This is how it went this year. It happens even in the best families. For the feast of San Giovanni, patron saint of Turin, the city dressed up for the festival remained outside the party venue, that is, from Turin itself.
A traditional festival particularly dear to all Turin residents, believers and non-believers alike, who await the famous San Giovanni fires every year to formalize the start of the Turin summer tout court.
This year has gone badly. It happens, we hope it does not affect the September vedmmia, some say joking about the (weather) forecasts that link summer to the goodness of the future. To the dazed and bewildered Turinese, the most obvious answer is given by the most superb inexperience: Thus “it is decided”. At the court of the road, the one that knows no tradition but only disposable solutions, fake-innovative and with a headline that winks at the press, there is no trace of any “Turin”, less than a sense of the real Turin. That Savoy is reserved, open to everything but with deep respect for tradition or, better, for its own roots.
Nonsense changes
Until last year, the fireworks. Renowned because they are beautiful, dancing to the rhythm of music and engaging for their “approach” to the crowd, as if to embrace it. Their reflections on the nocturnal waters of the Po river that crosses the Savoyard city. The pleasure of getting together for an anniversary with an intimate show flavor under the Mole Antonelliana.
Nothing this year. Only luminous drones that draw, in a dark sky, figures of various kinds and colors, some successful others decidedly less (so it happens that the Vitruvian man actually looks like a wasp or a grasshopper – some say. national-popular of colored soccer balls bow between the lights every 3 for 2. Plastic emotions a so much per kilo, what do I do, madam, leave?).
A cold and drastic change also on the location. First, the poignant and immense Piazza Vittorio (with the longest arcades in Europe). This year Piazza Castello, equally beautiful, but more skimpy.
The possibility of attending the event for all the Turinese has also been canceled. In recent years, in fact, it was customary to consume something in the excellent bars in the city center and then slowly gather in Piazza Vittorio for the start of the fires. Piazza Vittorio, but not only. It was also possible to observe the fires from the banks of the river, from the precollina, from the Monte dei Cappuccini or even, often, from the top floors of the condominiums even far from the center. An inclusive event and very close to the “feeling” of all the Turinese.
This year, no. Gates to the center closed in the morning (on Sundays the gates are open!) Which caused a lot of logistical inconvenience to the Turinese. And then, a show with limited admissions: when the threshold of 30,000 people is reached, the square closes. Turin has more than 1 million inhabitants. Fear of repeating the crime in Piazza San Carlo, probably, last year’s event managed badly and ended worse. And then what? A miniature event, delegating everything to the outside (Intel & Co). In practice, zero responsibility.
At whose party?
Basically, on June 24 took place in Turin, even a little late if we look closely, a private birthday party for the mayor Chiara Appendino (birthday, June 12….) And a few close friends. With flying psychedelic lights that are so popular with under 35s today. And with a frightening as much as total nudity of contents. A bit like going to the disco with skimpy dresses and winking glances thinking of going to a premiere directed by Muti.
A beautiful technology experience, conducted in the most inappropriate way-place-time that there could be.
A mayor who, perhaps due to her young age, forgot to play the role of the first citizen of one of the cities that made history in Italy. A city that has laid the roots of the tricolor and that has given and welcomed so much in the course of its superb history of traditions and culture.
Many Turinese remained with a bitter taste in their mouth. And with the Savoyard and sarcastic aplomb that has always distinguished the inhabitants under the Mole, the sentence arrived: “… it seemed ugly to rent a disco for the birthday party. Better a whole square. “