Marche Polle! Who was he?

 

(«Carneades! Who was he?» was Don Abbondio’s question in the Promessi Sposi novel by Alessandro Manzoni. So Carneades in Italian means an unknown person.)

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Marche Polle was Amedeo Orlolla’s nickname, a fellow who lived in Taranto many years ago. Amedeo was born in Taranto on  August 27th, 1895. His father was a sailor on the R.N. Marco Polo heavy cruiser. Amedeo used to tell his father’s deeds, speaking always about the Marco Polo ship, so people mangled this name in Marche Polle.

 

Amedeo grew up in extreme poverty and did many poor jobs at bakeries and for coal merchants, or as a balloons peddler. He was also a newsie for a vernacular paper, ’U Panarijidde (this term means a street kid). Once this magazine was dismissed, Amedeo peddled pre-filled-out pool playslips. You could meet him in the street, wearing unfitting, too large clothes and a hat with “Enalotto” written on the visor. People used to offer him some cigarettes, coffees or “panzerotti” (a kind of fried “hot pocket”) at no longer existing “Dreher” beer hall in Immacolata Square. Marche Polle used to ask bystanders: «’A vuè mò?» («Do you want it right now?» in the local dialect), giggling for the double-entendre joke, or to say: «Appuntate ‘nnanze!» («Button-up!»), pointing at someone's trousers. He was very old and shabby but he gave a sense of tenderness and cheer at the same time.

He retired in a hospice - no longer existing - overlooking the sea, where many schoolchildren used to visit him and sang his time songs.

 

Amedeo passed away on January 11th, 1982. He was dressed in white - this was his last will because in his whole life he had never seen women. Almost all the town attended his funeral. The casket was accompanied by the City Marching Band and the crowd screamed: «Amede’, ‘a vuè mo’?» («Amedeo, do you want it right now?»), in a thunderous applause.

 

In the St. Brunone Cemetery, someone still brings flowers to his grave.

And, always, some cigarettes.

 

(If you want to read some news in Italian about him, you can find them, among various sites, here, here and here)