[Versione Italiana]

What can one say about Carlo … a good, kind, generous, happy and protective man, when you were near him you felt safe, comfortable even tough he sometimes enjoyed playing the part of an ill – tempered man…He had his mother Ida’s nature. In fact, being the youngest of three brothers(when he was born in 1945, his brothers were already young men) he often lived with his mother ; a strong woman, resourceful, full of initiative and always ready to do her outmost for others.

I cannot say when the Galluzzi family arrived in the San Rocco area, for certain the construction of the railway line and its activation towards the end of the nineteenth century greatly helped the town’s growth. He lived between the Savoia Bar and the Ostacchini building in a small house which belonged to the Borzoni family . I remember his father Giovanni’s carpenter’s workshop near their home. I remember there was a gloomy and very hot kitchen upstairs where , as was common years ago, copper pots hung on the wall above the sink. I remember the farmyard where the chickens scratched around and the turkey dominated with its tail spread and the peacock displaying its multi – coloured feathers.
Carlo spent his time between his mother’s kitchen and his father’s workshop. On one hand he became a passionate cook and a great gourmet. On the other hand he learnt to love his father’s work and he became a good furniture – dealer , an able interior decorator with good taste.
As a child he often spent his time with Wilma, Lucia, Gloria seeing that there were only girls near his home and maybe this influence his way of adapting to all situations ….Playing with potsm with dolls…I can still see him in an old photo wearing a big checked apron and holding a tray with small cups; he was pretending to pour us coffee under a beach umbrella ….. When he used to play “grown ups” in front of a wooden hut which when he became an adult was transformed into his Summer home, he made us tables and chairs out of old wooden boxes , painted and assembled in order to make us a living room where we could play and eat tasty snacks given to us by our mothers !
During the beautiful and long summer days we went on mountain trips, to Valdena, Valvenera, the Brattello ( the road was hardly outlined )and then we had several parties in my home and talking of which I remember a New Year’s Eve; there were lots of us. Carlo was a very good dancer, very capable at ballroom dancing. There were also Claudio, Carlo Contini, Remo Dallara, Paola, Gloria and many others. After having waited for midnight together, while in my doorstep I was told that the other Carlo, who we called Carlino, plunged head in the snow (he was probably a little tipsy ) and carried on doing so all the way along the road which led to the town.
But time passes for everyone and adolescence makes room for adulthood and close friends move away; our “Carlone” leaves for military service in the Air Force then he manages to move closer, he is stationed in Fornovo. Not long after I move away from the town as I am getting married, others for work reasons move away and all that is left are a few chance meetings with my great friend Carlo ; a Sunday, a Summer, several visits to my house at Montignoso to deliver pieces of furniture. Oh yes , in fact Carlo managed to set up a really good furniture factory at Borgotaro with customers even from France and Great Britain!
He loved fun, good humour and those parties with waltzes and mazurkas held at my home gave him the spirit to organize ever bigger ones, such as those village festivals which he organized successfully for the “Gruppo Folkloristico San Rocco” , Carlo being its much loved and valid chairman.
He became promoter for the “Carnevale Borgotarese” thereby continuing a tradition which my father had greatly contributed to , where masks and allegorical carts paraded along the “Viale Libertà”, full of colour, music and songs, fun for adults and children !
I remember once when an attempt was made to reintroduce the Carnival after many years seeing that when my father died the “Carnevale Borgotarese” seized to exist, and it was then that one saw the esteem and respect that Carlo had for our family by continuing the tradition which my father had started.
He was also fascinated by art, and in a way he posed as a patron, giving hospitality to art galleries in his furniture show rooms. With regard to this I remember once when I was at Carrara: being a manager of a Sport Society I was with my ice-skating team, I found myself in front of an art exhibition and once inside learnt from its manager that he had also displayed his collection at Borgotaro in Galluzzi’s furniture factory.
Without any doubt his childhood at my home amid my uncle Italo’s paintings or my cousin Luisella’s, my aunt Antonietta’s artistic photos and my father’s sculptures had given him a love for art and the strong desire to defend and “protect” young artists.
So that one day, many years later, his patron spirit reappeared when my daughter Patrizia having completed her studies at the “Accademia del marmo di Carrara” proposed an exhibition dedicated to her grandfather Aldo Tagliavini, where they could display , both grandfather’s and granddaughter’s works. He willingly accepted and sponsored the exhibition.
It was 1999 and this exhibition reawoke an idea to mount a workshop which would sell graveyard sculptures, to link to his undertaker’s business so as to make it complete.
During this period he gave my daughter the possibility of showing her talent by commissioning several works.
His quite sudden and untimely death has let regret in not only the people’s hearts from Borgotaro but also even more regret in the people of San Rocco, “ del sasso e non “, because they could not have him as a public administrator seeing that he certainly had had the talent, common sense , a kind heart and lots of good taste!
His contribution to all voluntary associations was generous and constant. His financial contribution to the area’s parish church building had been a decisive factor in the ‘80s when the church was at risk of being closed due to its deterioration.
His short life did not allow him to fulfil his many dreams, some being about his neighbourhood which he loved as much as “beautiful things”. For example, he would have loved to have restored the fountain by the side of the bridge over the Tarodine, and to this purpose he had had a small project prepared . to fulfil this would be a lovely way to remember him.
He really would deserve it !