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Roberta and her story about her husband Mauro Mancini in the 70's

I want to write this story about Roberta because it was not by chance that i found a refuge next to her appartment and rang her bell.  And fortunately she was there and welcoming me as if i'd left her yesterday .  Actually loads had happened in the 13 years since we had met and i only happened to mention that she was very sporty and looked very fit.  This little comment led to her telling me that she was a boat person and her husband had been an expert in making sea maps of the mediterrainian waters and she showed me the book he had published .... but Mr Mancini had been tempted top go off on an adventurous trip with a younger man called Folgar who wasd very well known for such trips. This is how i got to know about Mar di Plata .... where their trip started !



La mar della Plata is a place in Argentina and  i didnt know about it (in my ignorance ) until i went to Italy to visit my youthful old lady Silvia .  She had just bought a very shabby appartment on a street where i used to live ie in via Fiesolana.  It had to be fixed up and they were going to start to work on it after xmass and new year  (2018).  Silvia said that i could stay there.  I didnt mind,  even if it didnt have any heating i was more happy to be on my own. Next door was number 34 where i used to have my studio Atelier in the year 1998 to 2005 after which i moved to viareggio and stayed there for some months at Silvias house .

Roberta had been the only friendly neighbour who had offered me a cup of coffee at her extraordinary appartment and now i was ringing her bell to see if she was still living there.  She was and she gave me an appointment for the following day .  She had been a very sporty type of woman , tall and strong even in  her late 50's , but now after 1à years she looked  somewhat smaller and delicat with a lot of silvery white hair.  She invited me for tea and i was very surprised when she told me this  story .....   i mean i had disappeared from the Atelier and gallery where i used to work since 2005, now we were in 2018 and she seemed to have been waiting for some one who would listen and be interested in her husbands extraordinary adventure !  Even if this adventure didnt go well for him , fortunately they did find him alive and brought him back home. 

It isnt really the husbands story that i am interested in .... it is the fact that Roberta felt that his going away  was all wrong right from the begining .... some times you just know things because there is a sort of calculator in your gut and it is telling you what you can expect .  Miracles do happen and exceptionally lucky people get away with things .... but we dont always win the lottary ....



 She was telling me  that in the last night they were together, they had been with friends all the time and hadnt any private time to talk .  All the evening  out with friends , and finally while  she was driving her car in the motorway and he was in another car following her ; out of a sudden impulse she stopped her car on the side and waited for him to come and see her ..... as he came to her window and asked her why she was not driving on , she told hem : "i only wanted to see you before you went away"!

that is a line from a film ie her life ..... it  didnt work out why he was going away on a risky trip like this one when he was seriously ill and had to look after himself .... she couldnt understand , but MAuro Mancini  wanted to do this trip and was very enthusiastic about it  because of his friend Fogar who was younger than him and he felt safe with some one of his experience.

A man has to do what he has on his mind ! and a woman ends up having to take all the responsabilities he leaves behind ....  today Roberta was telling me what happened to her husband was that he had suffered for many days on the sea because their boat crashed and they were on a small rubber boat for days until a ship rescued them !

His name is still on the door of the appartment !







































Mar del Plata is an Argentine city in the southeast part of Buenos Aires Province located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the head of General Pueyrredón Partido. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" has the meaning of "sea of the Plate region" or "adjoining sea to the (River) Plate region".[1] Mar del Plata is one of the major fishing ports and the biggest seaside beach resort in Argentina. With a population of 614,350 as per the 2010 census [INDEC], it is the 7th largest city in Argentina.

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