«When you love someone you think that this someone is eternal, and that every single morning you will wake up at seven and he will be there, waiting for you to come up for breakfast, as always, for many years. I’ll miss you Mao, Without you the square will never be the same.”
The words of Elena, who greeted her beloved cat Mao in this way yesterday morning on Facebook, are a snapshot of the state of mind of quite a few Grosseto residents. Mao, the cat par excellence of Grosseto, was loved by (almost) everyone, but – despite his consolidated fame as a highlander – it was not eternal. On Monday evening he passed away: having survived the inadequacy of those who had tried to set him on fire, the malice of those who had kidnapped him to keep him prisoner, the wheels of SUVs and vans which daily competed with him for dominion over Piazza della Palma, he succumbed to illness. A lung tumor, of which until two days earlier he had not given the slightest sign, garrisoning his kingdom to the last and seraphic as always, the quadrilateral between Piazza Indipendenza, Via Vinzaglio, Via Ginori and Piazza della Palma; and as always treating himself as a guest of honor in the various apartments he likes, for a snack with tuna (selected) or on Thursdays with roast chicken from the market. Only on Saturday did Elena – one of Mao’s best friends, with a home in Piazza della Palma – see him looking a little gloomy.
«At first – says Elena – we thought he was annoyed by the construction site for the redevelopment of the square». Instead, on Monday morning the collapse: Elena, with Monica from the L’Archetto pizzeria, rushed him to the vet. He didn’t even have time to complete the analysis and he shut down.
No one knows exactly how old he was. Certainly no less than sixteen, probably a few more. But it matters little, time – for mythical figures – is a detail. Born as a domestic cat in a house on Via Fanti, Mao soon took the path of freedom. Not the stray, never mind. Rather, the freedom to choose who to love and who to be loved by, rejecting any dependence. He had his favorite places (with great taste, for many years, Alessia’s beautiful haberdashery) and then had the doors of the entire neighborhood opened in rotation for short visits, which everyone greeted with pride. No one, however, could call himself the “master” of him.
He had the keys to the houses all over the centre, Mao. As the fresco on the shutter of a closed fund in via Garibaldi tells us well, a gigantic portrait of Mao created (a privilege that only true VIPs are entitled to in life) in 2021 by the artist Nora Camarri for the Trame Off festival created by the Clan collective. He belonged to everyone and no one, whoever welcomed him adapted to his rules and vice versa.
An extraordinary lesson: by stealing the words of a great philosopher, Mao demonstrated the impossible, he taught that “welcome precedes ownership”. A difficult concept, so much so that the day after the fresco appeared someone decided to kidnap it. Having disappeared into thin air, the friends of the center were almost resigned when – more than a year later – Mao miraculously reappeared, tested not by physical wounds but by the nightmare of “prison”. There was a big celebration in Piazza della Palma on the day of his return. It’s an air of sadness today that truly says goodbye to him.
Goodbye? Not exactly. First of all, the large fresco in his Via Garibaldi remains. And in the meantime there are already those – in the municipal administration – who are thinking of dedicating a small “monument” (or perhaps a plaque) to him in the square which will soon be completely new.
Maybe. Certainly no one in his kingdom thinks that Mao is really dead: «It’s nice to think – the Clan girls write in a post – that he is now in a special place, where he continues to live with his unmistakable rebellious style, not caring about the rules as only he could do. We imagine that he is already winning the hearts of everyone he meets, giving confidence only to those who really deserve it. You are great, Mao, and wherever you are, you will continue to be the undisputed boss.”
