Podróż do Włoch (Florencja, Pistoia, Lukka)
My Voyage to Italy (Florence, Pistoia, Lucca)

Summary/Abstract: A translation of fragments from Guido Ceronetti’s collection: Un viaggio in Italia 1981–1983 (1983 [2014]), dedicated to friends of invisible Italy (“Agli amici dell’Italia invisibile”). On his Italian voyages Ceronetti follows quests for non-standard sites by evading accepted schemes. In the translated parts of the collection peregrination destinations include Florence, Pistoia, and Lucca, each obtaining a depiction brimming with contrasts, with the author’s insight accentuating peripheral and concealed aspects, often not belonging to the canon. In this manner, in Florence Ceronetti tours, i.a. the cemetery of San Miniato, appreciates the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Oltrarno, discovers a painting of the Madonna in via dell’Albero, and notices the disintegration of the town caused by vulgar tourists. In Pistoia he visits the cathedral and Museo Civico, but first and foremost makes his way to the Il Globo bar, to observe people submerged in insignificant activities attributed to mass culture. Lucca becomes the scenery of fleeting sound-visual and culinary impressions at the trattoria Da Giulio in Pelleria, with Ceronetti tour ing, i.a. an abandoned hospital and watching a traditional spectacle at Teatro del Gilio. Fragments of Ceronetti’s Italy render us aware of the passage of time and the vanishing of heretofore Italy. The author’s reflective glance takes in ugly and abandoned sites, but at the same time delights in minor, unforeseeable elements of reality.

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