“My 50 weapons without nostalgia. I love a big family and will finally marry Buffon.”
Corriere della Sera, Chiara Maffioletti, p. 23
I wouldn’t rewind the tape. I am happy to be here and now and more than what was, I am interested in what will be. Starting today, Ilaria D’Amico will learn how to celebrate her fiftieth birthday. “I don’t know yet,” she says with surprise, “but I think I understand that Gigi (Buffon, her partner for almost ten years) is organizing a series of surprise celebrations with friends and relatives … I pretend not to I know. anything, but let him and I get a little confused and we were caught.
Live in the present. So it’s not a budget option?
“I tend to live in the present, I have no nostalgia, except for attachments that are no longer there. I seem to have inherited this trait from my mother, who at 85 is a monument to life, despite the fact that my sister’s death (in zozo, from cancer) weighed on her like a hundred years. Nevertheless, with incredible strength, he retains a vital faith in the future, which is impossible not to accept. As a parent, I understand that deep down it’s not so much what you say, but the example you set for him every day.”
He calls his extended family a tribe.
“I don’t understand anyone who doesn’t imagine extended families: life itself is an extended community. Compared to those who have one core, ours is a factory: parents have a clear role and respect, but if you love a person, you can only love everything in him. For me, that meant welcoming Gigi’s kids, making them part of my world the way he felt with my son before we had our own. This does not detract from the dignity of other parents, but a warm welcome is the key to uniting a large family. At least for me”.
The perfect recipe for a family, but not always easy for a couple.
“It’s very demanding because it’s an investment of time and energy for the kids. The neglect that you can sometimes show towards your natural children cannot apply to those who should feel constantly involved. This is a different mission, constant attention is needed to repeat the message to each other’s children: I’m glad you’re here. Then we were helped by the presence of four males, three of which are about the same age. They are happy to be together, they form a community. Gigi is also very “playful”: our tables are lively and noisy.”
When you met Buffon, did you imagine what kind of life you then built?
“No, first of all, because I never would have thought that I could fall in love with him … I was a little biased, I stupidly thought about the piers: a football player, a journalist involved in sports. Then, at a charity event, I started talking to him in detail, and everything went very quickly. Everything happened naturally, we were in the same emotional moment, with a great need to listen to each other about the crises we went through, the loneliness we went through. A month later, it felt like we had known each other for years, and the projects came naturally. Immediately there was a desire to connect our two worlds, to connect the pieces.
Does his mom like him?
“Very much. The first time they met was in the park, and my mother, who at the time was a little shocked by the whole change, repeated as she approached him, ‘One step for me, one step for you.’ It has since become a phrase which we often repeat.
You also had to deal with a lot of media attention, didn’t you?
“The first seven years were incredible, especially for reserved people like us. We were never alone again: we had paparazzi at home every day. The kids said that sometimes the cameras look like guns, it was a bit tricky. Then, when it became clear that I would never have another child, there were no lovers behind the fence, things got better.
She uses social media very little.
“And I don’t use them well, I activate them to distribute my projects if I think they can be functional. I share my private life with a little generosity but don’t judge those who do, it’s just not in my comfort zone.”
She studied to be a lawyer, then television came.
“I should have had a completely different story, I studied international law. Then Renzo Arbore, a friend of my dear friends, left me a message on my answering machine as he was looking for a face to represent the Italian spirit for Rai International, especially for the show La giostra del gol. He told me: “I know, it doesn’t even occur to you…””.
And instead of…
“I ended up going from a university desk to television, going through a month and a half of stress colitis. To be honest, I had a certain passion for journalism. I was told at school that I read like I was on the news. Back then I loved Oriana Fallad, Natalia Ginzburg, Miriam Mafai… especially women storytellers. But I never thought that I would start a career in journalism. Instead, after Rai, came Sky, another company where I learned a lot: to sum up, these 26 years of work were a series of meetings that left me with a lot of beauty.”
However, his last program “Che c’è di nuovo” on Rai 2 closed early. This was his return to public television years later. How did he experience it?
“It was shocking. I was ready to take a year off to devote myself to my extended family, but instead I was sought out, and with a certain insistence, by Rai, in particular by Mario Orfeo. Everyone says they never go to Paradise when the government is shaky, but I never thought I’d be in the role of an apperino, especially after all the reassurances I got. I was told that on Thursday evening I would have a lot of work to do, and therefore I would have enough time to expand my schedule. A month later, Orpheus falls out with the CEO and reverses roles, and then the government falls. There, in Rai, Meloni does not pick up the phone and say: put this or that, but a kind of military impasse begins, which occurs regardless of who is in command. Suddenly we were perceived as intruders, without the slightest shame and respect for me as a professional.
(Continuation Corriere della Sera)
(On the picture Ilaria D’Amico)