Tovaglia a Quadri 

PREGNANXIETY

No more Primo, Secondo, Terzo, Quartilio, Quinto, Sisto and Settimio (the imaginative names in numerical order from the first born to the seventh child) … Where have those gaggles of kids gone, those ‘children from the stables’ who once filled the farmyards, the stairways in the town square and the courtyard of the Castle? Where are the nippers (citti) today? The numbers are spine chilling, especially for Tuscany, destined to have a zero birth rate in a few years’ time. Once upon a time people used to emigrate to have more space, today there is space but no new stars are being born to fill it up, in this “all in a hurry” age which blocks any desire. But there’s also space in our wallets and anxiety about a precarious health service and the future in general. Uncertain eggs won’t hatch. Repopulating a town of the elderly is the only hope. But how? The name Sorci (mice) is a guarantee for proliferation. But ‘nippers’ aren’t mice and puppies can’t substitute children. A by-pass to unblock desire is what is needed, so that those ‘children from the stars’ can return to the womb again.