thisweekinitaly.com

Corruption Sicilian Style

The mayor of Messena was removed from office after being found guilty of
an offense serious enough to require removal. He used his official car
(called a Blue Car in Italy) to transport him and his wife to a port from
which they embarked on a cruise. We often think of governmental corruption
as common in Italy, and especially so in Sicily, but here was an “offense”
that would hardly raise an eyebrow in the USA.

While We are Talking About Sicily

A group of citizens in the town of Corleone (that has 12,000 inhabitants)
has formed a committee to work to change the name of the city. They think
that the name has an indelible association with the Mafia thanks to Mario
Puzo’s “The Godfather.” One suggested new name is Heart of the Lion.

Christmas Season Arrives in Pistoia

Because there is no Thanksgiving holiday to intervene, Christmas displays
come early. I went to a shop selling various gift items. In front was
a figure of a full size Santa Claus who sang in English, OVER AND OVER,
“Santa Claus
is Coming to Town.” I noticed that all the inexpensive Christmas decorations
were from China. As I’ve mentioned before, Chinese goods are not as common
here as in the USA, but my guess is that they will become more and more
so.

New Train Signs

At large train stations there are signs on each platform announcing the
next train to depart from that platform. Pistoia has just had such signs
installed, well at least on three of the six platforms. They are not
functioning
yet. I will try to let you know when we finally get signs that are both
functioning and also on all six platforms. I’m not holding my breadth.

A Tour of the Bank

I recently took a tour that included the largest bank in Pistoia. It was
built at end of the 19th century to resemble a large Palazzo in Florence.
Inside it is totally decorated with frescoes and ceramics that reflect
the themes of Renaissance art as reinterpreted in the artistic styles of
the late 19th century. I had never stopped to think before that bank
buildings
are made imposing so that they inspire confidence in the depositors. In
this building the words “Prosperity” and “Savings” were used together in
some of the art work to remind the citizens why they should leave their
money with the bank. I’ve never been in a bank this ornate and beautiful
in America. I guess if artistic beauty could induce one to put money in
a bank, I would be happy to deposit all my “riches” there.

This bank sponsors art exhibits in its lobby. The one this month is of
metals designed by a Pistoia artist for special events and occasions. As
is not uncommon for such exhibits in private locations, along with the
exhibit
there is lovely catalog provided free to the viewers. This type of catalog
would be sold for $10 or $15 in an American museum.

Sexuality in Europe and the USA

In matters of sex the European nations are more like each other than they
are like the USA. This came home to me once again when I visited a museum
in Innsbruck, Austria where I was spending Thanksgiving Day with my son
Chris who came down from Germany. At the museum there was a large computer
screen on which was displayed an allegorical painting of the type common
in Middle Ages and Renaissance. It had biblical figures, the Last Judgment
(with half human/half animal creatures consigned to Hell), etc.

One could scroll over the surface of the painting on the computer screen.
When an X appeared one could click the computer mouse and on the screen
would come a short videotape by a contemporary artists illustrating the
same idea as the figure(s) on the screen. When one clicked on a figure
in Hell, suddenly there was an orgy scene from a pornographic film on the
screen. Actually it was not from a commercial film; from the appearance of
the actors
and actresses this was a short tape made especially by the artist — nobody
would pay money to see these people fornicate on a screen. They were
probably
friends of the artist helping him produce this “masterpiece.” One woman
wore sunglasses — she did not want to be fully identified. A click on
the image of Adam and Eve being thrown out of Paradise brought another
fornication scene to the computer screen, but this time with a reasonably
attractive
young couple. There was no X Rating warning on this exhibit. Just imagine
in the USA some mother and her child coming across this exhibit in the
Cleveland
Museum of Art. The next morning the story of “Pornography at the Art Museum”
would be on the front page of the Cleveland Free Press.

As my son Chris remarked “I understand it Dad, but is it art?”

Political Developments

A. The Stability of the Euro

When the Euro was established as a common currency, the participating
nations
agreed to limit their deficit in any one national budget to no more than
3% of their Gross National Product. My guess is that the nations with
stronger
currencies such as Germany and France wanted this restriction because they
feared the Euro being undermined by the less fiscally disciplined countries
such as Italy. When a country violates the 3% limit it must pay a
substantial
fine to the European Community. Well this week in a very close vote, the
participating nations decided not to fine Germany and France for their
violation
this year.

This raises a host of issues. First, are the rules only for the “little
guys” so that they don’t apply to the more powerful nations in the group?
Second, will this undermine confidence in the Euro (I hope it does so that
the Euro declines in value versus the dollar!). Third, is the 3% limit a
wise
policy or does it constrict nations from from incurring more debt when,
in fact, increased debt is a wise economic policy to stimulate their
economies?

In all nations there are groups who want more government spending. The 3%
limit does give the Italian government a strong argument in
resisting demands that would breach that limit. For example, the cost of
the state pension system is always a problem in Italy. Currently there
are negotiations on reforming the system. I can easily see the Italian
unions now saying to the government, “Don’t tell us you have to cut pensions
to keep the deficit under 3% of GNP; if Germany and France don’t live by
this rule, why should we?”

B. Judicial Reform

Proposals are on the table in Italy to reform the judicial system. As I
have noted before, judges are more powerful in Italy than in the USA. Some
claim that the judges use this power to harass political enemies. So the
reforms proposed center around this problem.

But the real problem is that the system doesn’t work for the citizens in
ways that have nothing to do with political harassment. If you are injured
in an auto crash through the clear fault of another and have, let’s say,
$20,000 in damages, the other driver’s insurance company is not going to
offer you $20,000. Instead they will make a low offer. If you don’t accept
it you face the prospect of a law suit that can take 7-10 years to come
to completion with, of course, as is always the case, no guarantee of
success
on your part. Furthermore, unlike in the USA, lawyers in Italy don’t take
your
case on a contingent fee (You pay a fee only if you win.) so you bear the
legal
costs of this long process unless you are poor enough to qualify for a free
lawyer supplied by the state. In short it is very difficult for individual
citizens to
enforce their rights through the legal system.

Another Example of Italian Style

I bought an ice cream sandwich from a vending machine. On the biscuits
on each side of the ice cream was “printed” (in a thin chocolate line)
a cartoon. So you got a laugh and then you enjoyed eating the cartoon.

The Aftermath of the Death of Italian Forces in Iraq

Italy is a much smaller country than the USA so the death of 19 persons
has a bigger impact. There was a large state funeral in Rome for the
victims.
There was a national day of morning and a 10 minute period of national
silence in honor of the dead. Italian flags, which are not much in evidence
except when the soccer team wins an international championship, were seen
more often. At a match against Poland, the Italian national soccer team
members all sang along with the national anthem– something I don’t think
always happens. There was even a big demonstration in at least one city
in honor of the fallen; in Italy street demonstrations ordinarily are the
province of the left wing.

Italy does not seem to be a highly patriotic country compared to the USA.
So this show of patriotism and unity was unusual. (Remember that one of the
political parties in the ruling coalition wants to split Italy into two
countries.) I think,
however, after a few weeks the old political divisions over the Italian role
in the Iraqi
war will reemerge; this time with more emphasis because the “cost” of that
role has now become much higher.

At the Supermarket

The Italians eat parts of animals that we don’t use in the USA. I see people
buying “hoofs” which appear to be a cross section the bottom part of the
legs.
Tripe (cow’s stomach) is also common in Italy. There are strange little
birds for
sale that are not Cornish game hens. At the checkout line, as the customer
in front of
me is placing his or her goods on the belt, I often say to myself “what’s
that?”

Getting My Permesso di Soggiorno

I haven’t quite gotten it yet for 2004. I took the additional two documents
requested to the immigration window at local police office, but it turns out
that
I needed not simply a copy of my new lease on the apartment, but a stamped
copy showing that the lease had been registered with the proper office.
I had to return again with the new copy. Now they promise that next week
my Permesso will be ready. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, I now have my codice fiscale (like a Social Security number)
which means I can get a discount card at the local supermarket (the Coop),
but when I went to get this card, I discovered I needed also the Permesso.
So
this too will have to wait.

Drying Clothes

In the rainy season (fall and early winter) it is hard to dry the clothes
outside on the line below my window. I have an inside drying rack too.
This takes a long time, but mechanical wizard that I am, I have a new
system.
I use the two large pedestal fans I bought for cooling in the summer to
blow air over the drying racks. It saves some time.

Italians generally don’t have electric dryers. I thought this was mainly
because of the high cost of electricity here and also the limited space
in many Italian apartments. I discovered, however, that electric dryers
are shunned because they are hard on the clothes. Drying clothes at a high
temperature shortens the life of the fabric.

Although some Americans like to boast (without proof) that they are “the
most free people on earth,” in fact many Americans live in subdivisions
where it
it is forbidden by deed covenant to hang clothes outside to dry. Perhaps
this is
also done by ordinance in some communities; I don’t know. I do think,
however,
that Italians would find impermissible such a limitation on their freedoms.

Buying a House or Apartment in Italy

In Italy the prices of clothes, groceries, and houses are as high as in
the USA, but Italian salaries are about 1/2 of those in the USA. If in the
USA salaries suddenly were halved, grocery and clothes prices might remain
about where they are, but the prices of housing would have to come down.
Furthermore in Italy mortgages are not easy to get because (no surprise)
it is very hard for a bank in Italy to foreclose on a mortgage. Also
mortgages
don’t exceed 70% of the cost of the residence. So how do Italians afford the
housing prices?

Of course, there is the fact that many Italians have second jobs on the side
whose income may not be reported, but these second jobs still would not
provide
all the money to cover the high housing costs.

One might think, therefore, that only the rich can afford to buy their own
house or apartment, but this is not the case. It turns out that when
Italians
buy a house, the family is the “bank.” Children borrow (or receive a gift)
from family members. Maybe grandmother sells her house to provide a down
payment for the grandchildd; grandmother then moves into an apartment in the
newly purchased residence. Of course, homes are handed down to the children
(child) in the family. After a little thought it becomes clear that this
system is possible only because of the low birth rate in Italy. Most
families
have only one child.

A Trip to the Beach

I went to Viareggio, Tuscany’s main beach town. I don’t care for such towns
in the crowded summer. It has a long boulevard that runs along the beach
with many lovely 19th century buildings. But in general it looked like an
upscale beach town in USA (and probably like a beach
town in Great Britain or France too). The businesses along the boardwalk
are similar. One big difference is that in Viareggio most of the beach
property itself is private so that you have to pay a goodly sum to rent a
chair and an umbrella for the day. The other big difference, if you come in
the summer,
is that the bathing suits, for better or worse, are much smaller.

The Deaths in Iraq of Italian Carabinieri

Of course this is big news in Italy. Unlike the USA, Italy has not had
troops at war since the end of World War II. Supporting the American side
in Iraq was far from a universally popular idea in Italy, but immediately
after Saddam’s regime fell, this issue dropped off the front pages in Italy.
Now it is back. The disagreement remains over the wisdom of the policy
of the government. I read an article in a newspaper the next day that said
that the Italian troops are not in Iraq (as the government claims) to bring
peace and stability in a time of transition. Instead they are there to
fight to put down a guerilla movement to oust foreigners from the country
and this movement had substantial popular support in Iraq. The article even
drew a parallel between those seeking to oust the USA from Iraq and the
Italian partisans seeking to drive out the Germans from Italy from 1943-45.
This is tantamount to comparing that the Iraqi opposition to the American
troops who fought in our Revolutionary War.
I doubt that in the USA, the day after so many troops were killed in a
single action, that one would find an article this blunt and harsh in
opposing
American policy. Of course, there are many others who support the
government,
but for Berlusconi, who is having serious fissures in his governing
coalition
over domestic issues, the developments in Iraq must be particularly
unwelcome.

Roll Your Own

Cigarettes are as costly here as in the USA, and Italians have less income
with which to buy them. I saw a young lady roll her own cigarette the other
day. I hadn’t seen this before, but it seems to be a quite logical response
to the high cost of cigarettes. In the 1940s one US brand cigarette
advertised
“so round, so firm, so fully packed.” When you think about this phase it
really doesn’t distinguish this brand from other brands as much as it
distinguishes this brand from hand rolled cigarettes. It hints that hand
rolled cigarettes
in the past were real competition to manufactured cigarettes. Maybe this
will happen again, but after I watched the young lady roll her own, I noted
that this cigarette surely was not going to last long after she lit it –
it’s hard to make it round, firm and fully packed.

A Book Presentation

When a book is published by a local author or about a local topic, there
is often a formal book presentation ceremony with the author present. This
involves a discussion of the book. I went to one recently which was the
presentation of a biography of Harry Smith titled “American Magus.” This
ceremony also showed a film about Harry Smith. Here I was in Italy attending
a discussion and a film about a “famous” American whom I did not know at
all. Smith was a guru of the Beat Generation who died in 1991. He made
a number of experimental animated films, some of which reminded me of the
introductory material used for the “Monty Python Flying Circus” TV show.
Probably his greatest achievement was assembling in 1952 the four record
set “American Folk Music Anthology” that was issued by Folkway Records
and became the sacred script of the folk music revival. Beyond that he was
basically a guy who read voraciously with a photographic memory, collected
anything he could get his hands on from string figures to Scottish kilts,
and somehow discovered parallels and connections within all these materials
that other people found to be brilliant. The kind of guy you had to meet
personally and talk with to really appreciate his genius.

Street People in Italy

They exist. You see more of them in the big cities. They are around the
train stations in Florence and Rome, but in these stations, the Waiting Room
closes at 11. In Pistoia and Prato on the other hand, the station Waiting
Room stays open all night and a group of street people sleep there. There
is also an overnight homeless shelter in Pistoia. Italy, like the USA,
emptied its state mental hospitals in the 1970s, thus sending many mentally
disturbed people into the streets. Italy is a country of
many, many rules. I doubt very much that Trenitalia (the national train
company) has no rules about when Waiting Rooms should be closed. So why
is it different in Florence and Pistoia? Because, as in so many other
things,
the rules are not always followed. There are not so many homeless folks
in Pistoia that they overflow the Waiting Room overnight as they would in
Florence. So the head of the Pistoia station keeps the Waiting Room open.
In Italy thousands of rules to make life look very formal, but selective
disregard of the rules that makes life often quite informal.

Mystic River

This new film directed by Clint Eastwood is showing in Italy. In the USA
it was a little controversial because of a scene, that Eastwood refused to
take out, showing a priest not simply as a pedophile but as a kidnapping
pedophile. This scene did not cause a ripple in Italy. I saw the film
first in Italian and then in English. I could follow the story about 85%
by watching it in Italian, but I certainly missed many of the fine points
of the dialog. I guess I will be truly proficient in Italian if I can watch
“My Dinner with Andre” in Italian (if it was ever dubbed into Italian).
This film consists solely of two men talking over dinner so that the
pictures
on the screen provide no hint as to the substance of the dialog.

Greetings from Germany

I am in Germany this week with my son Chris who had an appendectomy on
October 27. Although there were no complications, they kept him in the
hospital for a week to be sure. In Germany you don’t have to leave the
hospital after two days because the insurance won’t pay for any more days.
Chris of course LOVES my role as cook, laundress, maid, etc. I return to
Italy on Monday.

Halloween in Italy

The American tradition of decorations, costumes, and trick or treat is
starting to enter Italy. More than a few stores have Halloween decorations.
I saw a few trick or treaters who apparently go to sweet shops and probably
to relatives to get their loot. Ordinary homes don’t have candy for the
kids. For the candy stores giving out treats now can be considered an
investment for a future in which people will buy candy for kids who come to
their door. If there is money to be made from a tradition, you can be sure
that the commercial interests in Italy will promote it even if it is an
import from the USA.

Italians at a Lecture

I went to a lecture in Florence by a prominent history of Astronomy. At the
end there was time for a few questions. When an Italian gets the microphone
to ask a question, he or she first launches into a mini-speech to establish
the credentials and knowledge which authorize him or her to make a query.
It is often a couple of minutes until one gets to the question itself, and
you are left to wonder if the motivation of the speaker is to get an answer
to a question or just to show off his or her speaking skills and knowledge.

The Irreligious Italians

Most Italians don’t go to church (except for weddings, baptisms, funerals,
etc.) Many will express open contempt for the Church. But if you were to
go with one of these skeptics to visit a church, let’s say to view a
particular work of art, it’s a good bet that he or she will start the visit
by dipping a hand in the holy water and making the sign of the Cross.

Jazz Concert

I went to see a jazz concert by well known Italian jazz pianist Renato
Sellani (an elderly gentleman) and an accompanying group of young jazz
musicians. It was at Villa Groppoli outside of Pistoia.. This villa is now
a private club for upper class types from Pistoia and surrounding areas. The
locations for such concerts in Pistoia are often so elegant and lovely, that
it is a joy to go even if the music is not great. I notice when I got to
concerts that the same people in the audience at a classical music concert
are likely to be seen at a jazz concert. Italian music fans tend to be
quite catholic in their tastes. The evening was introduced by a prominent
attorney from Pistoia. My friend told me that this lawyer made his start
defending the labor unions in the turbulent 1970s. The labor unions were
then allied with the Communist party of Italy whose symbol was the hammer
and sickle. The lawyer made so much money defending them that his nickname
became “the Golden Hammer and Sickle.”

Health Warning on Cigarette Packages

I wrote earlier about the various forms of this warning on cigarette
packages. I saw these also in Germany; it may be a rule of the European
Union. I noticed one I had not seen before which stated that smoking is
harmful for the skin. I believe it noted that smoking ages the skin
prematurely. Now I doubt that many smokers quit smoking because of these
warnings. Since the health risks of smoking are now general knowledge, I
doubt that non smokers abstain because of the warnings on packages. Still
if there is any hope for these warnings to be effective, in Italy I would
give preference to the one about the skin. For women at least the idea that
smoking might make you less attractive responds to a concern in Italy much
more important than fear of cancer, heart disease, emphysema, etc.

Late Trains

In Germany I notice that the stop of a train at each station is about
one-half as long in duration as in Italy. In Italy the stop is far longer
than necessary to discharge and board passengers. What is most interesting,
however, is that if an Italian train is, let’s say, 30 minutes late, the
stops at each station do not get abbreviated in order to make up a little
lost time. Making up lost time seems to be an alien concept.

Protecting (Well at Least Not Lowering) the Reputation of the USA

In the Munich train station I went to a public pay toilet. It was before 7
am in the morning and I was still a little sleepy. In Italy at such toilets,
you pay at a coin machine, enter a small hall, and then go to right or left
to the appropriate restroom. I did not notice that in Munich there was a
separate machine for both men’s and women’s rest rooms. So I put my coin
in, and soon found myself entering the women’s room. As soon as I discovered
my error, I quickly dove under the turnstile (that I simply could have
walked back through), and went into the correct room. I thought what a fool
I must look like, but then I noted that I was wearing my baseball cap with
the Canadian flag on it that my Canadian friends Phil and Siga Roy had just
sent me as a present. So to “the bemused Germans”, I wasn’t a stupid American, I
was a dumb Canadian. Maybe I could get the American Consulate in Florence
to pay me to wear that hat all the time.