Cassese

Atripalda is a town in the Irpinia province, best said, is a small town in the province of a provincial small city situated in a somehow provincial region of Southern Italy. 

In Avellino winter, on the contrary of what one could guess, does exist. Even the cold exists, and the heat, the sun, the 'caseificio's, cheese factories, the good ones, though, where, when you buy a mozzarella you want to drop any diet, dive into the pools with the tepid 'latticello' and gorge of rounded delicacies. 

As for many small Italian towns, Atripalda has a long story, rooted in Pre-Roman epoch, developing during the Middle Age and then in the following centuries ups and downs of country's history. As for many small Italian towns its history is long, complex and far from the appearances. The river, that in this case is named Sabato, Saturday in Italian, has a lots of stories to tell, stories of merchants and of monologuing dialogues between monotheistic religions, for instance. In Atripalda, though, the one who listened to the river's stories in order to remember History is nothing less than a great Italian historian, Leopoldo Cassese, director of the State Archives of L'Aquila and Salerno, and professor of archival, the very first in Italy.

Leopoldo is not a bookworm, is proficient, can read between the lines, and between the documents, the stories hidden behind the extraordinary evocative strenght of narration, he can listen to the sound of words. He loves life, he loves his wife and the kids who learn since they are really young how to repulse dictatorships listening to the tales trasported by the river waters, the sound of the wind in the trees and of the people that always say what has to be said, if you are able to truly listen. 

His sons learn how to understand, to listen beyond words, to read between lines the sound of the laughters and of the tears of people, also of the ones who can't read or write. Leopoldo's sons are Antonio Cassese and Sabino Cassese, lawyers and judges, but most of all men who can read the law to defend those who cannot even read their names. They start studying law almost at the same time, they're almost the same age, Sabino focuses on the administrative part, then works for the Italian gas and petrol company ENI, the Italian government and European institutions, while Antonio clings on listening to the moans of people that apparently the world want to forget, unless there's the prime time crime, for TV schedules needs. With stubborness, a deep culture, and a humbleness that only people of that calibre can afford, decides to believe in the realization of something that sounded impossible, an international judiciary system to demonstrate that world's peace starts also listening to the silent cry of a 'normal' person from a far end of the world, to whom the childhood, adolescence, adulthood or simply, just to say, the fundamental rights were denied. And together with a woman that faces everything resolutely, Carla del Ponte,  he makes a prototype of European tradition international criminal tribunal work, the UN former Yugoslavia Tribunal (ICTY), a weird object, a glimmer of justice for people whose stories are heard from those who are able to look beyond the appareances with the careful and aware glance of a man from the province who probably got tired of listening.
©2011.2020