Trevignano Letter: If you did not know better, you would have taken it for a hiring fair. There was a big scene going on outside Trevignano's elementary school. People stood in clusters, anxiously watching the comings and goings as if waiting for something very important to happen.
Indeed, something important was happening. The village had been called to the ballot box. The air was heavy with the weight of local rivalries, family loyalties and specific interest lobbies.
It must be acknowledged, at this point, that we ourselves, in the person of the Baroness herself, had "taken to the pitch" (to use a phrase recently coined by a Johnny-come-lately called Silvio Something). Herself was right in there, having been asked to run for a Civic List of a leftist leaning.
For the best part of the last month, herself had been out on the electoral trail, launched on the not-exactly-easy task of trying to find votes in a 3,400-strong electorate dominated by village families. Curiously, though, the Baroness's campaign, the first ever by a foreigner, reflects the changing times in Trevignano.
Sited on the handsome Lago di Bracciano and just 55km (34 miles) north of Rome, Trevignano has long been home to two sets of "blow-ins" - the forestieri and the stranieri. The former are Italians not of Trevignano origin who are now referred to as "new residents". The latter are common or garden foreigners - French, German, English, Poles, Dutch, Americans, Irish etc.
According to some calculations, the new residents and the foreigners make up almost 50 per cent of the Trevignano electorate. That figure may be exaggerated but the reality is that there are a lot of us and, all of a sudden, we have become a potential vote, out there to be wooed. Hence, herself was out on the hustings. Never unsure about her opinions and never shy of offering them, herself had a good time really, cajoling, advising and bossing everyone about on a larger scale than usual.
Which was just as well since an outsider with no family vote at her disposal needs to invent something.
Herself also did a very bella figura at the final comizio (election rally) held in the village piazza, two days before the vote. In what is a splendid exercise in grassroots democracy, all those lists or parties running for election get a chance to put their case to the assembled village in a late-night meeting that nearly always attracts a bumper attendance. Of the 20 or so speakers, herself was the only one to speak without the aid of notes.
Furthermore, on the advice of her campaign manager (yours truly), she kept the speech brief - always a winning move.
It was generally regarded as a minor triumph, short but not entirely sweet. Indeed, so barbed were one or two of the points she raised that they earned her two full-frontal aggressions from outraged (female) members of a rival list.
Election day, or days in this case, inevitably provided the most dramatic moments of all. For a start, representatives of the four competing lists formed ranks outside the polling station. The would-be voter was forced to either run the gauntlet of all four groups or say hello to all of them in order not to reveal his/her electoral preferences.
Mind you, this being parish-pump politics, many voters made it clear just what way they were voting by going straight across to one group and energetically shaking hands with their capolista or candidate for mayor.
Throughout the voting, too, an unseen count was being taken. Our candidate, Viera, like her rivals, knows everyone in the village. As people walked by, she would calmly observe: "Giovanni is for us, Anna-Maria is for Massimo's lot. And that man there will be voting Catena."
Her rivals were making precisely the same observations. It may be a secret ballot but that does not stop you doing the count. Indeed, mobile phones were busy, getting out the vote. Even yours truly was at it (what is a campaign manager for?), making a casual call to friends, Romans and others along the lines of: "How are you?" meaning "I have been outside this polling station for the last 16 hours and haven't seen you come in to vote yet, so get your ass down here."
As for the result? In the end, because of a three-way split vote among the left (a recurrent leftist masterpiece, at levels local and national), the Baroness was not summoned to public office. Not this time. She will be back. Avanti popolo.