This evening the world came to Piazza Vittorio Veneto.
Suddenly on a stunning summer's evening the piazza became a stage.
First a couple of police cars moved to herald the arrival of a gay pride parade. The parade was substantial. About 10 floats and 400-500 young and presumably gay activists.
As I watched, the thought came to me that these people were not parading their essential humanity but their surface oddity.
It was a love fest with themselves as half-naked, they danced with and huggged each other, while aging transvestites mingled in full regalia, unsuccessfully seeking attention.Some of the floats sold beer and sandwiches, admittedly at prices lower than those offered by the cafes that dot the plazza.
Was it a coming out party? Or was it just whistling in the dark by people who at the core are seeking acceptance by the establishment?
The establishment is run by over-sexed alpha males whose rules are loaded not just against gays but everyone else who is not them - women, intellectuals, the ordinary Joe. Parades don't get under the establishment's skin, parody does.
As the parade cleared the piazza to move along the banks of the river Po into the setting sun, at one corner of the Piazza another group of young people started a performance of contemprory dance.
There was no self-love here. No beer, no sandwiches. Just razor-sharp minds painting with athletic bodies a chiaroscuro that interpret as you may, at it's core mocked the system.
This was no whistling in the dark. It was muscular and the message was clear. This is our time, this is our world and we will change it. From the inside. This generation needs no Woodstock. They are not opting out. They are claiming what is theirs to keep.
This evening the world came to Piazza Vittorio Veneto, in a city that is in a state of renaissance, in a world that definately will not be anywhere near the same five years from now.
This evening I walked back to the hotel with hope in my heart.
