Piazza San Giovanni Numero 8

By Jules Wilson

Piazza San Giovanni is in Cori, a small agricultural town with a history that spans before Rome was built, perched on a hillside where the people are better known for their clan name and whether they are from the Monte or the Valle. Cori is about fifty odd kilometers from Rome, and living in Cori became an unbelievable experience.

This book came to life after keeping a sort of diary for the updates on e-mail. I was alone with just relatives and a whole new group of people in my life. The updates sent have helped me to stay sane as well as help a number of people who would otherwise never know what goes on outside of South Africa in particular. For the thirty odd minutes of reading my updates, l am told they are transported outside of their world into mine, and they share in my delights and sorrow either on a weekly or biweekly basis.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728389912

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© 2019 Jules Wilson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/21/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8992-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8991-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908283

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Updates 1 and 2

Update 3

Update 4

Update 5

Update 6

Update 7

Update 8

Update 9

Update 10

Update 11

Update 12

Update 13

Update 14

Update 15

Update 16

Update 17

Update 18

Update 19

Update 20

Update 21

Update 22

Update 23

Update 24

Update 25

Update 26

Update 27

Update 28

Update 29

Update 30

Update 31

Update 32

Update 33

Update 34: Final

Epilogue

About the Author

The secret of being happy is accepting where

you are in life and making the most out of every day

This book is

dedicated to the following friends: Alet, Ann, Anna, Anne, Annie, Barbara, Bernice, Christelle, Cornelia, Daniela, Debbie, Esme, Estelle, Fran, Gillian, Gloria, Helena, Iris, Jackie, Jacqui, Jeandri, Jo, Joan, Karen, Laudete, Laurie, Lettie, Linda, Louisa K, Louisa M, Louisa VR, Mamathe, Manuela, Margaret G, Margaret S, Margherita, Marianne, Mary, Miemie, Monique, Nancy, Noleen, Ollie, Prasila, Rachael, Ronell, Rose, Sally, Sandy, Sao, Shirley, Sue, and Trinie. Thank you for reading my updates and spurring me on always.

A special thank you to Dennis, who made the sacrifice to allow me to go to Italy.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank the following people who are on this journey with me.

• Family and friends: Amedeo, Anna, Angelo, Antonio, Adriana, Bianca, Claudio, Dannile, Domenica, Enrico, Fausta, Federica, Franca cugina, Franco cugino, Franca, Gemma, Ivetta, Margaret No. 1, Margaret No. 2, Mariano, Maria Rosa, Mauro, Mena, Orietta, Patrizia, Pina, Pino, Roby, Romano, Rosa, Silvana, Silvana cugina, Teresa, Tomassina,Violet, Zia Maria and all my cousins

• The doctors in Italy: Ugo Coppetelli, Angela Ragu, Massimo Volpini

• The doctor in SA: Anada Voster

• Parish priest: Don Angelo Buonaiuto

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Cori

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INTRODUCTION

The friends mentioned in the dedication are those who read my updates and scenarios and offered massive support for my new life in Italy. I’d had to move away from South Africa (SA), my home from October 1982 to September 2015, due to multiple myeloma (MM), a plasma cell cancer which destroys bone marrow. To keep in touch with friends in SA, England, and elsewhere, I kept journals of events and wrote weekly by email.

I originally thought of a blog, but not everyone, including myself, had sufficient knowledge of such new technology. The email system worked well, and my friends suggested that I translate the updates and turn the information into a book, which could be shared far and wide. I have reached the fifth series of updates, and I must say, there is still the same enthusiasm from readers. Sometimes I flounder due to ill health in giving spontaneous news and events of my life in Italy.

When I was diagnosed with MM in Pretoria in November 2011, a number of options were extended to me to assist in my treatment plan, including a stem cell transplant in 2012. However, as MM has no cure currently, I eventually exhausted all avenues of treatment. In the United States and Europe, much research was being carried out in the field of MM, and it was suggested by cousins in Italy that perhaps an alternative treatment plan could be offered there.

In November 2014, I paid a visit to the Santa Maria Goretti Hospital in Latina, Italy, where I had a meeting with a group of haematologists. They advised that they would be prepared to help me keep my MM at bay if I could obtain the necessary medical health card as an Italian citizen. I was both nervous and excited at the prospect of increasing my chance of survival, based on the discussions held, but how would I be able to return to SA and advise my husband, Dennis, that I had found alternative treatments? It would mean that I or we would have to move to Italy, to my paternal home in Cori: Piazza San Giovanni Numero 8. This was easier said than done when one has spent a lifetime in a country one is familiar with and which one has called home since 1982. We never thought that one day we would have to leave SA.

When I returned to SA, Dennis and I discussed the possibility of perhaps taking the same request to the UK National Health Service (NHS) to see whether they could assist us. The infrastructure in the UK was more viable for Dennis, who lacked experience speaking Italian and living in a diverse Italian culture. However, the NHS could only offer medical assistance; I would need to find suitable accommodations. The latter would prove difficult for our financial means. The rand/sterling exchange rate was against us at the time, as was the rand/euro. To have a paternal home to go to was a bonus, and where we would be situated in Cori was approximately 26 kilometres from Santa Maria Goretti Hospital.

The decision, therefore, was that I would go to Italy to seek treatment. I could stay there for a while and return to SA periodically once we knew whether the treatment was working. Piazza San Giovanni Numero 8 could be my base, and we could commute between SA and Italy.

We made the move on 11 September 2015. Dennis stayed in Cori to establish and open up Piazza San Giovanni Numero 8 and assisted me in getting it organised so that I could live independently. To ensure mobility, we bought a Fiat 500, which I affectionately called la bambola. Prior to Dennis returning to SA at the beginning of October, he met the doctors who would assist in improving my quality of life. During 2015 and until June 2016, Dennis was hopeful that I would return to SA once the treatment started and that I could commute between the two countries.

Alas, however, six months into the treatment, which started in November 2015, it was evident that I would have to make a very hard decision—which meant that Dennis would have to make an even harder one. Should I return to SA and take whatever remaining inferior medication was on offer and the medical aid would cover, or should we leave SA completely and set up a new life with a better treatment plan that my body could tolerate so that I would live longer?

This book came to life when I started to keep a sort of journal for the updates on email. I was alone with just relatives and a whole new group of people in my life. The journal I kept and updates I have sent have helped me to stay sane, as well as helping a number of people who would otherwise never know what goes on outside of SA in particular. For the thirty-odd minutes they are reading my updates, I have been told that they are transported outside of their world and into mine. They share in my delights and sorrows on a weekly or biweekly basis.

I will share the landscape and story behind Cori. I will tell you about my family who moved to Cori, and I will describe the many people who have formed part of my life since my arrival and who have embraced me with open arms when I have been in high spirits and when I have been in less than good health. There will be weekly updates. It has been an incredible journey so far, and I hope you will enjoy the tales. There will be silly stories about my neighbours in Piazza San Giovanni in particular, and I will give you some information on my disease and care in the Italian state medical system. I hope sincerely that you will find it amusing.

Living in Cori was an unbelievable experience. I was approached by people who knew me when I was a child, visiting with my parents and then on my own. Now I buy my bread and milk every other day, purchase odds and ends in the supermarket on a weekly basis, get my vegetables and fruit from one stall at the market on a Friday morning, arrange my medicines at the chemist, get my blood pressure checked, and attend the church service at 08.00 on Sundays. I am a resident in this village/town set-up.

There is, of course, among my neighbours, still a lot of confusion as to how I can be born in England, speak Italian with an accent, have a British surname, live in SA, and now live here. It is beyond some of their comprehension. But it keeps them interested; otherwise, life would be pretty boring.

Cori

Cori is a distant dream away from Sinoville, Pretoria. It is a small agricultural village/town with a history that goes back to before Rome was built. The people are better known by their clan name and whether they are from the upper or lower part of town. Cori is about 50-odd kilometres from Rome in the province of Latina, in the region of Lazio, and has approximately 11,000 residents.

Cori rests on the edge of the Lepini Mountains and has been rebuilt seven times. It offers a unique view of the sea. It is richly surrounded by agricultural land for farming of grapes and olives, and it can boast a production of kiwi fruit and seasonal fruit and vegetables.Cori was first inhabited 3,300 years ago. It is in the municipality and within the province of Latina and is 50 kilometres from Rome between the Pontine Plain and the Roman castles in the region of Lazio. One can travel from Cori to Rome on the Via Appia, one of the seven roads that lead to Rome.

The nearest bigger towns are Cisterna di Latina, Velletri, and the capital of the province, Latina. These three towns are mentioned frequently in the pages ahead. There will also be mention of the several churches that reside in Cori, namely San Pietro e Paolo, San Francesco, Santa Oliva, and San Maria della Pieta. There is, of course, one special sanctuary that stands beyond Cori up in the hills: La Madonna del Soccorso, dedicated to the patron of Cori. She overlooks the town and its people.

Piazza San Giovanni is at the highest point of the village/town, better known as the centro storico. The houses that surround the piazza have windows facing in all directions. There are houses with windows facing into the piazza and facing Via Tempio di Ercole. Such a place is Numero 8. The front door and bathroom window face the piazza. Two side windows, from the kitchen and lounge, are viewed from Via della Indipendenza. The two bedroom windows face the road of Via Tempio di Ercole. All the homes rest on huge rocks and, at times, have been destroyed by war. I was told that Cori has been rebuilt seven times. Whether the source is correct or not, I can quite believe it.

All the homes have sprawling electrical and telephone wires which seem to form washing lines between the various alleys and streets that lead off the piazza. There are boxes for the gas and water metres jammed against rocks and burnt plaster. Each house entrance has steps leading to the front door; Numero 8 even has steps within the front door that lead to the living area, so one really needs to be fit to carry all and sundry up the steps. Quite a number of years ago, the comune revamped the piazza, laying stone, placing a few benches, and installing a water fountain. The benches come in handy when you have carried a week’s shopping up Via Tempio di Ercole!

The piazza is also a tourist spot, where the oldest house remains intact and many photos are taken, and the local museum of Cori does a tourist walk of the area. The Temple of Ercole is the symbol of the place. It was constructed in the first century a.C. It is an amazing sight to see, and now and then they change the colour of the lighting to accommodate special events—for example, pink for breast cancer. This is the centrepiece. There are other venues and beautiful churches, one called the Santissima Annunziato and Santa Oliva, which has a cloister built in 1480, and of course, the protector of Cori, La Madonna del Soccorso.

Cori, in fact, is split into two. There is an upper Cori, called Cori Monte, and lower Cori, called Cori Valle. The split takes place somewhere in the middle towards the comune. I have been told on good authority that between upper and lower, there is a difference of opinion amongst the townsfolk. Each is jealous of what there is to offer between the upper and lower. As my family is from Cori Monte, I cherish jealously that life is better there than in Cori Valle.

There is a large square called Piazza Signina. Leading off the piazza is Via della Repubblica, Via Tempio di Ercole, Via della Madonna, and Via San Nicola. Down in Cori Valle, the square is called Piazza Romana. Leading off is Via Ninfa, Via Roma, and Via Annunziata from the entry of the village/town known as Piazza della Croce, all famous roads of course. Down in Cori Valle, there are some beautiful structures, too—most prominently il Ponte della Catena and the Church of the Annunziata, as mentioned.

Cori, for many years, was