Boxes scattered around the house, and many more arriving from Paris. What’s the first thing you want to do when you’re retired? «A surfing course. Standing on the board and riding the waves.” Surf. After all, what do you want to expect from Giovanna Botteri, who just turned 67? Certainly not a crochet course. The temperament, the voice, the energy, the movements tell of a truly young woman, in the middle of life, who has only closed one chapter, and she is about to begin another, no boring affection.
A few days ago she returned home to Rome.
«Yes, I’m waiting for the truck with furniture and objects. I left here 25 years ago: New York, Beijing, and last stop Paris which I left a few days ago. I’m very attached to this house, in old Monteverde, it’s a very neighborhood, my daughter went to school here.”
The strongest feeling?
«I’m caught up in material things, with my head down in boxes… And I also have to buy a car, which I don’t have. How do I feel? Like the divorcees who return to the market.”
A pensioner with a new life ahead..
«We are privileged because we are perky pensioners. One of the last stories I told – in remembering the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings – is that of an American who returned there to celebrate the landing: he had been married to a woman for 74 years. Having become a widower, he met another woman, they fell in love and got married there in Normandy: he was 101 years old, she was 96.”
Does she want to fall in love too?
“Of course always. Age doesn’t mean anything anymore.”
Professionally where he left his heart?
«In Sarajevo. Sandro Curzi, director of Tg3, sent me there. He told me two fundamental things: be careful and tell what you see. It’s a mantra every time I leave.”
What happened in Sarajevo?
«It left a profound impression on me. On the front there were great correspondents, Pullitzer prize winners, I was the only young woman with a daughter, a different element of the classic group of war correspondents: a “boys club” and few women admitted and they were not mothers. My story was different from that of my male colleagues who saw things differently than mine. I claim it with pride.”
What did his story highlight?
«We women have changed the narrative: we have told the war of those who suffer it and not of the great generals; of mothers who must search for food and keep their children safe; of ethnic rape. An experience so strong that it is impossible for it to leave you unscathed. You leave your heart, because you have shared terrible things with so many people.”
Experiencing motherhood at such a distance, the fear, the anxiety, the management of the child’s daily life. Who helped her?
«My dad was fundamental, he helped me a lot. Having a little girl was important because a child always brings you back to reality. There is a risk in this job and there is a permanent adrenaline rush, but a child keeps you grounded. You have to come home alive, you have to keep a clear head.”
What if her daughter had told her “Mommy is coming back”?
“He said it, and I came back. I was in Afghanistan with Maria Grazia Cutuli (journalist for Corriere della Sera, killed near Kabul, ed). In the evening my Sarah called me crying and I didn’t join Maria Grazia’s convoy, I took a car to the airport, to return to Rome. And I was saved, life is incredible. And I told this episode to Maria Grazia’s mother.”
And so when Sarah was a teenager she remained in Rome
«Yes, I moved on to hosting Tg3, I had to be more present with my daughter. When they are 3 years old, you can delegate something, when they are older, you have to be there.”
Then the adventure of correspondence began: New York, Beijing, Paris until the other day. Years in which she entered the homes of Italians with a lot of empathy, to the point of becoming a much loved face. When did the “leap” happen?
«Certainly when I talked about Covid from Beijing. I told the Italians about it before it happened in Italy. And when we saw the military trucks and those heartbreaking scenes of the dead alone in hospital, I was describing a country that was emerging from it. Maybe I represented hope.”
The pandemic experienced in China must have been terrible. The feelings you remember?
«So much loneliness and anguish. A country at a standstill, suspended, where only Mandarin and no English was spoken, often with barbed wire around the houses. When I walked the stretch of road from home to the office I was terrified that they would stop me on the street: they would test you for a fever and if you had even a low temperature, they would send you to a “Covid centre” and you would disappear. Furthermore, with the time difference, I always worked at night and in that darkness the anguish grew.”
Worse than being on the war front?
“There, you know where the enemies are, in Beijing you didn’t know where the enemy was.”
Arriving in Paris after China must have been a great relief
«It’s like this. Paris is a sweet place, I have also proposed many tales of customs: I have always liked telling both the terrible and the funny things.”
They began to invite her to many programs infotainment
«I have great respect for the television audience who rightly enjoy a bit of levity and I have great respect for my colleagues who deal with this, without falling into trash. It’s not easy. I think of Matano, Venier, De Filippi: very good. And I like this intelligent audience. The biggest mistake is underestimating those who look at you, those who read you.”
He once said New York is tough
«She’s very selective, she tries to get you down straight away so as not to waste time. If he doesn’t put you down, he adopts you after a year. Then it’s a good life. I really like New York, you feel the heart of the city beating 24 hours a day: a sense of life and incredible infinite possibilities.”
Your beginnings on TV?
«In Trieste, then in Rome: a program with Margherita Hack. Then I worked with Michele Santoro who as a first service sent me to a hill in Lazio where they said the Madonna had appeared.”
Some time ago there was the Striscia case, which was later clarified: reference was made to his disheveled hair, and in general to his very basic style. Did he get angry, was he upset, was he amused?
«In reality I never know anything at the beginning, I’m not on social media. I’m getting confusing news. Then I’m terrified of “Striscia” because I always think: if I ended up there, I’ve done something. From that episode I remember that many people began to write to me who had been made fun of for their physical appearance. I understood that there is a great need to be accepted, to be loved even with one’s imperfections. A model or an actress perhaps has to pay attention to her physical appearance, but for the rest… Let’s say that even more so I wanted to keep the point and say: “even if I arrive on TV like this, imperfect, with disheveled hair, it’s okay all the same.”
She is tall, blonde, blue eyes: what relationship does she have with her body, her physical appearance
«Relationship with the body typical of Trieste women, athletes, swimmers: we lack grace, let’s tell the truth. But we are always there when we are needed.”
He never talks about love..
«We always talk about love, my daughter is a child of love. Everything you do is done out of love.”
Her daughter Sarah was born from the bond between her and the journalist Lanfranco Pace, from whom she separated, and who passed away last November at the age of 76. Former leader of Potere Operaio, accused of being a supporter of the “armed party” of the Red Brigades, he was a fugitive in Paris for a long time. Was all this complicated for you?
«He passed away a few months ago and I would like to be delicate in the story. I was a university student and from Trieste I went to Paris to study. A friend asked me to be kind enough to go to the newspaper Liberation to get a book that this journalist, Lanfranco Pace, had. I met him, I was 12 years younger than him, he shared everything between us. I am Habsburg and naive, he is Abruzzo and cynical. I arrived much later than his past. I don’t really know what brought us together, I think love is this: you don’t understand, there’s no reason, but it happens. Sarah was born from our love and she is the most beautiful thing. The story was very complicated. I returned to Rome to work with little Sarah. I went back and forth with Paris, then I couldn’t take it anymore. He began to collaborate with Il Foglio and his period of “rethinking” began. Sarah also needed to understand. But I don’t deny anything.”
In 2021 Amadeus and Fiorello called her for an evening at the Sanremo Festival.
«Until the end I thought they would have second thoughts, that it was a mistake. But no. I just asked not to go down the steps.”
Did you feel like a foreign body on that stage?
«No, it was cool to be there all elegant, all made up. And then, being able to say that I was at the Sanremo Festival!
Do you have a great friend-colleague?
«Federica Sciarelli, we were together on Tg3, we are friends inside and outside of work. She is a fantastic person. I am also close to Gabriella Simoni, Mediaset’s war correspondent, we shared many things.”
Now that she’s back in Rome, you’ll see each other more with Sciarelli.
“Certainly. In August we will also go on holiday together on a small Greek island.”
She’s not on social media, but they talk a lot about her: very good, but there are also wild haters
«This scares me a little. And aside from me, I think of the fragile kids insulted on social media. This is why I reiterate the message: who cares about hair. Girls, love each other just as you are.”
She and Rai: decades of public service. What do you think of Rai between past, present and future
«My father worked at Rai, for me Rai is family and will remain so. Rai is all the journalists, the workers, it is not the managers who come and go. Rai guided Italy in the post-war period, built literacy, produced great dramas, continues to inform and give dreams. And he will always be in my heart.”
Sounds like goodbye, is there anything on the horizon?
«“In other words”, I would say that the public will see me again on a new network…»
Do you mean that you will return to the team of Massimo Gramellini’s program on La7?
«It was a natural choice. She had to go like this. After all, I am a free woman.”
What do you take with you from these challenging years?
«Never give up on passion».
