On the cobblestones of the Sarpi entrance, the golden sequins, thrown by the confetti shooters, mix with the rain in a white patch. One might think of a carry-over of mortar from a nearby construction site, but instead it is flour thrown to the mature man on duty. Leaving behind five years of hard work, between Plato and Plutarch, Euripides and Eurynice, is a cathartic moment for many. Worthy of being celebrated, so much so that, in these days of oral exams, the result of a “crazy and very desperate” final study, as Leopardi put it, the group of friends and relatives, anxiously waiting, in Piazza Rosate, is never missing. The finally ripe one comes out and off we go, the sparkling wine blossoms, we sing, we toast and we throw a bit of everything in the air. Confetti, but also flour and with that, assures the deputy head teacher, Professor Arturo Moretti, “eggs and tomatoes are also thrown”. A bit of everything, with a playful excess that the management of the city high school decided to appease by posting notices on the austere columns.
“Students are invited not to celebrate the conclusion of exams inside the portico of the high school and in the area in front of it to avoid defacing the architectural elements as well as the parked cars.” Nothing peremptory, not a real ban. «Nothing comparable to what the University decided in terms of celebrations – Moretti is careful to point out -. The children can be celebrated, but with respect for the things around them and also for those who live near the school. Also because then the janitors have to clean.” A bit like what happens to the sacristans of the cathedral nearby, after weddings. “We don’t want the neighbors to complain,” concludes Moretti. And in fact, always on the same square, there are also the classrooms of the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the University which has clear and contrary ideas on the matter of parties. It is possible that some thrown eggs ended up on the windshield of parked cars, as for the other possibility of damage to the architectural elements of the high school one could think of broken glass or the reddish staining of the marbles and stones by San Marzano. Tomatoes, also like the students, very ripe.
