How normal it is The king’s speech, Charles III, to the Italian Parliament It has been analyzed in its political implications, in particular in the passage in which Parliament is mentioned as “fundamental democratic institution” the intention to make a contribution to the affirmation of the value of democratic institutions in a world context in which autocratic trends are being established. From the point of view of institutional sensitivity: in memory of the homage of Queen Elisabetta to Giovanni Falcone. It had been five days after the Capaci massacre. Not without complications on the moment approaching the devastation on the highway in Capaci, and even afterwards, in the phase of investigations, for the doubt that the need to intervene urgently to restore had changed the scene of that immense crime.
But to the children of the seventies, the king’s speech made above all a proustian effect: when, telling the mystery of the name King Charles III, he mentioned their “Madeleine”: the “Garibaldi biscuits”species of semi-sweet cakes that split along the sections as we see crackers, but without crack, because to hinder the net fracture there was the sultanasted raisins crushed in the middle of the dough. They were in a white plastic casing with the brand, if the memory does not deceive written in red, and above the figure of the biscuit and grapes or something like that (45 years have passed, it is not a memory on which it can be sworn in court).
A brand note of English biscuits (still residually present in Italian supermarkets, but not with the Garibaldi nor with the other semi-sweet gallet that we dived in the breakfast coffee and some of which still feel orphaned) certified the unequivocally British (Scottish) indigenous autochthony of the man-cracker with an evident name mysteriously Italian.
Now King Carlo has revealed the mystery of that name and the reason that stood in us at the time of the snack without a network to question: “When Garibaldi landed near Marsala, Sicily, in May 1860,”, explained King Carlo, “two Royal Navy warships were there to watch. Garibaldi was, as you know, very admired in the United Kingdom. When he visited the country in 1864 to thank the British people for the support received, a real “Garibaldimania” broke out. About half a million people noticed to greet him in London. He was even dedicated to him a biscuit – the supreme sign of British admiration! Many of the heroes of the Risorgimento – including Cavour and Mazzini – spent time in the United Kingdom ». Pleasure of knowing it, it is always nice to have answers to your questions of children, even out of time. It works a bit like the dedication of the Little Prince: “I apologize to the children,” wrote Antoine de Saint-Exypéry, “to have dedicated this book to an adult person. I have a good excuse: this adult is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this adult can understand everything, even children’s books. I have a third excuse: this adult lives in France where he suffers hunger and cold. He really needs to be consoled. If all these excuses were not enough, then I want to dedicate this book to the child that this adult was some time ago. Before becoming adults, all adults were children. (But few of them remember them.) So I correct my dedication: “A Léon Werth when he was a child”.
But the answer satisfies intellectual curiosity, not the lost taste. It would not be bad if, in exchange for the idea given by the Romans, to the British, “to put the head of a king on the coins – and therefore I am particularly grateful to them …” – Copyright King Charles III -, the indirect “advertising” of the King of England to the “Garibaldi” in Italy propitiated the return of the biscuits, for decades disappeared to our latitudes. The children, Garibaldini for the throat, of the seventies would like, given that now to make the overseas stock it takes, as well as a significant investment, the effort of the ETA module for the surcharge …
