The Pic Nic is resurrected. In the pages of a book. The venue is a piece of Rimini’s history. At least the recent one, the last (almost) sixty years. The presentation of the book “…the Pic Nic remains”, written by Nicola Gambetti, creator of the Facebook page Rimini Sparita, who on the occasion will dialogue with Pamela La Maida and Stefano Baldazzi, will be held on Tuesday 25 June at 5.30 pm in the Cineteca. Book sponsored by the Municipality and dedicated by the author “to Maurizio and Berto, to Berto and Maurizio”. Naturally Maurizio Bellini, “elegant and strange Bolognese transplanted to Rimini”, born in 1941, who inaugurated it on 26 December 1965, and Benedetto ‘Berto’ La Maida, three years younger and his partner since 1967, who will become the brother of a life. The unforgettables. The two historical faces of the Pic Nic. One hundred and ninety pages of the book with touching memories and testimonies, and many beautiful photographs of the guests of the restaurant in via Tempio Malatestiano. “Whoever reads it – says Gambetti – will find in it 40 memories of as many friends of the Pic Nic (among the many we highlight that of Nando Piccari, entitled “The ‘third chamber’ of Rimini politics). Divided between athletes, politicians, journalists. Because the restaurant on Via Tempio Malatestiano was the home of the Rimini people. A place of the body (particularly the palate) and the soul, of meetings, of friendship, of feeling good together. And a point of reference, among other things, for the basketball teams that participated in the Palio, every year in the gym of the still ruined Galli theater. The book is a tribute to memory, to celebrate Bertino’s 80th birthday this year, on 17 September. “Bertino who in the kitchen at the Pic Nic, behind the stove, was a bit in the shadows. We want to show him how much people love him”, smiles the author.
Mario Gradara
