Reggio Emilia, Florence, Rapallo

[Fluks, H.W. (Harry)]

Ole wrote:

> There are some pictures from the Papersera Prize event to be 
> found here:  
> http://www.papersera.net/papersera/eventi.php

I was there too, along with 2 Danes and LOTS of Italians.
I put some pictures of that day, but also of some other days of my trip,
on the web:

Reggio Emilia: http://dd50.inducks.org/fotos/j2007/p07-01.html
Florence: http://dd50.inducks.org/fotos/j2007/p07-02.html
Rapallo: http://dd50.inducks.org/fotos/j2007/p07-03.html


And here follows a condensed report of my trip to Italy, May 2007, for
whoever is interested.
(One of the Italians insisted that I made such a report, so here it is!)

FRIDAY 25.

I knew Martin Olsen was staying in Bologna in a hotel, so I phoned him
to warn him that I would be coming there too.
In the coming 4 days, Martin and I would use Bologna as a "base" for our
various trips.

SATURDAY 26.

Today was the convention where we came for.
We drove to Reggio Emilia. There we met lots of Italians and another
Dane (Niels Houlberg Hansen).
It was nice to see all these people again; some of them I hadn't seen in
10 years!
And I saw some people for the first time In Real Life, like Alessandro
Cella, our Gemstone comics indexer.
I met Luca Boschi only briefly. He was very busy the whole day, as
someone already had predicted.
I gave him a Dutch comic with a Sinterklaas story that is NOT in next
October's ZIO PAPERONE issue.

Frank Stajano was also there, from the UK.
And I met Italian artist Luciano Gatto for the first time. He would get
a Papersera Award later that day.
The various greetings were probably the most photographed event of the
day.
After a while we were sent away by a standholder because we were
blocking the access to his merchandise.

After walking through the fair itself, Alberto Becattini, Marco
Barlotti, Martin and I went to my car to get a box of Dutch comics that
I planned to get rid of during my trip.
We found a room in the entrance building where we could sit quietly and
look through the comics.
Another advantage was that this room was the coolest place.
Later on, other people joined us. Armando Botto brought his own boxes
with Italian comics, so we could trade.
Then Frank came in with a big box of comics. But they turned out not to
be doubles, but comics he just bought at the fair.

We found out that most collectors have the same problem: their wives
tell them not to buy too much comics, since they take too much space.
Other collectors (like me) don't have that problem, since they don't
have a wife.

16 people went for lunch, somewhere in the city.
The lunch was a nice event, with Leonardo Gori "auctioning" some books.
Frank presented the book that was given to Cimino the day before.
And a new book on "ancient" comics by Fabio Gadducci. (Fabio was in
Reggio, but not at our lunch.)
And lots of talking. And eating, of course. But that seemed to be a
secundary activity during the lunch.

On the lunch table were 16 people. Some of them I still don't know by
name. But I think calling them Francesco has the biggest chance of being
right.
(Apart from the people I already mentioned, there were Nicola Raimondi,
Francesco Spreafico, Francesco Gerbaldo, Paolo Castagno, and a guy named
Manuel who was happy to take the rest of my Dutch comics.)

In the afternoon, awards were given to various people, including Gatto
and Chierchini.

SUNDAY 27.

Today was our "touristic" day. We walked through Bologna.
In the afternoon, we chose our directions at random, even considering
using flipism for that.

Bologna is an interesting town. Did you know it has a street called Via
Senzanome - Street Without Name?
And that all trees in the parks have a unique number? (Maybe someone is
indexing the trees in Bologna?)

MONDAY 28.

As decided on Saturday, we went to Florence today, where Marco and
Alberto live.
Marco had to work in the afternoon, so we spent the morning at Marco's.
Alberto had to work in the morning, so we spent the afternoon at
Alberto's.

TUESDAY 29.

Martin went back to Denmark, and I drove to Rapallo.

I was to meet Carlo Chendi in the restaurant U Giancu in Rapallo. Chendi
had given me the address by SMS.
This was the first time he used SMS. But it was also the first time *I*
used SMS with my current mobile phone!

On Saturday, Armando had told me that he lives near Rapallo, so I asked
him to come too.
It was nice meeting Armando on this trip. I only had seen him for five
minutes, ten years ago!

I was surprised that Fausto Oneto, the owner of U Giancu, remembered me
from 10 years ago.
We first met in 1997, when Don Rosa visited the restaurant (and I drove
him there from Lucca).
Fausto thought it was 11 years ago, since Don Rosa visited the
restaurant on 2 years in a row.
To prove I was right, I could show him a drawing of Don that he made in
Rapallo in 1997 and he put the date on it.
(I remember asking Don explicitly to put a date on the drawing. Now I
know why!)

Chendi brought some interesting comic material for us.
And a replica of the "real" American number one dime, reproduced from
photographs that Don Rosa had given him.
But the replicas where quite a bit larger than the original - as if a
steam roller had gone over them. (Well, that's a different story.)

And we had an excellent dinner too, of course!

WEDNESDAY 30.

Today I had a nice trip along the coast, from Rapallo through Genova and
Monte Carlo to France.

THURSDAY 31.

Totally different weather today: clouds, rain, thunder.
The predictions for the coming days were not any better, so I headed for
home.

THANKS to everyone involved for accompanying, receiving, eating, and/or
talking with me!

--Harry.

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