Italo Lodigiani...
ANDREA SOFFIANTINI
Actor, Italy
Italo Lodigiani… or Rovatti Gianmassimo… Renzo Manassero… or maybe his name was Franco Morini… yes, Morini… no, his name was Rosa, yes, Franco Rosa, sure, a schoolmate of mine at the primary school. A natural born leader. He loved to surround himself with soldiers ready for anything. One spring day he took us on a mission to the school attic; dust on the rafters, some mum- mified birds, the fear of being discovered, the rays of light filtering unevenly through the tiles of the roof. It reminded me of the experiment in which a light beam is divided into the colors of the rainbow when it passes through the glass prism… beautiful. The teacher came looking for us, I imagined his face, but he really felt alone in his footsteps. I don’t quite know how we managed to return to class, sweaty, but without being discovered. Our military career under the command of Franco Rosa was brilliant, in a few months we were all colonels, it was unforgettable.
He knew how to control people. At the sound of the bell we used to go down the street, pushing the top part of our bodies forward, beating our hands on our thighs. Horse and rider in one person, was it possible?
It was.
