Georgio Perlasca, The Book Thief, and Serendipity

One Sunday I was walking around town looking for something to do and I saw that Il Palazzo Della Ragione (the palace of reason/rightness/justice). I paid the 5 euro to go in and enjoyed the beautiful architecture, frescoes and Padovian jewelry exhibit very much. I was very happy with my visit when I saw that there was another exit. It said "Emergency Exit" above it but I could see there was a museum docent behind the door. I asked the docents by the entrance if I could go out that way and they said that I could go in there but I wouldn't be able to exit through there. So I went there and saw a beautiful courtyard. I walked around slowly and took many photos. Grumbling that the gates at the bottom were closed because it was Sunday, I trudged back up the many stairs to the main exhibition to make my way back home. But then I noticed something I hadn't seen on my way down; a plaque on the wall by the stairs. It is the one pictured above and it reads: "The city of Padova honors Georgio Perlasca 'Just Man of Nations' who in the winter of 1944-45, in Hungary, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust." Along the bottom it says: "Whoever saves a life saves the entire universe." In short, he grew up in Padova and later on saved over 5,000 Jews by pretending to be a Spanish ambassador to Hungary and gave documents to Jews to go to Spain. Read more about his heroic deeds on this biographical page. He really has an amazing story.

I was also very impressed by the sculpture in this piece. You can really feel the fright of the Jewish mother clutching her child. You can see the hopelessness and the death on the faces of the others. You can click on the picture to see a bigger image of it.

One major reason that this plaque resonated with me so is that I am reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It is a book I quickly selected while at the airport to have something to read on the plane. The Book Thief is about a young German girl during the time of the holocaust who is adopted by a family and learns to read and steals books. She becomes great friends with her foster father who teaches her that all people are created equal through his actions as he refuses to join the Nazi party, houses a Jew for two years, and then is forced to join the army because he gave a piece of bread to the dying Jews being paraded around town in the snow by the sadistic Nazis.

After seeing the plaque I asked the museum docent if Perlasca had been from Padova and he said yes. We had a nice conversation where I told him I was Jewish and he told me that his aunt who lived in Italy also housed a Jew during the holocaust. He said he thinks there's a movie about Perlasca called Perlasca: Un Eroe Italiano. IMDB calls it "Schindler's List II." Maybe I'll be able to find it for rent here.

I guess everything that we do and that happens to us in life is a result of many past choices, as random as they may seem, but how crazy is it that for me to see this plaque was a result of so many seemingly random coincidences? Just to name a few, this couldn't have happened without:
In addition to choosing to study Italian because the Spanish classes were full, having an amazing Italian teacher and choosing to continue studying it, and then deciding to come to Italy... I had to buy this book about a little German girl who lived during the holocaust. That morning I had to decide to try to go shoe shopping in the center of town even when I was 90% sure all the stores were closed. The store had to be closed so that I would keep walking on hoping to get some lunch at the grocery store. The grocery store had to be closed so that I would continue walking around town. My dad had to buy me the Padova DVD that told a 50 min history of Padova in eight languages. One of it's first video clips has to be of Il Palazzo della Ragione to insure that I was still paying attention and could recognize it later. Once I went into the museum and looked at all the truly amazing and unique jewelry I had to try to go out the wrong way, find that it was closed and walk back up the stairs to read this plaque. Talk about serendipity!

Here is a close-up of the signature. I can't make out the artist's name. Can any of you? If you click on the picture you will see a bigger image of it.

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Update: Stefano says the artist is Piero Perin. Can't wait to check out his website. Thanks Stefano!

A Rainbow in Padova // Un Arcobaleno a Padova

I will write this post first in English and then in Italian, you can choose which one you want to read. // Scrivero' quest'avviso (blog post?) in inglese e dopo in italiano. Puoi scegliere quello vuoi leggere.


English:
We had to write a little composition with the topic: Think about when you arrived in Padova and describe the city according to one of the five senses (sight, sound, scent, taste, touch). My composition:

A Rainbow in Padova

When I arrived in Padova, I saw many colors everywhere.

Red: The food was colorful but it always had red in it. I ate a pizza with tomato sauce, a sandwich with mozzarella, olive oil, and tomatoes, and strawberry ice cream. The color gave life to the food, to this food prepared with care and lots of time. It wasn't like American fast food that is always brown and beige.

Orange: Orange is the color of heat (In Italian, "color" and "heat" sound almost the same). Like the light of a fire in a fireplace on a cold night welcomes you into a house, Italian people welcome you into their lives. When I signed up for the Ultimate team in Padova, I could feel it. The people spoke slowly for me and gave me rides to places.

Yellow: As soon as I came to this region, especially to Padova, I felt an air of mystery. Coming to Padova is like opening a mystery novel in the center (in Italian, the word for mystery novel is the same as for the color yellow). I didn't know much about the history of Padova but I could sense that many things have happened here. I felt a little bit like a detective that has to discover what has happened, what the people were like, but also what the people are like today.

Green: In my head are fields upon fields of green. New words and grammar rules are sprouting there and growing into green trees.

Blue: When I arrived in Padova, even the air was blue. It was not just that there wasn't a cloud in the sky but that the whole city had an air of tranquility; everything was calm.
I really enjoyed my first few days in Padova.


I gotta say, I got the color idea from the book I'm reading right now: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. In addition: I never realized how hard translating is. Just translating this piece back into English, even though I thought of it in English was actually really difficult!


//


Italiano:
Dovevamo scrivere una piccola composizione su questo tema: Pensa a quando sei arrivato a Padova e descrivi la citta' attraverso uno dei cinque sensi (vista, udito, olfatto, gusto, tatto). La mia composizione:

Un Arcobaleno a Padova

Quando sono arrivata a Padova, ho visto molti colori dappertutto.

Rosso: Il cibo era pieno di colori ma sempre aveva il rosso. Ho mangiato una pizza con sugo di pomodori, un panino di mozzerella, olio d'oliva, e pomodori, e anche un gelato alla fragola. Il colore dava vita al cibo, a questo cibo preparato con cura e tempo. Non e' come il "fast food" americano che e' sempre marrone e beige.

Arancione: Arancione e' il colore del calore. Come la luce di un fuoco in un camino in una notte fredda ti accoglie in una casa, persone italiane ti accolgono nelle loro vite. Quando mi so iscritta alla squadra d'ultimate frisbee a Padova, ho potuto sentirlo. Le persone parlavano italiano lentamente per me e me hanno dato passaggi in macchina.

Giallo: Appena sono venuta in questa regione, specialmente a Padova, ho sentito un'aria di mistero. Venire a Padova e' come aprire un giallo (il libro) al centro. Non ho saputo motlo della storia di Padova ma ho potuto sentire che molte cose sono successe qui. Mi sono sentita un po' come una investigatrice che deve scoprire cos'e' successo, com'era la gente, ma anche come sono le persone oggi.

Verde: Dentro la mia testa ci sono campi su campi di verde. Nuove parole e regole di grammatica spuntavano li' e stanno diventando alberi verdi.

Azzuro: Quando sono arrivata a Padova, anche l'aria era azzura. Non e' solo che il cielo era senza una nuvola ma tutta la citta' aveva un'aria di pace; tutto era tranquillo.

Mi sono piacuti molto i miei primi giorni pieni di colori a Padova.


Devo dirvi, ho scoperto quest'idea di colori dal libro che sto leggendo adesso: The Book Thief (Il Ladro di Libri) da Markus Zusak. In aggiunta, non ho mai realizzato che difficile e' tradurre. Era molto difficile tradurre la composizione ancora in inglese per me anche se l'ho scritto in inglese!


*image from: www.associazionearcobaleno.it

People (and statue) Watching at the Prato.

Taken at Prato della Valle. Doesn't the pigeon make this statue look silly? It made me smile.

Your classic idea of Italians, right? These two kids were making out the whole time I sat across sketching that bridge. They were pretty cute. Italians are way more comfortable with PDA (public displays of affection) than Americans and you see images like this all over town, on the trains, etc. Yay Italians! I think the best social/PDA rules would be closer to the Italian version; because, if both people feel happy, friendly, or loving, what can be wrong with expressing it?

There were lots of people playing with their kids near the fountain and I liked this dad and daughter best. He let her climb all over him and was acting silly and following her around.

View from near the fountain at Prato della Valle

A sketch of a view from near the fountain at Prato della Valle. If you compare it to the actual photo I took afterwards (below) you can see that I took some artistic license and did things like reduce the number of windows and remove light posts to simplify things and not make my sketch look too busy. Thanks to Michele for the nice pencil set, it's come in handy many times already!

Funny side note: most of the time I was sitting there, the kids on that bench were teaching each other how to do the Soulja Boy dance (a popular ~hip-hop dance).

Prato della Valle, Padova, Italia

The Prato della Valle (meaning valley meadow) is the biggest square in Italy and is the second biggest in all of Europe. It was originally built for horse races similar to the famous Palio di Siena. It looks really beautiful but is hard to capture by camera. See the image below for one taken from the sky. The Prato is about a 15 mintue walk from my new homestay appartment. When I was there I sketched one of the little bridges with a building behind it. See next post for a photo of it!

View from above, image from http://www.tempiodellarte.eu

Another view by me of Prato della Valle with Basilica Sta Justina in the back ground on the left.

A Few Italian Pecularities

Entrances to banks work like this: you put your bag/backpack in a locker and keep the key. You walk up to the one-person-at-a-time-entrance-door and push the button. The door swings open and you walk into a little cylindrical cell and the door closes behind you. At this time, air may or may not be blown at you ...to see if you have bomb particles ...no clue. Then you push the button for the other side of the cell and you are allowed to walk in to the bank. All the bankers I have encountered speak English.

Handicapped entrances are not very prevalent. Evidence: a guy in a wheelchair was at the entrance when I walked out of a bank. I asked him if "I would like to tell them that you are here?" And he said, "yes please". As I was walking into the little cell again, I turned around and corrected myself and said "oh, would you like..." he said yup and laughed as the cell door closed. Then inside the cell I realized that I should have actually used the formal form! ...silly but "mistakes welcome!" (Papa/Yamamori Sensei). Then they let him in through a special side door.

Toilets almost always have two flush buttons, one for a little flush and one for a big one. For the toilet to flush better, simply press the button and release quickly ...unlike in the states when you would usually hold it down longer. In all private bathrooms that I've seen there is also something that is between a toilet and a sink near the toilet. It is like a wide shallow sink with running water that is shaped like a toilet and is low to the ground. It is used to wash up, probably instead of taking a shower. It is also great for washing your feet in after you get back from walking around in sandals.

One type of sandwich, most similar to the American-white-bread sandwich is called a tramezzino here and the bread never has a crust. They must cut the crust off before they sell the bread. Sounds like something you'd do for a spoiled kid ...but then i never did like the crusts much myself ...heh.

Nutella (chocolaty-hazelnut spread) is their peanut butter and peanut butter is hard to find.

At the farmers market, you can't pick your own fruit or even touch anything.

At the grocery store, you have to use a plastic glove to pick out your fruit and veggies. And then you weigh them yourself on a scale and press the number that is found on the sign by that fruit and it prints a price tag for you.

You almost always have to pay for a plastic bag. It is 5 centessimi (cents)per bag. It is funny how this makes Italians bring their own bags. While in America, we are basically charged 10 cents extra for all our bags each shopping trip at stores like Ralph's etc. This is not evident on the bill, but if you've ever brought your own bags and bagged your own items, you know that they take 10 cents off of your bill. Funny how the same rule, in two different ways results in different responses.

Also, the farmers market here happens 6 days a week and Italians almost never buy more than they can carry at a time. You rarely see shopping carts being used in grocery stores. ...meaning they go to the store often and get lots of fresh food.

At the shoe store, you cannot just take your shoe size and try it on. You have to ask the sales person, even if the boxes are on the shelf in front of you and they will open the box and hand you the shoes. Silly but maybe this reduces theft?

At gelaterie (ice cream places) they don't really do the whole tasting-before-you-buy thing.

At hotels you have to leave your key at the front desk when you leave your room. It is mandated by the Fire Marshall so that if something happens, they know who was in their room and who was out. Kind of smart but also kind of annoying but keeps you from losing your keys or getting them stolen.

For breakfast they usually have a pastry and a cappuccino or espresso with lots of sugar (you have to put sugar in it, otherwise it is so bitter that it's undrinkable). A classic Denny's breakfast is basically unheard of.

The pizzas here are really amazing. I think it's the cheese and the light tomato sauce. Seems like the uniformity of cheese spreading on top is due to using cheese crumbles instead of grated cheese.

Kebab places are popular and delicious.

The only mozzarella you can buy here is a ball or balls of it in water and it is really cheap, even accounting for the unfavorable exchange rate.

Their name for the forehand throw in Ultimate Frisbee is tre-ditta meaning three finger. Their word for break is buca meaning hole. An outside-in throw is called a parabola meaning parabola. To give someone a ring on their cell is fare uno squillo sul cel ...cute huh?

Hand-washed Laundry

What do you see? A simple washing machine? No.... it is a beautiful luxury! Recently I had my first experience of hand-washing laundry. Granted, for that first time, I only washed 3 pairs of underwear, a pair of socks and a shirt but still... It took me a good 30 min and I totally spilled half the water out of the sink onto the floor; but it was actually kind of enjoyable to watch my gray socks become white once again because of the effort I had put into cleaning them.

There are laundry machines here, as well as laundr-o-mats but they are very expensive. 4 euro ($6) for a wash, and 3 euro ($4.50) to dry. Even if you don't dry, it is still expensive. When I move into my home-stay next Monday, I'll get to use their washing machine once a week for free, so I am just holding out until then. But really, it is not so bad. I kind of like doing my own washing, feels like you're more reliant on only yourself. In addition, it's not like I am too busy here with only 3 hours of class per day. However, I haven't done much serious washing, but I probably should soon. I think I will get faster at it as I do it more, since the first time I didn't really have much idea as to what I was doing.

If you all have comments on this post or any others, feel free to post them here, just below each post.