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He asked me if I could understand him speaking in dialect, as he knew that
I wasn’t considered a local by Leivi people. I answered positively but I
also added that he could speak American if this was more convenient to
him. So Bart immediately switched into English and I was stroked by the
impressive, educated and clear English he showed.
Bart and I had more occasions to meet again and get to know each other
before the date of his return to the States due in October. We became closer
and closer very quickly and easily so in the end Bart decided to postpone
his trip to the States until the end of November and wanted to take me with
him. His precise intention was of selling his house, arrange the move of
his furniture and belongings with my help, and come back to Leivi in
January to settle down for good.
And that was it, Obama was elected the new president of the United States
and Bart was leaving USA for the small village of Leivi.
Obviously this sudden move surprised everybody in Bart’s family, either in
the States and in Leivi. Even now, no matter the way the locals in Leivi
want to consider us, Bart and I are happy about our complicity and feel in
tune.
Bart has always liked to see himself as not fitting any mold, and I’m going
to explain how . . .
“I’m crazy, Anna, you know that?!” He keeps saying in order to be
reassured that I’m still with him. This statement has always a certain power
on me and, led by curiosity and fond of surprises in life, I end up attracted
to him all the times.
Bart is a mixture of opposite aspects between the American and Italian
mentalities. One wouldn’t say that they could coexist, but here they collide
instead to form a ”Jekil and Hyde” character simultaneusly.
Bart was born in San Francisco in August 1944, in a family with Italian
origin from Liguria. He spend his childwood in the “Marina”, where most
of the population had the same Ligurian origins. His mother Louise was
already born in San Francisco, her Italian parents having emigrated from
a small village in Val Graveglia , and his father, Mario, arrived to San
Francisco from Leivi in 1941. At that time Mario was a worker in the same
company where Louise was a secretary.
It is also interesting to note that Louise, Bart’s mother, born in San
Francisco in 1914, grew up in that big city, so different from the small
village in Val Graveglia were her parents came from. She attended
Sherman Elementary in San Francisco then she graduated from Galileo