Travel in the old Genoa of the 50' years

Arrowsn.gif (1080 byte)Back to Mario Magonio                Back to the Theatre Hall
Arrowds.gif (1080 byte)

 
This is a travel prohibited to the minors of 50 years......!  a travel in Genoa of the first post-war period when Mario Magonio has created his first Puppet Theatre. 
In that time Genoa was a microcosm of quarters all very separated and self-sufficient. Squares and the streets were full of children playing in the roads. 
Dressed with old clothes ,generally of greater brother and destined to smallest, they lived practically in the road controlled far away from the old grandmothers that, seated on a chair in road, worked to mesh chatting with the neighbors. everybody was known from others, the solidarity was great and the children entered and exited from the houses always left with the doors opened. 
The pilferers did not exist, the gangsters were in circulation with due caution in the late  hours of the evening maintaining anyway  respectfull relations of good cohabitation with the inhabitants. 
The quarter of  "Le Vigne", where Magonio lived, gravitated around to the Church and the Oratory, the boys served the Mass and the girls sang in the chorus. On Sunday everybody at the solemn Mass at 10 hours in the morning with the new dress of the festivity. The boys with their short also in the most rigid winter, the girls with colored dresses with ribbons and laces sewn from the mothers. The greater problem were the shoes, recycle and resoled imany times, always too much great for that small feet. a number more for use them for many years! 
In summer everybody at sea, with bread with salt and oil wrapped in a piece of rough paper, at the best seaside in Genoa the  San Desiderio and the San Nazaro or "La Cava" where the children defied themselves to swim to the wide sea until it was possible to see the three cupolas of the church of Carignano.

 The quarter was very heterogenous with a lot of characteristic personages, typical figures of that small world: The blind man Roberto with that beautifulst tenor voice playing the fisarmonica in Vico Casana, the seller of the newspaper "Il Corriere Mercantile" screaming the latest news that after nobody was able to found on the newspaper, " Briculi " the courier express courier in bicycle, the first pony express of the history, always so drunk to lose the way to reach jhis warehouse, Maria of the Trattoria Maria in vico Testadoro that with few liras served a plate of her formidable home-made ravioli, Bacci the vendor of roast chestnuts in Campetto, the old woman at Soziglia selling lavender to perfume the linen (..spigu..spigu bellu!) and more the ancient works of past time: the clock repairer at Oscar Linke, Macciò the shoemaker in Cernaia square, coalseller in Lavagna square that in summer was selling ice in pieces, the baker in the deep of vico Indoratori where all the women of the quarter used to bring cakes for being cooked in the owen. Miss. Rosalba who repaired the nylon stockings in a small hall of the Senarega public square, the used-books sellers in via Banchi, the embroiderer, the tripe-seller of the Soziglia and Vico Casana, the milliner with her funniest  bonnets in the display window of Vico delle Vigne, the perfumed shops of farinata in Sottoripa, and more a myriad of laboratories of craftsmen who worked on plain air in the road. 

The postman delivered the mail directly at home and the street sweeper knocked every day to the house door to withdraw the trash... that it was a real convenience!,  the accountant of the fifth floor was the adviser of all the quarter and everibody were gratefull for his advices. The life slid however serene, nobody suffered for stress or solitude and the solidarity was true and sincere. In this atmosphere the Puppet Theatre assumed the value of one great occasion to pass some hours of healthy amusement.  Baciccia della Radiccia carried in scene also scenes and personages of the quarter and the spectacles were occasion of true laughters and generate funny nicknames for the victims. 
The rich and noble Genoeses, that lived in the beautifulst  palaces of the historical center, lived in tightened contact with the people, always respectful of them, and participated through the Parish to initiatives of beneficence and attendance. They were names illustrious : Marquises Invrea, the Pallavicini, the Negrotto and Cambiaso, the Earls Pratolongo, the Cattaneo Adorno. All of them gave hospitality to Baciccia and his little theatre in their houses in occasion of festivities and birthdays contributing therefore to the economic survival of the Puppet Theatre of Mario Magonio.


GENOA IN A POSTCARD


lanterna.jpg (27341 byte)
La Lanterna


viaventi.jpg (32776 byte)
Via XX Settembre



soprana.jpg (34351 byte)
La Casa di Colombo


ducale.jpg (29808 byte)
Palazzo Ducale


pegli.jpg (30940 byte)
Pegli


pontereale.jpg (28292 byte)
Via Gramsci

      
       ... more characteristic views of Genova in that time that we dont remember...!

nervi.jpg (23312 byte)grattacielo.jpg (30848 byte)
            
           Porticciolo di Nervi                                       I grattacieli di Piazza Colombo
deferrari.jpg (33097 byte)corvetto.jpg (35936 byte)

                     Piazza De Ferrari                                          Piazza Corvetto

porto.jpg (31849 byte)
Veduta del Porto di Genova

Soundtrack : Ma se ghe pensu - Traditional genoese song

Arrowsn.gif (1080 byte)Back to Mario Magonio              Back to the Theatre HallArrowds.gif (1080 byte)