Big World. Small Quarna. We are One.

You can find the English version of "La piccola Quarna nel vasto mondo: Quarna c'è!" below. I ask the readers of the English version to be patient with the non professional translation and I thank you a lot for that! Enjoy the reading and HurtigherBlog, tiny Quarna in the wide web!

Versione italiana: premi qui.

After more than one month from the former restriction to fight the spread of Coronavirus in Italy – that, in the meanwhile caused a global health emergency –, also Quarna is locked down. As part of the same world, Quarna can be a victim of the virus too, it is good to follow the instructions of the authorities. The restrictions to social relations probably are the more invasive one, but it can’t be a reason of divisions. Even if Quarna is small, our village can boast a wide network and, if it’s true that true friends meet in times of need, then Quarna’s friends are: all of them contacted by HurtigherBlog have enthusiastically collected the invitation! Here are their greetings and experiences. More than ever: Quarna c’è!

BENGT

from Askim (Norway)

(translated)

Dear quarnesi, I’m sad knowing that more than 5,000 people has died due to the pandemic, that’s incredible. My thoughts go to all Quarna friends and to their well-being: “stay home” is the invitation also here in Norway. Remember that: spring will come and with all my heart I would like you to remain in good health and that when this is over we will be able to sing, play music and share our stories from the quarantined period all together. Stay health and come on quarnesi!

JUAN ESTEBAN, cav. Balestretti

from Buenos Aires (Argentina)

(translated)

The Balestrettis just need to roll their eyes to feel the landscape, the mountains and the lakes of the “village of music” in their soul. Today the world is going through a terrible and unexpected challenge and Italy is, once again, in the front row of history. Nobody is unknown and we don't even know what the future will be like.

   Please take care of yourself. In every house, you will be protected and when we see our immortal sky in the mountains through the windows, we can take the opportunity to remember the origin of our families, looking for their future with hope in the soul. Usually, I tell my family that God rests in Quarna, since that’s where music harmonizes the landscape and it is where Saint Stephen takes care of his people.

   Let’s take the challenge of tomorrow, like the founders, and surely the sun will rise again in the future. My friends, the secret will be the temperance and strength of each of you. Every night light a candle so that God knows that the population of Quarna will overcome this difficult moment. Here in Argentina, everyone of us – your brothers born in another land – will do the same; in this way, the heaven will build a immense hug between us!

   When the emergency will be over, I will come to our land to share the smiles and to pray with my brothers from the land of music. God bless you all!

DONNA

A quick greeting has also come from Donna, engaged in fighting the emergency by creating masks for the elderly.

MICHAEL e INGE

from Copenaghen (Denmark)

(translated)

Dear quarnesi, we spend each summer in Quarna since 2008. Your village is in our hearts, so we think to you in this difficult period. Nowadays, we know that every day is a challenge and a fight. We hope that this terrible situation will end soon. We are happy when we come back to Quarna, a place where people is kind, the nature is beautiful, the tradition is good and there are parties and music. That is the Quarna we love! We have seen on the Internet a picture of musicians playing on the balconies: very nice Quarna!

   Here in Denmark we are at home for a month: fortunately we are ok! Some days ago we have phoned to Los Angeles to speak with Guido Barone and Mercedes: they are good too.

   In the picture below, there is Michael with his saxophone, the Rampone&Cazzani “Two Voices”: at present, I have lots of hours to practice, but none to play togethe. We hope that everyone in Quarna is ok. Distanti ma uniti!

REINER

from Rottweil (Germany)

(translated)

From afar, I would like to send an encouraging greeting to Quarna Sotto and Sopra. We live 400 kilometres away, but we are united in fear of the virus, with the awareness of being able to beat it with solidarity; the solidarity that we will need in the times after the virus to be able to overcome the consequences of the epidemic.

   I fell in love with the two villages more than ten years ago, with its land, its culture and, last but not least, its museum. I’ve very good friends and relations there: Quarna has become my second country. I’ve spent there every Easter day there, but this year it’s going to be different: now, we are separated from each other, the borders are closed and we are more or less locked in the house.

   I haven’t had face-to-face contacts for two weeks: I stay at home with my wife, our sons do the shopping. Around us, in Germany, life is changed: only a few cars are on the streets, not primary shops are closed, schools are closed and lectures are available online. You well know that situation…

   How do I spend these hard times? I’ve a lot of time to work in the house and in the garden (although there is a lack of material sometimes), to read, to paint and to play bassoon. But we are lucky because we can hike around the mountains of “Alb”, avoiding any contact with other people. We are living two different aspects of nature: the one that hurts us with the virus; the other one that make us happy with its renewal and the spring flowers. The nature is going to paint our life with wonderful colours, that give us hope.

   Let’s be careful and try to be health! We wait for an improvement of the situation: you wait in Quarna, we wait in Rottweil. We stay together in thoughts and solidarity.

   Let’s be brave. Greetings from Germany!

MATTHEW

from New York City (U.S.A.)

(original version)

When I discovered Quarna in the summer of 2018 it seemed a distant place, geographically and culturally, a world apart from my life in New York City. Now in the past few weeks as the world has gotten smaller our communities are no longer separated by an ocean; we are joined in a sea of uncertainty. Yet each day I feel closer to Quarna: when I wake up I look at the news of America and the news of Italy with equal heart and hope. I “check in” with my Quarnelli friends as if they are family, even as I “check in” with my own friends and family here. As our daily lives in America evolve to mirror daily life in Italy, our worlds, once so distant, are one.

   Someday soon I look forward to beer and pizza at Posta, to wine and pasta at Circolo, to a good cappuccino at Bar Sport, to meeting old friends and making new friends, to hiking the trails, to eating tapalucco and polenta and gorgonzola and miecce, and most of all, to the sound of music. 

   Andrà tutto bene! All will soon be better.

IONUŢ

from Bucharest (Romania)

(original version)

I was pleased to discover a small part of the amazing North Italy, thanks to an Erasmus+ project organised by Associazione Culturale Mastronauta (“non è sufficiente guardare, occorre guardare con occhi che vogliono vedere” – I remembered this written on the association’s walls), in Quarna Sotto, a project where young people came together to share their ideas, culture, and traditions. I was also surprised to see how beautiful a small village can be and I have to admit that nature was very generous with Quarna Sotto. People were always kind and ready to help and I felt truly welcomed during my one week there. I would like to thank everyone from Quarna Sotto who came to meet us and to present their culture and traditions in a special event organized by the village hall. Another great moment of my visit to Quarna was when the officials of the village came personally to welcome us and I still remember how the mayor said “hello” in our own languages (we were five countries there). I think this is or should be the whole meaning of life - to be capable to understand how different and, at the same time, how similar we are as humans, yet to be willing to embrace people who come from different cultures - thing that Quarna Sotto people did very well. I would like to thank my friend Edoardo Casotti for inviting me to talk about my experience and share my thoughts on life in Quarna. Also, I would like to thank Cristina and Alberto – i due grandi chef – for being there with us and cooking delicious and traditional dishes everyday - dear Cristina and Aberto, I respect you a lot! I found nature and normality at every step in Quarna Sotto and I believe that it is a rare place which deserves all kinds of support from the authorities.

   Here the authorities have declared state of emergency on 16th March and since then we are not allowed to be outside without a specific reason (we must write a letter in which we tell the reason we need to go out - to buy food or urgent situations). There are also soldiers present on the streets. Banks, schools, shopping malls, restaurants and bars are closed. There are more than 1000 cases in Romania, but more than 10% of them are also declared cured, so there is hope. I’ve been working from home for two weeks already and many of my friends do the same. I’d like to say that I was discussing with my friends about how Italy is being trated by some countries of the EU and we felt bad for Italy, because it doesn’t deserve that. Romanians are very concerned about Italy’s situation not only because of the virus, but because of how it is treated by other countries and many of us are sharing their photos and experiences from Italy on social media.

   P.S. Even if it was my first time in Italy, I am pretty sure that my next visits will be again in this amazing region.

   Grazie a tutti! Grazie, Italia!

LUISA

from St. Veit, Pleinfeld (Germany)

(translated)

Dear friends of Quarna, I send you greetings from Bavaria. I live in a small village in the city of Pleinfeld, a place with 3,000 people located between Nuremberg and Munich. We’re quarantined too but our situation is for sure better than yours: even if having contacts with people coming from other families is forbidden, we still can hike and play outdoor sports alone or with another member of the same family. In the supermarkets, there is lack of toilet paper, flour and yeast, but people are relaxed. I haven’t seen nobody with masks or gloves yet; people stay alone and respect the safety distance, so life goes on quite normally, at least in our small village. My sons who attend university came back home; the others who go to school follow the lessons online. In this way, we can take care about ourselves by practising outdoor activities and helping the mood.

   Dear friends, try to keep you defenses high: if you can, do some exercises outdoor, maybe in the garden; turn off the catastrophic news and take care of things you like and that provide you faith and smiles. Try to runa way the gloomy atmosphere and remember that our immune system depends on the psycho-emotional state. It’s easier said than done, but try to find peace and happiness and use this time constructively, so it will be not wasted.

   I hug you and I pray that the virus will not affect Quarna, in order to live a great spring of resurrection soon!

CRISTIAN

from Manjimup (Australia)

(translated)

After a month travelling around Australian coast, I travelled in the southern part and I stopped inland in Manjimup, four hours south of Perth, in Western Australia. I started to work in a farm here, to complete the 88 days of work required to get the visa for the second year. I’ve picked grapes and I made strawberry cuttings. Now, I’ve found a job for the next two months as potato picker: I wake up at 3:30 and I start working at 5; during the work day we harvest between 40 and 50 tons of potatoes. The city is quite small but outside of that there are infinite fields; there potatoes, strawberries, avocado, apples, pears and vegetables are produced. Going to work in the morning, I see a lot of jumping kangaroos, unfortunately there are also many of them hit by the road.

   At the beginning of the emergency, many Australian started to stay at home, pubs and the other places where people meet has been closed. Farms stopped to hire backpackers due to the fear of the virus; that’s a great problem: they are unemployed, so many of the, decided to come back to their country, other hope the situation will improve. I’m in a hostel with other thirty guys of different nations; in order to prevent the spread of the virus, we have partecipated to a specific meeting, we try not to go outside the city, to have as few contacts as possible with people, to keep the hostel clean as much as possible, to wash always the hands. The borders between the different states have been closed, so it isn’t possible to travel and we don’t know until we can’t; also domestic flights start to be stopped.

   No cases have been registered here and we hope none of them will be. We’ve been interviewed by local journalists to understand our conditions. After the fires, there is this problem now.

   When something starts badly, it will turn out to be a surprise and I hope so, because my experience in this amazing land will not end soon, even with this difficul situation: Australia is yet to be discovered, experienced and explored! People are friendly, they say hello even if they don’t know you and there is no work stress: going to the beach or to the park after the work day to drink a beer enjoying the sunset is normal.

   Let’s hold on!

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Another point of view comes indirectly from Brasil, thanks to Daniele Zolla, who came back to Italy just before the spread of epidemic. «In this period, Brasilians are afraid and confused due to conflicting information: Governors are starting to apply the Italian model, while the President continue to say that the virus is something not serious. For this reason, all the people who have Italian or European friends try to get truthful news; also the news on different TV channels are conflicting. Brasilians are aware that the Brasilian Health System is disastrous, so they are afraid of the numbers of infected and dead coming from Italy, Spain, USA and the other European countries» (translated).