The century of life for the City of Pompeii is approaching. It is only six years away, now. And this is because the year 1928 of the twentieth century was the year in which the Municipality of Pompeii was established by Royal Decree.
The event, predicted and expected by Bartolo Longo, who had died just two years earlier, was administratively realized by literally carving out portions of municipal territory from four neighboring municipalities: Torre Annunziata, Boscoreale and Gragnano in the Province of Naples and Scafati in the Province of Salerno. From that moment on, the life of the new City began, understood as a civil society univocally administered by a municipal council elected by the citizens.
For about twenty years, however, Pompeii has also celebrated the Decree signed in 2004 by the then President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. With it, the Municipality was elevated to the rank of CITY. And this year the celebration for the anniversary has resumed after a prolonged break also due to the recurring phases of Commissionership of the Municipality, due to the accentuated ungovernability that for over five years has seen the presence of Prefectural Commissioners at the helm of the City, as a result of the repeated dissolution of the City Council.
But the Mayor Carmine Lo Sapio wanted to celebrate the City of Pompeii for its eighteenth birthday as a City, while waiting to celebrate its century of life as a Municipality. The celebrations took place in a sober manner, with a calendar of events just the right amount, after the overdose of Street Festival Art. the time frame was only two days on the 8th and 9th of this October.
The favorable contingency that provided the possibility of also having an international echo was represented by the large presence of foreign guests in the hotels and in the numerous and welcoming B&Bs of Pompeii, the result of many small initiatives of a family dimension or little more.
Among the novelties of this year, already on the opening night of the City of Festival Pompeii, there was a performance by Giovanni Baglioni. Giovanni is the son of the more famous Claudio Baglioni, the pop singer, known especially in Spain, for having published a good part of his discography in Spanish: on the Iberian and South American markets. However, we remind the reader that Claudio Baglioni was awarded the nomination of Honorary Citizen during the years of Claudio D'Alessio's Syndicate.
Giovanni Baglioni's performance took place on the evening of Saturday, October 8th at the "Di Costanzo-Mattiello" theater in the Bartolo Longo Institute. The young Baglioni with commitment and tenacious studies has become an excellent guitarist. He is already quite famous on the international scene - and obviously growing in popularity - following in his father's footsteps. On stage, however, Giovanni moved with personal ease, aided by a fluent and also, in some respects, personal and elegant way of speaking.
The acoustic guitar – which made him known in the music world for his characteristic touch between tapping and singerpicking, that is between touches and new polyphonies taken from the bare-fingered guitar, without resorting to the classic pewter – has not abandoned Giovanni for a moment.
He was constantly engaged with the guitar in his virtuosity, moreover appreciated by the spectators, present in the hall in good number. In the end it can be said, without exaggeration, that his performance has conquered the spectators from the first note, who have been captivated by the new and complex musicality expressed by him from the stage, without other filters. Let's say like an acrobat without a safety net. For this we must give him credit.
From the successful inauguration also thanks to the performance of Giovanni Baglioni we now move on to the closing of the “two days” of the City. The following day in fact, on October 9, the City festival moved to Piazza Schettini, for the evening of the food and wine trail.
An event that engaged the public present in pleasant successive stops in front of the numerous gazebos, set up - continuously along the entire perimeter of Piazza Schettini - by companies active in the sectors of Catering, Gastronomy, Pastry, Wine and Spirits.
Pompeian and District companies, generally medium-sized, which competed for the appreciation and tasting of the many participants in the event. In conclusion, however, we must recognize that the true success of the City Festival was determined by the overall composure of the celebrations, participated in and brought to an end without excesses and without paralyzing disorders, typical of village festivals, which see human walls attacking the buffets, with cold steel weapons, represented by forks and knives brandished for the final assault.
Federico LI Federico
Article published on 14 October 2022 - 07:47
