TERROR AT THE ANTICA CAFFETTERIA

TERROR AT THE ANTICA CAFFETTERIA

Jun 21, 2025 | CHRONICLE

Terror at the Antica Caffetteria in Gravellona Lomellina. 

Unfortunately not the title of a story. 

I told you about Gravellona in connection with the Mayor cat. 

I have not yet told you about Gravellona as a town of Art, but I will, sooner or later.

This time, I want to report a shocking news story.

The Antica Caffetteria in Gravellona is a café located along the main street running through the town, a small village, almost an island between the rice fields and the Three Lakes Park. 

A quiet place. Very quiet.

But on Monday evening between 7pm and 8pm, this quietness was shattered by an insane, unmotivated and cruel act.

At the Antica Caffetteria there are people sitting at tables, but among these people comes a man with black soul.

Perhaps because of a loss at gambling, perhaps because he didn’t like Sambuca, perhaps because anger and malice have mixed together, this man, a Tunisian, starts to go into a rage.

The bar owner, of Chinese origin, urges him to stop, receiving a punch in response.

An altercation ensues, the bartender’s husband intervenes, and after a physical confrontation the man is removed.

However, he reaches his wife sitting in the driver’s seat, pulls her out of the car, beats her too.

Then he gets into the car and heads for the bar.

Yes: you read that right.

This “man” drove his car towards the bar, hitting the people who were sitting at the tables.

The imponderable.

How often do we sit at a coffee shop table?

Terror at the Antica Caffetteria materialised in the shape of a car in the hands of a black soul.

Terror at the Antica Caffetteria turned into pain, an amputated leg, wounds, and suffering destined to accompany the hearts of an entire community and all those who might have been sitting at a coffee shop table one evening in June.

ACCABADORA

ACCABADORA

Feb 22, 2025 | BOOKS

Accabadora is a book that needs no introduction: everyone knows it.

However, I only read it now, thanks to ‘Monica books.’

I open it and find the dedication:
To my mother
Both of them

I immediately send a message to Monica telling her that I did not know Michela Murgia had been adopted.

She replies: ‘Read.’

Now I know what fillus de anima are: children of the soul.

So we find ourselves once again talking about the meaning of motherhood as extensive as the love it encompasses.

Mothers. 

But not only that, as was the case with The Children’s Trains communities are active participants in these dynamics of fostering children from families who are unable to raise them, to families who take them in.

Honestly, I did not even know the meaning of the word Accabadora, which comes from the Spanish acabar = to finish, but in its deepest sense is always linked to the concept of mother, in this case the last.

Did a figure like Sa Accabadora also exist in your region?

I had never heard of anything like that.

But I remember hearing about people who ‘signed’.

The ‘signers’ were considered to be able to heal or in some way protect against evil through their signs.

What popular figures are linked to where you live?

NIRVANA UNPLUGGED

NIRVANA UNPLUGGED

Nov 2, 2024 | BOOKS, MOVIES, BOOKS, MOVIES, MUSIC, MUSIC, ROCK, ROCK

Nirvana unplugged in New York, often known as MTV unplugged is first and foremost a high moment in music history to me.

For our very first chat here on the blog, almost five years ago now, I told you about the cardigan Kurt Cobain wore during the recording of this live show.

Then over time we talked a lot about music but never came back to what is really one of the most important memories for me.

First of all it is the memory of an emotion: the first time I listened to Come as you are without even getting to the end I was convinced that I would never like another song again.

Come as you are is perhaps the only one of Nirvana’s most popular songs, performed even during unplugged, I think precisely because of its characteristic intense intimacy.

But every single song performed during MTV unplugged is beautiful.

The cover of The Man Who Sold the World in my opinion beats even the White Duke.

Where did you sleep last night is poignant to the point of almost materialising Kurt’s suffering.

And then Dumb, About a Girl, Pennyroyal Tea … which is your favourite?

Sadly released posthumously Unplugged in New York with every listen reminds us of the pain and loss of an artist who would now be a grandfather, as his Frances Bean became mother to Ronin at the end of September.

Many tales and anecdotes about 18 November 1993 chase each other all over the place, but what we can all still see is Kurt arriving, and after a simple ‘Good evening’ he introduces About a girl by attacking his guitar ride.

The rest is magic, atmosphere, white flowers, candles, drapes and soft lights, like metaphorical arms that welcome us into an immersion of music and sensations, simplicity and depth at the same time, where everything else is stripped away, the whole world is outside, where all that counts is the lightness of a faint breath destined to fade away but which in reality can only remain engraved in the memory forever.

Extreme vulnerability yet disruptive power.

Nirvana Unplugged is one of the gifts I cherish, it is 30 years old today and yet I’m never tired of listening to it again.

I treasure it along with Kurt Cobain Diaries

Nirvana unplugged

and Montage of Heck, which I saw at the cinema earlier anyway.

Nirvana unplugged

On the off chance that you’ve missed something, I recommend catching up: I find it indispensable to understand the deep torment of a Soul torn between the love of music and the pain of life.

I wish I was like you
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything is my fault

I’ll take all the blame
Aqua seafoam shame

MY SOUL IS WHEREVER YOU ARE

MY SOUL IS WHEREVER YOU ARE

Dec 24, 2023 | BOOKS

My soul is wherever you are is a striking phrase.

These words, uttered by a character in the story told, give the title to the book written by Aldo Cazzullo published by Mondadori.

More precisely, the full title is: My soul is wherever you are. A crime, a treasure, a war, a love.

A crime … as you know very well by now, I love reading books about crimes and once again I thank Monica for this read.

But if at the beginning the chapters chase each other along two parallel lines: time and investigation, soon the murder itself loses relevance compared to the story which, from a blurred background position, page after page becomes the protagonist.

A crime, a treasure, a war, a love.

War, as we know, is total destruction, and even in this case it annihilates humanity by provoking behaviour that nothing and no one will ever be able to erase.

So can my soul is wherever you are become a damnation?

While waiting for you to tell me your interpretation, I want to add that although the setting is Piedmont, I found myself reading a story that is the same story I heard as a child and that has always stuck with me: greed has the power to bring together people with completely different ideals.

Here then is the purpose of the treasure. 

Can you tell me of a treasure that has enriched you in a positive sense instead?

ONE CAN KNOW A MAN FROM HIS LAUGH

ONE CAN KNOW A MAN FROM HIS LAUGH

Nov 11, 2021 | ISN'T IT IRONIC?, MOVIES

One can know a man from his laugh is the opening words of a famous phrase by Fyodor Dostoevsky, I would like to say “Thank goodness I’m a woman, so maybe I can not give a bad impression …”

Seriously I laugh in a rather absurd, sonorous way.
I laugh, really.

However, it is not easy to find something that really makes you laugh.

Laugh, yes!
That state of uncontrolled hilarity, which breaking out suddenly takes all paranoia by surprise, and obscures them, relieving the soul.

What are the things that make you laugh the most?

The first thought went to the scenes of some movies which have since become an integral part of my way of speaking because I often mention them.

The one richest in irony, the one in which it is difficult for me to choose a particular scene, the one that made me laugh out loud is The Big Lebowski.

Yes, I know, the Coen Brothers are particular, this humor is particular, I, I am particular… (where by particular in my case we mean not normal).

 

You will tell me that all this is on the contrary very tragic, in reality it is, but I find myself exorcising and basically wanting only a case.
Maybe with the hope of no longer being against the wind at least in the extreme juncture of life.

Also because … could be worse: could be raining!

I could not fail to mention Frankenstein Junior, another movie of which I am unable to choose only one scene, since I like it in an ABnorme way.

Again you say my laughter is too bitter?
It is therefore the case to give a necessary turn, and to think of someone who is synonymous with essential laughter.

A MAGICIAN and not just parallels …

Peter Sellers: the quotes would be endless, his characters have gone down in history, perhaps the most explosive is the actor in the Hollywood party. Or not?

In this regard I advise you to read From India with humor. 

And what about you? What makes you laugh the most?

In addition to movies, is there a book, song or play that you found particularly hilarious?

If I think of rice by associating it with a book, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco comes to mind, a very important book for me but conceptually the opposite.

Let us therefore remain on the rice that does not kill.

Do you make me laugh? I take note …

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