L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano N o t m a n y countries in t h e w o r l d make of their clean laun- dry a street decoration, but Italy does. From Venice to F l o r e n c e , f r o m N a p l e s t o Bozen, lines of blues and reds, browns and yellows and greens and whites, all hang out of our windows like a fragrant rainbow of nor- mality, and god only knows h o w m u c h w e n e e d t h a t , nowadays. Have you ever wondered h o w m u c h y o u c a n l e a r n about the people living in a place from what hangs out- side their windows? How many they are, their gender, if there are children. Their f a v o r i t e s o c c e r t e a m , t h e style of their décor and even their nationality. During the s u m m e r , w h e n y o u s t a r t s e e i n g b a t h i n g s u i t s a n d beach towels, you realize who's been on holiday and who still has to take a well deserved rest by the sea. If you look carefully, you can imagine outfits, even people 's daily routines and their jobs. It's not peeping, mind. It's getting to know your neigh- borhood, learning to love a place, discovering the quirky ways of a country. You see, there is art in this, too. There is art in the way clothes lines join together w i n d o w s a n d b u i l d i n g s , linking rooms of the same h o u s e a n d h o u s e s o f t h e same street. They are the sturdy connection between families, ante litteram phone wires, along which mothers, sisters and wives talked to one another and created a vicinato. There is art in this myriad of shapes, textures and colors blessing old hou- ses and decrepit buildings, beautiful residences and tra- d i t i o n a l h o m e s , b u t a l s o bleak council estates, and boroughs where you smell poverty as if it were made of glue. Because that laundry outside the window speaks of hope, too: hope to grow up, make it to college and g e t o u t o f a b a d n e i g h - borhood; hope to travel the world and finally break free from the narrow boundaries of a city's outskirts; hope life can get better. In those clothes out in the a i r , y o u ' l l f i n d p l e n t y o f magic, too. W h e n t h e w i n d b l o w s , fabrics and colors move as if o n a s t a g e : i t ' s a t h e a t r e representation, a hide and seek performance of cotton a n d w o o l , s i l k a n d l i n e n , whites and neons. Light and s h a d o w p l a y a b o v e y o u r head, with sheets masking the sun and their shadows changing the way the ground under your feet looks. And don't forget the sounds: that muted note of cotton being whipped around, the same you used to make when, as a SIMONE SCHIAVINATO Laundry drying against the sky (Photo: Giuseppe Anello/Dreamstime) The poetry of that laundry out the window Hanging the laundry outside can be a way to socialize (Photo: Adogslifephoto/Dreamstime) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE Continued to page 24

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