he defines as ‘from the foreigner', not from Fascism. Perhaps he didn't wish to offend some members of his coalition.
In fact, those who blacked out ‘Resistenza' were probably a band of drunken youths, disillusioned with contemporary politics, a group of naughty boys, vaguely sharing those ideals publicly expressed for years by former mayor Hullweck and his henchman Sorrentino, now safely recycled as representatives of the Partisan state. Despite their attempts to minimise Mussolini's role in the genocide of Serbs, by the politically loaded street name ‘Vittime delle Foibe', with its consequent portrayal of the Italian community in Istria as the only victims worthy of note.
Well, the following day I sailed past the majestic St. Mark's in Venice en route to the Lido, where indeed, in this strange Spring, I was able to have my first swim in the Adriatic, and get my body red in the scorching sun. St. Mark's, once centre of an empire stretching far into the Aegean. A year ago today, at the centre of another former empire, the much vaunted ‘Royal Wedding' took place. Well, London has its share of maverick libertarians in kindred spirit to our revered editor, and a number of them took part in a good-natured attempt to poke fun at the event. No slogans, or protests, little more than the odd satirical poster, and some obviously satirical fancy dress. Interested readers can look at Britain's sadly lost heritage of freedom, and the ability to laugh at itself.
Small beer next to the secret handing over of opponents to the Ghadafi regime, or the abuses on Iraqi prisoners.
At Vicenzapiu, we cannot hope to change the world, but perhaps we can do just a little for our cat-eating microcosm of it. Which reminds me that it's time I stopped pontificating, and got the polenta on for supper!

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