L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano Counterintelligence Corps headquarters in Genoa. They waited for the arrival of a special FBI agent assigned by J.Edgar Hoover to gather evidence to justify an indict- ment of the poet on charges of treason. America's most prolific a n d i n f l u e n t i a l p o e t , " i l miglior fabbro" who edited TS Eliot's The Waste Land i n t o p u b l i s h a b l e s h a p e , praised the Axis powers. "I knew a priest-poet who saw Mr. Pound being cap- t u r e d b y t h e p a r t i s a n s , " Bartolomeo Solari, a former woodcarver in Zoagli who has a fondness for local his- tory, tells me. "His name was Don Antonio Frugone. He told me that Pound said to him:" Oh, Reverend, will w e e v e r s e e e a c h o t h e r again?" Held for a short time in Genoa, Pound was trans - ferred to a prison camp in Metato near Pisa, at first in a security cell without toilet a n d t h e n i n a t e n t i n t h e infirmary of the camp where he was allowed to write The Pisan Cantos, the most lyri- cal section of his long poem t h a t w a s a w a r d e d t h e Bollingen Prize for poetry in 1948. H e d e d i c a t e d t h e f i n a l s t a n z a o f T h e C a n t o s t o Olga, who was a loyal com- panion. She courageously supported him during his 13-year incarceration at St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the c r i m i n a l l y i n s a n e i n Washington, D.C. following his arrest in Zoagli. Olga was always in the front row for him. Casa 60 has been com- pleted renovated. Today it is owned by two Genoese fami- l i e s w h o w o r k i n Switzerland. A commemora- tive plaque on the house's facade recites: "Here lived at various times in the course o f h a l f a c e n t u r y E z r a Pound, the great innovator of poetry, the best craftsman of art and artists, discoverer of distant horizons." Olga t o o k E z r a h e r e i n S a n t ' A m b r o g i o o f Z o a g l i again in 1961. They divided their time between Zoagli and Venice the last 11 years of their life when he was sick and she was a devoted com- p a n i o n , s e c r e t a r y , a n d nurse. He died in Venice, yet in Sant'Ambrogio they were s o h a p p y . H e r e c a m e t h e s u n . A n d w h e n t h e s u n comes, there is love. "What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross," Ezra wrote in Canto 81. In Zoagli, many came to visit, including poet Allen G i n s b e r g i n S e p t e m b e r 1967. Ezra was an habitué of C a ' d e l F r a t e , a t r a t t o r i a nearby Casa 60 that offers simple, delicious Ligurian dishes. A few minutes away a r e t h e C h u r c h o f S a i n t A m b r o s e b u i l t b y t h e Milanese bishop in the 9th c e n t u r y a n d t h e a n c i e n t Chapel of Saint Pantaleo referenced by Ezra Pound in Canto 76. T h e C h u r c h o f S a i n t Martin in the town center a n d t h e C h u r c h o f S a i n t J o h n t h e B a p t i s t i n t h e hamlet of Semorile are also well worth a visit. Tradition has it that the latter holds p a r t o f t h e J o h n t h e Baptist's sacred ashes trans- ported from the Holy Land by a crusader. Zoagli boasts three ham- l e t s : S a n t ' A m b r o g i o , Semorile, and San Pietro di Rovereto. Mr. Solari recalls there is a Semorile Building in Napa, California. It is a refined two-story building designed in 1888 by archi- tect Luther Turton for the Semorile family who emi- grated from this Zoagli ham- let. It is a commercial build- i n g w h e r e B a r t h o l o m e w Semorile and his sons oper- ated a grocery business. I n t e r m s o f e c o n o m y , Zoagli built its reputation on velvet and damask work. F o r c e n t u r i e s , t h e v e l v e t weavers of Zoagli were at the height of prosperity. Today, the Gaggioli and the Cordani families preserve the pro- duction of the traditional Zoagli hand-woven silk vel- v e t , t h e s m o o t h v e l v e t o f G e n o a t h a t d a t e s b a c k t o medieval times. Their ate- liers in Zoagli are among the v e r y f e w i n t h e w o r l d t o make sumptuous patterned velvets and damasks that adorn grand palaces, muse- ums, and the richest church- e s t h r o u g h o u t t h e w o r l d . The Cordani velvets are also a v a i l a b l e i n L o s A n g e l e s , N e w Y o r k , a n d B o s t o n . Magda Cordani says they have a strong relationship with the US. While Giuseppe Gaggioli says he dressed the o r c h e s t r a m u s i c i a n s a t Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London with timeless ele- gance. A penthouse over- looking Central Park, New York, was upholstered with Gaggioli velvets. Both fami- lies are available for new custom-made luxury pro- jects. From the Sant'Ambrogio c o t t a g e , C a s a 6 0 , E z r a Pound heard the steady tick, tick, tick of the loom. "In hill p a t h : ' t h k k t h g k ' o f t h e loom/ 'Thgk, thkk' and the sharp sound of a song/under o l i v e s ( … ) " h e w r o t e i n Canto 39. "That noise was everywhere in Zoagli," says Solari. "The roads were filled with that." I guess German philoso- p h e r F r i e d r i c h N i e t z s c h e h e a r d t h o s e c l a t t e r i n g sounds as well those morn- ings of 1882 and 1883 as he enjoyed taking long walks from Rapallo to this village. H e o n c e w r o t e t h a t h e i s "going up the resplendent road to Zoagli among pine t r e e s a n d t h e v e r y l a r g e e x p a n s e o f t h e s e a b e l o w me." In a note, Nietzsche also revealed that the gene- s i s a n d t h e i d e a f o r h i s philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None came up right there one lucky morn- ing. LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE Continued from page 30 Commemorative plaque on the Casa 60 cottage, in Sant'Ambrogio di Zoagli, where Pound lived (Photo: Cristiano Pugno) The Castello di Sem Benelli, in Zoagli (Photo: Image Showcase/Dreamsti- me) A view of Zoagli's main square (Photo: Cristiano Pugno)

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