Gnicche

This story took place in the countryside near Arezzo in the second half of the XX^th century. It's about Federico Bobini, who was better known as “Gnicche”. This nickname came from his particular knife that he used to call 'Cricche'. 

He was born in Arezzo on 13^th July 1845. His parents were Sebastiano and Domenica. Federico's parents were honest people who used to work very hard and didn't have much time to spend with their son, but they had anyway tried to give to him a good education.   

He liked to play cards with friends and drink wine. His poor parents were desperate. One day he stole money from his father. So Sebastiano reported this to the police. Gnicche ran away through the countryside with some friends and with them he formed a gang. He began to steal  and hurt people in the towns. The most  famous of his friends were  Gigetto di Città di Castello, that was called by everyone 'Ghiora, the terrible' and 'il Menchiari'.

Gnicche was considered a great dancer and never lost an opportunity to dance. At that time people used to go dancing to the 'Prato' Gardens and he was easily recognisable there. So in a small street he met a woman  and told her "I'm Gnicche, do not say anything and give me your clothes!". The poor woman ran away without her clothes and the people thought she was crazy. Gnicche spent the night dancing dressed like a woman.

In a house of a noble family in Cortona is Gnicche's knife.  Why is it there? Because he used to go to play cards with some noblemen and used to keep his knife under the table for defence. One evening while he was playing in this house Gnicche told the nobleman he was a gentleman and even a man of honour. So he gave it to him to show he was not afraid of him. During a fight with a policeman, Gnicche bit his finger but as he was not alone Gnicche was at the end handcuffed. While they were bringing him to the station, he ran away through a forest, but as he fell down on a log the police shot at him and a few hours later he died. 

Gnicche was not the only outlaw of its time, as the article below reads.

Even after his death country-people went on telling his story, and he became so famous in the popular fancy that someone wrote a ballad about him.

Some considered him a kind of Robin Hood of  the country-side.  And you? So why not reading something about Robin Hood and then decide?  

We've found some articles of the time about Gnicche, so, please click here if you want to read them.