Naplesthe rebellion of Luzzatti district it has the shape of a wooden house planted in the center of a small square and filled with books. The project was inaugurated book crossingof the book exchange, in the district that became famous thanks to a book.
Here, however, theBrilliant friend has nothing to do with it: the gentle rebellion of the neighborhood has exploded because the ax is coming down on the imminent closure of the municipal library, the last, indeed only, bastion of culture in the heart of a cluster of suburban houses where there are no cinemas or theatres.
«Are you closing the library? We respond by putting books on the street, available to everyone.” Salvatore Ventimiglia he is a son of the district who has made a fortune and makes it available to his people. His pizzeria Samuele is a symbol: he reaped some additional glory in February because it became the Neapolitan headquarters of the «Pizzeria Geolier” during the Sanremo festival. Salvatore took charge of the management of a small square near the pizzeria, next to the middle school: it was the symbol of the degradation of the Luzzatti district, now it is a jewel of always fresh flowers, well-kept lawn and obsessive cleanliness. It is in that little square that they placed the book crossing house, born from a project of the «Territorial Education» of the oratory.
Talking about the Luzzatti district today is like breathing in fresh air. The blanket of the backward and peripheral area was swept away by the reaction of the people after the explosion of L’Amica Geniale which tells of a dark, difficult, sometimes violent neighborhood. People shouted their truth about a neighborhood where there is a desire for legality, where drug dealing is almost no longer there, crime is far away. Of course, it is not a paradise and many contrasts are still glaring, but the wind of change is now blowing strong.
The Luzzatti district today is the enthusiasm of Ventimiglia which would have liked to pay in full for the installation of the book crossing, but was unable to, because each inhabitant wanted to offer their contribution; the neighborhood tells its story behind the offended look of a trader who shows up at theoratory of the Holy Family and protests because no one told him that he could contribute to raising funds for the kids’ summer camp: «Sorry, but why didn’t you come to me and ask for help? Why did you keep me out?”. You can see the neighborhood in the sweet eyes of Mimmo Martelletta who used to be a policeman but in his new life he dedicates himself to his neighborhood and has spent the last few weeks personally building the wooden structure for the book crossing.
You don’t know the Luzzatti district if you haven’t spent at least half an hour in the parish of the Holy Family. Marco Rota he is an aggressive priest, he is a parish priest but he could be a company manager: he keeps an eye on the oratory, the pitches, the distribution of food parcels, the relationships with the administration, those with a territory that he knows is difficult when you put your mind to it. In the rooms of the church there is a coming and going of people, all with a single characteristic: they smile and have a sweet and ancient kindness.
Behind the church there are sports pitches, until today the space has been loaned for free use by the Municipality, but the future is uncertain: a request for a fee is looming on the horizon which would be unsustainable for the parish. Two hundred children from the neighborhood play on those fields, under the watchful eye of Rosario Provenzano, a life in the police: «Three training sessions a week for teams with children aged eight to 14; the coaches, all with official training, are satisfied with the reimbursement for petrol. To participate, you pay a symbolic amount and those who can’t even afford that, train for free.”
Next to the parish there is an equipped play area. Twenty volunteers from the association take turns governing itThe island of smiles”: they open it in the afternoon and supervise the children, the shifts must be studied precisely because you also have to reconcile work and family in addition to volunteering.
A van leaves from the church every TuesdayHeron association which distributes food to the homeless, seventy hot dishes: pasta and sauce are bought with self-financing, the nearby nuns take care of the cooking; the bread is donated by a bakery in the neighborhood, the bottles of water are offered by another merchant, the fruit is donated by a greengrocer in Vasto; there is also the local pastry shop which presents itself every Tuesday with seventy sweets to offer together with the hot meal. «It’s the ancient solidarity of the neighborhood, here even those who don’t make money think of those who are worse off», smiles Provenzano who, after taking care of the kids’ sports, also starts driving the van.
And since in Rione Luzzatti we live by sharing and solidarity, the circle closes with the pizza destined to support the new book crossing activity, prepared by Salvatore Ventimiglia’s Samuele pizzeria: the pizza is called «Ascarelli project», whoever buys it knows that part of the money will go to support the neighborhood’s rebellion initiative, a kind protest against the closure of the library, a rebellion that uses the exchange of books as its only weapon.
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