One of the most intense and reassuring memories of my childhood is that of the Sunday morning that pulled the sun shone or bora ritual was the walk with his grandfather along the Rive .
And we arrived in Cavana, a village once inhabited by the nobility and now receptacle of people of ill repute, the faces marked by life, prison and human misery (Cavana "was never said out loud, but always whispered or fired as an insult). Along the village safe 'so that nearby there was still the Bishop's Curia, and there have already opened in front of the sea.
Who knows why, since that time and still today, when I watch the sea, even from the window of the house, shot like a sigh of relief ... Reassuring escape always ready .. who knows?
Just to lengthen the road turned left, as if to go back, and ... no water, yet, but via Lazzaretto Vecchio, the one mentioned by Saba "the old man" , according to Magris (and many others .. including me ..)
There is a way to Trieste where I mirror,
closed during the long days of sorrow;
is called Via del Vecchio
Lazzaretto
and, by Jove, finally the sea!
We come out in front of the rowing club, and if I was lucky and if time permits, my grandfather took me to watch the boys who train out to sea, which always ended with training crews spilling into the sea for swimming final applause of the audience Sunday.
not ... we walked out of the appointment was for me as for many children. The appointment was with Marco.
Marco was a penguin, but his story did not know how to that time, and then you too will wait to know
Every day, Sundays included, made his walk along the shore, accompanied by his favorite keeper (keeper of the aquarium, to say the true): Mark in front, free and solemn conceited ... I dare say, behind the keeper as a butler. The children welcomed him with shrieks and calls, the major looked at him always intrigued and amazed, some tourists (few, very few) pictures and if Mark did not realize it would stop and (giuro!) poses. If he was in a good mood he let her hands caress those impetuous and fearful at the same time, slipping down for its smooth and black feathers, and if the currency did not come caresses, he had his own way to steal: ... pretended to limp. Oh! It was capable, I assure you! What a disgrace! It is said that everything was born from an accident without meaning an attendant, one day, the stamped fin and immediately picked him up to comfort him and apologize. Leg-lameness - cuddles: simple and safe method
If you decide later that caresses it had received enough, two hands and pecks bulk of shots, perhaps with a few short tears if the pick was going to sign , was never in too much, Becca, just wanted to say "Now that I've got enough to do!" .
as well but I took it, under the watchful eye of his grandfather, which is not sufficient to avoid, and laugh in the mustache of the guardian. But Marco did not cease to love: as a lover betrayed me for years I took the insult in the heart, without shedding a tear or to miss a "Ouch, porcazzozza" ... eh .. women are seen in nature since childhood.
As an admiral browsing Marco man set his troops usually along the Molo Audace , path is not easy for his short legs, with those Pietroni offset by the storms, but he had one goal states: he went to bathe. They jumped off the pier and he was rocking on the water surface or did amazing stunts, is enjoying his natural element, and the faces of the spectators who were watching him as stupid. The return on the pier was impossible for him: the steps did not correspond to the highest extent of his legs, then had to go the keeper to recover it.
WHO WAS MARCO
Penguin Spheniscus Demersus: Mark of course not, but a relative
1953, the ship returns to Europe Lloyd from South Africa. A passenger aboard a very special: a demersus Spheniscus, a South African penguin even particularly nice.
They say he was found alone, abandoned and surely destined for death, by some sailors and "saved" bringing it on board. Perhaps the sailors saw simply a captivating puppy and fell in love. Who knows? What is certain is that the penguin became the entire 50-day journey, surviving somehow, certainly cared for with love and with all the care possible, hidden from the 400 passengers and also to most of the 200 people including crew officers.
was normal for seafarers, take home, travel, animals, "weird" (Trieste weird!)-I remember perfectly that envy us, boys of the neighborhood, tried to "John of Simia" (Gianni monkey), a boy with his father that "sailed "that went around with a monkey on his shoulder-sure of penguins around them, they were not yet seen.
And then, keep it at home? It 's definitely a question that even those sailors did. One possible solution to confess the "theft" of authority. No punishment, no scolding, but someone had the right idea: a gift to the Aquarium of the city. He spoke about "The Small daily newspaper in Trieste, with great relief, but nobody knew the character of Spheniscus demersus star in question, which character would have been absolutely crucial in giving the reputation. The
built a large tank well in the aquarium, which used to be happy to do his stunts by swimmer, is to sketch (with great satisfaction!) Visitors who looked at him over the edge. As for his bathing in the sea, to get in, the tank had no problem: a jump "on clanfa" (you know? Un'innondazione Of those that cause a range of 10 meters ...) and the game was done. Unlike the escape, but it was enough versaccio his hoarse and awkward, and arrived the butler on duty to pull him ashore.
They gave him a name, Mark .. I wonder why that! And he, certainly a latecomer imprinting, lived a man among men to 31 years. Yes .. 31 years, while the average life of a specimen of his species is 20, 25, and gotten them from generations of pampering hands replaced by other hands, ending up in newspapers all over the world thanks to the tourists (just maybe) that if they saw him before, arrogant as ever, between the buildings austrungarici of Rive.
Done "man" (it was 1964), his friends thought him also know the joys Love and South Africa came a couple of Spheniscus demersus, a couple because in that case the males are identical to the females .. in appearance. But there is no story: Max (male) the taking of holy right, Lily (the female) was not even deserve a look. On the other hand, seen through his eyes, the beasts were very strange! And then they could not speak or behave! ... Better to tourists, children and photos ...
Marco died from "man" as it was lived: in the arms of his guardian favorite, even pampered, tenderly wrapped in a blanket, with doubt over his face, his eyes full of 'love e di lacrime di uno degli amici che lo avevano amato.
(Dall’autopsia risultò che Marco era una femmina. Nel 1986 il governo del Sud Africa inviò a Trieste una coppia di pinguini, quasi a perdurare la memoria di Marco: Zigo e Zago che hanno messo su famiglia facendo nascere Domino e Pulcinella……. Ma Marco rimane irripetibile e indimenticabile)
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