Year

It's been a year since we came to Ponte San Pietro. This means that I've spent quite a big part of my life here, and Irene has spent, well, all her life here. In fact, for her the world begins and ends right here in our little town. Actually I can't remember at all that I've lived somewhere else, and few weeks ago when I went with mum and Irene to Pavia and mum kept saying, once we lived in this street; this is your old kindergarten; you used to play here, I thought she was just joking -I can't remember anything about Pavia (although it did look slightly familiar), or my memories are buried so deep in my brain that I had a hard time pulling them out there and then.

We like Ponte San Pietro. It is a small town, and we live in the town's center. Every day we walk through the center to go to kindergarten. We cross the river Brembo, we pass 6 cafès and meet a lot of people going to work or bringing their children to school or kindergarten, or just heading off for their favourite coffee-bar for breakfast. We exchange words with some of them, greet some, nod our head to many and then there are some that are so lost in their own thoughts that still after a year they can't remember ever having seen us. There are the shop-owners and bartenders that stand outside their shops and exchange a few words. There is the group of men that no matter the weather, time of day, or whether the cafè is open or not, will be found smoking outside one of the bars we pass. They are far to busy analysing Atalanta's last match and wont move when a mum with two babies has to pass on the tiny sidewalk of the narrow road, but will keep their breath and their beer-bellies "in" when the bus passes, -if not the bus won't make it around the corner where the cafè stands. A lot of old ladies stop to tell us how cute me and Irene are, and many old gentlemen pat me on my head (I actually hate it) and giggle to Irene and so a micro-friendship evolve and more and more people move from the greeting-category to the chat-category and sometimes it can take ages just to walk to kindergarten. We've started to form friendships as well, mainly with people in nearby towns, but I have the feeling that mum knows all parents of young children in Ponte and everyone seems to know my name!

Ponte is quite a pretty town, or let's say that it has it's pretty sides. Here is one -these two pictures show the view from the old bridge over Brembo (the one we pass many times a day on the way to and from kindergarten), and the view towards that bridge. The bridge is maybe the most important structure of the town, for it was THE bridge over Brembo in the old days, and because of it Ponte developed as a commercial town and became what it is today.

And here is another one that shows and old courtyard where the outdoor theater is held in summer (you can see the stage if you look well).

And here is an archway that we pass every day, and through it you can see the old church and the bell tower of the new church.
Every town in Italy is crammed with history, and so is Ponte. Unfortunately much of the town was ruined during the WW (being a strategic point) but if one looks closely there are interesting historical points hidden here and there. Here are two examples that mum has come across, one is an old austrian cannon-ball from italy's second war of independence 1859, buried into the wall of a house by the river. The other one is a sign on first floor (above the street) on one of the houses that stand by the bridge over Brembo and it says that during floodings in the year 1646, the level of the river arrived just there - quite incredible if you ask me!
But although we appreciate many things about our little town, there are many things that could be better. E.g. the walk by the river could be made attractive (note that I didn't write MORE attractive, for it isn't attractive at all today -actually it is dirty and attracts only drunk people and people that contribute to making the place more dirty), the beauty of the houses by the river could be used more in favour of the city. There are spots like this one, in front of one of the 6 bars that we pass every day -full of pigeon-poop, that hasn't been cleaned so much as ONCE in this year that we've been here -maybe they are waiting for the piegeons to clean it by themselves, or for it to reach an acceptable level so that they can plant roses directly in the dirt. And there is this house, that is on the street that crosses the center and is just about to fall a part. It is owned by 2 or 3 cousins that can't agree about what to do with it, except to let it rotten and become an ugly landpost.
What is so contrasting to the degrading state of the town is the price of the items you can find in the shops here. I find it really strange that in a small town like this there can be 4-5 fashion-shops with prices so high that a pair of trouses cost more than a monthly salary of an operaio.
There are many initiatives in Ponte, weekends of market, street fairs, an amusement park on the square in front of the town hall (for 2 weeks in june), chocholate-feast, christmas market, the presepe by the river, a spring-party and you just name it. Most of them are sponsored by the shop-owners, but sometimes I wonder if they really attract people to come to shop in Ponte, for if the people only find shops here that are far too exclusive for any normal person (I doubt that those who can afford a 450 € T-shirt come for a street-fair) and if the town has nothing else that can attract (such as a well kept and interesting walking path or a park by the river-side, or nice cafè by the river, or some origina, interesting and affordable shops) then those who come from other towns to these intiatives won't be back to spend some money!
Sometimes mum wonders if she should start a group of people that wants to make Ponte more beautiful, a few simple things could make such a change...