Lorena Fiorini

I was born on Boxing Day. My aunt Bruna suggested the name Lorena. I have memories of a childhood with few toys and many thoughts. Few friends, a lot of shyness, grappling with the city and its grandeur during my adolescence.

At nineteen, I found love and started to work. At twenty-three, I got married; at twenty-five, my daughter was born; at twenty-seven, we moved into our home. My life seemed already complete. It took me years to find it again.

Rai, the Italian National Public Broadcasting Company, welcomed my commitment and forty years of work. I felt that I had to go there, that most of my life would be spent there. I started working in 1970 in the Personnel Department, Technical Management, under Mario Lombardi. It was a department that carried out tasks related to personnel studies and job analysis of employees.

Those years bring back smiles to my face as I remember my young colleagues and the jokes we used to make, even in a serious and respectful atmosphere.

In 1976, I discovered the company’s programming, fiction and entertainment departments. At Rete II TV, run by Massimo Fichera, I was part of the legendary Struttura 4 directed by Giovanni Leto, whose colleagues I still hold dear to my heart today. Those were extraordinary years of work linked to projects that were experienced with great collective participation.

The Struttura dealt with television dramas, cinema and classical music.

Giovanni Leto was President of the Rai Programmers’ Association, Vice President of ADRAI and coordinator of the Rai Prodi Committee “Per la comunicazione che vogliamo” (For the communication we desire).

In 1980, Giovanni Leto took on another role and was replaced for a short period by Giancarlo Governi, an ironic, funny friend with a permanent smile and a ready laugh.

A writer, journalist and presenter of many successful programmes, he devoted himself to light entertainment, fiction and the memory of the greats of cinema, entertainment and sport.

Mario Raimondo arrived after that; he was a journalist, scholar, theatre and literary critic, theatre promoter for various Italian and foreign periodicals, who was involved in research and experimentation and contributed to the production of fiction and entertainment.

Founder, with Edmo Fenoglio, of the University Theatre Centre in Turin, he collaborated with Ignazio Silone at the Association for the Freedom of Culture. Managing director of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan under the direction of Giorgio Strehler, he has directed the Rai regional headquarters for Lombardy since 1987 and was director of the Paolo Grassì School of Dramatic Art in Milan.

I shared years of fruitful and successful work with Mario Raimondo. We have not lost touch, and our friendly relationship has continued at a distance.

I was appointed head of internal and external relations for Seconda Rete TV. Those were the years when Luigi Locatelli was director of the network and Agostino Saccà was his assistant.

In 1987, Giampaolo Sodano arrived at Raidue as director, and Agostino Saccà was transferred to the Press and Promotional Activities Division. I followed him, contributing to bringing a sector that would play an important strategic role in the company, namely promotion, out of the experimental stage.

Saccà, a journalist, held prestigious positions: director of Raiuno, general manager of Rai and RaiFiction. In 1998, the new director was Giuliana Del Bufalo, a woman of character and determination.

Among other things, she entrusted me with the task of overseeing the implementation of the RAI brand/logo in various areas of the company, working alongside In Area, a leading communications company.

I owe her the push to go to university, graduate and approach my work with commitment, but also with greater lightness, combining administration and creativity.

The Rai Communication and Image Department became a small but significant entity within the larger Rai organisation.

For a year and a half, I worked with Enzo Scotto Lavina, curator of educational and school TV programmes, head of planning and scheduling for Raitre, head of cultural programmes and author of TV programmes.

We set up a service for viewers, responding to their letters.

Gianluca Veronesi was my last director at Rai. He holds several positions: head of public relations, director of external relations, CEO of RaiSat, and director of promotion and image.

I have summarised years of work. I took my positivity with me and look back with detachment and, at times, with a touch of irony, at what I did not achieve: reaching the peak of my corporate life and leaving the company was not easy.

At a certain point, I realised that my life was elsewhere, that I could take back the time I had spent on my loved ones and that I could take the big leap into writing.

My interests border on real passions: writing, followed by psychology, then reading, cinema and, last but not least, teaching. This led to writing courses, which in turn led me to talk about the craft of writing, books, articles and language.

I point out to my students what is missing in spoken and written language and, conversely, suggest what to eliminate.