A New Chapter in the Chinese Challenge

There has been a concern in Italy for years about counterfeit designer clothes, handbags, etc. with strict laws occasionally enforced.  Designer goods are an important Italian industry. There is also a growing concern here (as well as in the USA) about items such as food products imported from China – what are the safety and sanitary standards under which they are produced? (A high Chinese official in charge of food and drug safety standards was recently sentenced to death for taking bribes to overlook defects in products.) This week a new issue arose.  The police discovered tubes of fake Colgate toothpaste (complete with counterfeited cartons) from China which, it is claimed, may contain a toxic substance. Some of this toothpaste was also seized in Canada so the story may have appeared too in the American press; in

Italy it was front page news.

My Occasional Reminder

Despite my best efforts, I can’t be sure that my newsletter gets sent to all subscribers each week. If you don’t get it, remember to check web site www.bob.it.tt to see if a copy is posted there.

New Dangers in Naples

I have written in the past about crime in Naples. Now there is a new danger. The U.S. State Department has issued a warning for American tourists in Naples about the health risks from the mounds of uncollected garbage throughout the city.  The risk is said to be greatest for people with respiratory problems. I’ve never quite figured out whey they can’t get the garbage collected in Naples.

American Pizza Maker from Pistoia Visits the USA

My friend Greg, who is half owner of the pizzeria near my house, returned to the USA for a three week vacation in Florida.  While there he saw a restaurant building for sale for $39,000 and fantasized how much easier and more profitable if would be for him to run a restaurant there. His wife would gladly go to the USA, but I think they are reluctant to leave her parents.  His children are American citizens and, in my opinion, their prospects for the future are better in theUSA than in Italy. While there Greg enjoyed some of the foods that are especially good in America such as steak. He also noted, however, that a fine fresh fish was served with a mango sauce and coconut milk that for him ruined the fish.  In

Italy foods is served with simple flavors to accent, but not overwhelm, its natural taste. 

Bicycle Storage

Off the lobby of my apartment building there are two small courtyards. In one courtyard there are two small enclosed dirt floor rooms.  I store my bicycles in one of these rooms. To take the bikes from this courtyard into the lobby, you have to go up three short flights of stairs. From the other courtyard it is only one short flight of stairs into the lobby, easier to carry a bicycle to the lobby.  Fortunately my bikes are light so it is not a problem for me to navigate the three short stair flights from the courtyard I use to the lobby. Bikes stored in the other courtyard have to be covered to protect them.  For two of the building residents recently, this turned out to be a little disaster. Residents often throw cigarette butts from their windows into the courtyards. One of these ignited the plastic cover over a bicycle and destroyed the bike.  A nearby bike was damaged but not destroyed. 

Tourism Update

After I noted last week that it seemed to me that tourism is increasing in Pistoia, an article appeared in the local newspaper that tourism in the last fourth months was up 60% over the same period last year.

Bargain Goods at Semi-Weekly Market inPistoia

When you shop at the market, you have to look closely at the goods you buy at bargain prices to see if they have a defect. Sometimes you discover a defect that is minor, for example a spot at the bottom of a shirt tail that nobody will ever see, and that does not diminish the bargain.  Other times the defect causes you not to make the purchase. I bought some nice shoes about six months ago with no noticeable defect.  After wearing them a few times, with no problem, suddenly the insole of one of them simply shriveled up. It is easy to replace an insole, but the whole shoe in fact shrunk.  Its mate is fine. Maybe the local shoemaker can stretch the shrunken shoe back to its original size. There must have been some problem in the manufacturing process of this shoe of which the company making it was aware. Thus it was sold cheaply to the market vendor. The shoes did not have the name of the maker in them

Don Milani

This is the 40th anniversary of the death of this famous priest. He got in trouble with his superiors for writing a letter opposing the role of the military in Italy.  So they “punished” him by sending him to an obscure parish reachable only by mule track.  This was a place sort of like the most remote regions of West Virginia. The children at this place stopped school at the end of the elementary years and entered the few humble occupations available. Don Milani started a school to take them through the high school years using innovative teaching techniques which included, among other things, an emphasis on learning foreign languages.  His pupils have gone on to many accomplishments. His writings are much admired in Italy. Unfortunately he died at a relatively young age of cancer, but he is a genuine Italian hero. I could not find a site in English about him on the web.

In the Catholic Church sainthood requires more than just a life of exemplary virtue.  For example, a saint must have performed miracles. If, however, one thinks of sainthood in a more colloquial sense– a saint is somebody whose life embodied the highest human vitues– then Don Milani is a saint in a way that other candidates for official sainthood (such as Pope Pius XII) were not.  This is not to say Pius XII was a bad person; he simply was not a particularly great person.