Florence

The view of  Florence

For some reason, Italian go tournaments are clumped together in the period from autumn to spring. The reason might be that because the summer holidays are so long over here, everyone goes away on trips or passes the summer at resorts away from the heat.          During the autumn/winter season, there's a go event being held somewhere in Italy every month, so it feels like a lively time of the year.          In February a tournament was held in the ancient city of Florence, which is nicknamed 'the city of flowers'. The go club founded here is now in its second year of existence and this is the second Florence tournament.          The organizer is an Italian named Olivier who is 9-kyu. He looks to be in his 50s and has been playing go for a long time, but there were no opponents in this area, so he had to study by himself. There were no beginners' books in Italian, so he thought: 'Write one yourself!' And that's what he did.          These days, what with the Internet, it's very easy to get information, and the number of people in Italy who read and write English has increased, so beginners can learn from English books, but things were different in the old days. The amount of trouble Olivier must have gone to is unimaginable.          Players came to the tournament from Milan and Pisa, Rome and Bologna and other Italian cities and they were joined by players from the neighbouring country of Slovenia, making a total of about 30 competitors. That's enough to make a tournament a success.          The top Italian player is 4-dan. There is only a handful of dan players, so one can't say that the level of go in Italy is really high. On the other hand, there are many tournaments for kyu players and beginners, so anyone can easily take part in a tournament. There are no cash prizes, so there's no tense atmosphere. There's a friendly, make-yourself-at-home atmosphere.          There were only a few dan players among the 30 here, and 70% of the players were 5-kyu or below. There were even a few 'learner drivers' taking part in their first go tournament. People talked about their problems in mastering go and encouraged each other; there were some really heartwarming scenes. This kind of tournament is an ideal opportunity for beginners, who are usually in the minority, to make friends. It's also a good chance for them to improve, so it's a really valuable tournament.          Explaining the beauty of this town would be a task of extreme difficulty, so all I'm going to say is that just being here, breathing in the air, surrounded by history and art, filled me with happiness . . . I'm sure you know what I mean.          People from all over the world throng to the great tourist meccas, and, with them, the pickpockets. I'll never forget that Florence was the first place I met with a pickpocket.          It was in the first year of my stay. A friend from Japan had come to visit me and we went to have a look at Florence. My friend loved shopping, but I got sick of tagging along, so I wandered off by myself. I was staring at the cathedral that is the symbol of Florence, lost in wonder at its grandeur.          I suddenly realized that a gypsy mother and daughter were at my side. The mother was holding a piece of cardboard with the message, 'We have no home, no money, no food,' and she came up to me with her hand held out in the typical pose of beggars. Her daughter, about eight years old, was cute, but dressed in rags, bare-footed, and hugging a doll that was burnt as black as herself.          Even now I find my state of mind at the time inexplicable. Suddenly, I began lecturing the gypsy mother. 'Instead of doing this, you should get a proper job. Don't you feel sorry for your child? Don't you know that it's wrong to live relying on others?'          While I was talking so pompously, the daughter was stealing the cash out of my purse with the hand hidden behind the cardboard. I was the one to be pitied! The mother even thanked me, making me feel quite self-satisfied. What a simpleton!          This was my memorable first experience with pickpockets: instead of being angry, I can only laugh now. Since then, I've met with countless failed attempts by pickpockets, but I've had my bags, with all my belongings, stolen. It's not a thing to boast about, but I'm now quite knowledgeable about this topic.          A method of prevention? The first step is not to take money or valuables with you when you go out. That's the only way. (April 2001, Monthly Go World)