Balcony on the Strada

Another of the very attractive features of this apartment is the balcony off the kitchen, overlooking the strada below. Very tall double wooden doors with tall glass panes open onto a balcony big enough for a small cafe table and two chairs, with iron railings holding planter boxes

I envisioned an herb garden in the planters, snipping and clipping my herbs into fresh scrumptious offerings from my little kitchen. We planted jasmine to wind amoung the wrought iron supports, to shield us from the street, and a little lemon tree which sadly had to be cut down in anticipation of our move. It gave the sweetest lemons you ever tasted.

Just one thing. From the time we contracted the apartment in April 2005 to the time we moved in during August 2005, the small family ristorante across the street changed hands and became a bar attracting, on Friday and especially Saturday nights, lowlifes and drunks. We think they got chased away from wherever they were hangin' before, and decided to call our neighborhood watering hole their home. Most Sundays, the place was closed, so Sunday was always nice.

In September 2005 the Romani ... the gypsies from the encampment at the old airport outside of town ... occupied Chiesa San Tomaso, where Mozart played when he was twelve years old. The city was threatening to close down their camp (which did happen in 2007) so this was a protest. The gypsies took over the church, the piazza in front of the church, and it was generally an uncomfortable situation. And really loud.

I keep thinking of Cher's song with the refrain 'Gypsies, tramps and thieves'...now that means something concrete to me. Everyone in the neighborhood was upset and watchful to make sure the big palazzo doors to the various courtyards up and down the street were securely closed, because the Romani do come across the roofs at night to break into the apartments. Fun.

The gypsy crisis was resolved in time...early October...for a young Italian movie actress to be married in her old parish church, San Tomaso, replete with television cameras, movie cameras, limousines, hundreds of onlookers, her ex-husband 'and a cast of thousands cheered as the happy couple was driven away'.

The next drama was the Sri Lankans on their balcony across and one level lower and down the street. Dressed as they are accustomed to dressing at home in their country, which is in not much, they sat outside on their balcony, with cell phones, oogling the passing young Italian girls. One of them took to 'pleasuring himself' as the girls passed by, as one of our neighbors put it. Police were called, protest petitions were signed, and finally after months and months, there was a 'surprise raid' throughout town looking for illegal flats, and the flat was emptied of about ten illegal residents. The flat has never been rented again. There is probably a denuncia (lawsuit) against the landlord wending its way slowly, slowly through the Italian legal system.

So, my little balcony was not quite the balcony I envisioned. There were the buses that came through between 5 and 7 PM, and all the vehicles trying to beat the light at the next intersection, including that most horrific of engines of destruction, the moped. Screeeeeeeeee!