THE AMAZING APP

The idea had been of the young mayor of the city , who was a woman,   Chiara D., very well seen, not to say supported and sponsored even from by the bishop’s curia, in the elections that had seen her win over opponents and competitors more experienced than her.

The city of Poppy   was indeed a provincial town , which until not many years earlier had been an important manufacturing centre of the textile industry. Since years, however, Poppy had become almost a post industrial city ,a desolated place, since to that  which had once been a thriving textile industry no other business had taken over, (business) which guaranteed employment and income, as well as profits . So that Poppy seemed to be doomed to an unstoppable decay.     Chiara D., a few months after she had been elected mayor, had come up with a really brilliant idea for a project aimed at making Poppy a city for tourists, although Poppy wasn’t quite as rich in tourist attractions as instead neighboring cities could boast. Here, the mayor’s project aimed to induce the tourists visiting the nearby towns, chosen as towns of art or for their natural and scenic beauty, to also visit Poppy , which , therefore, had to be made attractive, which had to be presented, indeed invented, as a wonderful, enchanting place, a place to visit at least once in your life. For the young mayor, surrounded as she was by a large circle of collaborators, of consultants, who, they all were intelligent and brilliant and decision makers like her, it was not difficult to find the computer scientist able to develop the extraordinary app that would have changed) the destiny of the city, raising its fortunes. Oh, the wonderful app would have done miracles,  Chiara D. had been convinced of that ever since she had had the idea, or the inspiration to create it. Oh, tourists, people would have come from all the world to visit Poppy, they would have been eager to admire the wonders of the city.                                                                               The truly considerable undertaking of giving life to the miraculous app was entrusted by the mayor to Jacob B., young he too, a computer engineer of whom, at least there, in the city of Poppy, all talked as a genius of the computer science.

For what concerned the contents of the app, or the indications which it ( the app) should have given on the places which couldn’t be missed when you come to visit Poppy____churches, monuments, museums, but also gardens and landscapes; not to mention markets and little markets, where you could find real treasures, and also gyms, also swimming pools, as well as bars; restaurants.pastry shops, and then clothing stores, shoe shops, but also food shops where you could taste cold cuts, cheeses, and other typical delicacies of the place… they all had to be suggested.___Jacob B. could count, in addiction of the precious support of the mayor ,who was a great connoisseur of the city, on a large group of experts: historians, art historians and architects, cooks and hoteliers, even priests, of course. But, above all, the contribution of fierce, highly skilled advertisers was fundamental for the computer engineer.

As soon as the app was created, it was ensured that it would reach as many people as possible

Contacts were also made with travel agencies, and with hotels in those nearby cities which were

usual destinations for tourists, including foreigners, and contacts were even made with foreign

embassies. Whoever came to Italy for the usual tourists tours , he couldn’t fail to visit also Poppy,

a wonderful city. unfortunately misunderstood , ignored  by tourists. It must be  said that the app had its result : tourists began to arrive in Poppy too. Even if you could bet that the tourist, both Italian and foreign, who had come once, he certainly would not have wanted  to return a second time. Since, although the fabulous, miraculous app extolled it,the city remained what it was, almost entirely devoid of tourist attractions. On the app, which had been called ____WELCOME TO POPPY____POPPY IS WATING FOR YOU! YOU CAN’T MISS THE WONDERS OF POPPY!_____the post industrial provincial city was not only exalted with words, but also through images. Jacob B. and Chiara D. had been able to avail of the precious help of the best photographers and video-makers, who had thought to retouch  the much vaunted wonders, oh but indeed the treasures, of the fabulous city of Poppy, which, however, was not fabulous, and the tourists who flocked, urged to visit it from the miraculous app, they could easily notice it. But how, the Romanesque church of which the app showed enchanting images was little more than a ruin that was falling to pieces ? And the frescos of Giotto’s school ,in the cathedral chapel…,but they were all ruined, you couldn’t see, of them, anything else than splashes of color. Yes, there was no lack of protest from disappointed visitors. However, tourists continued to visit Polly , there was no complain. Until something happened that no one would have ever expected , and , least of all he, Jacob B. have ever expected.. The app he had developed began to…incredible….but it began to take initiatives. In a voice , which seemed to come from far away, but which could to be heard well, distinctly, the app began to comment on the presentation of Poppy’s wonders, as they had decided to be. “ This is a BIG LIE!” that voice added to the presentation of monuments and sites praised on the same app. But not only that, the incredible app even went so far as to give advice to visitors coming to Poppy, advices as: “ No, this church YOU CAN DO WITHOUT VISITING IT. IT REALLY DOESN’T DESERVE TO BE SEEN. Oh, it is not like the photos show it to you!” That voice, the app voice, said also: “ Ah, this restaurant is recommended only because the owners of the restaurants paid a great sum of money. You eat there badly and it is very expensive”   The first to notice the strangeness of the app were the visitors ( tourists) of Poppy, who, indignant, protested to the mayor , and they sent angry protest emails, asking what was that…that mockery of the app which, on the one hand praised the wonders of Poppy, on the other the same app warned that….but what wonders, it was only a great farce, it was all a well packaged deception to get people to come in Poppy.                        Jacob B. and Chiara D. were more than worried, they were even frightened. After consultations with great experts, real app scientists, and after that the municipal council was convened in extraordinary session, with agenda: WHAT TO DO?____That is : How do we have to deal with the miraculous app which became….too miraculous?_____it was decided, not without anguish and also some objections, to destroy the app. Rosanna B., councilor of the mixed group, part of the opposition, argued that, given that the app ____WELCOME TO POPPY!____had nevertheless brought so many tourists in  Poppy, if it had now started to act on its own initiative, this revealed that it was an app ( a device) with extraordinary and absolutely unpredictable capabilities . So WHY NOT to try to fix the extraordinary app , to make it come up with ,in its own initiative, something that would make   Poppy famous, unique in the world?

Jacob B., who was present at the truly ( very) extraordinary session of the municipal council, was seized by a hysterical crisis, hearing the proposal of the councilor Rosanna B.

“ Mrs Rosanna, we are already known all over the world, unfortunately!” he started screaming, all trembling, “ All people are talking about Poppy abundantly, in social networks and televisions! Eh, and if ( how) they are talking about Poppy! But as a joke! They…people all over the world….yes, the whole planet is sneering at us, poor fool citizens of POOOOPPY!” Jacob B. kept on screaming, now out of breath, his whole body twisting, it seemed that his body was screwing as his voice.

Meanwhile, while the municipal council was taking place, a procession of tourists, to which inhabitants of Poppy had joined, had arrived in the square when the town hall stood, they all were screaming invectives: tourists against Poppy____the cursed city of deception____and the inhabitants of Poppy against the cursed app, and  against who had created it.

Jacob B., hearing his name shouted by that angry crowd, collapsed, falling to the ground. He was presumed dead. But he wasn’t dead. “ The app must be destroyed ”: these were the first words he said as soon as he recovered his senses.