Effects Of Not Wearing A Retainer

Gorizia like Berlin after eighteen years


Thomas Cerno
GORIZIA

. The Slovenian flag has been lowered along with the Italian. The bar red, white and blue will never lower to divide into two Gorizia. On the old sentry box of the officers of the Red House, where he controlled the " prepusniza

," the pass to cross the border into communist Yugoslavia, flying from midnight the symbol of the European Union. The wall of the "little Berlin" has been dropped, eighteen years later, shot down by the mayors of Gorizia Gorizia and New Ettore Romoli and Mirko Brulc. Now New Gorizia Gorizia and are again united as sixty years ago, only large bilingual city, a symbol of Europe itself that is expanding and a crossroads of peoples and cultures. It happened on a night of stars and cold, just as it was that November 9, 1989 at the Brandenburg Gate in Germany, torn between fear and hope for the future. And how was that day when Americans, in 1947, drew the line that left Yugoslavia in the districts of St. Peter and Salcano, from which sprang the great neighborhoods of the "Nova Gorica" \u200b\u200bcommunist. Yesterday, a crowd surrounded him, with a large circle, the Red House. And that for sixty years has been the barrier between East and West at midnight has become a symbol of reconciliation. Hundreds walk across the old border between Italy and Slovenia and come back the young, elderly, families, engaged couples who walk hand in hand over the notes of the fanfare of the Slovenian army, but under a dark sky pierced by fireworks that celebrated the beginning of a new era. There is no particular reason, just the thrill of being able to move freely. Emotion expanded to a dozen fans who drive a vintage car parade led by a flaming red Ferrari 308. I really like a small Berlin, Gorizia lived like a wound that wall always remained open and bleeding. And under the star of a giant Christmas tree, decorated with the first Slovenian to the Cold War, closes today in the heart of a square Transalpina literally crowded with thousands of Gorizia in Italy and Slovenia regardless of the cold chill that surrounded what was once the border. On stage there is the mayor of Gorizia Ettore Romoli, who heads a right-of-center. "The city back to the center of that broad area that saw the main character in the past - a preliminary slowly - to be brought to the East." Gone are the borders, state aid, free trade zone. This opens the centrality of the collaboration, the area of \u200b\u200binfluence to the Balkans. With Romo is the "links" Mirko Brulc, New Mayor of Gorizia, who heads a government instead of center-left. "Begin a new era for Gorizia on both sides of the border - say -. Sixty years ago this line divided, but this night was back in the days when his people were united by a common regional consciousness. " Along the border barrier, therefore, is falling - slowly - even the psychological barrier. It serves, however, that the policy gives way to the people to believe, with large collaborative projects. The handshake between Romo and Brulc sounds, then, as a bet: tourism, roads, hospitals, financial and economic attractions, food and wine. On stage, the rooms also councilor Roberto Antonaz Communist Refoundation, which brings greetings from the governor Illy, "Cade one of the last frontiers of the world," he says solemnly. Against the backdrop of new era Gorizia not seen any tank with a red star titin, as it was in 1991. At the pass of St. Gabriel, the historical customs through symbols that Prodi April 30, 2004, when Slovenia joined the European Union, the customs officer Stanko Pregelj bad night to do the last office. Package of cigarettes in his pocket, a blue uniform in order, straight face as if it was the first day of work. And as if there were a lot 'of Italians to be passed to the control. But, in a room yellowing of the ground floor, have placed a kind of confessional by a priest. Yes, because on the day of the fall of the wall of Gorizia "villains" are allowed to confess - as a guarantee of amnesty border - all contraband of cigarette butts and alcohol escaped in the years to the controls of the two border police. There's the guy who took the sheep live in the trunk, there is what mattered grappa disguised as milk. And there is one that hid in the waistcoat smoked ham, then telling the officers she was pregnant. Every year for ten years. But there is also the story of a family destroyed by communism. A father and son divided by the Iron Curtain have re-embraced its spirit in Gorizia, in the no man's land, "no man's land, where the guard Stanko ammanina the last flag. But if the border of cement and iron fell, the psychological boundary, the invisible line between communism and freedom, will more difficult to break down. And this has hinted yesterday Gorizia well. Now that we are making the fuel less and less Italian, and that the Duty Free looks like a monument to socialism now buried by the business, now that the Spritz no ice there as you do not even in Slovenia, where the West has entered strides for years, the sentry box is a symbol that means digesting Gorizia, but slowly. And so a few horns, a few shops open, a few enthusiastic toast in the roads of central Italy as a course. So while on the Slovenian party was on stage, the reaction of the Italian side was more composed. And so "fair" participation distant. How to put where you go, but without overdo it, as if to say that "exceed Gorizia, but not forget. Not easily. " Because that damn wall, the mayor says grandmother Anna Romo, has not only divided his city, from New Gorizia Gorizia, but where his parents were born and where his family had maintained home and work. That wall has broken his life. With farmers who had found the house in Italy and the fields in Yugoslavia. And with the cemeteries divided by the Morgan line, which required permit parents to visit the graves of their children. An unnatural division, symbolized by the Transalpine Railway Station Square. On one side of the wall the train going the other travelers. A symbolic break, which passes on Transalpina line since the beginning of the century, linked the city of Gorizia, Slovenia and Vienna, united under the banner of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian kingdom. Yesterday all this is over at midnight with a toast to the Red House. Gorizia is back together in the heart of an ever larger. (December 21, 2007)