Very few, among the regulars of Malindi goers, they do not know who Vincent Prezioso.
I like to talk about him in the present, even if a few hours is gone.
Because Vincent was one of the souls of Malindi, one of the historic Italian. If it took away a bad and evil that fast (he would say) has come to break his boxes as well, 'n coppa Indian Ocean. His kindness, his smile always ready, the indomitable Neapolitan. Precious, sitting at "her" table of Bar Bar, always ready to offer a coffee and a chat, is the best Italian dish emigrated abroad.
Seventy-three years, arrived in Malindi in the early eighties, from Lake Garda, where he had moved still young. Like so many Neapolitan immigrants, he had gone to seek his fortune in the North and had built a small empire of the leather.
A southerner in the north, which was struck by a holiday in Kenya.
Without forgetting its roots, rooting for 'or' pacifier 'and passion for the culinary delights of his homeland, Vincent chose an even farther south, an Africa that in the days when it landed was still wild but very hospitable and true. Just as is his character.
With the irony that had conquered all, he boasted that he was a talented soccer player, an accomplished dancer, one fancier.
It made you soft shoes were made and 'nu baba, but the pleasure was go and withdraw. In one way or another you went you convinced that he had given away.
He had charisma, and that way of doing so little attached to trifles, human meanness, to make you think that he understood everything about life.
In reality he was a man who was stripped of its past Italian, without a shot being fired, and embodied the spirit of the forerunners of Malindi countrymen. During the early years of Kenya, he used to give all of her clothes to the staff, so much so that when he returned to Italy, is completely drew on clothing.
There are many anecdotes we could tell and I've heard from him.
"You're writing a book about Malindi?" He asked me, "and then you also know that!" and he rattled off names, surnames and secrets which he said he knew only him but instead were in the public domain.
But recounted by his quiet voice, in front of 'nu café, they became unpublished. Like every day I thank Malindi to exist, so Vincenzo I want to say thanks for signing did meet on my way. In Kenya. In Malindi. That the land of Africa will be mild.