The early afternoon in our village is usually a quiet, sleepy time of day. Unlike the great urban centres such as Rome and Milan, village life has no real need to adapt to all-day opening hours, so that shops close at 1 o'clock for lunch and open up again at five in the afternoon.
In a still-rural community where two bars are open and busy making cappuccini at six in the morning, the idea of an afternoon nap is normal enough. All the stranger then to find Hermete's bar in the main piazza abuzz with activity in early afternoon on three days last week.
People were milling in a noisy, good-natured queue, waiting for the "computer line" to come back on. Others were seated at the cafe tables, huddled over bits of paper. Expectation, if not the muse, hovered in the air. Yes, of course, it was lotto time.
For the past three weeks Italy has been gripped by nationwide lottery fever. The culprit is "SuperEnaLotto" a new numbers game not unlike the Irish Lotto in which you fill in six numbers chosen from 1 to 90. Things reached fever pitch last week thanks to the fact that the twice-weekly jackpot prize had gone uncollected for five weeks from September 23rd until Saturday night last, eventually totalling a £25 million jackpot for the winning ticket.
Even more remarkable is the fact that this jackpot story ended in fairytale fashion when Saturday's winners turned out to be 100 citizens of a small, poor fishing village called Peschici, off the coast of Puglia. These days, this part of Italy earns itself an almost daily mention in news bulletins as the coastline on which thousands of Asian and east European "boat people" effect illegal and often dangerous entry into Italy. For once, however, the news from Puglia was good.
The win was a triumph for two Peschici men, 52-year-old Domenico Lamorgese and his brother-in-law, 42-year-old Fernando de Nittis, the man who runs the village's sole newsstand and lottery vending machine. For years, Mr de Nittis has been obsessed with the quest to find a computerised system for winning on lotteries. For SuperEnaLotto, he devised a system that involved an outlay of £1,000 for a complex combination of plays. Having devised his system, he then had to convince punters that rather than playing their own lucky numbers they should hand over £10 and let his system get on with it.
Come Saturday night, however, Mr de Nittis was nothing less than a local hero. One hundred villagers, of whom more than 30 are unemployed, had each won about £250,000. Which left them all facing the great dilemma of what to do with the money.
Antonio the small farmer intends to buy a new tractor; 29year-old labourer Massimo Flaminio wants to get married and buy a house; Martino Biscotta, leader of the Peschici band that celebrated noisely throughout Saturday night, will put the money aside for his four children; butcher Domenico Travaglione wants to take his wife on the honeymoon they could never afford; Francesco, of a certain age, hopes to buy a lot of Viagra and see what happens; housewife Concetta Martello wants to go on a holiday to Mexico.
Meanwhile, a rather less noble reaction to the lotto phenomenon was discovered at the other end of the country, namely in Palermo, on Monday. Doubtless aware of the lotto's money-making potential, Cosa Nostra has recently set about running its own version - at least according to police investigators who discovered a fairly elaborate lotto ring involving 60 "salesmen" in and around the city. The Mafia's version obviously does not offer such big dividends but neither does it require six winning numbers (four or even three will do).
For the Mafia, business is business and they recognise a winner when they see one. Sisal, the company that organises the lottery, released some interesting statistics this week, pointing out that since the new game started in January, it has generated more than £600 million for the Italian state, notwithstanding payouts to lucky punters totalling £400 million.
Penultimate thought - there are 17 more SuperEnaLottos before the end of the year, 17 more chances to hit a shower of fivers. Final thought - experts state that a 55p single play has a one in 622,000,000 chance of winning. Better stick to the horses.