thisweekinitaly.com

My First Trip to the South

I haven’t been south of Rome since 1956 and then only for one day. So my
trip to visit American on the Amalfi Coast (who were leasing a
luxurious villa) was a welcome adventure. North of Rome people look down
upon the south. It is the poorer area of Italy. Notherners think that
money sent to rebuild the south only ends up in hands of Mafia and crooked
politicians. I heard an Italian explain that the south is not really
“poor”;it is simply that everyone there works under the table and does not
pay taxes. So there are governmental expenses in the south, but little
revenue.

A three day trip hardly makes me an expert, but I did notice a few things.
On the trains, as I’ve said before, tickets are often not collected, but
when the conductor does so, he collects from everyone and fines those
without a ticket. As I left Naples on train, it seemed that the conductor
worked his way through the passengers quickly. When he came to my row, an
old guy just looked at him, gave a shrug, and presented no ticket. The
conductor just went on. On my way back to Naples, I paid more attention.
Sure enough some folks did not have a ticket and nothing happened.

In Tuscany, every time you buy anything (no matter how inexpensive) you get
a receipt. It is the law that the purchaser can be asked to show the receipt
and fined if he does not have it. This law is never used. The point is that
the sales tax (unlike other taxes) can be collected well in Italy if every
purchase goes through the cash register. After a while in the south, I
realized I was making some purchases and getting no receipt.

So it appears from my short visit that adherence to the law is more “casual”
in the south.

Pompeii

Had a wonderful trip to Pompeii. We hired a guide who did a splendid job.
What is amazing is how advanced the Romans were. The street system, the
water system, the building methods were all amazingly advanced — not to be
duplicated for well over 1000 years in Europe. When Mussolini claimed he
was returning Italy to the noble tradition of the Romans, it was a great
joke. Modern Italians are in no way the successors to the Romans. The
Germans in fact are much more similar to the Romans in their strengths and
weaknesses than the Italinas are.

Our tour was about 2 hours. The guide does three tours a day. So he does
not cover all of Pompeii. Instead he shows buildings that illustrate the
various aspects of the city. To save time, he concentrates on buildings in
the area close to the start of the tour. He kept saying that in the rest of
Pompeii there were only “better examples” of what we saw. I thought he
meant to say “other examples”; it did not make sense for a guide to say that
the best places were not on the tour. But sure enough the examples in the
farther away section were in fact “better.” A very honest guide.

The famous wall paintings in the house of prostitution. They show the
various positions of intercourse. I had thought they were to excite the
patrons. Not at all. Pompeii had many foreign visitors (It was a
commercial port before the volcanic eruption.)who did not speak Latin. The
pictures on the wall were like the illustrated dishes pictured at front of a
Chinese take out restaurant. You could point to what you want. The Romans
were always practical.

Italian Shoes

As you know, the Italians love shoes. Shoes costing over $200 a pair are
common in store windows here; they would not be in a similar town in USA.
It is surprising to realize that shoes come in sizes of length, but not in
varying widths. You wear a size 42– not a 42 A, 42 B, or 42C. I don’t know
what people do who have unusually wide or narrow feet. Also large shoes are
rare. Both of my sons wear size 12 shoes. These are difficult to find in
Italian styles. Nothing larger can be found. Shoes larger than size 12
are only made for export market, and not in the particular Italian styles.

No Church Today

I went to Florence to Church. Nobody showed up to open the door. I assume
the pastor has the key. Congregation members waited a while and then left.
This is the week for the service to be of the Swiss Reformed Church. I
guess the Pastor has truly made the transition from being Swiss to being
Italian.

The Post Office

I’ve never seen stamps sold in rolls or booklets. When you ask for a stamp,
the clerk has a note book with sheets of different stamps in it. Even for
the most common stamps, it always takes a while to find the right page.
Then unless you pay with exact change, the guy at the window almost always
had to go to another window to get some denomination of coins/bills to make
the right change. In general every one waits patiently. The only exception
was a man whose uniform said “Express Courier Service” on it. He had to get
some papers stamped and was impatient — it must be hard to run something
called “Express” anything in Italy. Telegrams go through Post Office and the
Post Office has a Fax service too.

Chestnut Sellers

Many years ago I picked some chestnuts off the ground in Pennsylvania,
cooked them, and ate them. Suddenly I did not feel well. I discovered I had
eaten a poisonous type. We called the hopital. The doctor said to take the
medicine (Iopec or something like that)that makes you vomit. I hate to
vomit so I just toughed it out. When my ex wife Edie is asked to illustrate
exactly how I was a stubborn husband, this is her favorite story — “he
would rather risk death than do something he did not want to do.”

Well Italy has the largest chestnut crop in Europe– of the non poisonous
variety. I often eat the little ones at home by boiling them. The big ones
take too long to boil. On the street are roasted chestnuts for sale. The
booths have a big chestnut roaster. The man puts them into a paper cone to
measure the amount and then transfers them to a bag. My guess is that this
system of cooking and measuring them goes back hundreds of years. They are
2 Euros a bag and very tasty.

Peripatetic Beggars

I’ve discovered that not all beggars are on their knees with a sign. Some
of them work the crowd. If there is a crowd for an event, they circulate.
If the train is stopped for 5 minutes in the station, they go through the
cars.

Binario TA3

I got smarter in Salerno. When I saw this listed as platform for my train, I
went immediately to information. Binario TA3 is at the left front of
Binario 1. Apparently the local transit trains have their own platforms that
have the TA number. Only way to find out –ask information booth.

Today

For the first time today, I actually gave directions to an Italian about how
to get somewhere. He seemed to understand although he may, in fact, still be
wandering around the streets of Pistoia.

The Supermarkets here have the discount cards as in USA. I decided to get a
Coop card for the Coop where I shop. I was told I needed an identification
document (no problem) and my code fiscale number which I think is something
akin to a Social Security number. I told the guy that I prefered to have as
little to do as possible with the Italian bureauracy. He seemed to
understand fully. So there will no Coop card for me.

Italian Police

There are about 6 branches of the police. They all have fancy uniforms, one
of which was designed by Armani. American cops would never wear these
uniforms (which include a sort of pith style helmet) lest their sexual
orientation be put in question.

Problem Solved at Railroad Crossing

Once again I was waiting on my bike at a crossing with the gates down and no
train in sight. I noticed another cyclist walk his bike under the gates and
across the tracks. Maybe that’s a good idea. I was sure it was when a
little grey haired lady did the same thing. So finally I walked my bike
under the gates too.

The Question of Trust

The Italians may have locks for everything, but in some ways they are quite
trusting. On the train trip from Pistoia to Florence, my ticket is
collected about 1 in 6 times. I could save money by never buying a ticket
and paying the fine 1 in 6 times for being ticketless. But people buy the
tickets. At the Supermarket when a price check is needed, the customer can
go back, find the price, and tell it to the cashier. At the train station,
the clerk issued a ticket to a lady who had to go get some change to pay for
it. She came back in a few minutes with the money.

Crime News

It is a big part of TV news. The reason is that in Italy, a murder anywhere
in the country is likely to be on the news everywhere. In USA a murder in
San Francisco is not news in Los Angeles. So you get the impression that
Italy is the crime capital of the world which is not true.

No ESPN But……

Women married to men who sit in front of the TV watching ESPN all night
would at first like Italy. I haven’t discovered such a network here. Cable
is less common here. But there is bad news for the Sports Widow. In the
USA the Sports sections are larger on Sunday and Monday to reflect weekend
events. In Italy Sunday is the big sports day. The local paper on Monday
had 38 pages plus a TV Guide insert. Of the 38 pages, pages 14-37 were the
Sports Section. The rabid sports fan here can spend all week reading the
sports section.

Where is Binario U ????

At train stations there is a large billboard and/or TV monitors showing when
the trains arrive and depart and the binario (platform) at which each train
will be. I got to Prado recently and missed my connection to Pistoia. I
looked at schedule. In one hour there was a train to Pisa airport that
stopped at Pistoia. So I went across the street to a Bar and watched Italy
lose to Wales in the qualifying round for the European soccer championship.
Last time, Italy was in the final game; in 2003 Italy perhaps won’t even
qualify. I came back to see my train listed as Binario U. There is no
Binario U. I thought that perhaps it meant undecided, but when it was 4
minutes to go, I knew something was wrong. So I asked an Italian where was
Binario U. He was on sidewalk in front of station. He said right here. The
“train” I was waiting for was in fact a bus. I hadn’t noticed the small bus
symbol on the train schedule posted. Of course the billboard and TV monitor
said nothing about a bus.

Selling Junk on the Streets

The Streets are full of Africans selling the same junk : pirated CDs,
sunglasses, cheap umbrellas, etc. Like in New York city. They all have the
same inventory. I hardly ever see a sale. I can’t imagine that they make
enough money to pay their rooom and board to whomever it is that supplies
the inventory and sends them out into the street. But they don’t look like
they are starving.

Church

I found a Lutheran church in Florence. For two weeks each month the service
is that of a German Lutheran congregation serving the Germans in Florence.
On the other two Sundays it is a church of a Swiss Reformed Congreation
serving the Swiss commuity in Florence. The Lutheran services are mostly in
German with part in Italian. The Swiss services are mostly in Italian with
part in German. There american churches in Florence, but I think I’ll
stick with this church for a while. At least part of service is in Italian.

General Strike

Italy has one day strikes often of certain unions. Sort of day off because a
one-day strike means little in terms of labor-management relations. Friday
was a General Strike. Maybe 25% of work force participated. Big marches in
all cities including Pistoia. Sort of a carnival atmosphere. Students happy
not to be in school (I don’t know if teachers joined the strike), old-time
leftists happy to be marching in the streets again. Labor-Mangement issues
(and even political ones) take on a flavor of theatre rather than conflict
in Italy.

Fiat is in trouble. They want to move prodcution from Turino to Scily.
Moving car production south to get lower wages should be familiar to
Americans. Part of it may be a play (ala Chrysler in the 1980s) to get the
government to step in with aid to save Fiat. Fiat has a relationship with
GM, but GM doesn’t want to bail out Fiat.

Italy had the largest Communist Party in Western Eurpoe probably followed by
France. I’m no student of recent European history, but my guess is that
because the Communists took the lead in anti-fascist activities in Italy and
France during WWII, the Communists came out of the war as “the good guys.”
The left is not in power in Italy, and part of the old leftist coalition has
moved to the center leaving the left-left groups more frustrated. This is
just a surface opinion. Italian politics are far too byzantine for me to
understand in any langauge.

News from Italy No. 3

Disclaimer: A lot of what I see is in Pistoia and Tuscany. So the
generalizations I make about Italy may not apply throughout the country.

The Market as Wal Mart

There is less of discount store shopping in Italy. So where do the people
who have trouble paying the prices in the smaller shops get items at bargain
prices? The market that comes to town twice each week. About 100 vendors of
clothes, jewelry, household goods, etc. come in their vans and set up shop
on the main streets in center of town. There are even used clothes
available. Of course, not only the less affluent citizens come to the
market. Wal-Mart now has advertisements showing people who come to their stores to
meet their friends. I hope I never get to the point in life where my social
life revolves around Wal-Mart, but if one wants to mix shopping and social
life the market is a much more pleasant arena to do so than Wal-Mart.

What Will You Do When You Can´t Find Something You Need in Italy?

I was worried that some things I like would not be available in Italy, but
the only thing I bought with me to avoid this problem was a lifetime supply
of my favorite dental floss. When I wanted to buy duct tape, I thought this
will be the first thing I wanted that I can´t get here. I was wrong. No
problem getting duct tape, but my apprehensions were not totally unfounded.
In Italy duct tape is called American Tape and comes with a booklet showing
the many uses of this amazing new product.

Cell Phones

Italians love them. My favorite sight was an Italian riding down the street
no hands on his bike while talking on cell phone. Why not with one hand on
handlebars? Then there would be no hand to talk with.

On cell phones in Europe (maybe in USA too; I don´t know) you can send text
messages of up to 160 characters from your cell phone to the screen of the
recipient´s cell phone. The cost is minimal. I discovered in talking to a
teacher in an Italian high school that the students use text messages to
each other to cheat on tests.

Immigrant Question Continued

There is a new group of immigrants to Italy, people of Italian origin from
Argentina. They are fleeing the fiscal chaos in Argentina. They appear to be
well educated immigrants who already speak Italian so they won´t arouse the
“anti-immigrant” rhetoric that is common here.

Forgot to Shave-No Problem

Sometimes I forget to shave in the morning. In Italy no problem. The two-day
growth look is very much in style. You see it on TV and even politicians
sport a stubble that would identify them as a bum in the USA.

Publicly Dirty, Privately Spotless

Although there are public waste cans everywhere, the streets and sidewalks
in Italy have a lot of litter-probably more than in USA. But private homes
are another matter. In the Italian supermercato the only section (other than
cheese and produce) that matches an American supermarket for variety and
selection is that of cleaning products for the home. Italians take great
pride in the beauty of their country and in their homes, but this pride does
not translate into a concern for keeping the city clean.

Beggars

There are more beggars on street in Pistoia than in a similarly-sized city
in USA. Some are gypsies. Some are hippies. But some seem to fit neither of
these groups. Beggars usually have a small hand -printed sign telling their
tale of woe. I don´t know if Italians are more or less generous to them than
Americans are to beggars is USA.

The Prevalence of American Culture

On the quiz show I watch, I am surprised by the number of questions about
American culture. Sometimes they are easy. I can pick the body of water that
runs under the Brooklyn Bridge from following choices: Pacific Ocean,
Missouri River, Mississippi River, East River, and Lake Michigan. But when
faced with a list of 10 possible names, I did not know the name that Buffalo
Bill gave to his trusty carbine. To draw an analogy could you imagine an
American quiz show asking the name of Garibaldi´s dog? There are also many
questions about films –American and Italian. The question of how many Oscars
did “Gone with the Wind” win to an Italian is on the level of who is buried
in Grant´s tomb.

Pinocchio

October 11 was the first night of this new film by Robert Bergnini. It is
showing on every screen of the multi-sala in town. This was much more of a
national event in Italy than any film opening (mabe with exception of Gone
with the Wind) in USA. The last Italian movie of this famous story was made
in late 70s or early 80s with Sophia Loren as the fairy godmother, I saw it
last year. I went on the 11th. Because the film is aimed at childen as
well as adults, the dialog was fairly easy to follow. It will be released on
December 26 in USA. I don´t view it as Academy Award material, but it is
worth seeing. It strongly emphasizes the story as an allegory for growing
up and achieving a moral consciousness. Maybe I still prefer Sophia as the
fairy godmother.

Dear Friends

The Wonderful World of Locks

I lost the keys to my apartment (no surprise) and had to get a second set
made. I got a new set from landlord but wanted to replace the set I lost.
The variety of locks and keys in Italy is astounding. You would think this
country had the world’s highest theft rate, it doesn’t. Maybe that is
because they lock everything behind three doors. I had one key that was so
complicated the locksmith could not reproduce it so it worked.

Those No Good Albanians

One of the reason, according to the Italians, that one has to lock
everything is “gli immigrati,” especially the Albanians who steal everything
that is not locked down (beside being dirty and lazy). Of course, the
things Italian say about Albanians (and other immigrant groups) are pretty
much the same things that Americans said about Italians immigrants in
1880-1920. I don’t mention this fact to my Italian friends. In Europe
there is not the idea that a nation is a melting pot – an Italian. a
Frenchman, or a German are not seen as a mixture of various groups. So
there is no paradigm (as in USA) of immigrants being part of the legitimate
mix that makes up a nation. So it will be interesting to see how the
immigration issue ultimately works out. Italy has such a low birth rate
that some immigrants are needed to staff industry.

How to be Very, Very Popular

I have signed up for a program, Learning Language in Tandem (acronym is LANT
for the Italian title of program) in which I will work with an Italian who
wants to learn English. We will teach each other our own language. This is
a program though the town of Pistoia. I discovered it when I went to town
education office to inquire about teaching English through another city
program. Not unexpectedly, I could not teach English in a regular class
because I haven’t taken the training program to do so. But they were very
eager to enroll me in LANT. It turns out that they have 80 Italians who
want to learn mostly English (a few want German) and less than 10 English or
German speakers with whom to match them. I felt like the 7 foot tall guy
being introduced to the basketball coach. I start on the program this week.
There are all kinds of advertisements on TV for English courses and at
least two schools of English in Pistoia.

Safety First for the Children

I was at a railroad crossing when the gates went down. Some kids ran under
the gates and over the tracks. Just what we tell our children never to do!
If I knew Italian better I would have been tempted to chide them on their
behavior. But then the train did not come for a full 2 and one-half minutes.
I’ve never waited anywhere near that long in USA. I guess the kids were
not really living dangerously.

The Long Winded Lecturer

I went to a film as part of a series sponsored by the group that promotes
breast feeding of children in Italy. It was a world wide week promoting
breast feeding. The film was an adaptation of a Piradello short story about
a wet nurse. The director was to be at The showing, but he was at a film
festival in NYC. So a professor of film spoke before the movie started.
The two girls next to me were chattering as he spoke. A sharp look from a
man in row in front of us shut them up. I don’t know ho long he was
expected to speak, but he seemed to go on and on. Soon a few other people
started chattering. Soon there was a general buzz throughout the audience.
Maybe he stopped when he got to end of his planned remarks, maybe he got the
hint and stopped short of his plan. But he soon stopped. Is this an Italian
technique for ending the long winded lecture?

Tourists in Their Own Country

If you have ever been abroad, you have probably had the experience of not
understanding the money system or the prices. You hold out your money in
your hand and the cashier takes what it needed (and you hope no more). I see
Italians doing this all the time with their own money. They don’t understand
the Euro and what the coins mean. Furthermore, they have trouble equating
Euro prices with the old Lira prices.
For an American the pricing is easy. A Euro is essentially one dollar. The
coins are decimal coins similar to USA coins. As a result I am in a foreign
country where I understand the money better than the natives.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign

There are more signs in Italy than in USA telling you what you can and
cannot do. Nobody pays much attention. At the police station I saw a
policeman smoking directly under a sign strictly prohibiting smoking in the
station.

Italy and The “War” Against Iraq

Despite the position of the government backing USA policy (someone reminded
me that this is “cheap” to do because Berlusconi knows we will never call
upon Italian troops to fight in Iraq), the policy clearly is not popular
among the people. There was an anti-USA policy demonstration in Pistoia
Saturday. In fact, even though Berlusconi knows we won’t use Italian
troops, he is, in backing the USA, taking a stance that has political risk
for him. One could say he is doing this on principle, I prefer to think
there is something in it for him even if I haven’t figured out what it is.

Anyway, I was in a very small village recently where there were memorials to
the dead from that village in WWI and WWII. I was surprised at how many
casualties there were from this small village. Many more than from a similar
small village in USA. I think the large losses that European Countries took
in the two world wars may well explain in general their greater
reluctance to use military force to solve problems.

Those Swinging Germans

I went to a concert by a German male chorus at a church nearby. They sang
some traditional sacred music, some pop music (in general here there is less
of distinction between popular, semi-classical, and classical music). But
the medley of Negro Spirituals was my favorite –Swing Low Sweet Chariot,
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, etc. Syncopation is not the German
strong suit. When you hear Germans singing American Negro music in an
Italian Renaissance Church, you’ve covered a lot of bases.

Italian Dialects

Italy was last major European nation to be unified. Therefore its language
was more fractured by dialects than other European language. With universal
schooling, radio, TV, and cinema, all Italians now understand standard
Italian. But on a recent TV quiz show I got an example of the continued
vitality of the dialects. The question was to find which of the 10 phrases
listed was NOT a phase meaning to cut school in at least one Italian
dialect. I can’t imagine a similar question in USA. By the way the standard
Italian phrase to cut school translate as “to marinate school” I don’t get
the metaphor