Leonardo Pieraccioni’s middle school absence justification slip from the 1976–1977 academic year has surfaced after being discovered in a flea market in Subbiano.
A Flea Market Discovery in Subbiano
The yellowed paper reappeared decades after it was first signed at the Giosuè Carducci state middle school. An acquaintance of the Tuscan filmmaker stumbled upon the item in a Subbiano market and purchased it. How the administrative school record traveled to Subbiano remains unknown.
For Pieraccioni, holding the slip triggered an immediate return to his youth. “Already at 20 I had developed a natural, romantic, and pathological predisposition for nostalgia,” the actor wrote on social media alongside an image of the paper.
Pieraccioni recalls childhood routines during illness
The recovered paperwork prompted memories of domestic routines during minor childhood illnesses. Pieraccioni described smelling the paper and recalling the specific sensory details of staying home sick from class at age eleven. Those days involved moving the small kitchen television into the bedroom with an extension cord, watching black-and-white channels, applying Vicks VapoRub to the chest, and using a mercury thermometer.
Maternal care defined the experience. Every half-hour, his mother would check in with the question, “How do you feel?” His standard reply with the flu was simply “Bale.” Safe beneath the covers with a bowl of broth and cheese, the young student felt entirely insulated from the outside world.
Pieraccioni absence slip found at Subbiano flea market
Where was the school absence slip found?
An acquaintance of Leonardo Pieraccioni found and purchased the document at a flea market in Subbiano.
Which school year does the document date back to?
The paperwork originates from the 1976–1977 academic year at the Giosuè Carducci state middle school in Florence, when Pieraccioni was eleven years old.
Who signed the historical school document?
The absence justifications were signed by the director’s mother, Carla, to excuse him from entering school.
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