Page 31 - Milano Periferia

hand-warmers and the irons; the groceries smaller than in the centre and
with only one entrance, the glass showcase full of sweets ("i past") or
sugar drops ("bonbon") standing on one side, the glass jars of the
sweetmeats, peppermint drops or liquorice shaped like shoes, the egg-
shaped boxes containing spices, cinnamon and cloves; the tiny goldsmith’s
shops with their workshops behind; the poor bike-repair shops; the stripe-
painted garages not yet baptized with fascist ltalianism "autorimesse";
the images of Madonna on some faded house-fronts, a small lamp and the
flowers underneath.

The outskirts come to me as a different and differentiated district, not yet
homogeneous as regards the social classes, full of vital energy and opti-
mism, scanning the dialect alternated with the Italian spoken by the work-
man with a vocation for learning, broader and coarser in the mouth of
the female caretakers announcing their origin from Brianza.

The garbage clearance was made at the private citizens’ expense and
the people used to read then the "Tranvai" (Tramway), a newspaper in
Milanese, following with zest the cases and adventures of Tecoppa, Poldin
and Genoveffa.

While immigration came from Lake Maggiore and from Valtellina (and
the new tourism was already directed northwards on waggons with open
front seats like those of the Far West), the southern area kept alive and
full-blooded, by the ideal walls, the relationship between town and coun-
try, now defunct for ever.

The suburban peace was mysterious and much soughf-after. Even the
inns offered from their sign-boards promises of relief and relaxation,
oases hermetically protected against what ever makes the town self-
destroying with its historical recurrent events: the "Cazzeula" (meaning
a typical Milanese dish), the "Passetto", the "Ronchetto", the "Ronchet-
tino", the "Ristoro" (Relief), the "Ponticello" (Small Bridge), the "Pra-
ticello" (Little Meadow), and then the "Rose" (Roses) of every colour
and the "Viole" (Violets).

In all of them people sang, after drinking a "grappa" or a glass of wine,
about the beauty of the simple and wise Lombard-like way of living, espe-
cially if this beauty was embodied in the good-natured grace of some
buxom landlady:

"Giò dal pont de Porta Romana

ghe sta la sciôr’ Anna

che fa i calzett

titich e titècch...".

(Down the bridge of Porta Romana

you can see sciôra Anna

who is knitting

tickety tack, tic, ticking).