PISA. A piece of Pisan history, linked to student spirit, is gone. He died Bruno Bardi, who would have turned 101 in June 2024. A successful entrepreneur in the field of veterinary medicines and horse racing, Bardi was the undisputed protagonist of the goliard scene, known by the nom de guerre of “Nocciolo”, and author of the incidental music for student operettas.
Horses
Doctor Bardi was born on 29 June 1923 in via Serafini, next to the Sapienza, in the heart of old Pisa, in a rear annex of the Palazzo alla Giorno. Graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 1948, he had established a company distributing medicines and accessories for animals in Pisa, in via Santa Maria, which is still in full operation today. And another great passion, that for horses, had led him to be the owner of world-famous racing colts and stallions, hosted at his “I Mandorli” estate near Peccioli.
The art
Bardi divided his life between work and his tireless artistic streak: since 1945 “Nocciolo” composed and directed the stage music for student operettas presented at the Teatro Verdi and throughout Italy. «Those were the glorious times of the Freshmen’s Festival, with Radio Palle di Ponte, the Numero Unico, the Lungarno packed with crowds cheering the celebrating students – friends and goliards remember their theater companions – Pisa, wounded by the war, wanted to rise again, and Goliardity was able to give her a hand. In this context, Doctor Bardi managed to earn the honorific title of “er Puccini della Goliardia” at a very young age, attributed to him by the late Guido Gelli: from “Nero” to “Francesca da Rimini”, from “Otello” to “Pia de’ Tolomei” , his strong baton was able to interpret that particular state of mind called “youth” and which made many of his highly applauded melodies famous.” In June 2023 he turned 100, but time had not affected the characteristic traits of his personality: his impeccable elegance, innate elegance and generosity, that brilliant and friendly smile and that Tuscan joke always ready to strike the incredulous interlocutor.
Memories
«It seems truly impossible – conclude the friends – to have to say goodbye to a character so full of energy, capable of crossing a century to comment with a sly air: “What will a hundred years be?”. The lawyer also remembers Bruno Bardi Lorenzo Gremigni, president of Crocchio Goliardi Carefree. «He leaves us an exuberant and joyful person – recalls Gremigni – despite his age he was the youngest of us all. With that spirit and that desire to do despite the hundred springs. I had met him when I was still a university student and the common passion for our partnership had united us. He was the doyen of Pisan goliards and with him an era truly ends.”
Two years ago Fabio Vasarelli, author of the column “Leg(g)ende pisane” on the Tyrrhenian Sea, dedicated a beautiful article to him, full of anecdotes. «When years ago the Alap (Association of Pisan University Graduates) asked him to present a CV for the sixtieth anniversary of his graduation, he cited as a particular honorific the having come third in a bowls tournament in Soianella» writes Vasarelli, who also recalls that time that «to seal the passing of the baton from the old to the new generation of the goliard theater, he organized a sumptuous lunch in his estate in Peccioli (about fifteen years ago), but demanded that the young people be served as appetizers to the “old people” bulani (the lower grade), on tables and stuffed with vegetables, since they had yet to earn the title of crocchisti».
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