Capoterra. Three months on one side, three on the other. «Always in front of the sea». Cala Cipolla in Chia and Maddalena Spiaggia in Capoterra were his last strictly temporary (and illegal) residences. Luigi Dessì, 77, originally from Serramanna, has lived as a wanderer for almost half a century. He eats, sleeps, thinks, listens to the radio, reads the newspaper in a car parked in the front row on the seafront.

Creative camping always ends the same way: «The neighbors or the bathers complain, the traffic police or the carabinieri arrive and I have to move out. It will be like this in Capoterra too, I expect it from one moment to the next». Civil protests, still protests: because for needs there are only bushes and the car is a station wagon now in a junkyard version.

Many have tried to help him: "I go to Serramanna little or nothing now, I don't like Capoterra in the center, I want to live in front of a beach". Maddalena's is right up his alley: «There's a shopping center in the back where I can spend my retirement day after day. And in the parking lot of the beach there is a fountain where I wash every day».

Former carpenter

Luigi Dessì wants to talk, without yelling, without feeling sorry for himself: «I don't ask anyone for help. Many come to meet me, then disappear one after another. Why did I get like this? I was a carpenter, from Serramanna I emigrated to Milan, I worked normally, I was 27 when returning home by car with a colleague, wow: an accident. I don't remember anything, a month in a coma, 40 stitches on my head. Whoever had caused the collision was not insured, they never compensated me: my lawyer had asked for 120 million lire in damages. Money obtained: zero. I returned to Serramanna, I was no longer able to work, I understood that the state had cheated me. And I decided to live like this: practically for half a century».

Aid

Scorching heat in August, freezing in January. Many are interested in his case. A neighbor in Maddalena beach also hosted him in a club for three months, then the tourist season began and Dessì had to settle back inside his car.
«I live on the minimum pension, I have about 10-15 euros a day to spend on food and drink». A glass of wine and the classic sandwich. «In Maddalena Spiaggia everyone knows me by now, they give me food as gifts, they love me in their own way. But then the guards always come, that's for sure.'

Municipalities

The Capoterra traffic police reported the case to the Municipality of residence, Serramanna. Luigi Dessì is the co-owner of the family home, by renouncing the inheritance share he would be entitled to housing, provided that there is one available and that he requests it. "But he never accepted anything from us", explains the mayor of Serramanna Gabriele Littera, "he chose this life, our hands are tied".

Urban decorum aside, the mayor of Capoterra Beniamino Garau intervenes, "that gentleman cannot stay in a public car park close to a beach, because living like this at his age risks seriously compromising his health".
Luigi Dessì will face the problem when it presents itself to him and for now he listens to the football match on the radio: «I played football for Gialeto, midfielder, I was better than Barella but I had to start working early. Do I have to get out of here? I will find another place. Sea View".

Paul Carta

Envoy

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