Derganini

Once i get back to the main open space, where the workers have to pass to get to the only restored building, i feel reliefed and protected. On one side there’s an area completely fenced. It’s also surrounded by trees, that, althought naked because of the winter, try to hide what’s behind them. There are many low buildings, all the same, all abandoned. While i’m observing this view, one of the lady i’ve met at the beginning comes towards me. She stops for a chat and tells me how hard it is to work in such a place. Her voice is melancholy and desolate. She tells me it’s the old Derganini, a hospital for infective diseases (the official name is hospital Bassi) and the area is divided in many low buildings to keep the different diseases away from each other. It’s very fascinating for me to here this, cause i had no idea i could encounter such a piece of history during my wandering, so close to the center. It’s a wonderful testimony of the past, and looking around i can still feel life coming from it, i can see nurses and doctors, worries and sorrows. I tell the woman that it’s strange that they keep the gate wide open, althought there is one building restored. So i find out it is this way only once a week, on fridays, because not far from here there’s a place where thousands of islamics meet to pray, so they needed a place to park all the cars, so the traffic doesn’t stop. She tells me that if i wait a while i’ll see the area get full of cars. She’s not very happy about it. She doesn’t feel safe and before she goes away she tells me “Italy is falling apart”. Just to be sure I ask her if i can keep on going around the area, it’s to nice to be true. I start looking at the fenced area again. The façades have wide windows, almost completely walled, from the bottom till where the arched part starts. A red line follows the whole perimeter, embracing the arches. The coating has horizontal lines, as to delete completely the verticality of each building. Some of the glass in the arched parts is still there, but their destiny is signed if someone doesn’t restore the place fast. Nature is trying to take a hold on the place, growing also on the roofes. I get closer to the fence to see if it’s so impossible to get inside. What divides me from the area is a fence, a row of trees and another fence. I get closer to the restored building and i notice that beyond another fence there’s a small park, but probably still part of the area of the old hospital. At the moment there’s only an old man, playing with his grandchildren. Now i’m between an old building and the new one. I feel a bit astonished cause in few seconds i see the time going back and forth, from new to old.