The story of Raffaele Scicchitano, 84, a retired army non-commissioned officer: it was he who organized the stay and the party at Palazzo Lupi. Soon a book of memories.
«One day the commander of the Legnano Brigade called me and told me he wanted to invite a famous person to give prestige to our Christmas party. It occurred to me to contact Gianni Morandi, who at that time was under the naja in Pavia, where he had been transferred a few months ago from Arma di Taggia.. They made an agreement between generals, I think, and they asked me to pick him up from the barracks in Pavia. So I did and for two days he remained, as it were, in my employ ». The story of Raffaele Scicchitano, 84, a retired non-commissioned officer in the army, is full of details. When, on Thursday morning, he saw the photograph of Gianni Morandi at the Li Gobbi Barracks in via Suardi in the newspaper
posted two days earlier on Facebook by the singer
, jumped in his chair. He, that evening in December 1967, even had the task of organizing it. He was in fact the clerk of the Legnano ceremonies, as well as the manager of the canteen, and all the events that were held in the barracks in those years passed by him.
Raffaele Scicchitano with souvenir photos
He recalls ministers and generals, the visit of Giovanni Spadolini, Bergamo well of that time, the evenings organized with the Italian Red Cross and even a gala dinner with the Brigadier general commander, “snatched” from a very famous (then as much as today) starred restaurant in the city. In his villa in Torre de ‘Roveri, a treasure chest of many relics collected in a lifetime, Raffaele Scicchitano went to rummage in the drawers of the attic and here comes new, unpublished testimonies, in color and in black and white, of that visit of the young Morandi in the city.
Gianni Morandi at Palazzo Lupi
He thus reveals to us that the photo published the other day tells of a performance the evening before the gala party, dedicated to the military and their families. «When I took him to Bergamo, by car – Scicchitano recalls – I accompanied him to Li Gobbi in via Suardi, where he stayed for a couple of days. The real concert he did the following evening at Palazzo Lupi, headquarters of the Brigade, in via Pignolo. When I accompanied him to the party room, he asked me for some information on the evening, then slapped hard on a wooden table. It was not a gesture of disapproval, indeed. I don’t remember why, but he was happy to be there. ‘ In the original photographs carefully preserved by Marshal Scicchitano, Gianni Morandi is seen on the stage of the salon (dressed in civilian clothes, despite being under the draft) while he was gathering the applause for the concert that had just ended; there is one with Laura Efrikian, his first wife married the year before, who often waited for him outside the barracks during leave hours and whom Morandi had wanted beside him also for that evening; or yet another with a soldier stationed in Bergamo with his wife, some other guests and even with one of the waiters who served dinner before the show.
“It was a more unique than rare evening – says Scicchitano, who will soon publish a book of memories –. An event that has also given prestige and visibility to my work. For me it was a great satisfaction, because I can say not only that I met Gianni Morandi, but also that I was able to have his presence for a couple of days ».
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