thisweekinitaly.com

On Your Next Visit to Florence

Some friends visited Florence recently (with a side trip to Pistoia). While
in Florence they went to a restaurant recommended to them as the best in
Italy, perhaps the best in Europe. The recommendation came with a warning
that the bill might reach $200 per person. Well it reached $400 per
person—can food ever be THAT GOOD? When friends come to see me they often
say “Let us treat you to dinner Bob. Where would you like to go?” I’m
getting the name of the this restaurant in Florence so I have the proper
reply to this question.

A Shop You May Not See in the USA

I’ve mentioned that lingerie shops are common in Italy, but not just for
women. Pistoia has a shop dedicated to men’s underwear. I don’t recall
seeing such a shop in the USA.

Gasoline Pump Instructions

In Italy you can get gas 24 hours a day. You can insert money or a credit
card to use the pump after the station is closed. Recently with some
American friends we stopped to get gas. The instructions on pump were
Italian and some other languages including English. The only problem was
that the English instructions (partly obliterated) included words that made
no sense to me. Were they the British words for objects that have a
different name in the USA or was it just a botched translation?
We had a little difficulty which came to an end when I finally read the
Italian instructions which I could understand better than the English ones.

Picking Olives

This year there was no big drought as there was last year, and so we had an
olive harvest. I discovered that it takes 8 kilograms of olives, about 18
pounds to make one liter of olive oil. Sometimes a single tree will yield
less that 8 kg.

The Dollar

The dollar is going down and down versus the Euro. The high cost of oil may
be adversely affecting US economic prospects, but I would think that it has
a similar effect on European prospects. Once again I can’t understand why
the dollar is declining. I once suggested that perhaps the low opinion that
Europeans have of George Bush may be lowering the value of the dollar. Some
people, more versed in these matters than I, wrote to tell me that I was
wrong and suggested other theories for the dollar’s decline. These other
theories had some explanatory power, but also often did not always explain
why the dollar dropped at a particular time. Of course it may be that there
is no one single factor that explains the value of the dollar against the
Euro. A recent editorial in the International Herald Tribute did attribute
some of the decline to the fiscal policies of the Bush administration.

The presidential election does provide a possible opportunity to test my
hypothesis that Bush’s reputation is behind part of the decline in the value
of the dollar. If Kerry wins and the value of the dollar abruptly goes up,
it would be some evidence that my suspicion was right. If Kerry is elected
and the dollar doesn’t go up or even goes down, then my theory seems to be
wrong. If Bush is elected, I don’t expect any immediate change in the
dollar in that the influence, if any, of his policies has probably already
been taken into account in the dollar’s value.

Election Night Party

The Tuscan American League is sponsoring an election night party in
Florence. It starts at 9 pm and ends at 6 am. At 6 am (midnight in New
York) the results of the elections should start to be clear unless it is as
close as it was in 2000. One of my Italian friends who thought about going
with me to the party decided not to in part because he sees it as a possible
target for a terrorist attack.

Antennas for Cell Telephones

In the USA there is a controversy about the possible ill effects of
microwave transmissions. Apparently this exists in Italy too. A recent
newspaper headline announced that antenna towers for cell phone
transmissions are forbidden near schools, hospitals, and parks. I think the
Italians are more suspicious about technology than the Americans.
Genetically modified foods are much less common here – perhaps forbidden.
Italians also are much enamored of organically grown food.

Photo Shop Business

At my favorite photo shop the daughter of one of the owners has entered the
business. The problem is that this is a business with a bleak future. As
digital photography replaces films, there is less need for a shop that sells
film, develops film, etc. People now print their own photos on the computer
or simply store them on disk. What will be left is the business of selling
cameras and selling the chips to go in the camera – a severely reduced
business.

Trip To Siena

The Cathedral in Siena has a large series of designs in the floor which are
made of engraved marble. Unfortunately as people walk over these designs,
the engraving is obliterated. So almost all the designs are covered, but a
few times each year they are uncovered. With some friends I happened to
arrive in Siena on a day when the designs were uncovered. You could see
where some of them had been damaged over the years by being walked over, but
most were still in decent shape.

After the trip to the Cathedral, we went to a nearby museum that had a
fascinating exhibit of works by master art forgers (doing pictures in the
old Sienese style) of the 19th and 20th centuries. Of course it was hard to
tell the forgeries from original works. Now if some of these paintings were
sold merely as a modern painting in the old style, they were not forgeries.
But many were sold as original Renaissance works of art. Even major art
experts were fooled by some of them. Some of them ended up in museums. One
had to be able not only to paint in the old style but also to “age” the
paintings so they looked very old. The artists were very skillful—one
artist often painting works in the styles of many different old masters.
All this raises the question of whether some of these works were excellent
original works of art in their own right.

In the News

Panorama is a weekly magazine in Italy like Time or Newsweek. This week’s
cover shows a seductively dressed lady on a bed with a half dressed man in
the background. The cover Article is titled “Grand Motels of Italy.” The
description of article on cover is “Sex 2004. No more in squalid rooms but
in those elegant and full of comfort. Hidden love finds its ideal location
in the super hotels by the hour. Here is a list of the best of them.”

Such motels exist in USA, but I don’t see them as the cover story on a
national magazine. I happened across one of these by chance many years ago.
I exited the Ohio Turnpike late at night looking for the closest motel
with a decent bed. It turned out to be a combination motel/liquor store
with adequate (barely) accommodations. When I turned on the TV. I was
surprised to view an X rated film. Ohio has license plates that list the
county. The next morning I discovered that our car was not only the single
car from out of state, it was the only car not from the same county as the
motel.

Just Like the Good Ole USA

In America at times fights break out among the parents at Little League or
Midget Football games. I saw a headline in Pistoia: “Brawl Among Parents at
Youth Soccer Game.” As I’ve often said, there is nothing bad in the USA
that you also cannot find in Italy.

A Trip to Venice

I went on a one day tour to Venice to see a large exhibition of the works of
Salvador Dali and also to visit the Museum of Peggy Guggenheim. The last
two times I was in Venice it was cloudy; this time it was sunny, and the
full beauty of Venice was obvious. The water from the Grand Canal was high.
We had to wade through a small puddle to enter the restaurant for lunch.
The tour was on a tight schedule –always a mistake in Italy. We entered
the Dali museum late, but out guide still wanted to show us almost all the
paintings. So we raced through them, and the Italian was being spoken a
little too fast for me. Dali was a painter with a private vocabulary of
symbols so an explanation of the paintings was necessary (except for his
early paintings which were not symbolic). Dali was perhaps the greatest
self-promoter in art in the 20th century, but I don’t find his work
particularly accessible.

Washing Clothes and Dishes –American Style

European washing machines take about two hours to complete a cycle. My new
washing machine, and also my new dishwasher, both have a fast cycle. To me
these seem to do just fine. Less cost for water and electricity (these
machines heat the water internally) and less time.

A MIRACLE

I don’t know where this ranks in the great miracles in history, but here is
the story. I went to renew my Permesso di Soggiorno. This took me about
nine trips to the police station the first year and six or seven the second
year.The first time I went this year, I was too late to get on the list
for that day. The second time I went, I got on list, saw the clerk within
an hour, and had my application accepted without the requirement of any
additional documents. Now I still have to go to get the completed form
after about a month, but at least so far things are going smoothly.

A Very Small Example of How Public Things Work in Italy

I now do a lot of my computer work at a free Internet Point provided by the
city of Pistoia. I appreciate this service. I note that the two people who
work at this office never clean the keys on the computer keyboards. This is
not the end of the world, but is a small example of how in Italy it is a
GREAT DEAL to get a public position, and, since it is secure for life, the
workers often don’t do the greatest job.

Trip to La Pietra

I wrote recently about visiting the Villa of I Tatti of Bernard Berenson
(now owned by Harvard) . Berenson was a great art connoisseur. Recently I
visited La Pietra, the former villa of Harold Acton.
Acton was a great art collector, not buying the best works but buying many
works of decent quality. At start of 20th century many villas around
Florence were purchased by foreigners, especially English and American. La
Pietra was brought by Harold’s parents Arthur and Hortense Acton. After
their deaths, Harold inherited the villa and was a leader in the expatriate
society of Florence. He was a poet, novelist, and finally a historian.
Both Harold and his brother (who died in 1944) were gay so there were no
heirs. Harold left the villa and $25 million to New York University which
uses it as a study center. At both I Tatti and La Pietra, the expatriate
owners went to great length to restore the gardens. At La Pietra the Italian
owners had put in fashionable English style gardens, and the Actons replaced
these with Italian renaissance gardens. In Italian the word “villa” does
not signify simply a house but a house with substantial land around it. For
Harvard and NYU the expense of keeping up the gardens at these two places
probably is as much as maintaining the house and art works. In general few
of the great villas remain as family residences. They have been converted
to commercial use or are owned by organizations (such as Harvard and NYU)
that can afford to keep them up.

Although this was a great gift to NYU, the gift is still clouded. An
Italian woman has claimed to be the the daughter of an illegitimate child of
Arthur Acton. In 2003 she won a decision in an Italian Court to exhume her
mother’s body for DNA testing to prove her claim. I don’t know what has
happened since then. Needless to say when you take the guided tour of La
Pietra, this little controversy is not mentioned.

An Important Birthday

Recently Florentine poet Mario Luzi celebrated his 90th birthday. This was
a major story on the national nightly news. The celebration was shown and
there was a story about his life and works. I can’t imagine this level of
coverage in the United States for the 90th birthday of a poet. My guess is
that many Americans could not name a single, important, living American
poet.

New Ticket Machines at Railroad Station

In Italian railroad stations there are two kinds of automatic ticket
machines. In the large cities there are machines with a computer screen on
which you can choose one of five languages. These machines show the train
schedules as well as issuing tickets. In smaller stations like Pistoia, the
machines are only in Italian and only issue tickets. Now in Pistoia there
are new, more modern, machines. I cannot tell, however, what features these
new machines have because, even though they have been installed in the
station for a few months, they still are not working. Meanwhile, they never
did put the large signs announcing the next train on the last two of the
five platforms at the station. Well three out of five ain’t bad.

Lone Red Sox Fan

Greg the half owner of Pizza place near my house is from Massachusetts. I
stopped in to see him after the Red Sox won the American League Championship
series. He had watched the first and third games of series (on satellite
TV), but gave up at that point until the seventh game which he also viewed.
His only frustration was that there was nobody in Pistoia with whom he
could talk about baseball. (He was in the same position as an Italian in
Gettysburg would be in if his team won the Italian Soccer League.) So Greg
was glad I stopped in.

A Trip to Germany

I went to Germany to see my son and his fiancée. I missed my train in Prato
because it changed platforms of departure without an announcement; I forgot
be as alert as I should be. In Germany the weather was crisp, sunny, and
cold. This kind of weather does not exist in Pistoia. In the winter it
does not get below freezing, and it is almost always gray and cloudy. The
Germany weather reminded me of the United States.

On the News

Italy always goes from crisis to crisis on the news. The first three
stories on the nightly news recently were as follows. First the head of the
Bank of Italy said that the national budget was in a position of grave
crisis. Keeping the budget deficit within the guidelines required for
participation in the Euro is a big problem for Italy because this is a
country that in the past simply ran budget deficits to “solve” any problem.
The second story was that Italy had slipped appreciably in a study rating
various national economies in terms of their “competitiveness.”Italy was
number 47, just behind Botswana. Number one was Finland. I don’t
understand how this study determined competitiveness because China, to me a
VERY COMPETITIVE economy, was number 45. Maybe the study concerned internal
competitiveness of the economy rather than external. (A friend told me that
the ratings may have been on % increase in productivity in the last year.)
The third story stated that one-tenth of the families in Italy lived below
the poverty line (less than 870 € income per month) and another ten per
cent were at risk of falling below the poverty line. Poverty was more
common in the south of Italy than in the north. Since Italians are hardly
faithful at paying income taxes, I don’t know how the government determines
the actual income of the average family.

At the Newsstand

In Italy at news stands, they sell “collectible” items such as small ship
models (in a series) or special dishes. Recently I saw the following
collectibles for sale (often with a booklet attached): bracelet, ship model,
gravy dish and ladle, special cigarette lighter, framed butterfly, miniature
painting, and miniature Zen sand garden with rocks (to relieve stress and
bring well being),

In addition magazines often include a gift item packaged with them. Music
magazines almost always have a CD included. Other items I saw with
magazines at the newsstand were: watch, umbrella, CD — 50 years of Rock
music (not with a music magazine), earnings, satin scarf, multiple function
pocket tool, portable massager, and pocket address book

“The Captain’s Concubine”

This is name of a book by Donald Weinstein that I recently read. It concerns
an armed fight that took place in Pistoia between two prominent citizens on
March 21, 1578. This fight eventually led to three legal cases – one case
in the city court, one in the ecclesiastical court, and one in the court of
the Order of Santo Stefano to which both of the parties belonged. It is a
fascinating look at life in renaissance Pistoia, I mentioned once that
Pistoia (and much of Italy) is privately clean (houses are immaculate
inside) and publicly dirty. Here are two items from the book. In 1494 the
Duke of Urbino commented on a trip to Pistoia that the city was lovely but
it “was not kept clean or orderly.” In 1559 the Pistoia city officials
complained “our public streets are always full of dirt, stones and
excrement, and everyone is more concerned to clean his house by throwing
things out than to keep the streets clean of trash and garbage.”

The book points out that in Italy at this time there were strict and complex
rules governing duels, but that the usual altercation was like this one –
one party laid in waiting for his enemy (often with a few helpers) and then
ambushed him without warning. The reason for the fight, as the title
indicates, was a woman. This is no surprise. Another non surprise: the guy
with the best lawyer won in court.

It is a book of only 170 pages. I recommend it highly.

Constitutional Reform

The center-right majority in Italy is proposing some constitutional reforms
– primarily increased federalism with devolution of some powers to the
regions and limiting of the powers of the judiciary (Actually this may be a
proposal separate from the constitutional reform, but it is similarly
controversial) . Naturally the center-left opposition is against these
changes. I went to a discussion of these changes which took place in
Pistoia (a leftist area) and was naturally opposed. I can’t even determine
for sure if the opposition claims (1) the proposed changes are being made in
an illegal way and (2) the changes are bad or simply that the changes are
bad. When I ask Italians to clarify this point, some of them too aren’t
certain. I think these changes will have to go to a national referendum if
passed by the legislature.

The Italian left seems to have a lot of reverence for the Italian
constitution which was established (1948) at a time when the left was more
powerful. This is ironic because both the left and right in Italy think
that the governmental system functions very poorly. So one is proud of a
constitution that oversees a system that never works.In fact, I think
that in Italy if you ask someone “What will be the good result if the party
you support comes to power in Italy?”, the answer will not be that X or Y
good will result but that it will be “less bad” than if the other side wins.

Checking Account

When I came to Italy I set up a checking account. Then I discovered that
Italians almost never use checks. Furthermore, even though there is a small
amount of interest paid on the checking account, there are also monthly fees
and taxes on the account. So even if you don’t use it, the balance goes
down because the expenses are more than the interest paid.I converted it
to a savings account. I had to sign my name 10 times on different forms.
There is a charge for closing the account and an 11 € ($ 14) charge for
transferring the balance to the saving account. You have to turn in your
check book when you close the checking account. It takes a month to
activate the new savings account. The Italians invented modern banking in
the 15th century; unfortunately they still seem to be using the 15th century
rules.

Coverage of American Election

There is a lot of coverage of the US Presidential Election here. The debates
were televised live, but they took place at 3 am in Italy.

Paying Ransom to Terrorists (one more time)

I mentioned last week that Italy did not agree to release jailed terrorists
in 1978 in exchange for the return of the kidnapped Aldo Moro. Actually Moro
was an ex premier, not premier at this time. I suggested some possible
reasons why the “ransom” was not paid. A friend told me that the official
reason the government would not do the exchange was that some of those
jailed had killed policemen and judges. The cabinet official in charge of
the police forces said that releasing these terrorists would cause much
discontent among law enforcement officers and even cause them to become less
reliable.

Speaking English

I mentioned the problem that the man from Sweden had finding someone who
could speak English in a bank in Pistoia. In all fairness I need to report
that when I went to my bank recently, as I asked a question in Italian, the
teller replied “you can speak English if you prefer.”

Writing English

Recently I wrote in a message to a friend “I have a friend in the USA who is
seeking to find music by an obscure Italian composer.” Before coming to
Italy I would have written “I have a friend who is looking for…” The
phrase “seeking to find” is a translation into English of the Italian way of
expressing this thought (cerco di trovare). So obviously I was thinking in
Italian while writing in English.

Why Did You Move to Italy?

This was one of the questions I addressed in a recent newsletter. An
American friend sent me the article below with the suggestion that perhaps
it was my affinity for Italian cultural values that at least in part
motivated my move here. Of course this story concerns those “wild and crazy
Swiss” who are obviously too radical for the Italians to understand.

ROME (Reuters) – Making love in a bar lavatory does not breach public
decency
laws so long as the door is shut, an Italian court ruled on Tuesday.

A Swiss couple was accused of committing obscene acts after the owner of a
bar in the northern Italian town of Como caught them having sex in the
lavatory, Ansa news agency reported. State prosecutors demanded a six-month
prison term for the un-named male defendant and a five-month term for his
partner. But Judge Luciano Storaci threw out the case, saying public decency
was not offended because the door was closed. However, he fined the Swiss
man 200 euros ($246) for breaking the lock on the lavatory after he was
caught with his trousers down. “If the barman had given me time to get
dressed then nothing would have happened,” Ansa quoted the Swiss woman as
saying.

Soccer

Americans often tell me that soccer is interesting, but too low scoring to
be a sport they enjoy watching.Some American sports, e.g. ice hockey or
baseball, can have low scoring contests too, but soccer is probably a lower
scoring sport than these two. In Italy every man seems to be a soccer
expert. So the viewers get enjoyment from plays and attempts that do not
result in a goal. They understand and appreciate the very subtle maneuvers
that take place on the field. If you see a baseball game that ends 1-0 in
the USA, some fans may say it was a boring game, not enough scoring. On the
other hand, someone who understands baseball very well can get enjoyment
from various strategic moves and decisions (e. g. an outfielder moving
slightly to the left when a certain batter comes up and then making a catch
he could not have otherwise made), that the average fan does not even
notice.

The Ransom Paid for the Release of the Two Italian Aid Workers

I wrote last week that everyone in Italy (despite what the government said)
figures that some kind of a ransom was paid to the kidnappers in Iraq. In
fact. someone told me that the government now admits that a ransom was paid.
When I mentioned this to an American he said “that’s foolish; it will
just encourage more kidnapping.” I think many Americans would see it that
way – what is the best action in terms of a long run policy to stop
kidnapping. In Italy the issue is less rational and more emotional. Every
night on the TV you see the family of the victims interviewed. The issue
for Italians is “how can we restore these two lovely girls to their
families.” If getting the girls back requires doing something that may not
be wise in “the long run,” the Italians I think would rather do whatever it
takes to solve the problem now and worry about the long run later.
Remember, before it became part of the group that uses the Euro, Italy had
large budget deficits every year.

to be fair, Italians don’t always pay the ransom. When the premier of Italy
was kidnapped in 1976 by Italian terrorists who demanded the release of
imprisoned comrades as in exchange for the release of the Premier, the
government refused and the Premier was murdered. It may have been impossible
to convert the kidnapping of the Premier from a “government problem” into a
”family problem.” Also the risk of giving into the demands of kidnappers in
this case might not have been simply “additional Italians kidnapped in
future” but “more Italian political leaders kidnapped in the future” Now
that’s a risk to which government officials may have really have paid
attention.

A Visit from My Sister and Brother-in-Law

My sister Laura and her husband Fred were in Florence for two days.
Although
Fred can read and watch TV, he is legally blind. Always when they take
trips, my sister talks about how she worries that Fred will fall while
walking. This is a special problem on the uneven sidewalks of old cities.
When I arrived at their hotel, Laura was about to leave with a group to
visit a museum; Fred had decided to skip this visit. So I went up to the
hotel room to visit with him. Soon he got a phone call; I could here the
person at the other end say “Fred, listen closely.” This is never a good
sign. On the way to the museum Laura had tripped and fell. She had split
open her lip and chipped one of her front teeth. She was at the Emergency
Room of a nearby hospital. The doctors there sewed up her lip and removed
the fragment of her tooth that was embedded in the back of her lip. When
she asked me what the bill was, I told her that tourists are treated for
free in Italy. Fred asked her if she was in pain; she said “no.” He
replied “you may be when the Novocain wears off.” Laura said “what
Novocain?” The treatment was free but did not include a pain-killing shot
before the stitches were put in.

Later we went to a restaurant. When the bill came, it had the number 66 at
bottom. I thought this was the total. My sister started to pay this amount
(You know I allow visitors to treat me for a meal), but then it seemed high
so she added up the items on bill. It turned out that there were two totals
on the bill 34 € or 66,341 old Italian Lira. This restaurant still puts
both prices on the bill. Most Italians still think in Lira. My sister noted
that if she had left 70 € (the mistaken total of 66 € plus a tip), the
waiter would have wanted to take her home with him.

Italian Hospitals

When I told an Italian friend about my sister’s experience in the hospital
with no Novocain shot, my friend said that 25 years ago, when she went to an
Italian Hospital to have a baby, the patient had to bring his or her own
clothes, dishes, silverware, toilet paper, etc. But there was no hospital
bill. Today the hospital serves food on plastic and does provide toilet
paper.

At the Thrift Shop at My Church

I noted once before that the monthly used clothing Thrift Shop at my church
has many transvestite customers. When I arrived early for the Thrift Shop
recently, I found myself waiting with a lot of other customers for the door
to open. Very few men were among those in line. So I looked around asking
myself “who, if any, are the transvestites in this group?” Obviously one
looks for larger “women” with stronger “masculine” features. Even with
these hints, I could not comfortably identify anyone in the group as an
obvious transvestite. As with other matters of style, the Italians do it
very, very well.

Selling Below Cost
I discussed in an earlier newsletter, that the Italian law that prohibits a
store
from selling items below cost. My friend who told me about this law says
that there are some exceptions. A store can have a limited number of “below
cost” sales, but these must be registered in advance with the appropriate
government agency. I notice the phrase “below cost” in numerous sales
flyers and advertisements in store windows. Also in the January and August
sales discounts of 70-80% are not uncommon. Such a discount should often
bring the price “below cost.” So perhaps the law limiting the sale of items
below cost is, like so many other laws in Italy, either not enforced or
subject to loopholes that make it ineffective.

A Concert sponsored by the “Club of Europe”

The Club of Europe is a local organization that sponsors cultural events
usually concentrating on other nations in Europe. Recently I went to a
concert sponsored by this group of a local band from Pistoia (of some renown
beyond Pistoia) that plays music of other cultural traditions. It reminded
me how enthusiastic Italian audiences are. I’ve not attended rock concerts
in the USA, but the audience (of all ages) in America at a concert like
this one would have been less boisterous in its approval. I have an American
friend who is an opera fan. In WWII he was stationed in Naples for a while.
He went to the opera there. He had never seen opera fans cry, laugh, and
cheer in the USA as he saw in Naples. Had they been displeased, they would
have whistled (the Italian boo) in a way he had never seen in the USA.

True Love Prevails

The local paper had a one-page interview with a 73 year old former Catholic
priest who left the priesthood recently to live with his 30 year old
girlfriend and their three year old son. When it was discovered that he
had a pregnant girlfriend, the Bishop offered him two options

1. leave the
   priesthood or
2. a transfer to another area.

The option of transferring a
priest who has gotten into sexual difficulty should be familiar to people in
the USA. He choose to stay with the woman. She has been divorced civilly
from her first husband, but has not yet gotten that marriage annulled. As I
wrote once before annulments are not “automatic” in Italy as they are in the
USA. As a result the priest and she are not yet married. The priest is
certainly not an “outcast” here. He volunteers helping work with elderly
priests who are in a senior citizens home in Pistoia.

Change of Traffic Patterns

As I mentioned once before, when the city changes the traffic patterns in
Pistoia, all hell breaks loose among the public. There are of course many
more one way streets here than in typical city in the USA. To get to the
city “gate” two blocks from my house, one goes there directly on a bicycle,
but in a car one drives about eight blocks. The basic problem is too many
cars, not enough room. So as the old saying goes, changing traffic patterns
here is “like rearranging the deck chairs on the
Titanic. ”

Italian Taking a Photo

Recently when I was with an American friend in Florence, we asked a
bystander to take our picture with our cameras. Usually such a person will
look through the viewfinder, see that the two people are in the photo, and
click the shutter. The Italian took the time to try two different angles
and then was meticulous in framing the photo. Of course, this might not
happen every time, but it was a small illustration about how anything in the
realm of the artistic gets more attention and care in Italy.

Discussion Show on Italian TV

I was watching a show in which the public is asked to call in its views on
the topic being discussed by the experts. It was not a “shock” show like
Sallie Jessie Raphael or Geraldo in the USA. The topic was “Married men
who visit prostitutes –do they feel guilty and do their wives feel
betrayed?” Maybe this topic is discussed on TV in USA too, but to me it was
a small example of how prostitution seems more common in Italy than in the
USA.

Dog Show

For those of you who missed the Westminster Kennel Show this year in the
USA, we have a special dog show in Pistoia today. It is “Il Piu Bel
Bastardino” – the most beautiful mutt.

Thank You

Many thanks to those of you who wrote me a congratulatory note on the birth
of my granddaughter and the engagement of my son. My notice of this news
did have one mistake; the metric weight of Athena at birth was 4 kg not 2
kg.

Rejoicing in Italy

All of Italy rejoiced at the release of the two young women Italian hostages
in Iraq. On the 30 minute news the night of the release this story took up
20 minutes. Because Italy is so much smaller than the USA, stories that are
“national” here receive the kind of intensive coverage that important
“local” stories receive in the USA. The kidnapping of these two presented
political problems for the Italian left. All of the Italian left opposed
sending Italian troops to Iraq. Now some leftist parties favor the
immediate return of these troops while others say, that given what has
happened, the Italian troops (sent in mistake) still need to remain until
the situation is stable. To this division was added the issue of the two
hostages. Calling for the withdrawal of Italian troops while hostages are
being held looks like giving into blackmail even though those taking this
position called for the removal of troops before the kidnapping took place.

Despite what the government says, the Italians believe that a ransom was
paid for the release of these two.

A Typical Story

I ran across a small art gallery in Pistoia of an American woman. I said to
her “Let me guess. You came to Italy to study (art), met an Italian, married
him, and stayed.” She said yes. This story is extremely common among
American women married to Italians. I assume, as everywhere, some have
happy marriages and others don’t. What I don’t know is if these women, at
the point they got married in Italy, realized how very difficult it is for
an America woman (or any American) to establish a career in Italy. As is
typical for such women, the artist has part-time jobs.I meet few American
women who have regular full time employment in Italy. Obviously this can be
a problem if

1. meeting career aspirations is important for a woman’s
   happiness or
2. because of divorce or otherwise, she must earn a good
   living on her own

Following in Your Parents’ Footsteps

In the USA, the son of a lawyer or doctor is surely more likely to follow in
the career of his mother or father than a typical person. For craft unions
in highly lucrative fields, union membership often is passed on through
families. Nevertheless, most Americans don’t follow in their parents’
footsteps. In Italy, where a full time secure job is hard to find, the
expectation is much higher that a child will do the same work as a
parent.The child has an “inside track” for such a job that it is very
difficult to abandon.