Paviolo and Gotta, the Canavese people on the contrary

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When we met Angelo Paviolo in his house in Cuorgnè, so cluttered with books that there was not even a corner to place the coffee cup, we were looking for news on a Canavese character that only he could know.

We found ourselves faced with an exceptional memory, softened by the ease of those who treat written sources like daily bread, and we were deeply impressed by his solid, efficient, almost obstinate humility.

And to say that no one knew the Canavese as well as Paviolo, he who – born in Verona in 1924, but originally from the province of Cuneo – was Canavese “only” by choice.

Dean for 35 years in Cuorgnè, teacher, storyteller, essayist and journalist, he spent his life, which ended in 2013, studying and recounting the historical and social realities of the Upper Canavese: from magnìn to chimney sweepers, from glassmakers to gold diggers of the ‘Orco, up to the anecdotes about Piero Martinetti and the encyclopedic, loving and admirable study in 4 volumes Canavesani between glory and oblivion, which has saved so many figures, works, inventions and enterprises from oblivion that it has earned the gratitude of anyone who loves and respects our land.

Speaking with Angelo Paviolo he had inevitably been named Salvator Gotta, who however, compared to these, was a “Canavese on the contrary”: he was in fact by birth, but his success had led him for a long time elsewhere, first in Milan and then on the Ligurian Riviera in Portofino.

Despite this, Gotta – just like Paviolo – had never forgotten the Canavese. On the contrary: from the first volumes of the Saga of Sailing, continued for over 30 years, until late The Castle of Montalto e Progress has fun, not only the landscapes, but above all the human traits of Canavese (from Giacosa to Gozzano, from street vendors to peasants) were always alive and present to him.

Paviolo and Gotta – the first quiet and reserved, the second worldly and brilliant – couldn’t seem more different.

Yet, in the way of dedicating themselves to their Canavese, they are very similar. Angelo Paviolo in 1991 wrote an exemplary, rigorous and heartfelt study on the magnìn of the Orco and Soana Valleys: from those same people came Salvator Gotta, who was the grandson of a magnìn who, as it was once said, had “set up shop” .george seita

and valerio little boy papas