Brazil by www.born2travel.it

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09.01.2009 Guarulhos (BRAZIL)

Set foot in Brazil: what a celebration! Nicolina, Pietro and their son Giuseppe come to pick us up. They'll be the first of Nick's relatives on a long and wonderful list. The tour of the various houses begins straight away; aunts, uncles, cousins and grandchildren pop up everywhere, and everywhere kisses, hugs, misty eyes, sweets, Coca-Cola... Long chats in Portuguese-Calabrian... They're all overjoyed, you can read it in their eyes...

I feel a bit like the "Turisti per caso" visiting our fellow countrymen abroad!

10.01.2009 Sao Paulo (BRAZIL)

As soon as we're awake Veronica and Fernanda are already there waiting for us for a quick tour of the immense city of Sao Paulo, the home town of Kaka! We're talking about a conurbation that, with all its metropolitan area, has about 20 million inhabitants... 1/3 of Italy's population! It's half an hour away from here but with Veronica's sporty driving in less than 20 minutes we're already at our destination! The first thing that strikes me is the many garages; the valets in the middle of the street were flailing their arms to be noticed by drivers... can't you park along the edges of the streets?!?

We soon stop to visit the "Mercado Municipal"; what a sight the stalls selling the multicoloured tropical fruit, so beautiful and shiny it looked fake! We chat for a bit with a vendor: Francisco, who as soon as he hears we're Italian — he is the son of Calabrian emigrants — starts making us taste every kind of fruit imaginable! Colombian passion fruit, mango, papaya, lychee, plantain, giant cherries... Delicious!

Right after it's the turn of the local speciality: the "bolinho de bacalhau", a fried mix of salt cod, potatoes and parsley. "Ma-ra-vi-lho-so"! The crocodile meat they offered us we'll save for another occasion!

From there we continue the visit towards the cathedral and the Bovespa, the Brazilian Stock Exchange. After Hong Kong's Hang Seng, here we are again in the financial heart of a nation! We even manage to enter a space dedicated to visitors, and once again the warmth and friendliness of these people strikes us!

Outside it's far too hot. The thermometer reads 31°! A cool Caipirinha is absolutely in order, relaxing at "Salve Jorge", while I, a teetotaller, enjoy a nice "abacaxi e hortela" smoothie (pineapple and mint), with a little orchestra livening things up with romantic carioca tunes!

Crossing the Avenida Paulista, which is one of the main streets, we stop at "Bolinha", a delightful little restaurant whose speciality is the "feijoada", a bean soup with sausages, pork fat, assorted offal and everything else you can think of, as good as it is heavy...

Chatting, we discover that Sao Paulo has three fairly important football teams: Palmeiras, Sao Paulo and Corinthians, and the latter has just signed the phenomenon Ronaldo!

Finally, after a long walk in Ibirapuera Park, we end the day at Nicolina's house with lots of relatives, between a pizza and a song by Domenico Modugno or Claudio Villa. What wonderful people. Most of them have never been to Italy, some don't even have a clear idea of our country's geography, but they all admire that little "boot" with nostalgia... Who knows what it feels like to know that all your ancestors lived in a faraway land and that they, for one reason or another, were born and raised in another world... Some have framed postcards of Rome or Catanzaro displayed along the corridors of the house, some the Italian flag sticker next to the licence plate, some a tricolour boot-shaped keyring....

Among the music CDs you won't find samba or pagode, maybe in the children's ones yes, but they only have the old Modugno and Villa; it seems their time stopped back in 1956 when aunt Rosina, her husband and a few little ones arrived in this faraway land with cardboard suitcases! Emigrants in search of fortune!

We get ready for the evening... Saturday night in Brazil... We're supposed to meet at midnight but after a while tiredness floors us so much that when Veronica and Fernanda, all dressed up, come to pick us up, we can't even get out of bed... What a fine impression!

11.01.2009 Sao Paulo (BRAZIL)

This morning Veronica and Fernanda are back on the attack, this time to visit the Japanese neighbourhood with its "Praca da Liberdade"! We wander around the nice little market while Veronica tells me about her city's problems, first and foremost: drugs. Buying a gram of cocaine here costs just 10 real (about 3 euros) and as a result it's very widespread, and she, who is a nurse, sees all sorts...

Today we eat at the likeable Salvatore's. A lunch in the oldest Calabrian tradition. A big table, while I, like a spectator, admired the spirit that united all those people who were already beginning to enter my heart. The light that shone in their eyes, that glint, those tears that often rolled down, the memories that filled the table and were often followed by moments of silence with gazes lost in the void...

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