At the funeral of Pippo Baudo in Militello there is an entire country. And Lorella Cuccarini and Gigi D’Alessio: “Pippo was the stamp on the passport, once he gave you you could go everywhere”

Forty degrees, improvised fans, water bottles distributed by the Civil Protection. The square of Militello in Val di Catania is full, Stitted around the maxi-screen set up for those who have not managed to enter the church. Not just any church: the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Stella, the same in which Pippo Baudo He had been clerics. His city stopped for the last farewell to his most illustrious citizen, to the king of Italian television, to what “all of him invented”. The atmosphere is from patronal feast – moreover it is really celebrated in a few days – the cameras are those of Sanremo, the “thank you” is the most widespread word. The home of the Baudo parents is a few meters away, and there are no streets, the ranging, the gardens that the inhabitants of Militello already imagine to name him.

“For us it was what Maradona is for Naples”explains the mayor Giovanni Burtone shortly before the start of the ceremony. Inside the sanctuary, the well -known faces of TV, family members, childhood friends. There are Al Bano (“A memory with Pippo? All life”), Lorella Cuccarini, Gigi D’Alessio, Michele Guardì, Alberto Matano. There are The children Tiziana and Alessandro, The historic collaborator “guardian angel” Dina Minna, and many faces of politics: the president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, the Sicilian governor Renato Schifani, the minister Adolfo Urso, the undersecretary Gianmarco Mazzi, a dozen of mayors in the tricolor band. At the ex -wife Katia Ricciarelli, For health reasons, but present The embrace of an entire country. “Today I am here to greet my father in his Militello,” says his son Alessando, who arrived from Australia, “a special place to which he has always been linked by a deep affection. Years ago he had brought me with my son Sean, then a child, who through his stories had become passionate about these wonders. They are memories that I will always carry with me ».

The homily of Don Giulio Albanese, spiritual father of Baudo, is the heart of the ceremony. Remember the last days of the conductor: «He was under morphine, but shiny. He said to me: success is not enough to make happy. ” Then he adds: «He met the favor of the public, but what remains is His ability to communicate closeness, to help without clamor, to oppose the mafia with courage. Pippo has known the joy of entering, with grace and competence, in the homes of millions of Italians. But what remains is the good he sowed ».

His words intertwine with those ofthe Bishop of Caltagirone, Monsignor Calogero Peri: «Dear Pippo, we wish you to shine not only in the firmament of men, but also and above all in that of God. And in the firmament of God it shines only for the concrete love received and donated. Everything else passes, only love remains and is forever ». Words that cause a long applause, which reaches the square.

Between one reading and the other, the polyphonic choir of the Madonna della Stella, the same to which Baudo gave his piano, intones “Here I am”, “Panis Angelicus”, “Ave Verum”, “Maria Mamma Nostra”. Song that he had loved as a boy, when right there, behind the altar, he was a cleric. The readings are not only entrusted to relatives, but also to the closest friends: The children of the surgeon Pierluigi Crucitti, whom Baudo considered his grandchildren as his grandchildren, and Salvo La Rosa, companion of many shows, who remembers the first time he saw him at school, as a student: «Fulminate. I have always followed it since then. Repaid. Thanks Pippo ».

There is no shortage of the memories of the artists. “Rai has lost its R », says Gigi D’Alessioand again: «It was the father you called when you needed advice. Pippo was the stamp on the passport: once he gave you, you could go anywhere “. AND Michele Guardì closes with a clear image: «Baudo has no heirs. Like Totò ».

Outside, in one of the hottest days of this end of August, a carabiniere in high uniform set out for the heat, while the Civil Protection continues to distribute water. There are those who remember Summer evenings When Pippo returned to the patronal feasts, who the piano donated to the chorus of the parishwho meets them at the bar in the square. Militello had already welcomed him the previous night, with hundreds of people along the streets to greet his return. Today he accompanied him to the last trip. After all, the fate of Pippo Baudo was this: to bring Sicily on TV and TV inside his Sicily.