How much do you know about people that you meet everyday on your way to work or your neighbours?
Four months ago I moved to Cagliari, Sardinia for one year project and the first idea was to get to know people that I meet in the oldest neighbourhood in Cagliari, la Marina. In Marina there are so many nationalities and different profiles of the people and I enjoyed meeting every one of them...here are some of the stories...
Thomas and Bernhard Lehner
Dentists that you are not afraid of? Of course they exist! They are two twin brothers Thomas and Bernhard Lehner. Thomas came to Cagliari back in 1978 to study medicine, while Bernard stayed in Germany for his studies. In the beginning Thomas was living in student apartments, which he had to leave every summer, but in 1982 he bought an apartment in via Barcelona, and his brother joined him, but they didn’t spend all their lives there. In the late 80’s, they decided to leave for Pula because they didn’t see Marina as a good neighborhood to raise a baby. In 2000 runaway bird Thomas came back into the nest, but Bernhard still lives in Pula. They both have two kids, Thomas two daughters and Bernard a son and a daughter. They are partners in everything – as Bernhard said, “in all adventures and misadventures”. Together they also decided to open a “space”, “spazio” as they call it, but everybody else would call it a gallery. The two brothers are in love with the art, and as Thomas says the most beautiful thing in art is “that everyone sees it differently, in their own way”. Even if you didn’t see any exhibition in their “spazio”, you might have been to their dental clinic that also feels like a gallery. Canvas, paintings all over the walls, even if you sit in the chair with your gaze fixed upon the ceiling, you don’t see just pure white but art. The best thing about the brothers is that they still make fun of each other as they once did as kids.
Dentists that you are not afraid of? Of course they exist! They are two twin brothers Thomas and Bernhard Lehner. Thomas came to Cagliari back in 1978 to study medicine, while Bernard stayed in Germany for his studies. In the beginning Thomas was living in student apartments, which he had to leave every summer, but in 1982 he bought an apartment in via Barcelona, and his brother joined him, but they didn’t spend all their lives there. In the late 80’s, they decided to leave for Pula because they didn’t see Marina as a good neighborhood to raise a baby. In 2000 runaway bird Thomas came back into the nest, but Bernhard still lives in Pula. They both have two kids, Thomas two daughters and Bernard a son and a daughter. They are partners in everything – as Bernhard said, “in all adventures and misadventures”. Together they also decided to open a “space”, “spazio” as they call it, but everybody else would call it a gallery. The two brothers are in love with the art, and as Thomas says the most beautiful thing in art is “that everyone sees it differently, in their own way”. Even if you didn’t see any exhibition in their “spazio”, you might have been to their dental clinic that also feels like a gallery. Canvas, paintings all over the walls, even if you sit in the chair with your gaze fixed upon the ceiling, you don’t see just pure white but art. The best thing about the brothers is that they still make fun of each other as they once did as kids.
Angela Deplano
Cafe Barcellona is a small restaurant in the middle of Marina, people you meet there are always in a good mood and will always greet you with a big smile, but one person in particular gives it some mysterious charm. This person is there every afternoon, drinking her hot cappuccino with shaking hands in black cloths, with grey hair and the warmest look in the world. It is impossible not to notice her.
Cafe Barcellona is a small restaurant in the middle of Marina, people you meet there are always in a good mood and will always greet you with a big smile, but one person in particular gives it some mysterious charm. This person is there every afternoon, drinking her hot cappuccino with shaking hands in black cloths, with grey hair and the warmest look in the world. It is impossible not to notice her.
Gabriele Mattei (59)
Gabriele Mattei, man with cats and mice in Via Roma is a well known face to everybody, but do you actually know him? Gabriele was born in Rome but when he was just one year old his parents moved to Cagliari because of his father's work. At the age of nine his parents got divorced and he went to live in private school because his father couldn’t take care of him. With 16 he went to La Maddalena, in the school for sailors, Amerigo Vespucci. He stayed there for nine months and then he went to travel with the ships around the world. He came back home as an officer and then he was waiting for something nice to happen. He has one cat and one day a boy came to sell him a mouse. In the beginning he was thinking that the boy was crazy, how he doesn’t see that he already has a cat, and we all know that cats and mice are not going together, but destiny in that time was in a good mood for playing games. The boy couldn’t find anyone who would buy his mouse and because they were neighbors Gabriele just decided to give the boy some money and take the mouse. That happened at the beginning of 2003, and since then everybody in Cagliari knows Signor Gabriele and his unique family. He enjoys living in Cagliari, but the misery which he sees all around him makes him angry, because a beautiful town like Cagliari, it would be possible to live really good if the touristic activities would last throughout the year.
Gabriele Mattei, man with cats and mice in Via Roma is a well known face to everybody, but do you actually know him? Gabriele was born in Rome but when he was just one year old his parents moved to Cagliari because of his father's work. At the age of nine his parents got divorced and he went to live in private school because his father couldn’t take care of him. With 16 he went to La Maddalena, in the school for sailors, Amerigo Vespucci. He stayed there for nine months and then he went to travel with the ships around the world. He came back home as an officer and then he was waiting for something nice to happen. He has one cat and one day a boy came to sell him a mouse. In the beginning he was thinking that the boy was crazy, how he doesn’t see that he already has a cat, and we all know that cats and mice are not going together, but destiny in that time was in a good mood for playing games. The boy couldn’t find anyone who would buy his mouse and because they were neighbors Gabriele just decided to give the boy some money and take the mouse. That happened at the beginning of 2003, and since then everybody in Cagliari knows Signor Gabriele and his unique family. He enjoys living in Cagliari, but the misery which he sees all around him makes him angry, because a beautiful town like Cagliari, it would be possible to live really good if the touristic activities would last throughout the year.
Giuliana Fenu
Every day when you walk down the street and look at the open door, from the inside you can hear only silence. The white walls guide your sight to the central part of the room: a woman turned away, dressed in a white lab coat, holding a brush in one hand applying miniature strokes on the surface of the painting she is restoring. The image is centuries old – you do not need to be an expert in arts to realize it. In the other hand she is holding a cigar, but you can see she hasn’t inhaled it for some minutes because the ash is about to hit the floor. Smoke is spreading over the image of the Virgin Mary in Pain. This scene is a perfect picture of everyday Marina, the silent image that gives charm to this neighborhood. This lady is Giuliana Fenu. She left Cagliari to go to Rome to study restoration at a university. After working all around Italy, her daughter was born in 1996. Giuliana knew right away she needed to come back to Sardinia, to beautiful Cagliari. For her, Rome is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but Cagliari is a city where you can live very well and she had always loved it. In the following years she needed to find a place to work, so she started looking for a space or a studio to work in. Marina wasn't her first choice, but when she found this particular silent spot where you can find her now she knew in that moment that she had finished her quest. And now every day she makes a perfect image of Marina district by restoring old pictures.
Every day when you walk down the street and look at the open door, from the inside you can hear only silence. The white walls guide your sight to the central part of the room: a woman turned away, dressed in a white lab coat, holding a brush in one hand applying miniature strokes on the surface of the painting she is restoring. The image is centuries old – you do not need to be an expert in arts to realize it. In the other hand she is holding a cigar, but you can see she hasn’t inhaled it for some minutes because the ash is about to hit the floor. Smoke is spreading over the image of the Virgin Mary in Pain. This scene is a perfect picture of everyday Marina, the silent image that gives charm to this neighborhood. This lady is Giuliana Fenu. She left Cagliari to go to Rome to study restoration at a university. After working all around Italy, her daughter was born in 1996. Giuliana knew right away she needed to come back to Sardinia, to beautiful Cagliari. For her, Rome is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but Cagliari is a city where you can live very well and she had always loved it. In the following years she needed to find a place to work, so she started looking for a space or a studio to work in. Marina wasn't her first choice, but when she found this particular silent spot where you can find her now she knew in that moment that she had finished her quest. And now every day she makes a perfect image of Marina district by restoring old pictures.
Halilović Family
Ratko Halilovic came from Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Cagliari 43 years ago. His parents were looking for a better life for their family and they finally found peace here. Now he works with a scrap metal collector.
Vera Sulejmanovic or how friends call her Gina is born here. 22 years ago she met Ratko. She fell in love and decided to marry him. Now they have 11 kids.
The oldest one is 21 years old and his name is Tomas, he is already married and expecting his first kid in three months. He and his wife don’t want to know the gender of the baby, the only thing important to them is that it is healthy and the gender will be a great surprise. Rusteme is 18 years old and he doesn’t like to work, but enjoys sleeping and making fun of his brothers and sisters, especially Brendon. Brendon is 16, they all say that he is the smart one, he seems shy, but for a 16-year-old boy he knows very well what he wants to do with his life – he wants to finish school and become a mechanic. Jada was the only girl we met, also shy and cute. She was very proud that she was already 10 and on 30th June she will be 11. She doesn’t want anything for her birthday, just to have a nice day. The youngest one is a baby and he was quiet sleeping while everybody else was talking and laughing around him. Every weekend they come to Marina to Scuola media G.Manno, and to Sant’Eulalia to learn.
Ratko Halilovic came from Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Cagliari 43 years ago. His parents were looking for a better life for their family and they finally found peace here. Now he works with a scrap metal collector.
Vera Sulejmanovic or how friends call her Gina is born here. 22 years ago she met Ratko. She fell in love and decided to marry him. Now they have 11 kids.
The oldest one is 21 years old and his name is Tomas, he is already married and expecting his first kid in three months. He and his wife don’t want to know the gender of the baby, the only thing important to them is that it is healthy and the gender will be a great surprise. Rusteme is 18 years old and he doesn’t like to work, but enjoys sleeping and making fun of his brothers and sisters, especially Brendon. Brendon is 16, they all say that he is the smart one, he seems shy, but for a 16-year-old boy he knows very well what he wants to do with his life – he wants to finish school and become a mechanic. Jada was the only girl we met, also shy and cute. She was very proud that she was already 10 and on 30th June she will be 11. She doesn’t want anything for her birthday, just to have a nice day. The youngest one is a baby and he was quiet sleeping while everybody else was talking and laughing around him. Every weekend they come to Marina to Scuola media G.Manno, and to Sant’Eulalia to learn.
Massimo Soro
Amazing jewellery has always been interesting for women, but do you know that the best jewellery is made by men. One of this amazing man is Massimo Soro. Massimo started working in his uncle’s shop in the middle of Marina when he was 11. Every morning he was going to school and the afternoons he was spending in the shop. He likes to remember these days, because every day was fun in contrast to now, when every day is a struggle for survival. Still after 37 years of working in the same shop, Massimo remembers his beginnings in Marina and what the neighborhood looked like back then, a district of fishermen, without streetlights, full of scruffy shops, but a very happy place with happy people. His children want to stay in Cagliari and that makes him very happy. He's enjoying himself and that is the best thing, because he thinks of Cagliari as a place where you are always on holidays, and can't wait to finish his work and go to play football with friends, go to the bars and on Sunday mornings take the boat out to the sea to fish, one of his favorite things.
Amazing jewellery has always been interesting for women, but do you know that the best jewellery is made by men. One of this amazing man is Massimo Soro. Massimo started working in his uncle’s shop in the middle of Marina when he was 11. Every morning he was going to school and the afternoons he was spending in the shop. He likes to remember these days, because every day was fun in contrast to now, when every day is a struggle for survival. Still after 37 years of working in the same shop, Massimo remembers his beginnings in Marina and what the neighborhood looked like back then, a district of fishermen, without streetlights, full of scruffy shops, but a very happy place with happy people. His children want to stay in Cagliari and that makes him very happy. He's enjoying himself and that is the best thing, because he thinks of Cagliari as a place where you are always on holidays, and can't wait to finish his work and go to play football with friends, go to the bars and on Sunday mornings take the boat out to the sea to fish, one of his favorite things.
Murshed and Rustom Ali Alam
Murshed (35) and Rustom (33) are brothers from Bangladesh, who have lived here in Marina for the past six years. In the beginning, they had a problem with the language but they started attending the Scuola media G. Mannu, and when they learned it everything became much easier. Cagliari wasn’t their first Italian destination, they had lived in Bari before, but they didn’t like it there so they decided to try their luck in Sardinia. They like Cagliari and their life here, people are great and calm, the city is clean and beautiful and there isn’t too much traffic. They see their future here too, but the thing they miss the most, their family, is in Bangladesh. Murshed has a little girl of one and a half years, but despise the fact that they are earning money with the shop in Marina sometimes they can’t afford to go to visit their family every year, because the plane tickets are too expensive. They both know how to cook and it’s possible to find all the ingredients they need for making their traditional food here, so at least they don’t miss the food. Both brothers are Muslims but for them religion doesn't represent anything because they believe that all people are the same and have the same god, but they just call it different names.
Murshed (35) and Rustom (33) are brothers from Bangladesh, who have lived here in Marina for the past six years. In the beginning, they had a problem with the language but they started attending the Scuola media G. Mannu, and when they learned it everything became much easier. Cagliari wasn’t their first Italian destination, they had lived in Bari before, but they didn’t like it there so they decided to try their luck in Sardinia. They like Cagliari and their life here, people are great and calm, the city is clean and beautiful and there isn’t too much traffic. They see their future here too, but the thing they miss the most, their family, is in Bangladesh. Murshed has a little girl of one and a half years, but despise the fact that they are earning money with the shop in Marina sometimes they can’t afford to go to visit their family every year, because the plane tickets are too expensive. They both know how to cook and it’s possible to find all the ingredients they need for making their traditional food here, so at least they don’t miss the food. Both brothers are Muslims but for them religion doesn't represent anything because they believe that all people are the same and have the same god, but they just call it different names.
Olindo Frau
Olindo Frau (79), has enough enthusiasm to give away. Born and raised in Cagliari, he is one that has toured all of Italy for his work: Mr. Olindo, "Commander"- as everyone knows him - is an antiques dealer and always goes from one side to another in search of furniture and objects of any kind which need to be given new life. On his Vespa or on foot, he is always traveling without ever really leaving his land. Father of two daughters and grandfather of many grandchildren, divided between Spain and Sicily, he spends his days enjoying the smiles of the people around him and working in his shop: packed with tools, objects, and almost with an old radio playing in the background - a environment almost from another era, a romantic but regretful sigh for the old days when work did not mean only money, but also time and effort, and above all, passion. The eyes and face of the Commander, more then his words, speak of his way of living in the city, both past and present, day and night, but always colorful and diverse.
Olindo Frau (79), has enough enthusiasm to give away. Born and raised in Cagliari, he is one that has toured all of Italy for his work: Mr. Olindo, "Commander"- as everyone knows him - is an antiques dealer and always goes from one side to another in search of furniture and objects of any kind which need to be given new life. On his Vespa or on foot, he is always traveling without ever really leaving his land. Father of two daughters and grandfather of many grandchildren, divided between Spain and Sicily, he spends his days enjoying the smiles of the people around him and working in his shop: packed with tools, objects, and almost with an old radio playing in the background - a environment almost from another era, a romantic but regretful sigh for the old days when work did not mean only money, but also time and effort, and above all, passion. The eyes and face of the Commander, more then his words, speak of his way of living in the city, both past and present, day and night, but always colorful and diverse.
Soddu Tesseu
Soddu (62) was only eight when he became an apprentice in a tailor shop. His maestro was teaching him about everything – it took him a month just to learn how to hold the pinch properly. In that time, especially in big families, the father was the one to decide what job you were to do and also the one to pay to the maestro for teaching you. He was lucky because in the end, he started to really love his job. These days young people are not very interested in this old craft, so he doesn’t know the destiny and future of his tailor shop. His kids left Sardinia because they couldn’t find a job here. Saddu, however, still loves to be here in Marina to do his job and to spend days in his tailor shop, just when he sees garbage on the streets of Marina he shudders and he really hopes they will introduce sorted garbage soon.
Soddu (62) was only eight when he became an apprentice in a tailor shop. His maestro was teaching him about everything – it took him a month just to learn how to hold the pinch properly. In that time, especially in big families, the father was the one to decide what job you were to do and also the one to pay to the maestro for teaching you. He was lucky because in the end, he started to really love his job. These days young people are not very interested in this old craft, so he doesn’t know the destiny and future of his tailor shop. His kids left Sardinia because they couldn’t find a job here. Saddu, however, still loves to be here in Marina to do his job and to spend days in his tailor shop, just when he sees garbage on the streets of Marina he shudders and he really hopes they will introduce sorted garbage soon.
