0 Cop CAPRI 25 - Caesar Augustus

Per Anne Nivat
«Arrivare a piedi
sul Monte Solaro
è quanto
di più suggestivo
possa esserci.
In cima c’è
una pianura
strepitosa».
For Anne Nivat,
“To arrive on foot at
the top of Monte
Solaro is one
of the most
incredible
experiences there
can be.
At the top, there’s
a stunning plateau.”
CAPRI CORRESPONDENT
Meeting with ANNE NIVAT
by ANTONIA MATARRESE
The writer and journalist has
chosen the island as a retreat
from which to write
her reportage books
island of Capri? It’s chameleonlike,
like me - complicated and
“The
introvert. And there’s the Piazzetta
that turns into a big stage every day. For other
people, though. I love the real, the genuine
Capri.”
I’m talking to journalist and writer Anne Nivat,
from France - but a citizen of the world. She is
36 years old, speaks six languages perfectly,
has a house (and a lover) in Paris and a house
in Moscow, and has five books to her credit. The
last one, Voci da Kabul voci da Bagdad. Ora
parla la gente (English title: The Wake of War:
Encounters with the People of Iraq and
Afghanistan), published in Italy by Sonzogno,
tells the truth about the aftermath to the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. The indefatigable Anne,
lean and strong-nerved, lived with the people
she interviewed, slept on sacks of potatoes,
went around on public transport and took notes
in the book she always carries with her. «I’m a
Chechen in Chechnya, a Russian in
Moscow, a Parisian in Paris, a Roman in
Rome, and a Caprese on Capri,” she
tells me. “The important thing is to blend
into the human landscape, with humility
and trust: after all, the people in my
books entrusted their stories and their
lives to me. I remember an old Iraqi
woman who, when I asked what
democracy was for her, answered ‘to be
able to eat twice a day’.”
Dressed fashionably in a white T-shirt,
dark blue jeans, boots with thick, high
heels, with a chain round her neck
and two silver rings on her ring finger,
Anne Nivat has tied a part of her life to
Tiberius’s island. It started with a
casual encounter: “In 2000, when I
came back from Chechnya where I
had been arrested, I was awarded the
Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel European
Prize for journalism in Naples. It was
on that occasion that I met Lucia
Annunziata who, with her husband,
was renting a house in Capri. She lent
it to me to write my first book. I stayed
there three months in absolute
solitude. The magical atmosphere on
the island helped me to write quickly:
anywhere else it would have been
impossible. So after that, every year in
spring I come back to Capri to put my
experiences as a journalist in black
A. ULF - GAMMA/CONTRASTO
and white. And I don’t leave the island until I
have finished the book.”
What is a typical day for her in Capri?
“I follow a strict regime: I wake up at seven,
with the birdsong, and have a quick breakfast
of Risolatte (a cold, milky rice pudding), I run
for an hour, have a cappuccino at the Piccolo
Bar in the Piazzetta and then I work for at
least four hours. After a lunch of fish and
vegetables, I go back to writing again and
then I have another run in the evening. I never
go to bed later than 10 p.m..”
The life of an intellectual athlete, then …
“The path I take on my runs is always the
same: I start from the high part of Capri, go
down Via Camerelle and arrive at Punta
Tragara. When I get to Pizzolongo, where
Curzio Malaparte lived, I stop near an
abandoned building called Noa Noa: it seems
it belonged to an Italian journalist and I
confess I would like to live there. I go on, run
up the stairs, until I get to Le Grottelle, which
belongs to my friend Luigi. For me it is a point
of reference. At least once a year, then, I
tackle the long walk from Capri to Anacapri: to
arrive on foot at the top of Monte Solaro is
one of the most incredible experiences there
can be. At the top, there’s a stunning plateau.”
Who are your Capri friends?
“Luigi, for sure, and his sister: if I don’t see
them in the morning I feel as if something’s
missing. Then the street cleaners, the
shopkeepers and the restaurant owners. I
always go to the delicatessen and the
fishmonger’s, but also to the clothes
boutiques: I have a weakness for Italian
labels. My favourites are Brunello Cucinelli
for clothes, and Bottega Veneta for
accessories. Both make classy products that
last, like this woven bag that’s vintage now –
I love carrying it.”
Talking about bags, what do you take with you
when you travel to war-zones?
“Only the very basics. I buy a lot when I’m
there. If I’m in a Muslim country, I wear a long
skirt, a headscarf and I always carry a plastic
bag with my notebook and satellite phone. No
designer bags.”
The ring tones of her mobile phone, a real hit
in Baghdad, fill the air with the gaiety of a
Neapolitan song: “After the US military attack
on Falluja, I was the first Western journalist
to enter the city and I made myself send this
song to the combatants I had met there,”
Anne says. Having caught the ‘Capri bug’
that in the past has bitten famous writers like
Graham Greene, who wrote The Quiet
American while at Anacapri, or Alberto
Moravia, who stayed there from 1940 to
1944 and wrote Agostino and 1934, Anne
Nivat is toying with the idea of a little nest in
Capri: “I’m not ruling out the possibility of
buying a little house with my partner.” But for
now, it’s “Goodbye Capri” – until the next
book.
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