Since October I have seen Hillary Clinton arriving between security measures worthy of a movie, listened to former Polish president Lech Walesa and learned from an “Indian holiness” how to rhythmically breathe in a healthy way. And then I have watched primatologist Jane Goodall teaching children about her life in the jungle, learned how to use Facebook for political communication, written articles on film directors like Wim Wenders and had a dinner at the Parliament cooked by one of the most important Italian chefs, Gualtiero Marchesi.

Not a boring life…

Madames et monsieurs… Roberto Saviano!

Last week there was the award ceremony of the European book prize and Roberto Saviano came to the Parliament. For those who don’t know him, he is an Italian writer who became famous due to a book, Gomorrah. Published in 2006 it tells, in a mixture of novel and journalistic style, stories of the daily life of people involved with the so-called camorra, the mafia operating in the area of Naples, in Italy. The attention on him was not totally positive: mafia is always seeking vengeance as it is jealous of its activities and secrets. It promised to kill him. That’s why 31 year old Saviano is obliged to live under police protection in a sort of golden jail.

In the last years he started to speak out in public, to participate in TV shows and information debates, to write for some of the most important newspapers in Italy. “When people forget me, I will be a dead man,” he says in many interviews, stressing how much he hates now his first book. “A good start from a professional point of view, but a disaster from a personal one”, he underlines. “That book destroyed my life”.

It is not very easy to contact Saviano. Either for security reasons or for a sort of atmosphere and mystery he wishes to create around him, to speak with him is a big challenge.

“It’s two years I’ve been trying to interview him, it is impossible”, a journalist friend of mine told me.

Roberto Saviano

So when he came to the Parliament it was a unique occasion. Despite two robberies in the internal banks, in theory these premises should be quite safe and the writer could maybe feel at ease even to give some interviews with journalists, without fearing for his security.

Knowing about his presence and the room of the event was already quite an intelligence job. We work inside the Parliament but we discovered about his coming from a short article in one of the main Italian newspapers.

Anti-mafia writers or parties?

That evening there was the DgComm Christmas party, all the dishes from 22 different countries were displayed in a big area of the Parliament, but all the Italians of the WebComm were waiting for Saviano. The writer was the winner for the category “essay” of the European book prize and he was sitting close to Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen, winner of the “novel” prize, followed by cameras and photographers like a cinema star.”Could we interview you for the EP website?,” we asked going closer to him, challenging the crowd, the bodyguards and the panel trying to start the ceremony.

“No worries, I have plenty of time. As soon as the ceremony ends we will do the interview,” he promised.

The Italian WebComm club started to wait for its forthcoming interview with deep impatience, but at the end…

“I bring him away for few moments. He is very tired, but he will give all the interviews you want,” his assistant promised. “Just call me at this mobile number in ten minutes”.

The trusting WebComm people together with journalists believed her and they let the assistant leave with the writer without protesting. But after ten minutes, when we started calling the assistant, the phone rang in vain: nobody answered.

“it was a trap,” journalists mumbled. “It is the same with politicians: you can never believe them”.

The WebComm was already starting to feel a bit disappointed and frustrated, but then luck gave a little help. Hoping not to be seen by journalists, Saviano appeared with his assistant and many other people walking fast to the reserved dinner area.

Journalists started to run towards him but bodyguards stopped all of them… except the WebComm reporter who managed to run faster and to interview him during two glorious minutes of walking together with the writer.

So we published our interview and we added another person to the list of people met at the Parliament.

It will be difficult to return to a normal and not VIPs’ crowded life…

Pietro is a long-standing member of the team and has indelibly marked the style of the website as we know it today. It’s true that he buys agency pictures to illustrate many of our articles, but, by and large, you can’t beat original photos by someone who really knows what they are doing with a DSLR. And Pietro does.

These are shots of everyday life around the Parliament, people coming and going, doing their jobs

I think it’s fair to say that our photographer’s life changed radically in early 2009, when, as part of our wider plunge into social media, we set up Parliament’s Flickr account. Up to that point, pretty much the only outlet for his products were the articles we produced as a team for the website, meaning, in effect, two or three pictures a day. With the arrival of Flickr however, he has a new outlet for all those photos which happen “around” the ones that we use for articles. These are often just shots of everyday life around the Parliament, people coming and going, doing their jobs. It is a great opportunity to show the wider reality of the Parliament, a broader human picture, sometimes serious and sombre, mostly businesslike and bustling, sometimes quirky and light-hearted, but always rich and varied. These are pictures we want people to see, and also pictures we want to share. They are there on our Flickr account to be taken, reused, reposted – all we ask is that they are credited in the way we ask on the site.

Saadet Isil Aksoy, from the movie "Eastern plays" by Kamen Kalev, in Parliament this week for the Lux Prize ceremony (from EP Flickr page)

Of course, like anyone wrapped up in his art, Pietro sometimes doesn’t know when to stop. It’s a constant battle over how many photos to upload to Flickr. For him there’s always just one more: “surely I can put this one, it’s bellissima!”. Of course, he’s usually right: it is a great photo, but you have to know when to leave ‘em wanting more, right Pietro?

If you haven’t done so, go and have a look at our Flickr page. Of the recent photos, take a look at the sets on the Lux Prize, on the visit of 89 89ers to celebrate 20 years since the democratic changes in the EU’s eastern half and – just so this is not all about Pietro – the photos taken, with an outsider’s sideways glance, by our “guest photographer” Mimi Mollica. I’ll bet Pietro will say that these are not the best examples of his work at all – so maybe he could tell us in a comment which he thinks are the best on Flickr.

By the way, the photo illustrating this article is not of Pietro, as you may have realised, but the photo which greets you right now when you open our Flickr page, and which somehow prompted me to write this post.