Porches and Squares
Padova is a fairly big city in the North-East of Italy. Every day walking around the city it is possible to appreciate its historical background with Roman, Medieval and Renaissance influences. It seems impossible to imagine a picture in which these beauties were completely obscured by a scary and dark shadow of violence covering the whole city.
Walking around the city now under the 25km long porches seems to be an immersive experience. It allowes the person to enjoy the beauty of the medieval style of the city with intriguing door knockers and peepholes. The whole city is the process of construction of centuries, and much of the material used was recycled from the Roman walls.
It is difficult to imagine the city in a different light. Yet, people who lived in Padova in the 70s describe porched areas as the most dangerous. Often the covering guaranteed by the antique stones offered perfect hiding for aggressors. Between 1977 and 1979 about 500 attacks, 130 aggressions and more than 100 robberies happened in the city. People described the scare and fright in walking down the same porches that we know find astonishing.
As described in the testimony below, walking around the squares could be equally dangerous depending on which faction you belonged to. It was the writings either black or red that indicated which faction controlled the area.
​
«Più avanti, nelle strade dell’altra zona, quella oltre il caffè Pedrocchi e piazza Cavour - la città è come divisa in due zone da una barriera invisibile - alle scritte in rosso si sostituiscono quelle in nero, fasciste»
​
This testimony suggested how every inch of the city belonged to a different group and it was risky only to adventure themselves on the wrong side. People lived in fear.
The video below shows a walk along with the different main squares in Padova: Piazza della Frutta, Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori. These main squares along with other areas were contended by the different factions. As stated by the above description they seem to have "belonged" to the left-wing extremist side.
​
It is difficult now, walking in a quiet and relaxed climate to imagine such tension. But trying to put ourselves in a citizen in the 70s we would have walked with the constant fear that something may blow, that someone may attack you or rob you.