2.4 The other half of the sky

Meanwhile something unexpected had happened. Suddenly Luciano's gaze opens wide and reveals new emotions: "Mariuccia Allario, known as Maria Giuseppina, my wife, is the other half of my sky. I met her towards the end of 1966. She was not from Barolo or from any of the immediately neighbouring villages".
Mariuccia had in fact been born in 1950 in Cuneo, from a family originally from Murazzano, in that part of the Alta Langa devoted above all to cattle farming with a particular preference for sheep. From their milk, on those hills, a typical fresh cheese was already being produced, which in the 1990s would later take on the denomination of "Murazzano", named after the very same village.
Mariuccia had come to Barolo while still very young to work in the private household of Cav. Cesare Borgogno and his wife Maria Chiavassa. She had arrived at Casa Borgogno in April 1966. Despite her young age — she was barely 16 — she had immediately shown a great eagerness to work, demonstrating in practice that she knew how to keep the house in perfect order. After all, at home in Murazzano she had received the right guidance from her parents Rina and Eugenio, and she was simply putting it into practice.
Hers was a simple, straightforward family, and not overly well-off, as was the case in many households of the Alta Langa at that time. When she arrived at Casa Borgogno, she was astonished by the beauty of the home, the richness of its details, the magnificence of its furniture and furnishings.
To tell the story of how he and Mariuccia met, we turn once more to Luciano's own words:
"My mother too used to visit Casa Borgogno, on account of an occasional collaboration she had with a certain Signora Ida, who was a niece of the Borgogno family. So my mother and Mariuccia came to know each other, began to get along, and after a few months my mother invited Mariuccia to come and visit her at our home. The first time she came to visit us, I was not there. Only my brother Bruno was. She knew nothing about me. She only knew that my mother, in addition to Bruno, had another son".
Mariuccia and Luciano met a few months later, and on that occasion the outcome of the encounter was not among the most exhilarating: she was outgoing, sunny, happily chatty (a bit of a "bertavela", as she herself likes to describe it). He, on the other hand, was reserved, spoke little, "kept to himself" as they say in these parts. To the eyes of someone who did not know him, he might even have appeared unfriendly or overly reserved.
That was not usually the case. But at that time he was going through a passing state of mind that made him "sullen". And he had his reasons. Indeed, having returned from military service, he had discovered that his mother was expecting another child, and this had somewhat unsettled him. Not out of jealousy for the little brother on the way. Rather, he saw it as an out-of-place situation, and feared that this child — arriving in a family where all the siblings were already adults — would probably not be happy. In practice, that is not how things turned out. "On the contrary" — Luciano adds — "with my brother Luca there were never any problems, and the bond between us was always wonderful and special".