Time for goodnight

Late '90s and 2000s, 9:30PM.

As a kid living in the Rome area, there is only one place you could have been. Tucked in underneath the blankets, tv on on the usual special channel. Super 3.

The channel would show the most amazing cartoons in the late afternoon to evening, from Yatterman to Doraemon and Ranma 1/2. So many great adventures and theme songs!

Yet, there was something even more magical than cartoons. Something that would make our young hearts tremble in eager anticipation. At night, 9:30PM, the tv programming would end and the soft notes of a lullaby would start filling the space.

This is the song that Sonia would sing every night during schooldays, and all of us little ones with her.

Eyes focussed on the screen, shy voices rising up. Until a candle light would softly blow out, as the last notes fade out. That was the sign that the day had come to an end, no more words to be spoken. In that exact moment, with perfect precision, you'd turn off the tv, close your eyes and fall asleep.

Within this sacred bedtime ritual.

Why was this lullaby so meaningful to so many?

Sonia's L'ora della buonanotte is undoubtedly one of the most jealously guarded childhood memories for 3 generations of Romans. The lullaby has been a faithful companion of thousands of households for almost 20 years, as the ending theme of Sonia's mail (La posta di Sonia).

In the show, which would reach peaks of 300k+ viewers per episode, cartoons would alternate with sections where Sonia and her co-host Birillo would read letters and present drawings sent by their young audience. Soon, a Chat Corner (L'angolo delle chiacchiere) was introduced where the lucky young authors would be invited to talk about what they liked and, wearing proud smiles - and believe me, without exception - would say hello to their teachers and everyone-who-knows-me.

Some of these drawings even became part of the studio's modest and colourful school-like decorations.

The show was a hymn to childhood, for children.

As kids, we could only look up to it in awe. This genuineness and care is all we really needed. Plus, the cartoons.

Why is this lullaby so meaningful to me?

The wonder of the show is not fading now that I am an adult - it keeps living within me, shining more and more brightly with the passage of time. Alas, it is a sad fact that we get to fully appreciate how valuable something is when it's not there.

Super 3 closed in 2013.

At that same time, during my university years, I also discovered that not everyone had had access to the channel in their childhood. Being a local TV, it was only broadcasted in the centre of Italy. I was taken aback by the intensity of the sadness and mild guilt that this simple notion led to. In the thought that my friends and so many others were not given and will no longer be given a chance to such a beautiful part of my childhood.

In large houses and in smaller ones it comes...

To me, these last words of the lullaby enclose the secret of this beauty. A warm feeling of belonging as you knew friends and other kids all around you, it felt back then all around the world, were listening to that exact song. Feeling that exact peace and trepidation. Being exactly like you.

And, maybe, it also made it feel a bit more alright that you didn't have someone to tell you bedtime stories.

Sonia was there, a fairy nanny to us all.

Reminding you: time for goodnight.