The Sunshine Gardens, the Clairvoyant and Boredom

In a former post I talked about the school day that ended at 1 PM.  As we made our way home for lunch, the shops were closing for the afternoon.  They would usually reopen at 4 PM.  We did the same. After lunch, homework and naps we would head out to the park, Giardini Raggio di Sole-The Sunshine Gardens.  They were barely 10 minutes away by stroller or tricycle. 

Heading out to the park on Corso Porta Nuova.

Giardini Raggio di Sole

The gardens were located along the old city walls.  There were meandering paths, shaded park benches, a cafe for refreshments and soccer fields. But the best part was the fenced-in playground with a guardian on duty.  She/He watched who came in and out.  Children were safe inside to ride their bikes along the paths, play on the equipment or invent games in the trees.  They were supervised and watched-over.  Eventually the kids made lots of friends and played happily for hours.

This is a recent photo of the playground.  The equipment back then was not so colorful.

The first year in Verona, I was busy watching Christopher who was two years old but in subsequent years, the children entered the enclosed playground and I sat outside on a bench knitting and talking to people.  Sometimes I had coffee at the chiosco ristoro (refreshment stall).  When it was hot there was sweetened iced espresso in small plastic cups.

I remember a fuzzy-haired woman who wore a colorful shawl. She brought several thick astrology books and would tell the ladies their fortune.  She was often there with a little white poodle.  It took her an hour or more to do her research and chat up her client.  The results were pronounced publicly to the assembled audience.  Then the ramifications were hotly discussed.

Mothers often scolded their children for running.  “Don’t run.  You’ll sweat.”  The perceived danger was they would catch cold from sweating and then cooling off.  At that time, Italian kids were dressed in nice, tailored clothes of pressed cotton and wool. As soon as it got chilly, they wore silk underwear and a warm wool coat. And of course when they ran, they sweat.  I’m sure all the mothers were secretly horrified at my children’s attire: jeans and tee-shirts.

Quite the fashionista!

One day I was sitting alone on a bench and an elderly man sat down next to me. He told me he was retired and what he'd had for lunch.  Then he said his wife needed some quiet time in the afternoon.  I was knitting a royal blue sweater.  As we talked the conversation turned to the war.  He had been imprisoned in Russia for an extended period of time.  He said that the German army sent the Italian soldiers ahead as fodder for the Russian troops.  He said he was captured and held prisoner in a box.  He could barely stand up.  Alone and nearly starving, he would hear other prisoners going crazy, screaming and crying.

He told me he didn’t lose his mind because he escaped mentally every day.  First he would exercise as best he could doing push-ups and sit-ups.  Then he would work out mathematical problems and review history facts.  Sometimes he’d try and visualize the places where he’d been and the people he’d known.  Mentally, he would recall every room in his house. He imagined stories and happenings.  In this manner, he escaped his horrendous surroundings. 

I’ve often told this story to students when they complained they were bored. I’d rant,  “Bored?  Bored? Boredom is self-afflicted.  You can listen to me expound on the subjunctive (terribly interesting); or look at the bulletin boards and escape mentally to France; or think about the prom and what you’ll wear.  But don’t say you’re bored.  Say you have no imagination!  It’s in your power to enrich your life.”

A favorite Einstein quote: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”