“Vecchia Firenze Mia” turns ten: “It’s not to regret, it’s to know”
A quarter of a century lived by voice alone, by words alone, for 4 hours a day at the microphone of Radio Blu. Then “The G” retired and realized that “I was missing the pictures.” And what if not those of his beloved Florence? His beloved “old” city of “plots and knocks”, of squares, of people’s smiles: it has collected 200,000 directly from citizens who since 2012 have sent them to share from the Facebook group Vecchia Firenze mia. Of these, 70 thousand have become the “best of” that can be admired on the page of the same name. The romantic photographic archive of him turns ten. And he, Gianni Greco, “Il G” as the stage name of a cult radio and television speaker of the Eighties and Nineties, creator of a “Mosquito” ante litteram – “so much so that Giuseppe Cruciani calls me” master “” – a few pebbles from his shoe if he would also like to remove it: «The first and never equal page reserved exclusively for photographs of a Florence that no longer exists, with many unpublished, all choices, improved and cataloged for you – he writes – (it cost him) ten years of work with no economic return, and the daily institutions shut up. Only for the love of Florence ».
The Gè a caustic character. The “politically correct” calls it “humanly incorrect”. He has fought a lifetime against censorship because of his he columns The Sondazzo and Il stink of the press, of his characters such as the Nacchero bucchemachere (bookmaker) of the old Pignone or the brutal Gugliermo Passeri, a former rider who called themselves rider «with the bee, two cami and three purmi». Or like the petrol station attendant Il Grezzo who wanted to be paid for diesel in kind by the wives of motorists. “Where has the Florentine spirit gone? – he asks himself – Having sweetened him is as if he were killed ».
He would not want anything special from the “silent” institutions. He would be satisfied with a “good”. For his commitment to preserving memory. “Of course the Gold Florin, the keys to the … come on, let’s joke.” But up to a certain point because “with all the prizes given to people who have little or nothing to do with Florence, florins left and right …”. Arrived at 79, he is more combative than ever: “I’m old but not in my head or in desires.” So let’s browse this archive. For example, in the “No More” section we find the ruins of the Umberto I Theater in Piazza D’Azeglio after the fire of 1889 or an almost gothic image of the Tabernacolo del Canto alle Rondini at the corner of Palazzo Contri. And again the interior of the Alfieri Theater when it was not yet a cinema. Then a rarity from 1922 that shows the Parterre without the current “cubes” ready to host the new era of contemporary art in Florence.
It goes back a century and beyond. But Il G warns: “The oldest images, from the nineteenth century, are of much less interest than those of the seventies and eighties. People’s souls are moved by the memories of what they saw as children, unfortunately it is nostalgia that moves everything. The double-decker bus for example, which is no longer there to unleash in thirty years, avalanches of comments from those who remember why and how they always wanted to go upstairs only. But I don’t like nostalgia: the motto of Vecchia Firenze Mia is “not to regret but to know”. I don’t know what to do with “it was better before” just because when young it is obvious that life was better ». Examples are shown at: “The overpass in piazza della Libertà which can also be seen in To the west of Donald Duck of the Giancattvi was horrible but people remember it as beautiful only because there is no more will”.
Here is the meaning of his slow and tiring work. There was “a void to fill” says “The G”. A memory lapse. And of people. «Vecchia Firenze Mia is a huge cemetery: people who are no longer there excite me». For years they have sent him “images found in the house, in the chests, attics, albums, for this reason many are unpublished. And with the captions he dedicates I give him the creative imprint. Social networks are the place for “sharing” the work of others, here it is forbidden to “share”, it is all original ». If the group is the “gym where memory trains”, the page is a good copy. Each album is thematic: there is the one dedicated to the “Florentines”, that is to the people, that of the “trami e knocks”, or public transport, that of the unpublished, of the squares, one for the countryside, another for the ancient villas , and then the cinemas, the ancient crafts, cars and motorcycles, the old shops, the doors and the old walls, the schools, the bridges, the hotels, the snow. You don’t end up anymore. “People have taken a liking to it.”
And then sometimes the grandmothers’ chests bring other gifts. “For example, I discovered an amateur photographer from the seventies who remained unknown. Now that he is dead his relatives sent me his materials to improve: there was a photo of people sitting in Piazza Goldoni sunbathing, a humanity that is no longer found in today’s photographers, even among the best, because they look too much and only at aesthetics and little at the human side. He instead of people who brings out the soul, not just faces and faces “. The other side of the coin is that “monotony” found in words and comments. “But it is possible that if I place an image of the Uffizi square everyone speaks only of the crane that was not there yet, and if I show the old pavement of Piazza della Signoria everyone will” repeat who knows in which villa which rich man those will have ended up stones? “That’s enough eh.” And now that TV and radio are “hostages” of the politically correct, as he says, they also thought of calling him back into active service as a speaker. “They wanted me, yes, but when I heard” but they said go easy “I replied” I like the plan: either I do Il G or nothing. So better devote myself to Vecchia Firenze Mia “.
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February 3, 2022 | 07:53
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