Although the region has been suffering from a drought for months, this spring it seemed like weekday sunshine in Fidenza always gave way to showers or thunderstorms once the weekend arrived. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the rains that flooded towns and destroyed roads east of us also put a damper on part of Fidenza’s festival in honor of the Via Francigena pilgrimage route. A few weeks earlier, rain and drizzle had created a rather unfriendly environment for another of the town’s weekend events, a program of talks, walks, and other activities around the theme of “possible futures,” ecological and otherwise.
So when this past weekend brought with it real summer weather—temperatures in the high seventies, bright sunshine—I was grateful not only for myself but on behalf of all the Fidentini who had put together yet another big event, a multi-day literary festival called “Testo…Pretesto,” that is, “text…pretext,” although exactly what that means eludes me in both Italian and English.
Writers and readers gathered in various locales all over town at all hours of the day. You can check out the elaborate program here.
On Thursday Pam took me along to a talk on Italo Calvino, an author she loves, held in the little theater atop the Teatro Magnani. I enjoyed being there, although between the speaker’s beyond-Duolingo vocabulary and his fast-talking I gleaned precious little about the author beyond learning that he loved to draw. On Friday I had an easier time listening to three writers in the town hall courtyard talk about books they’d penned about Fidenza people and history. At a free book giveway I snagged a copy of Camera con Vista by Edward M. Forster, which it took me a moment to recognize as E.M. Forster’s Room with a View, an old favorite of mine which I am enjoying reading in Italian translation.
On Saturday our street was crowded with people enjoying the weather and each other. It truly felt like a festival, even if most of the people out were probably heading to the street market or a midday drink or doing some clothes shopping rather than hurrying to hear someone talk about literature. I myself bought a dress at the market, but I was also looking forward to a discussion titled, “Dialogue among those who love to write,” and Sunday’s talks on “Casanova’s Macaroni” and “The Cooking of Parma” were also on my calendar.
But then at about three o’clock on Friday disaster struck. A fire broke out at a plastics manufacturer in the industrial area about a mile southeast of the town center and a huge plume of black smoke rose into the sky. Pia upstairs alerted me to what was going on and told me we were all being advised to close our windows. I stepped out on our balcony to see, then hurried back inside and shut the door tight.
I wouldn’t have thought that a warehouse full of plastic would be so flammable, but video from the fire quickly circulated showing a true inferno. I don’t know who took this little film but it indicates how quickly the blaze intensified. (And I’m glad the videographer captured his own appropriately shocked reactions.)
Worried about the spread of toxic fumes, the mayor closed down the festival and urged everyone to get inside and close their windows. We were happy to obey. But a brisk breeze was blowing the smoke over our heads and off to the east, and a few hours later the smoke was gone; the vigili di fuoco had successfully put out the blaze. No one was hurt, but the warehouse had been entirely destroyed.
Danny and I went for a drink outside of the Strega bar across the street at about 7:30, where plenty of people were also enjoying the warm evening. The street was pretty quiet, but the only sign that anything was actually wrong were a couple of people who’d dug out their N95 masks and put them back on. We couldn’t see or smell any sign of a fire.
On Sunday morning, though, the street was completely dead. At the town hall, iron gates closed off the courtyard where the talks about macaroni and Parma cooking were supposed to be held. The sky was clear, the weather lovely, but the festival was no more.
Fidenza’s troubles are nothing compared to what some other communities are going through, and the premature closing of the festival is no big deal compared to the havoc the fire’s aftermath must be creating in the industrial district. But nevertheless it does seem like a run of relatively bad luck for Fidenza celebrations.
This coming Friday is the 77th annual Festa della Repubblica, a celebration of the 1946 referendum, held after the end of World War II, that swept aside the Italian monarchy in favor of a new Italian republic.
It was the first vote by universal suffrage in Italian history. The monarchy, the House of Savoy, had supported the Mussolini regime for the preceding 20 years, so you might expect the vote against them to be a landslide. In fact the republic won by only 54 percent to 46 percent, with most of Italy’s south voting for the monarchy and most of the north for the republic.
June 2 isn’t much of a festival by Fidenza standards. There will be some speeches. some readings from the Italian constitution, and a procession with the town band, lasting about an hour and a half in total. I’m hoping it’s a small enough event that this time no major disasters will interfere.
Oh my god!!! That video is something! What has been the aftermath? I'm glad the wind blew the smoke elsewhere. Do they know what caused it?
Meloni said, "The right loves the environment." Then stop generating single use plastic! Italy has a better recycling rate than the US but recycles only 30% of plastic.