In the 1960s and 1970s, my mother Giorgina was a companion of Guido Somarè, a talented painter with art in his blood for several generations, and she had been going with him to Lindos, a place on the island of Rhodes, since at least 1966.
Violetta and I first came to Lindos in 1969, after an interminable journey that had taken us across the Isthmus of Corinth by boat. Of that voyage I remember the first words in Greek, those of a song that sounded wonderful to me at the time. I was eight years old.
The first two photos are very representative of our holidays: in the early years inflating the dinghy on the beach was a long but pleasant ritual. Then, over time, we rented a small caique, the launching of which, entrusted to Guido and then, over the years, also to me, was not easy.
The third photo, as well as framing my mother and sister, portrays our love for the island’s cats; I remember that at one point Sandro Somarè, Guido Caprotti’s brother, who owned a very nice house on Lindos, had christened ‘Caprotti’ a very nice tiger cat that he had adopted.
Guido Somarè was like a father to me; and the wonderful holidays in that crystal-clear sea remain for me a memory of indelible carefreeness, because, thanks to him and my mother, they were free, in games and adventures of land and sea.
At the home of Sandro Somarè and his wife Patrizia Ascari, I met the guitarist and singer of Pink Floyd, David Gilmour. The village was also frequented by Rick Wright, keyboardist and co-founder of the band. It happened often to see them bathing or having an aperitif together. They were also occasionally seen at the village’s joyous dance party that took place every year at mid-August.
For me, the Pink Floyd albums ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ were two fundamental references, and being able to meet the band members in that context was a very special experience.
In Greece at the time there was ‘the dictatorship of the colonels’ (1967-1974): all shops and restaurants had a portrait of their leader, Georgios Papadopoulos. There was strict control over the sale of alcohol and closures of premises. The police had great power and one evening ‘Pink Floyd’, having violated the curfew rules, were beaten up by the police.
Apart from this episode, which affected the entire Italian-English community of Lindos, I have wonderful memories of that place. I also made lasting friendships there, although I left those places in 1979. Unfortunately, the place has been ‘invaded’ by mass tourism, the Somarè house is closed and abandoned, and in the large and beloved village square there are no longer any echoes of the festivities of the past.
You can find the rest of the story here: https: //www.giuseppecaprotti.it/mia-madre-giorgina-venosta-con-guido-somare-negli-anni-70/
The photo of my mother sitting was taken in what was once the home of Sandro Somarè and Patrizia Ascari.
