As I have often said, walking around the city and taking pictures is enriching and warming my soul, but it serve also as a way to mitigate the growing stress from work. The video game industry demands your blood, no joke. Years ago, many people told me that I was lucky, that life was easy on me because I was paid to play. It made me smile back then as its making me smile nowadays. They didn't know that, back at the beginning of my career as a developer, I was working my ass off day and night, also during the week ends. Sometimes it was because we had an important delivery, sometime it was because the time was limited and, as a team, we couldn’t accept to compromise on quality.
Walking around the city helps me focus my thoughts. A few hundred meters immersed in the urban jungle and all thoughts in excess stop bothering me, leaving space only to my dearest memories, which are making me feel good, and this is somehow helping me getting better pictures.
I recently got back in touch with a dear friend I haven't heard from for a long time. We worked together in Ubisoft Milan, many years ago. Ubisoft had recently opened in Milan. I had entered as a Junior Game Designer and he as a Junior 2D Artist, even if, to be honest, he was already a small champion at the time. We were on the phone talking about this and that when, even if I no longer remember what triggered the discussion, we ended up talking about our respective origins.
I am the only one in my family to be born in Milan. My mother is from Veneto, while my father comes from Emilia Romagna, and most of the rest of the family is scattered in Lombardy, near Sustinente, in the province of Mantua, or Codisotto, in the province of Luzzara where, by the way, two great potographers represented this small town with their art. The family on my father's side at the time, long before moving to Milan, was in Codisotto. We were originally a noble family, complete with a herald. Our full surname was Soliani de Peder Maria, and according to family accounts, we were shipowners and very wealthy.
Many years ago, therefore, my family was very rich, and remained so until my great-grandfather Walter, who seems to have lost the last wealth of the family in some livestock trading dispute that looked like it wasn't quite legal. Actually this is only a version of the story. A more selfless one goes on saying that my great-grandfather had loaned large sums of money to many friends that were never returned to him. As many stories as there were about why we became poor, there was only one that always matched. My great grandfather was not used to work hard.
Great-grandfather Walter made his son Daniele work in the fields as a farmer. Great-grandfather Walter also worked in the fields, but not much, according to my grandfather Daniele, who complained that his father used the excuse that he took a bullet in the shoulder during the First World War, to dodge work as much as possible.
During the Second World War, my grandfather Daniele was a radio operator and at some point, he was sent to Germany.
On September 3rd, 1943, Italy signed an unconditional surrender to the Allies. This act sanctioned Italy's disengagement from the alliance with Adolf Hitler's and the beginning of the Italian and Resistance campaign in the Italian liberation war against Nazi-fascism. The stipulation remained secret for five days, and on the 8th of September, 1943 at 7:42 pm a proclamation come from Prime Minister Badoglio.
With Italy ceasing to be an ally of the Nazis, my grandfather was jailed in Germany as an Italian prisoner. He remains a prisoner for six months until, with two other people, he manages to escape and reach Italy, where he hides in a barn in Codisotto, until April 25, 1945.
In 56, tired to work in the fields, he decided to go to Milan in search of a better future and some time later, after taking some courses, he become a “Trumbè”, which, in the Milanese dialect, means a plumber.
A plumber!…like Mario. the most famous videogame character of all time.
I think of all this as I walk in the shadows of these gigantic buildings of City Life, a neighbourhood that is emerging in Milan. The thought that my grandfather was a plumber makes me smile. It's just a coincidence, sure, but it's a nice coincidence, or so I think, as I walk through this ever-changing city.
