Oltrarno is the last surviving neighborhood still populated by mixed social classes in the highly gentrified
city of Florence; and San Frediano is the informal name of the part
clustered around the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, where in a
sense the Renaissance began.
A building company
with
the unlikely name of
Amore and Psiche Holding (“Love
and Psyche”), belonging to a certain Salvatore Leggiero from Milan,
has put up a wall which bars the residents of San Frediano from
access to half of the only
public garden of the area,
in front of the Ludoteca Nidiaci, (Via della Chiesa 44, 46 and 48) the children’s play center, and
which has been open to the local residents and their children for the
last 90 years.
And while they were
at it, Amore and Psiche also took the initiative of privatizing the
slides, jungle jims and playhouses of the ludoteca after they took
possession of the space a few months ago. Perhaps the managers of the
company plan to use the children’s slide to train for some
competitive sporting event?
Now in San Frediano
people don’t normally go about shooting one another, even though
some of the older residents mumble that they should shoot those who
are depriving the residents of a public utility. So,
different
from the Berlin Wall or the wall constructed by the Israelis in the
Palestinian Territory, this one is only
a wooden fence over
2
metres
high.
And since the
Oltrarno is still a vibrant and lively neighborhood, someone quickly
sounded the alarm, a little girl climbed up on the wall and snapped a
photo, while others called the City Hall and notified the press.
Just think of a
neighbourhood pulsating with life but with no space for the children
to play other than the traffic-ridden streets or the narrow
pavements, so narrow that only one cat at a time can fit - the second
has to sit in the street. A neighborhood which has only one dusty
square, with a small playground, a few benches and trees: Piazza
Tasso, with its unique variety of habitués.
There are also a few
secret gardens, hidden inside the walls of the aristocratic palaces.
In 1923, the owner
of one of these palaces, a gentleman by the name of Umberto Nidiaci,
opened his garden to the children of the area, even inviting them to
use his home as a play area.
For 90 years the
residents of San Frediano have used this garden and the Nidiaci
ludoteca, squeezed in behind the Carmine church and three buildings
that a certain Leonetto Mugelli just put up in an area where,
theoretically, even minor restoration work requires the approval of the City Building Commission. On the
other side of the church is the magnificent Piazza del Carmine,where the public-private consortium Firenze Parcheggi is eager to excavate a gigantic hole for an
underground parking lot to draw lots of traffic and night life to the
area.
The garden and the
Nidiaci building were not open to everyone: when I first discovered
them there was a Ludoteca run by excellent assistants, but only
children and accompanying adults were admitted. On some occasions the
elderly were also welcomed.
In this airy
protected space with plants and trees, some children climbed the
trees while others learned to play the violin with lessons given by
an American musician.
As the children amused themselves, the adults
who accompanied them chatted or sat reading a book, knowing the
children were safe in the enclosed garden.
In the 1950s, the
owners donated half of the garden to the City of Florence and in
2008, they decided to donate the entire space: after all, it had
been a public utility for 85 years and classified as such in the CityZoning Plan.
But before the
donation was perfected, something happened that has never been clear.
The property was put up for auction and was bought for a ridiculously
low price by a
company called S.a.p.a. Amore &
Psiche Holding di Salvatore Leggiero e C. which refurbishes flats and rents them for short terms to well-off foreigners (remember the address of what was the Ludoteca - Via della Chiesa 48).
At the outset
nothing appeared to have changed until, last autumn, the new owners
began construction work in the space above the ludoteca. Whether
intentional or not, the roof caved in and the ludoteca was declared
unfit for use. From that moment the City closed it down
(although in the afternoons a center for teen-agers remains in
operation); when city officials later tried to open it, they found the door had been locked from the inside.
There are no funds
for keeping up the Ludoteca. Someone told me that the City of Florence
has only 10,000 euro in its budget for the upkeep and maintenance of
public parks and spaces - but far more than that has been spent to
repair the streets of the historic center on the other side of the
Arno, the area where the tourists haunt the designer boutiques.
And this is how we
stood by and watched as the Nidiaci was transformed into an empty
shell surrounded by scaffolding, with trucks coming in to load or
unload building materials – until we discovered the WALL.
The
men in gray of Amore and Psiche had moved in. We will say something more about
them in the next installment.
(by Miguel Martinez, originally written in Italian)
(by Miguel Martinez, originally written in Italian)
