When Angelo Guglielmi wanted Venice but found himself a candidate for Pomezia …
It was the 2002 election campaign, if I remember correctly.Unit and the director, Furio Colombo, asked me to follow a day of Angelo Guglielmi, who was the left-wing candidate for mayor of Pomezia. Been to Pomezia? An industrial village on the outskirts of Rome towards the Pontine plain. I reached Guglielmi who was staying in a hotel overlooking the freeway. Today it is called Hotel Antonella, then it had another name. With Guglielmi he was there Piero Chiambretti, that you wanted him in all the meetings scheduled for that day. I followed them for the morning and then in the afternoon, in meetings of meetings in the center of Pomezia.
Guglielmi’s attitude was curious. Aggressive with the voters, lashing with the traders, annoyed with the workers. He didn’t seem to be dying to win the election. At about eight in the evening he retired to the hotel and asked me if I wanted to stay for dinner with him. I accepted. We chatted about politics and when it came to fruit, having taken some confidence, I asked him: but why are you a candidate for Pomezia? He lowered his voice, approached as if to speak without being heard, and confessed the secret to me.
“I’m a bit deaf – he told me – and when he phoned me Veltroni to propose the candidacy I understood Venice. I was happy to be the mayor of Venice. Full of ideas. Three days later I discovered that I was a candidate for Pomezia, I was disappointed but since I am also shy I was ashamed to retire… “.
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