Bologna, a midsize northern city, is
known for its progressive politics and cooperatives. It is home to what is
considered Italy's oldest university, and it has a mix of a vibrant, young
crowd and longtime residents, known for their strong sense of community.
When Laurell Boyers, 34, and her
husband, Federico Bastiani, 37, moved in together in Bologna in 2012, they did
not know any of their neighbors. It was a lonely feeling.
"All my friends back home had babies, play dates, people to talk to, and I felt so left out," Laurell Boyers, who moved from South Africa, said on a recent afternoon. "We didn't have family or friends connections here. We knew people occasionally, but none in our same situation."
"All my friends back home had babies, play dates, people to talk to, and I felt so left out," Laurell Boyers, who moved from South Africa, said on a recent afternoon. "We didn't have family or friends connections here. We knew people occasionally, but none in our same situation."
So Bastiani took
a chance and posted a flier along his street, Via Fondazza, explaining that he
had created a closed group on Facebook just for the people who lived there. He
was merely looking to make some new friends. In three or four days, the group
had about 20 followers.
Almost two years
later, walking along Via Fondazza does not feel like strolling in a big city
neighborhood anymore. Rather, it is more like exploring a small town, where
everyone knows one another, as the group now has 1,100 members."Now I have to speak to everyone when I leave the house," Boyers said jokingly. "It's comforting and also tiring, sometimes. You have to be careful what you ask for."
The idea, Italy's first "social street," has been such a success that it has caught on beyond Bologna. There are 393 social streets in Europe, Brazil and New Zealand, inspired by Bastiani's idea, according to the Social Street Italia website, which was created out of the Facebook group to help others replicate the project.
Today, the residents of Via Fondazza help one another fix broken appliances, run chores or recharge car batteries. They exchange train tickets and organize parties. About half of Via Fondazza's residents belong to the Facebook group. Those who do not use the Internet are invited to events via leaflets or word of mouth.
"I've noticed that people at first wonder whether they need to pay something for the help from others. But that's not the point. The best part of this is that it breaks all the schemes. We live near one another, and we help each other. That's it", said Bastiani, referring to the experience of an 80-year-old woman who needed someone to go pick up some groceries for her, or a resident who sought help assembling a piece of Ikea furniture.
The impact of the experiment has surprised almost everyone here.
"It has changed the walking in Via Fondazza," said Francesca D'Alonzo, a 27-year-old law graduate who joined the group in 2013. "We greet each other. We speak. We ask about our lives. We feel we belong here now," she said.
The exchanges usually start virtually but soon become concrete, allowing residents to get to know one another in person.
Everyone on Via Fondazza seems to have an anecdote. D'Alonzo remembers the party she gave on New Year's Eve in 2013, when the then mostly unknown neighbors brought so much food and wine that she did not know where to put it.
A few months back, Caterina Salvadori, a screenwriter and filmmaker who moved to Via Fondazza last March, posted on Facebook that her sink was clogged. Within five minutes, she said, she had three different messages. One neighbor offered a plunger, then another a more efficient plunger, and a third offered to unblock the sink himself. The last bidder won.
"Can you imagine, in a big city?" she said, still in disbelief at the generosity. "It's not about the sink; it's the feeling of protection and support that is so hard to find in cities nowadays."
Salvadori and D'Alonzo went on vacation in southern Italy this summer, thanks to two train tickets that the Bastianis could not use and posted on the Via Fondazza Facebook page.
This year, a young woman expressed a concern for her safety and proposed a neighborhood watch. Another resident, Luigi Nardacchione, responded that she should just call him if she was on her way home late at night, and he would come and meet her.
"I am retired. I have time. Why shouldn't I help?" said Nardacchione, 64, a former manager of a pharmaceutical company and co-founder of the Social Street Italia website.
"The principle is that we do anything we can do together, and not what divides us," Nardacchione said. "That kills loneliness and fear."
At Via Fondazza's main grocery store, run by a family of Pakistani immigrants, residents can borrow community bicycles or even Ping-Pong rackets and balls to play in the church's backyard.
"Many people used to come shopping here, but we didn't really know anyone," said Maryam Masood, 23, a shop assistant and the daughter of the owner. "Now we do, and life is much happier. You feel like you belong," she said.
