The City and the House

by Natalia Ginzburg

  ROBERTA TO GIUSEPPE

  Rome, 20th December

  Dear Giuseppe,

  As I told you on the phone, Alberico is buying back your house from the Lanzaras. This seems an excellent idea, just that he’s done everything in such a hurry, and if he had waited he might have got them to bring the price down. He said, and he kept on saying, that he thought it was too expensive. And then one morning he decided to buy it. Besides he doesn’t have any money problems. And bricks and mortar don’t let you down. There was a difficulty because Lanzara thought it improper to sell a house to an ex-patient of his. But then he thought about it and said that it didn’t seem to him to be that serious an impropriety.

  Yesterday Alberico and the Lanzaras went to a solicitor to draw up the agreement. The Lanzaras are leaving next month. They are moving to England. They have already started dismantling the bookcases.

  As you can imagine, the idea of having Alberico on the floor above is one I like very much. I just hope that they don’t make too much noise, because as you know Alberico is never alone. And now that Salvatore has come back to live with him again. Alberico didn’t want him to because, Egisto told me, he thinks he is mixed up in some very shady business. What happened in piazza Tuscolo certainly makes you suspect it. It’s never been clear why they attacked him, but it was probably something to do with a shady business deal. Alberico says he is not a weak person, he says he has a strong character, nevertheless he is weak in some things and he has been weak over Salvatore. He didn’t want to, but he has welcomed him back. Salvatore was in a mental hospital for a while, then they discharged him and he went back to his mother’s house in Frosinone, but he didn’t want to stay in Frosinone and he found a job in Rome as a driver with a pharmaceutical firm. But he didn’t have anywhere to sleep. He asked if he could have a bed at Alberico’s place in piazza San Cosimato, at least for a few days, and then perhaps he’d come to some other arrangement. And so he came back and installed himself and his odds and ends in his old room. It doesn’t matter, if they make a noise upstairs I shall put oropax in my ears. I’ve never used it but everyone says it’s a great blessing.

  Lucrezia has finally found a house too, and is in the process of buying it. It is a reasonably nice place, it’s big, and Lucrezia is very pleased with it. The money she has isn’t enough but Piero has told her she can borrow from a bank. The house is in via delle Medaglie d’Oro, not very far from here. Lucrezia found it by reading the advertisements in II Messaggero. Alberico was at her house and they went to see it straightaway. Alberico and Lucrezia are now firm friends, they are always together. I imagine that this will please you. Two people you are fond of have met and become friends. Lucrezia hasn’t called me to see the house, I haven’t seen it yet. There was a time when Lucrezia was always ‘phoning me and getting in touch with me, she used to say I was a comfort to her and reminded her of her mother a little. And then at a certain moment she stopped getting in touch, I don’t know why. Clearly she has learnt to be an orphan.

  Alberico’s film Deviance has been very successful in France. He has another one nearly ready. He hasn’t told me what it’s called.

  Ignazio Fegiz and Ippo, that friend of his, quarrelled and they were more or less about to separate, no one saw them for a while, and she wanted to sell her apartment and go and live in Fregene. It has a beautiful terrace and I was half thinking of buying it myself as an investment. He had fallen in love with a very beautiful eighteen-year-old girl. He wanted to marry her. But instead he stayed with Ippo. They are inseparable again. The Cat and the Fox. Now they’ve left for Vienna together. They will stay there for a fortnight seeing the galleries and museums. Egisto told me, he always knows everyone’s business. It seems that she isn’t going to sell her apartment any more.

  Lucrezia is going to Paris with Serena, Vito and Cecilia, for the New Year. The other children are going to Perugia. But really they aren’t children any more.

  Give me news of Anne Marie’s health. You seemed a little worried about her on the phone.

  With love from

  Roberta

  LUCREZIA TO GIUSEPPE

  Rome, 22nd December

  I went to Monte Fermo with Alberico, Vito, Cecilia and Joli. I asked Alberico to come along with us. I couldn’t have gone alone with Cecilia and Vito, it would have upset me. But I became very upset anyway when we came back.

  We didn’t go in my Volkswagen, we went in Alberico’s car. He has a new car, a pale blue Prisma. It’s being run in. He enjoys running it in.

  It was a beautiful sunny day. We got out for a moment at Monte Fermo to have a coffee. They recognized me and made a fuss of me. There was the man who used to sell mushrooms, and the old woman with her basket of eggs. Monte Fermo is just the same, nothing has changed.

  Then we went to Le MargherIte. To what was Le Margherite. Now they’ve made a hotel out of it. It’s called the Hotel Panorama.

  It is impossible to recognize our house in the Hotel Panorama. It was yellow and old with stone balconies. The Hotel Panorama looks new. It is half cherry-pink and half sky-blue. There are geraniums on the balconies. The balconies are long and narrow, with an iron railing. The old porch has gone. They have put white metal tables out at the front, and deckchairs and swings, under a fringed canvas awning. At the back where the little hazel tree used to be there is a swimming pool with clear, clean water in it, with more deckchairs around the edge. Inside you can see floors with white and brown patterns on them, corridors and rooms. There was a chamber-maid with a bucket and a floor cloth. There didn’t seem to be a single guest. We left.

  We bought bread and ham in Monte Fermo. They told us that the Hotel Panorama was doing badly and is on the point of bankruptcy. It’s open the whole year, but lord knows who for. They might make it into a college for land-surveying. No one knows yet.

  We stopped in Pianura too. Where the Women’s Centre used to be there is an electrical repair shop for cars.

  I am buying a house. I don’t enjoy living in Rome but then I don’t know where I’d enjoy living. The flat I might buy is in viale Medaglie d’Oro. I hate that area, but the flat isn’t too bad. It’s on the top floor, and has a balcony. I’m getting a loan from a bank.

  Piero phones me every morning from Perugia nowadays. He used to be against long-distance telephone calls but now he keeps me on the ‘phone for ages. I want to talk to him about houses, money, and the loan, but he does nothing but talk about himself and about this girl Diana, what she said to him and what she didn’t say to him. He’s just the same when he comes to Rome. He says he comes for the children’s sake, but then instead of being with the children he talks to me. He hasn’t anyone else to talk to, only me. I listen to him, what else can I do? He seems to me to be floundering about in very deep water.

  Alberico is buying what used to be your flat. Seen from the outside the house is still the same, and the street is still the same too. Though the Mariuccia Restaurant isn’t there any more, nor the Cafe Esperia. Where the Cafe Esperia used to be there’s a shop called La Casa del Tortellino. There isn’t anything where the Mariuccia Restaurant used to be. There’s a grating. Behind the grating there are some sacks of cement. People’say there’s going to be a laundry there.

  Alberico often eats at our house. Perhaps because of this I’ve started to quite enjoy cooking again. Because he eats here so often. I think about which dishes to prepare and talk it over with Zezé. I don’t cook meat loaf, because my meat loaves fall apart, and it’s always a mistake when a meat loaf falls apart, even if it’s good.

  I’m leaving in a few days, I’m going to Paris with Serena for a fortnight. Serena has borrowed a little flat. I shall leave the children in Rome with Zezé who has agreed to stay and sleep here.

  I’ve never been to Paris in my life and Serena says this is ridiculous. I’ve never been on any long journeys. And I’ve never really been on holiday. There was almost always cooking to do and beds to make, even on holiday. But I don’t want to complain. I know I’m b
etter off than most.

  Roberta said your wife is ill. Write and tell me what’s the matter with her. Send me your news. I hope that you have stopped thinking about Chantal.

  I wish you a happy Christmas

  Lucrezia

  ALBERICO TO GIUSEPPE

  Rome, 27th December

  My dear father,

  I was very pleased to get your ‘phone call on Christmas Day. Thank you. You must have heard a great deal of noise. There were a lot of us. The lady who comes in the mornings had cooked us a roast turkey. She won’t come for a while now because Lucrezia is going away and leaving her children in Rome; she will go to Lucrezia’s house for the whole day. Salvatore and I washed up the plates from the Christmas lunch. There were piles of them.

  Yes, I am buying your famous house in via Nazario Sauro. Famous because after you sold it you started to regret having done so, and to complain to me and to other people about how you had been a real imbecile to sell it. Well, now it’s yours again. Or rather it’s mine, but if you come back to Italy and you want to live there you can. I would gladly let you have it.

  Meanwhile I shall move in very shortly, as soon as the Lanzaras leave. If you come to Rome soon, as you say you will, you could be my guest in via Nazario Sauro. We could live together for a short time, not for too long because you wouldn’t enjoy it and neither would I. I said you could be my guest, but as you are my father you wouldn’t be a guest. I remember that you always used to say you didn’t like being a guest, and you liked having guests even less. I don’t remember many of the things you used to say, just a few. To tell you the honest truth I can only remember you very slightly and very vaguely.

  I know that your wife isn’t well. I’m sorry. I know that the little girl isn’t with you any more. Her mother came and collected her. Lucrezia told me. I’m sorry about that too. Though it is right that the child should be with her mother, as she has a mother.

  With love and best wishes from

  Alberico

  GIUSEPPE TO ALBERICO

  Princeton, 7th January

  My dearest son,

  Anne Marie is very ill. They have discovered that she has leukemia very seriously, and there’s no hope. The doctors have told me that she will not live long. Every day I go with her to a clinic where they give her blood transfusions. We go and come back in a taxi because as you know I can’t drive, and Anne Marie no longer has the strength to drive. She has no strength whatsoever. It is very tiring for her to get out of bed and to move about. In the space of a few days she has got much worse, a few weeks ago she didn’t feel well but she still drove her car and went to the Institute. Now I can never leave her. When I go to give my lessons I call our neighbour Mrs Mortimer over.

  Chantal, Anne Marie’s daughter, is in New York and doesn’t come very often. She can’t because she would lose her job. She is a waitress in a restaurant. And she has the child too. Since she has known that her mother is ill she has come three times. She didn’t bring the child with her. She says that the child is doing very well, that she is thriving much better than when she was with us. This hurt me, but Chantal is someone who can sometimes say cruel things without realizing it. She also told me that the child never mentions me. She stayed for a short time then left quickly. Apart from me and Mrs Mortimer, Anne Marie doesn’t have anyone.

  I think that Anne Marie has realized she is dying. I think she thinks about it all the time, but she never says what she is thinking. She is a woman who never says what she is thinking. I’ve become aware that in the two years we have been married, I have never once felt that she was telling me what she really thought.

  Thank you for your letter, and thank you for buying back my famous house. I can’t help but think you are buying it back because it was mine. I haven’t had another house after that one. The house where I live now is profoundly alien to me, and it always has been. Perhaps because I’ve never thought of living in America for good.

  I’m extremely pleased that you see Lucrezia so often. I thank you for that too, that you are such good friends with Lucrezia, and that you so often spend time with her. I could certainly have introduced you to each other when I was in Italy. I’ve no idea why I didn’t. That you have become friends now is like receiving an unexpected gift. I often think of you both in a room I don’t know but can imagine, because it probably has the furniture I used to see at Le Margherite, and which I remember so well. I know that you and Lucrezia went to Le Margherite. She wrote and told me. I know that you have a pale blue Prisma.

  With love from

  your father

  PIERO TO GIUSEPPE

  Perugia, 13th January

  My dearest Giuseppe,

  I am here, close to you, with my old loyal affection for you.

  I didn’t come to Rome that day because I had an engagement in Perugia I couldn’t possibly put off. And even Lucrezia wasn’t in Rome, she was in Paris where she still is. I telephoned Serena who is there with her, and asked her not to let her see the Italian newspapers, and to say nothing. You know that recently Alberico and Lucrezia had become great friends. They were always together. And so I want to be the one who tells her, tomorrow, when she gets back. Serena has told her that Alberico doesn’t answer the telephone because he has gone to Vienna for a holiday and that we don’t know his address.

  I know that you only stayed in Rome for three days because your wife is very ill and you had to go back to her immediately.

  I haven’t written to you for a long time but I’ve had news of you from Lucrezia. It was good news too, but now your wife is seriously ill, and suddenly this new terrible disaster has happened to you.

  With love from

  Piero

  EGISTO TO IGNAZIO FEGIZ

  Rome, 15th January

  Dear Ignazio,

  I got your address in Vienna from Ippo’s concierge. I don’t know if you have read the Italian newspapers. I suppose you probably haven’t read them. Alberico is dead. He was killed in an alley off Trastevere, behind his house, on the 7th January.

  He was typing, alone in his house. It was eleven at night. Salvatore, Adelmo and Gianni had gone down to have a cappuccino. Gianni came up and told him that Salvatore had picked a fight in an alley near piazza San Callisto. Alberico and Gianni went down. They met Adelmo in the street, and he tried to hold them back. They didn’t take any notice of him and Adelmo followed them. What we know, we know from Adelmo and Gianni. There was a group of people fighting in the alley. They caught sight of Salvatore’s red jumper. Alberico ran over to him and tried to drag him away. There were some people standing watching but none of them made a move. Adelmo thinks that among them he recognized the two on the scooter whom he had seen in piazza Tuscolo, and also another one with a blond pony-tail who had been in piazza Tuscolo. Then Adelmo saw that Salvatore had a knife. Someone snatched it from him. Alberico fell and got up again. They stabbed him as he was getting up. Salvatore screamed and they threw themselves on top of him. Salvatore died immediately. Alberico died after half an hour. Someone called the emergency services, then an ambulance came, and then the police jeeps.

  I had just got back from the newspaper when Gianni called me. Gianni and Adelmo were at the Santo Spirito hospital. Alberico died without regaining consciousness.

  The same thing happened to Nadia. The same fate.

  Adelmo and I went to his flat to collect his clothes. We phoned Roberta but we didn’t know how to tell the poor woman what had happened. She was very fond of Alberico, they were cousins. Adelmo went to her house to tell her.

  We phoned Giuseppe in America. He came. He was here for the funeral. But he left immediately because his wife is gravely ill, and there wasn’t anyone with her.

  Lucrezia was in Paris. They didn’t tell her anything. They kept the newspapers hidden. Piero told her when she came back. The funeral was already over, Giuseppe had already left. And so Giuseppe and Lucrezia didn’t see each other again.

  I think it’s very bad that they didn’t tell L
ucrezia. She and Alberico were friends, over the last few months they were always together. But Piero wanted it like this.

  In the district where Alberico lived they are in mourning for him. They remember him as courteous and gentle when he went into the shops and stopped to chat with this person or that person. He was generous, he lent money to whoever needed it, and in a way he gave it to them because he never asked for it back again. They also mourn for Salvatore, and they remember him too. Gentle he wasn’t, he had quarrelled with everyone in the district, he was quick with his fists. But they had known him for a while and it shocks them to think of him as dead now. Some say that Salvatore was a police informer. Others say he pushed drugs. Others say he lent money at a high rate of interest. Others say he sent anonymous letters. Everyone thinks that the same people were involved in piazza Tuscolo and in vicolo Sant’ Apollinare, and Adelmo insists that in both places there was a man with a blond pony-tail. But people say that after what happened in piazza Tuscolo whoever it was would have cut it off so as not to be recognized. The police think that Adelmo has imagined the blond pony-tail, both this time and the previous time.

  Giuseppe and Salvatore’s mother will have to initiate civil proceedings against persons unknown.

  Remember me to Ippo,

  Egisto

  EGISTO TO ALBINA

  Rome, 2nd February

  Dear Albina,

  I saw you on the day of the funeral, but then I immediately lost you and I looked for you without finding you again. Adelmo told me that you had gone straight back to Luco dei Marsi.

  With Adelmo and Gianni I put Alberico’s papers in order, in the flat below me. We put all the papers, the ideas for films and the screen plays into a trunk, which we loaded on to my car and took to Roberta’s house in via Nazario Sauro. Alberico didn’t have many books. His clothes were just a few odds and ends and the cleaning woman, Zezé, took these away. She gave them to some old people who live near her. The furniture consisted of a table and two or three wardrobes that were falling to pieces, bought in Porta Portese. Zezé took them away too.