When Age Has Its Virtues

There is this barber in Crema, the Po valley town where I was born. He works in a narrow street full of people walking to the market and cars that shouldn't be there. The barber's name is Gigi, a name that reassures any tourists. He knows Italian heads inside and out. Gigi is a professional of the scissors, and of public relations. He talks about politics, sports and women. If a woman were to walk in, he'd be able to talk about men, and the terrible things they do to their gray hair, for example. Gigi keeps up to date. The...