When I visit a city for the first time, I allow myself to be
the tourist stereotype: curious, trigger-happy, always lost. The second time
though takes on a different battle plan altogether. This time, I don't just
look at things and take photos of them; I actually try to really “see” the
city, its beautiful, even seemingly minute details and flawed features. I'd
like to be its friend, reflecting on its stories and breathing in its distinct
smell.
Technically, I already have passed by the city. But it was
just a quick stop for gas and some lunch. I felt guilty, to be sincere, upon
seeing “again” the Duomo, realizing that I've already photographed it and
gotten lost right within the “old town”, and remembering nothing more, but an
image of another Italian postcard-ready city.
And so, when my Genoese friend dropped me by the same spot
where we left off the night before: by the house of Christopher Columbus, I
resolved to make it up to the city. On a drizzling Saturday morning, with the
two columns of the Porta Soprana as my giant witnesses, I promised to spend the
day befriending the city, and listening more attentively to the stories it
would tell me.
But something caught my attention as I came out of the
market, a slogan that goes “camminando per il mondo” (literally, walking across
the world). And it dawned on me that I was actually, in some sense, traveling
across the world through the books I scanned and the native products I just
checked out right at the heart of Genoa's old town, by the Palazzo Ducale to be
exact.
Palazzo Ducale was built during a period when Genoa
gradually gained economic power over the whole Mediterranean, right after its
victories against Pisa in 1284, and against Venice in 1298. The slogan welcomed
visitors to the 2010 exhibit of the “Premio Chatwin”, the ninth edition of the
prize dedicated to traveler and writer Bruce Chatwin. This edition involved
journals, photography and videos of travels done in various parts of Africa. But
what really captured my interest was the big panels of illustrations sprawled
across the entrance hall of the Palazzo.
“Unchildren, infanzia negata (childhood denied),” by graphic
illustrator and author Stefania Spanò with Francesca de Lena who provided the
text for the exhibit, features 17 illustrations depicting the many tragedies
affecting children all over the world. The pain and horror of the various forms
of violence committed against children, from child prostitution in Cambodia to
forced labor in Pakistan and children with AIDS in Ethiopia, oozed through the
“seemingly friendly cartoon” images.
The images were disturbing, but I could not stare away from
them. I believe that most of who I am now is an accumulation of those crucial
episodes I experienced as a child. I thought: hey, mine was not that easy
either, but seeing “Unchildren” made me realize that I am still among the
luckier ones.
When my friend texted me asking if I was able to find a
place where I could have lunch, I replied: No, but I did find the world. When
he came to pick me up, he asked if there was some place else that I would like
to visit. I said I was fine. And so we drove up the elevated part of Genoa and
in what seemed forever, I joked: “'Are we lost?” Yes, we were. We took the
wrong road and so we had to go back.
When we indeed reached perhaps the highest part of the
mountain overlooking the city and the sea, my friend told me that here in this
part of the city take place drug trafficking and many other negotiations of the
shady kind. As we stood there in silence, the temptation of Christ came to
mind. I wanted to joke about it, but I saw my friend pissed about the fact that
we could not see the city clearly because of the fog.
On our way down, I asked him if he grew up in Genoa. Yes.
And if he wanted to stay forever in Genoa. He said forever was not exactly the
right term. As we got nearer to the city proper, the fog started to clear up
and the city became visible again. But it no longer mattered. The beauty of the
Genoa that I got to know better that day blossomed through the fog because I
was already a friend and I've been to its heart. //
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is a worldwide-eyed wanderer currently based in Bangalore, India. You may follow his musings and journeys on this blog. "All Rover the World" chronicles his continuing travels wandering about the world and stumbling upon strangers.
