The Casotto of Superga

My grandfather lived in BORGATA ROSA 745 in the  CASOTTO di SUPERGA which means "small house of Superga" . It was a low square-shaped building situated close to the MICHELOTTI canal, at 20 meters from the river bank. Poor people lived there, simple workers and fishermen. On the front  at a  distance of 5/6 meters,  there was a small stone bridge with a low parapet  which led to the Po river  passing over the canal. This stone bridge was the only way to get to the river. The Casotto di Superga was so called as it was situated on the same line of the cathedral of Superga, far away on the top of the hill. 

The Casotto has survived up to today. The street number is no longer Borgata Rosa 745, but Viale Michelotti 280. It has been renovated, and it is surrounded now by thick green vegetation along the river bank among high trees. The Michelotti canal, at that time situated in front of the Casotto, is now a small avenue covered with pebbles.

In January 2005 my mother went back to the Casotto di Superga, after 73 years and she could see the courtyard where she spent her childhood. My researches, the help and hospitality of a resident woman made it possible.

She could not find the small stone bridge which she went through to reach the river bank as she was a little girl.  She could not find her little friends with whom she played, the fishermen on the river, the residents of that time waiting in the little courtyard.

She found only people who do not know anything about her distant past.