Peter, Paula and Mitch

These are Paula and Peter from London, England as I met them the other day in the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle in Milan. Mitch is not in the picture because he is dead. The three met on their first day of University and became best friends quickly. Their friendship was so solid and profound that it withstood the traumatic event of Paula hooking up with Mitch leaving Peter in constant, deep and torturing pain. They rented a flat together and worked hard to graduate and find good jobs in the City after which, still together, shared a luxury highrise apartment. One late night, about a year and a half ago, during a silly argument, Paula pushed Mitch from the balcony, he fell down 24 floors and met the pavement (and his death). Peter, who, it so happens, got himself a new phone just the day before, filmed the entire incident. When the police and ambulance arrived, Paula and Peter stated that Mitch was a well-known somnambulist and it was all an accident. It was gone seven by the time police left and when Paula checked Peter's phone, she realized that the clip was saved in several hidden locations. Peter went to his room to find Paula naked in his bed. It is not known how happy the relationship is, what is known is that Peter invested all of his emotional capital to make it work, Paula's contribution is, occasionally, her vagina.

Isobel Kunst

This is Isobel Kunst as I met her on the train to Domodossola in Verbano, Piedmont. Sweet kid if there ever was one ... years ago her parents went through a bitter divorce and her mom, Sylvia Kunst, was granted sole custody. Her American father, Jim Sloe, kidnapped her and fled to Panama where they lived for seven years, her dad assuming, and Isobel letting him believe, that she forgot all about Sylvia and Itlay. When they took a trip to San Diego, Isobel, then 14, ran into a police station. She was returned to her mom, went to high school in Italy and captained her field hockey team to the Piedmont-Lombardia championship.  A few years ago she started her Yoga studio - great success - first Hatha, then Vinyasa and Bikram. Since then property crime rate went down 82%, violent crime is non-existent, the birth-rate is 18% higher than the national average, people walk or bike anywhere, they smile a lot and nobody has had dandruff in years. Isobel has a pet turtle called Joe Clyde.

Rosalba von Touche

This is Rosalba von Touche as I met her at "Enrico Rizzi" on via Correnti in Milan - she is the most delightful girl who you'd want to handle your gelato, her smile melts hearts and her hands are most beautifully shaped. Rosalba plays classical guitar, writes poetry and is a cracking tennis player (none of which translates, currently, to income) which made her mother advise her to marry somebody rich. Rosalba always listens to her mother's guiding pearls of wisdom and always ignores them. Her favorite composer is Manuel de Falla, her favorite dish is a vegetable curry, her favorite author is Jasper Fforde (she first read "Il Caso Jane Eyre" when it was translated in 2006 into Italian and then, quickly, everything else she found ... she was particularly happy that there was an Italian Translation Inspectorate that makes field trips). Rosalba does not know yet, but in a few months (Mid-November, to be precise) a life-changing event will occur, that will forever change her life forever.

Ariadne MacIvor-Fabrizzi

This is Ariadne MacIvor-Fabrizzi as I met her in front of the Palazzo dell'Arte Della Lana, in Florence, a while ago. She's just been with her advisor (seen there sitting, smoking), at the "Società Dantesca", to discuss her Korean translation of some Petrarca Sonnets. Ariadne's mother, Anne MacIvor, came to Florence, met, fell in love, moved in with and got pregnant by Fabio Fabrizzi in the early nineties. When they learned they'll have a baby, they decided to get married and had one of their (0nly) two catastrophic fights: Anne wanted her family name preserved, hyphenated to Fabio's, Fabio (macho Italian) didn't want to hear of it. Anne went and registered Ariadne hyphenated anyway (they had their second huge fight, of which,  subsequently, Anne got on a plane back to  Glasgow never to return). Fabio raised Ariadne who turned out very well, with an uncanny talent for languages: she learned to be fluent in Spanish, Korean and in Swahili in just two years during University. We had coffee and she talked about her plans and dreams. Short-term plans had to do mostly with food, short-term dreams had to do mostly with naked men with large penises. We never got to the long-term plans and dreams.

  

Gina Fanamedeo

This is Geena Fanamedeo of Florence, Benton County, Iowa. She studies Flute and Composition at the local conservatory. She was born and lived, until about nine years ago, in Kaesong, North Korea under the name Doy-Pham Kim. Her best friend and classmate, Than Euh-Kyung, lived next door and the fathers of the two girls, both widowed, were also best friends spending most of their free time smoking and talking in quiet voices in the back of the garden. On that fateful night of November 10th, 2009, at about three AM, her father woke her up and told her to dress, he did not switch on the light. A light backpack was ready for her with a change of clothes and a small wooden box that her father said to be opened only "when needed, you'll know when!". Outside, in the bitter cold, stood Euh-Kyung with her father and they started walking quickly and quietly towards the woods and the near border. Suddenly there was shouting, shooting, and blinding floodlights. Kim felt her hand yanked, running as fast as she could, falling, getting up and running again. Suddenly it was dark and quiet again until she heard voices, a mix of Korean and (what she thought was) English: somebody pulled them into a warm hut. Her friend's father still clutched her hand, tears in his eyes, kept repeating: "My daughter, my daughter". They made it to the U.S. as father and daughter and given new names. Her final exam piece, a concerto for flute, harp and chamber orchestra is called "The Border" and is dedicated to "Father and Euh-Kyung". Geena never opened the little wooden box.

Lidia Bellotini

This is Lidia Bellotini (née Piacentini), she is on her annual visit from Poggibonsi to pray to San'Agata di Caesarea in the church on via San Gallo. The prayer-subject for the last nine years is well-known: it is the anniversary of the disappearance of her husband Gian-Basilio on July 12th 2009. What is not known is that Lidia prays for her soul and continuing protection and Lidia's role in the mysterious vanishing of said husband: she stabbed him in the throat and buried his body in the garden that night when he came home drunk again and hit her again and said he cheated on her again. She told people he went out that night and never came home again. Everybody felt sorry for her, being abandoned, but many thought she is better off without that no-good drunk. Lidia prayed daily at St. Lucchese for the "safe return" of her husband (she felt that lying in her prayer to God is less sin than taking a life and He knows and He guided her to do it anyway). Later she learned that San'Agata is the patron saint of secret killers, that is when the yearly trips began. Lidia lives alone with her old dog Variany (only witness to the "bloody deed" who didn't like Sgr. Bellotini either because he kicked him and who wouldn't say anything to anybody anyway). 

Ilaria

This is ⭐Ilaria⭐(you notice, there is no last name because she is a star). A while ago painters (mostly Italian) had nick-names: Michelangelo Merisi was called Caravaggio, Pietro Vannucci was called Perugino, etc. Later, football players (mostly Brazilian) had nick-names Edson do Nascimento was called Pelé, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite was called Kaká, etc. But now the "baristas" who make our daily coffee are the stars and we, while in Florence, by the river, at the Verazzano, had many a "caffè"  made by Ilaria ... and they were all exceptional!  She is as a delightful girl as you'll ever meet ... rarely fits a name a personality as hers does. Ilaria dreams to, one day, go see the Verazzano Bridge (N.Y., N.Y.) and open a school, teach kids how to brew a real cup of coffee. Once in New York, she will NOT change her name to Hillary (Ilaria in Inglese)