A shopkeeper from the Belle Époque of Sinnai who produced and bought everything or almost everything in the shops in Sinnai, from food to clothing. Also because at the beginning of this story (we are in the Sixties) not everyone had a car to be able to move around. Franco Loi was one of those who built his empire from clothing. In the boutique on Via Roma at the entrance to the town there was everything : from socks to country clothing, from beautiful shirts to dresses for all sizes and for all events, including ceremonial and wedding ones.
The people from Sinnai bought, but customers came from Settimo San Pietro, Maracalagonis, Solanas, Quartu Sant'Elena, Cagliari, Selargius. In short, a point of reference for the vast area, with the merchant who brought the goods from the most famous Sardinian wholesalers but also from the peninsula . In the shop there was a queue every day: he was always ready to serve the customer, to immediately deliver some item that was temporarily unavailable in the shop. From Cagliari, he married very young in Sinnai, to Antonietta Lepori, with whom he had three children: Marcello, the current parish priest of Pula, Roberto, a municipal councilor of Sinnai who has been following his father's business for some years, and Barbara.
Franco Loi died this morning in hospital after a few days of hospitalization. Until Christmas Eve he was regularly in the shop reading L'Unione Sarda, of which he was a reader for sixty years, without ever missing the morning appointment at the newsstand . The news of his death has caused great mourning in Sinnai and not only where he was highly esteemed. A mourning immediately expressed also by the mayor of Sinnai, Barbara Pusceddu, and of Pula Walter Cabasino.
