thisweekinitaly.com

The Referendum

The Referendum to expand the rights of workers (so that workers in both
small
and large businesses could not be fired without just cause) failed for lack
of a quorum. To be valid a referendum must be voted on by at least 50% of
the voters. Only 25% voted in this referendum. One major party urged its
members not to vote, but I doubt that the voters in this party were 25% of
the electorate. Even if they had voted, I don’t think the 50% mark would
have been reached.

This is not the first time that a Referendum has failed because fewer than
50% voted. In the USA the voter participation rate is low by European
standards, but I think the low participation rate on this issue in Italy has
a different
cause than in the USA. Life is not at all terrible in Italy For example, I
have an American friend who emigrated from Italy as a child. He earns more
in USA than his Sicilian cousins, but their life style is every bit as nice
(if not nicer) than his. But there are
elements of the Italian system that work poorly. Clearly there is little
trust in the government. There are social structures that inhibit mobility
and personal choice. In Italy there is a wide-spread feeling that this
negative
factors cannot be changed. There is a sense of hopelessness about improving
them. This is a probably a good part of the reason that Italy ranked first
in the recent poll of 40 countries in the level of dissatisfaction among the
populace.

Ordinations

I’ve now attended two ordination services — one for two Catholic priests
and one for an Episcopalian priest (at the American church in Florence).
The Episcopal one was 30 minutes shorter — one cheer for the Reformation.
After both of them, there was a reception with food. Now I am familiar
with church type receptions in the USA, little sandwiches and punch in the
church basement. In Italy the receptions had great food. It would almost
be worthwhile in this country to find such events (not just ordinations but
any event with food that is open to the public) and attend them on a regular
basis even if one did not know the people or the issue involved.

Price of Fruit

In general fruit costs about the same here as in USA. Fruit is sold by
weight.
But for melons the price per kilogram is not adjusted to allow for the fact
that (1) a melon is heavy and (2) a large part of the weight is the part
of the melon one does not eat. A medium sized round watermelon cost me € 9
($10) at the local grocery store. A cantaloupe costs over € 4 ($4.80).

My Immigrant Friends

I know many immigrants from my classes in Italian at the Center for
Foreigners
in Pistoia. The woman almost all have jobs as household helpers taking care
of children or elderly persons. Despite the heavy use of illegal labor in
Italy, few of the men have jobs. Unlike my grandparents who were ignorant
peasants when they immigrated to the USA, these men are often very well
educated. I have a Palestinian friend who has a law degree but works here as
a baker
if he works at all. In the third world in general there is a surplus of
highly educated people who cannot find jobs in the undeveloped economy.
I guess for these people the “hope” that things might get better in Italy
is still better than the prospects in their home country. To me it’s very
sad.

The Dance of Politeness

Last week I took a lovely one day tour of some less visited tourist spots
east
of Florence. One was an Abby. The tour had a professional guide. When we
got to the Abby, one of the brothers was supposed to give the tour, but
nobody
was there. So the guide began to give the tour. Then the monk appeared.
When he discovered that the guide had given part of the tour, he said that
he would not interfere, and he would let her continue. She of course said
that now that he was here, we would very much like him to continue the tour.
Then the “dance” begins –he defers, she implores, and it goes on and on
for a few minutes. From the beginning it is clear to me that he eventually
will say “yes” when the begging has gone on for the appropriate amount of
time. I think this is clear also to all the Italians. Sure enough, he
finishes
the tour.

The Framed Print

I bought a large reproduction of an antique print of the city of Pistoia.
It was a good price. It had a few minor smudges along the we border of
the print. When I went to get it framed, I asked if they could erase
smudges. They said no: it was no big deal I thought: the marks could just
be further proof the antiquity of the print. But when I went to pick it up,
the frame shop (at no cost to me) had matted the print with a lovely matte
that covered the marks. I don’t think they wanted anything framed with the
shop’s name on it that did not look very good. In Italy things are slow,
but the level of quality is high.

Fashion Note

Many Italian women in summer wear strapless tops or tops with thin straps.
Often the bra straps show with such outfits. Clear plastic bra straps
are very popular. An American friend suggested that these are used because
they are less noticeable. Maybe, but visible underwear never seems to be
a problem in Italy. I think the clear plastic is used so that there is no
tan line caused by the bra strap. Having a nice tan seems to be important
in Italy, as in USA, and of course one gets to see more of the tan in Italy.

Blackout

The same day that New York had a blackout, there was a big one in Italy.
Part of this is “the price of progress.” More and more Italian homes and
businesses have air conditioning. Italy also does not have sufficient
electric
capacity — one claim is that he largest utility is prevented by antitrust
law from building new plants, and the other utilities don’t have the funds
to do so. Italy imports electricity from France, but last week France cut
the amount sent to Italy (probably because demand was up in France too).
So suddenly demand exceeded supply. The newspapers then had articles about
how to conserve electricity; these were a day late. Apparently the blackout
was quite foreseeable, but the idea of warning people and industry in
advance
didn’t quite occur to anyone.

Going to the Movies

I can not yet follow well an Italian film. So I was pleased to go to the
movies with an Italian friend whom I figured could explain to me afterwards
anything that I did not understand. We choose a movie produced by Martin
Scorsese called “The Blues.” It turned out to be a documentary about three
American bluesmen. It was almost all in English. Only the narration track
was dubbed into Italian (and it was easy to follow). The dialog had Italian
subtitles which is quite unusual in Italy. So in the end it was I who
could explain the film to my Italian friend, not vice versa.

At the Supermarket

Italians never have their money ready to pay the cashier at the Supermarket.
When the amount owed is announced, they reach, for the first time, for their
purse or billfold. Men don’t have change
in their pocket; they use change purses. If the bill is, let’s say, 20.12
Euros, the person will hand the cashier 30 Euros. Then the cashier will ask
“do you have 12 cents.” Then the person will again get out the money and
look. You get the idea that it is a painful process to part with money.

The Fashion Plate

There is an older guy in Pistoia who dresses in wild clothes. In the winter
I have seen him with knickers, long knee socks, and a pink cashmere sport
coat. I saw him on the train recently. He was wearing a suit of royal blue
cotton with a wide we stripe. The pants were Bermuda shorts length. He
had high blue checkered socks with black shoes so shiny that they appeared
to be patent leather. He had a we shirt with a red tie and a red
patterned pocket handkerchief in the suit coat breast pocket. Needless to
say, I admire him greatly.

The Newspaper Headline

In Italy, as I have mentioned before, the newsstands have posters in front
of them with the feature story from today’s paper on the poster. The papers
have regional editions and the story is often a local one so that the story
on the poster in Pistoia may be different than that in Florence. I saw the
following headline on two posters in Vinci. “Scuffle on set of pornographic
movie. Businessman recognizes his ex girlfriend acting in the film. He
punches actor while she runs naked into the street.” Now I can’t imagine
the Philadelphia Inquirer or the Cleveland Plain Dealer making this the
story of the day. I did not buy the paper; why ruin the wonderful images
elicited by the headline by reading the facts of the case.

The Wonderful World of Phone Cards

I use phone cards to call the USA. For $5 you get about 30-50 minutes
–usually less than the card promises. I use the cards with a public phone
because you get less time with a cell phone. Recently the man at the
Internet Point I use told me I would get more minutes using the fixed phone
at his place of business. Sure enough a card that usually gives me 30
minutes promised me 150 minutes when I used his phone. I haven’t yet used
up all of the 150 minutes (Perhaps the promise won’t be completely true.),
but I am hopeful that I have found a cheaper way to call the USA.

Italians and Children

I’m sure people in all countries love their children and grandchildren. But
in Italy the love of children seems to be a bit more, at least than in the
USA. Recently I went to a concert of a youth violin orchestra from St.
Paul, Minnesota. These were students learning to play through the Suzuki
method. The performers were from 6 to 18 years of age. The younger
performers did not play on all the pieces. Near the end of the concert some
of the younger players circulated through the audience. The old Italian
ladies gave them big hugs and kisses. It is hard to describe the joy on the
faces of these older women.

It reminded me of my mother. After I left home, my mother for a while
worked doing child care for a family up the block where the husband had
deserted the family. Ordinarily in River Forest (our town) if a family
needed a child care provider they hired someone from a less prosperous area
to come in. We certainly did not need whatever money my mother earned. In
fact, she probably would have done the job for free. She was a true
Italian.

Correction

A friend tells me that the cloudy river water I saw one afternoon in Poretta
Terme is not industrial run off. It is, instead, the discharge from the
local spas of truly “healthy” water. So the fish in the river must have
been both healthy and beautiful, having received a secondary treatment from
the spa.

The Straight 10 Student

A grade of 10 is the top grade in an Italian high school. Grades of 10 are
not common, and a report card with all 10s is almost unheard of. Recently
there was a story on the TV news about a student with straight 10 grades. It
is not like the USA where there are so many straight A students that some
high school officials now are often unwilling or unable to differentiate
among them and thus the school has 40 valedictorians. In Italy school
officials are not looking over their shoulders to be sure that they don’t in
any way offend parents or local taxpayers. Schools are not controlled
locally. This week all the high school students in Italy took the same
examination which I can guarantee you is more difficult than any school
system in the USA would dare give the students. Italian schools are not
ideal or even close to ideal, but as is true in most of Europe (if not all),
the schools are better than in the USA.

The Big Concert

This weekend there was a big concert (moved from Pompeii for some reason)
in Pistoia of young popular music performers. On Monday the steel pipes
were delivered to the main town square to build the stage, grandstand, and
the towers for lights and speakers. I was surprised that these materials
were delivered on Monday. It looked like a two-day job to me to build the
necessary structures. Well it took all week. The Italians are good at
knowing how to s–t–r–e–t–c–h
a job!

After my newsletter number 39 stated thaat no American School system would
give a test as difficult as the one they give to all students in Italy, this
item appears in New York Times. You can bet the family fortune that the
problem with the Math A test in New York state was not tht it suddenly was
much more difficult than in the past but that the failure rate suddenly was
too high to be politically acceptable.

————
Citing Flaw, New York State Voids Math Scores
By SAM DILLON

Moving to defuse a crisis for thousands of high school students, New York
State’s education commissioner, Richard P. Mills, yesterday set aside the
results of last week’s Math A Regents exam for seniors and juniors. The test
is required for graduation, and many educators had described it as
inordinately difficult.

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Mr. Mills’s decision, which came after four days of rising clamor from
principals, parents, lawmakers and members of the Board of Regents, allows
local school authorities across New York to issue diplomas to seniors who
failed the test but passed their math courses, and to certify that juniors
who failed have passed the math graduation requirements. Sophomores and
freshmen who failed may have to retake the test, although their scores may
be adjusted upward after authorities complete an investigation.

Mr. Mills acknowledged that the test was technically flawed, but declined to
say whether its defect lay in the phrasing of its questions, the level at
which its passing score was set, or in some other feature.

“I think we made some mistakes with this exam, and it’s up to us to identify
and correct them,” Mr. Mills said. Early results of a survey by the State
Department of Education showed that only about 37 percent of the students
who took the test on June 17 scored at or above the passing level of 55,
compared with 61 percent in June 2002.

Educators said it was the first time that test results had been scrapped
since the commissioner and the Board of Regents in 1996 began converting the
Regents tests from a battery of optional tests taken to achieve higher
honors into graduation requirements for all New York students.

Mr. Mills’s predecessor, Thomas Sobol, could recall only one time in the
80-year history of Regents testing that results had been set aside – and
that was when a newspaper published a stolen answer sheet before the test
was given. One State Education Department official, however, said he
believed other results might have been set aside.

Mr. Mills made his decision in close consultation with Robert M. Bennett,
the retired president of the United Way of Buffalo and Erie County, who is
chancellor of the Board of Regents. Mr. Bennett said that all 16 members of
the board had come to consensus in a series of phone calls on Sunday and
Monday on the need to set aside the results.

“This was a moment of embarrassment,” Mr. Bennett said. “We heard big-time
from parents, who got very upset about their kids’ education, which I think
is a good thing – so lesson learned, but more to come. We’re not finished
with this.”

Mr. Mills said he was appointing an independent panel of mathematicians and
others to review what went wrong. In the meantime, he also announced the
suspension of the next administration of the Math A Regents, scheduled for
August, to give testing experts time to rectify problems identified by the
panel.

The emergency decision came just in time for thousands of seniors who had
failed the exam, because graduation ceremonies are scheduled for this week
at many of the state’s 1,000 high schools. Since passing the exam was a
prerequisite for graduation, many schools had to consider whether to allow
those who had failed to participate in the ceremonies.

On the test, students were given three hours to answer 85 questions, which
ranged across concepts of algebra, geometry, probability and statistics. The
test is intended to be administered to students at the end of their
sophomore year, but advanced students can elect to take it as freshmen, and
students who have failed it can try repeatedly to pass it.

One of Mr. Mills’s deputy commissioners, James A. Kadamus, said that the
results of a preliminary survey conducted in recent days had provided data
that resists any quick diagnosis of the test’s basic problem, especially
since students seem to have performed at different proficiencies depending
on their grade levels. In the sample results gathered in the survey, 30
percent of the seniors had passed the test, compared with 27 percent of
juniors, 48 percent of sophomores and 81 percent of freshmen, Mr. Kadamus
said.

One interpretation of this data was that the freshmen and sophomores who
took the test were generally stronger math performers, while the juniors and
seniors were students who struggle, Mr. Kadamus said.

A significant percentage of students appear to have simply given up after
struggling with about half the test. “One possibility we’re looking at is
that there was something about the accumulation of questions which caused
greater difficulty than the individual questions,” Mr. Kadamus said. “The
whole was greater than the sum of the parts. So it looks like there was a
discouragement factor.”

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One student who experienced that discouragement was Joey Morgan, a sophomore
at Putnam Valley High School in Putnam County, who took the test for the
fourth time on June 17. “Parts 1 and 2 were fair, but on Parts 3 and 4 it
was like – Whoa! I’ve never seen anything like this,” Mr. Morgan said,
adding that he believed he had failed, but had not been officially notified.

Not all students failed the test. At the Benjamin Banneker Academy in
Brooklyn, a dozen seniors who needed to pass the test to graduate attended
after-school and Saturday morning tutoring sessions all spring – and all 12
passed the test, Daryl Rock, the school’s principal said.

“When I was taking the exam, I kept saying to myself, `Oh my God, this is
too hard,’ ” said Kimberly Boone, an 18-year-old senior, who had failed the
test three times.

She earned a 73 on the test, the highest in her class at Banneker. “Tears
came to my eyes I was so happy,” she said.

Mr. Mills’s decision brought praise from some education officials.

“The commissioner believes in standards to his core – he is Mr. Standards -
and he saw that this was a flawed test and rather than making excuses he
took quick, decisive action,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the city
teachers’ union. “I give him a lot of credit for that.”

Steven Sanders, the chairman of the Education Committee in the State
Assembly, who has been critical of the decision to transform the Regents
tests into a graduation requirement, congratulated Mr. Mills for his
decision, but added: “This is an opportunity to now revisit and reconsider
the policy of high-stakes, do-or-die exams. Exclusive reliance on any
particular exam on any given day is an inherently flawed process.”

But Joel I. Klein, the New York City chancellor, who said he called
yesterday to congratulate Mr. Mills, argued that the debacle on the Math A
test should not be interpreted as a blow to the standards movement. “This is
not to eliminate testing,” Mr. Klein said. “This is to eliminate a test that
was way out of line.”

Those “Happy” Italians

There is a joke that says that in Germany everything works and nobody is
happy whereas in Italy nothing works and everybody is happy. According to
a recent survey of people in 40 nations — not so. The Italians had the
highest rate of dissatisfaction with life of any of the countries surveyed
– 26.4 % compared to an average of the other countries of 18.7%. The most
satisfied, the Swiss –Switzerland is considered one of the most boring
counties
in Europe. The USA had the next lowest rate of dissatisfaction after
Switzerland.
What does one make of this surprising finding? I think that “complaining”
is a national pastime in Italy. So I am not sure that the Italians are
so dissatisfied, but when asked about their lives, they are more likely to
complain.

Mixing Two Businesses

In Italy there are many combination optical/photo shops. So you can buy
glasses
or film for the camera. You can get contact lenses or a new lens for your
camera.

We Are Having a Heat Wave

This week there were the hottest temperatures in 100 years in June. For the
first time I saw Italian men wearing shorts. You know it is hot when
Italian men dress like Germans. The compensation for looking at the ugly
male legs is that the women wear even less clothes than usual.

Big News In Siena

Some friends of mine visited Siena a week before I did. There was only
one important story in the city. In Italy there are three levels of Soccer
leagues: A, B, and C. Each year the top four teams in the C league move
up to the B league and the bottom 4 teams in the B league move down to the
C league. It is similar for the B and A leagues. Siena next year moves
up to the A league based on its success in the B league. My friends were
there the night that Siena won the crucial game. They said the celebrating
went on all night. Even one week later, all the stores had signs, banners,
etc. heralding this triumphant event. Siena is not a large city, only 2/3
the size of Pistoia. It is historically important, but after the Black
Death
it was never again a major city in Italy. So it is grand news indeed that
Siena is in League A. Pistoia in contrast is in League C.

Electric Plugs

When you buy an appliance in Great Britain, it comes without a plug; you
go to hardware store to get a plug installed. In Italy it comes with a
plug,
but the plugs are not standard. So it may not fit in your wall socket. You
often have to go to hardware store to get an adaptor plug. Of course there
is also more than one size of adaptor plugs.

Evening Mass

I did not realize that at the Cathedral in Pistoia there is a mass every
evening. I discovered this when I visited the Cathedral one evening to show
some friends the art works there. A mass was going on; there were exactly
4 worshippers. I suppose all churches have services with low attendance
at times, but 4 people in a large Cathedral really looks sparse.

The Female Larry King

Never use a guy when a good looking gal will do — a premise of Italian TV.
I saw her on a call in show. She was there with the mike in front of her
just like Larry King. And she was wearing suspenders (not at all typical
for an Italian woman) over a we dress shirt.

Fishing in Poretta Terme

Poretta Terme is about 20 miles north of Pistoia at the end of a very nice
train ride through the mountains. I visited it twice in last few weeks. The
first time we watched from the bridge fishermen fishing in the river. The
water was very clear so you could see the fish and the bait. The fishermen
threw back all the fish they caught. I did not know if this was because
(1) the fish were too small –although they seemed to be of good size, (2)
the fishermen were only fishing for sport, not for food, or (3) this was
an area in Italy (as I know exist) where one has to throw back the fish.
A week later the water in the morning was very murky and cloudy even though
it had not rained. However, by the afternoon, it was clear again. So I
think there is some kind of industrial run off into this river, and the
fishermen
do not want to eat the fish.

A Trip to France

I planned to visit some American friends who were in Provence for a few
days. I took train to Milan and then was to take a train to Lyon France
(which I would get off of before Lyon). The Lyon train was on the Departure
Board at Milan station, but no track number was shown. This is not unusual
in Italy. I went to each track to see if the Lyon train was listed on the
sign for that track. No luck. I then looked at the general schedule which
said that this train ordinarily leaves from track 3. Not there. I waited.
Eventually the train was no longer listed on the departure board because the
departure time had passed. This was unusual even for ever inefficient
Italy. Quite unhappy, I went to refund counter with my tickets and found out
that there was a train strike in France, and this is why the train did not
go. Now the station authorities could have put “cancelled” on the departure
board for this train or not listed it at all, but that is too efficient for
Italy. I never got to France.

A Trip to Rome

There seemed to be more tourists in Rome than in Florence, but even in Rome,
when we went to the Vatican Museum around noon, the line was short. This
is the line mainly to see the Sistine Chapel, although some day I want to
spend more time in these museums (the largest in the world) seeing the other
attractions. I could not go into St. Peters because my shorts were too
short. There were paper pants available, but I have some standards!!

Newsletter Number 37

The Soccer Championship

In Europe there is a Champions’ League in Soccer which has top teams from
many countries. This year the Championship game in this League featured,
perhaps for the first time ever, two teams from Italy. Each town has its
own team, but Italians in smaller cities also follow one of the major teams
as well as their home town team. This was very clear when, after the
Championship game ended on TV, Pistoia fans of the winning team (Milan)
played their car horns and shouted for about 30 minutes. I was thankful I
did not live in Milan itself.

Clocks at the Train Station

Recently I went to catch a train in Pistoia and noticed that the main clock
in the lobby of the station had the wrong time. “No problem” I thought Ï’ll
just look at another of the station clocks.
It wasn’t until I got to the fourth clock (the last one I could fine) that I
discovered a clock with the correct time.

Proper Church Visitors

Recently I have seen visitors in churches wearing tissue paper over shirts.
They look like someone who has just stepped out of a beauty parlor or barber
shop. Then my companion figured out that these were people wearing outfits
with bare shoulders. These are supposedly not allowed in the churches. So
apparently the tour companies with whom these visitors were touring Italy,
provided them with these paper over shirts. Believe me, bare shoulders look
better than these outfits.

The Post Office

My friends Ralph and Shirlee Cavaliere from Gettysburg came to Pistoia for a
few days on their visit to Italy. They decided to mail some things home to
lighten the load of their suitcases. They prepared a box. While they were
at the Post Office, I did some errands and planned to meet them in 30
minutes in the center of town. I thought they would mail the box and then
perhaps have a little time to visit the twice weekly market in the town
square. When I got back, they were not at the meeting place. I thought
they were probably taking a little more time to see the market, but it
turned out that it took them 35 minutes to mail the package. They were
shuffled from one window to another. The second clerk did over all the work
that the first clerk had done. Ralph filled out forms in triplicate two
times.

A few years ago they did the same thing in Munich. It took 5 minutes and
their the German clerk even wrapped the package for them.

At the Folk Music Concert

I went to a concert which, from the advertising, was to be one of folk
music. Before it started a man in bedraggled clothes stood up in the front
of the theatre and began to talk. I thought he was one of the “folk”
musicians talking about the music to be played. No, he was a beggar,
telling his story of woe after which he circulated through the audience
collecting money. Can you imagine how quickly the theatre management in USA
would have evicted this guy? By the way, it was not really a folk music
concert, but even my Italian companion for this event was fooled by the
title of it.

Skiing Through Town in the Summer

One warm night in the fruit/vegetable market plaza, a young man came through
in a full ski outfit and dragged his skis over the pavement. My good friend
Sam knew this guy. I asked what was going on. Sam said this young man was
haivng a bachelor party before his upcoming marriage, part of his
“penance”for getting married was to ski through town. It’s probably a
better idea that getting impossibly drunk at a strip tease bar as they do in
the USA.

Tourism This Summer in Italy

When I visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence at the end of December there
was a 45 minute wait to get in. So when my friend Jean said she was coming
for a visit at the start of June (tourist season), I made sure to buy
advanced tickets for the Uffizi so we could walk right in. I expected to
see a very long line, but then to impress Jean as we simply walked in at our
reserved time. We did walk right in, but there was no line. Tourism is
really down in Italy. How much of it is fear of flying and how much of it
is the weak US dollar, I do not know. I do know that this year my usual
advice “Don’t come in the summer” may be wrong.

The Upscale Country Resort

At a silent auction at my church in Florence I purchased two nights at a
very swank country inn outside Florence for $100. Apparently people who live
in Florence are not interested in purchasing such an item. The place is
also a gourmet restaurant where they even have a cooking school. Needless
to say, my stay there with Jean was wonderful. This is something I really
could hardly afford at full prices. If you want a description of the food
we ordered, just drop me a line, but be prepared to be very jealous.

Prostitution in Italy

It seems to be largely a business for foreigners, from Africa and Eastern
Europe. Recently the police were investigating a prostitution ring run by
a Ukrainian woman. The police discovered that the group was also selling
babies (of the prostitutes) for adoption to the highest bidder. Now
prostitution is one thing, but selling babies is another. This made the
front pages, and I don’t things will go so well for the lady from the
Ukraine.

Memorial Day Ceremonies

I went to the American military cemetery near Florence for the Memorial Day
ceremonies. Here are buried American soldiers from part of the Italian
campaign. Present at the ceremonies were some Italian school children (When
you want to get a crowd, school kids are always a good source.), local
residents, and veterans from the 10th Mountain Division of the US Army. I
think this is the Division that Bob Dole was in, although I always wondered
how a guy from Kansas got into the Mountain Division. The cemetery is
lovely. The lawn is almost as well groomed as a putting green. The location
is beautiful. The ceremonies had typical Memorial Day speeches and the
laying of many wreathes, mostly from Italian towns, regions, and
organizations. Of course each year the WW II veterans at such occasions are
fewer and more infirm.

Bare Midriffs

In Italy the woman wear their pants below the navel. Recently a high school
wanted to institute a dress code forbidding such low cut pants. This was
treated as a humorous story on the nightly news. Italians view such
“Puritanical” gestures as pretty much a hopeless cause. I once mentioned
that a guy with a shoe fetish would go nuts in Italy; well someone with a
fetish for navels would probably die of heart attack here.

Neighborhood Stores

Italy has Supermarkets. It has a growing number of large department type
stores in a mall-type setting. Still smaller shops seem to survive. I find
that after you get to know the proprietors in the local shops, you are
pulled toward shopping there even though you can get a better price at a
larger store. I still go to the Supermarket, but I buy a lot of things too
in my neighborhood.

Giro D’Italia

This is the biggest bike race in Italy. It goes on for about 20 days in May.
Recently I watched a stage of this race on TV in which the day’s ride
ended with a steep uphill climb. The cyclists are then not going really fast
–it is enough of a problem just to get up the hill. The fans in this
instance do not just cheer from the sidelines. Some go into the road, run
alongside a cyclist, and yell encouragement (I assume it is encouragement)
in his ear. They even pour water over his head. A high level of audience
participation.

One of the great Italian bicycle riders is Marco Pantini who won the Tour De
France in the late 1990s. Then he was out of racing for a while because he
failed a drug test. He is riding in this year’s Giro D’ Italia, and the
commentators were heralding his return as a competitive cyclist. Well he is
still good, but clearly his time has passed. He was a great climber, but on
the day I watched the grueling climb, he ran out of gas, and it was sad to
see the old lion limp across the finish line.

Carabinieri Jokes

I mentioned that the Italians tell jokes about Carabinieri of the type that
are Polish jokes, hillbilly jokes, and blond jokes in USA. I discovered the
origin of this tradition. In the past (I don’t know if this is still true.)
Carabinieri were not allowed to serve in their home region. This made the
job less desirable. As a result, most of them came from the south of Italy
and spoke the southern dialect. This made them a butt of humor in other
parts of Italy.

My good friend Ralph Cavaliere from Gettysburg and his wife Shirlee visited
me for a few days this week. His parents were from Amalfi and did not speak
English at home; instead they spoke the dialect of Naples. So I got to hear
Ralph talk this dialect while he visited me and spoke with Italians. They
could all understand him, but when he goes to see his relatives in Amalfi,
the younger generation smile at him because he talks a dialect that no
longer exists in the form he learned from his parents.

Circo Aquatico

This was a traveling circus that came to Pistoia this week. Garrison Keillor
has a story he tells from Lake Wobegon about the small circus that came
there. He says it was the kind of circus where the lady who sells you the
admission tickets turns out later to be the lady who is the bareback rider
on the horse. This was exactly that kind of circus. The Aquatic part was
that it included two big fish tanks. One had piranhas, the other had sharks.
A member of the circus went into each tank. I figure they had fed the fish
so well that they were satiated and not ready to eat for a long time. It was
fun in the way that these kind of little entertainment events are fun.

Innsbruck

I met with my son Chris in Brennero which is a town on the Italian/Austrian
border. It is half way between where we each live. We went into Innsbruck
which is very beautiful. It must have been in the 1950s or 1960s that the
Winter Olympics were there. Brennero is in an area of Italy that was part
of Austria until after WW I. Before WWI the current Italian Alps were all in
Austria. Here the people all speak both German and Italian. It is much more
like Austria in looks and atmosphere than it is like the rest of Italy.
Wine must be cheaper in Italy than Austria because the town had many wine
shops.