Giovanni Ansaldo

In the middle of the night the editor-in-chief Giovanni Ansaldo dons his trilby, takes his stick and leaves Il Mattino. On the stairs he comes to the incredibly varied world of the Angiporto Galleria, where his newspaper has not only been based since the time of Edoardo Scarfoglio, but whose first floors are crowded with the Naples editorial offices of l’Unità, followed by those of La Voce, Paese Sera, Tempo and the Ansa news agency. He encounters comrades Mario Sansone, Fausto De Luca, Ruggero Guarini, Renzo Lapiccirella, the beautiful Francesca Spada and sometimes even Caccioppoli, on one of his visits to the communist newspaper. Usually, the professor brings a bottle of Stock Medicinal, a brandy in vogue at the time, to hand it round in the editorial office. Characters who often border on folklore come up and go down. In addition to journalists from different and opposing papers, “capable of ignoring each other to the point of insolence”, there is a coming and going of printers, proofreaders, secretaries, visitors illustrious and otherwise, plus the flamboyant young ladies who work at the Buonanno boarding house, a renowned and popular brothel. When he passes them, Ansaldo responds to their smile by chivalrously tipping his hat.