thisweekinitaly.com

Library Fabroiana

In the 17th century there was a Cardinal Fabroni in Rome who was from
Pistoia.  He established his library in Pistoia.  It is one large room that
is absolutely lovely.  It still contains only his original collection of
books which are available to scholars. There are three tiers of books and
the woodwork in the room is exceptional.  I think it is very little used; it
is open two days a week.  It was, however, used as a scene in an Italian
film.  As always in Italy when you visit some place with few visitors, the
attendant in charge has you sign the visitor’s book.  I always figure this
is so the attendant can justify his or her job

An Irish Pub

Pubs with an Irish theme are popular in Italy. In Pistoia we have, among
others, the Molly McGuire’s pub.  Out of curiosity I stopped by there on the
night of St. Patrick’s Day to check out the festivities. It was closed (only
open for lunch in the off season).  I guess it is Irish in name only.

Government Accounting in Italy

I have a friend who teaches English in a Center financed by the city of
Pistoia.  The city is about to end this  program for financial reasons. The
teachers at the Center are considering grouping together to continue to run
this program as a cooperative. I asked the obvious question -if the city is
losing money on this program how can the teachers afford to run it?  I was
told that the program is a money maker.  So why is the city closing it for
budgetary reasons?  Well the income from the program goes into the general
city budget which is spread over all city departments, but the expenses for
the program are all borne by the department that supervises it.  So for that
department there are many more expenses than income from the program.  After
the city ends the program, the city will be poorer, but that department’s
budget will balance.

Italian Newspaper Headline

“Man Murdered by Drunk Romanian”  There is no reluctance here to mention the
race or ethnic background of criminals.

A Matter of Toilet Paper

At least three years ago, perhaps more,  the state railroad system of Italy
(whose initials were FS) was changed to a semi-private system, Trenitalia.  
Recently in a bathroom on a train I noted that the toilet paper still had
the initials FS printed on it.  This tells me that over three years ago some
supplier sold A  BIG AMOUNT  (maybe a 10 year supply) of toilet paper to the
train company.  Even though I am sure the old state-run system was highly
inefficient, many Italians speak fondly of it.  With large government
subsidies, it may well have provided better service than the new Trenitalia.

Living Next Door to a High School

I live next door to a high school and recently I could hear a teacher
speaking (shouting) to her class. It was an English class.  Teachers tell me
that it is often difficult to keep order in an Italian classroom.  I can’t
say whether this problem is worse in Italy than in the USA. Italian children
are certainly spoiled by their parents according to American standards.
Despite problems of classroom order, Italian high schools from all I can
tell are still superior to those in the USA in terms of academic standards.

Teaching English to Italians

One of the Italians with whom I work on English has a text book from Great
Britain used to teach English to foreigners. I was interested to note that
in this book the words“whom ” and “shall” are not used.  I don’t know if
they also are not used in texts in Great Britain for English children or if,
in teaching English to foreigners, is  considered wise to omit some words
that are grammatically correct but very little used.

The Missing Child

About two months ago a 5 year old child disappeared in the south of Italy.  
Whenever a child disappears, it is big, national news in Italy.  So the
girl’s picture was everywhere.  Recently a short videotape emerged showing a
gypsy child in Milan who looked a lot like the missing girl. At first the
girl’s mother was certain this was her child.  Later she was not so certain,
but urged the “parents” of the child to come forward.  The gypsies, however,
want nothing to do with the authorities; often gypsies don’t have the proper
legal papers to be in Italy.  Finally the mother decided that this was not
her child, and we are back where we started.

Town Characters

This week I discovered some new information about two town characters.  The
first is a wino who often drinks his wine outside of my building.  He
sometime mumbles something to me, but I cannot understand him.  I found out
that he was a very fine singer in the past. At that time many local bars had
small instrumental groups to entertain patrons. He was much sought after as
a singer with these groups.

The other is a beggar who is dressed all in black. He looks menacing.  I
note that he has some regular benfactors who give him money, part of which
goes for beer.  He clearly has mental problems. A friend told me that the
city also pays him a little “pension” because otherwise, without money, he
can become aggressive and threatening.  Italy, like the USA, emptied its
state mental hospitals in the 1970s so that some of the beggars on the
street are the mentally ill.

The News from America

One day in the newspaper here there were three connected stories from the
USA
on the same page:

1. the courtroom murders in Atlanta,
2. the killings
   at the religious meeting in Wisconsin, and
3. the story of the 4 year old
   in Houston who shot his brother with his mother’s pistol.

The theme of
the page obviously was unbridled gun violence in the USA.  On TV these
stories
were bracketed with a feature on the ease of obtaining guns in the USA.
There is gun violence in Italy too, although less than in America.  Whenever
there is an incident with a lot of shooting here , the standard description
of it in Italy is the English words “wild west.”

Italian Vocabulary

The family is very important in Italy so it is always a surprise to me that
the Italian language has  the same word to describe two different
relationships:
niece/nephew and grandchild.  I asked someone if he thought this signified
that you should have the have the same warm feelings toward your
niece/nephew
as you have toward your grandchild, but did not think this was the case.

Colorful Language from a University Administrator

The University of Florence has a branch at Pistoia.  Enrollment is booming
and a new facility is needed.  The branch is a joint venture of the
University,
the city of Pistoia, and I think some other entities (probably the Province
of Pistoia and/or the region of Tuscany).  These entities have hired a
private
company to manage the branch campus.  There is now a dispute between this
company and the city council of Pistoia as to where to move the branch to
a bigger facility.  The town wants to use some buildings in the center of
the city; the company administering the campus wants to move to a facility
on the outskirts of the city.

There was an interview in the paper with the head of the company that
administers the campus.  He accused the city fathers of “masturbating the
brain” with
their plans for a city center facility.  I could easily translate his
remark,
but I assumed it must have some idiomatic meaning different than its literal
translation.  No.  This remark was a little more colorful than the public
language of the university administrators with whom I worked for 33 years
in the USA.

Getting the Results from My Blood Test

To get the results from my blood test, I first had to pay the fee (through
the post office) and then bring a receipt for the payment to the blood test
center.  I noticed that some other patrons did not present a receipt when
obtaining their results. I discovered that the test is free if you sign
a paper saying that your income is below a certain level.  Italians tell
me that sometimes even people who are quite well off sign this paper to
get the tests for free.  In theory someone may check the list of free blood
test folks against the income tax list, but it is not likely.  Although
in the USA someone who did not qualify for a free blood test may well sign
that list, I don’t think that (unlike Italy) a well off lawyer or other
professional or business person would do so.  In the USA people who are
wealthy don’t want to sign a paper in public saying in effect “I am Poor.”
In Italy it is no disgrace to pretend to be poor when you are not.

First Mosquito

I killed my first mosquito of Spring in my bedroom this week. Even though
it was a cold winter here, these little devils still arrive sooner here
than in the USA.

The Law Suit Against the Tobacco Companies

I wrote about this last week.  Someone asked me if there were fewer such
suits in Italy because Italy is a country where the losers in a law suit
reimburse the legal costs of the winner to the winner.  The answer is that
in Italy the judge can award legal costs to the winners to be paid by the
losers, but this is not necessarily the total amount of such costs.  The
award is based upon the resources of the losers.  So in the case of the
family of the man dead from lung cancer who sued the tobacco company, I
doubt, if the family had lost, that the judge would have assessed a large
reimbursement fee upon the family.

Carta di Identita

I now have an Italian

1. Card of Identity
2. “social security” card,
3. permesso di soggiorno allowing me to stay in the country
4. “residenza”
   certifying that I live in Pistoia, and
5. national health insurance card.

I am almost a citizen!!

I don’t know if I could obtain Italian citizenship itself without giving
up American citizenship.  It is possible (I am not sure) that if my mother
was an Italian citizen at birth, I might qualify for Italian citizenship.
My mother was born in the USA, but it is possible that her parents were
Italian and not American citizens at the date of her birth.

If Italian citizenship were possible for me, I think that I would have to
assemble the following documents (all translated into Italian):

1. my grandparents’ birth records from Italy.  When I tried to find these
   in Calvello, the book for 1869 with my grandmother’s record could not be
   found.
2. My grandparents’ wedding record from New York City probably around 1874
3. The 1910 American census record (my mother had no birth certificate
   or surviving baptismal record) showing my mother as a 6 year old living
   with my grandparents. This record would have to show that my grandparents
   were not American citizens at this time (unless they retained dual
   citizenship)
4. My parents’ marriage record
5. My birth certificate
6. Some kind of statement explaining why my mother’s name in later legal
   records (Mildred) is not the same as her birth name (Carmella).

So I think it may be easier to remain simply an American citizen living
in Italy.

Waterloo Bridge

I wrote last week about how a group of Italian women all knew this “obscure”
1940 film.  One American friend wrote to me to say that this film is a
favorite
of hers, but she is a woman whose broad taste in films includes a good
knowledge
of the maudlin ones.  My son Andy wrote to tell me that when he taught in
China, his students there knew this film.  So regardless of whether this
movie was a big hit in the USA, it obviously was well loved abroad.

Political Shenanigan

Comedy and politics are often intertwined in Italy.  The granddaughter of
Mussolini is in politics in Italy and has a little splinter political party.
Last week it appeared that the signatures on the nominating petitions for
some candidates of her party were invalid.  While this matter is being
hashed
out in court, she did the logical thing that any other politician would
do in these circumstances–she went on a hunger strike.

Meanwhile, Umberto Bossi, head of the Northern League (a political party
that wants to divide Italy into two countries) has recovered from a long,
serious, illness and is back in control.  Obviously, however, there are
questions about how long he will live and who will succeed him as head of
the party.  He solved the second of these questions this week by naming
his successor — his 17 year old son.  Then he complained when newspapers
suggested that his son might not be up to the job.

Premier Berlusconi has done what I predicted he would do–announced a plan
to withdraw the Italian troops from Iraq.  In theory his plan is premised
upon whether the improving conditions in Iraq will allow for withdrawal,
but practically speaking, you can bet that the troops will be out before
next year’s elections in Italy –regardless of whether conditions improve
in Iraq.

Firing of CEO at Boeing

The CEO at Boeing in the USA was fired for having an amorous relationship
with an employee in violation of company rules. His predecessor was fired
for the same reason. This kind of situation is probably inexplicable to
Italians. The newspaper report I saw of this incident said the boss was
fired not

1. for an ethical lapse
2. for violating company policy
3. or for sexual harassment (There is actually an Italian translation for this
   phrase which uses the Italian word for molestation).

Instead the newspaper
reported that he was dismissed “per amore.”

Trip to Bergamo

I spent a weekend in Bergamo which is between Milan and Venice. I am always
amazed how many small Italian cities there are (e.g. Bergamo, Pavia,
Ferrara, Mantua) that are filled with first class museums, beautiful
churches, and lovely palazzos. Bergamo has an upper city which is still
preserved in its old features and a lower modern city. Because there is a
lower quite modern city, the upper city was never partially retrofitted (as
were most Italian cities) for modern conveniences such as the automobile.

Eating Crackers

I bought a box of saltines. In the USA such a box has within it two or four
smaller packages of crackers wrapped in cellophane or wax paper. In Italy
within the box, the crackers are wrapped in many packages of four crackers
each. When you open a package of crackers within a box of saltines, if you
don’t eat all the crackers within the package, the package is often hard to
reseal (Although I seem to recall that some of these packages in the USA now
have a twisty tie included.) So the crackers remaining in it become stale.
The smaller packages of four crackers in the box in Italy means that you
are more likely to eat all the crackers in the package you open and that the
remaining crackers, if any, subject to becoming stale, are fewer. Just a
small example of how the Italians take a little more care in matters
concerning food.

Italian Movie Buffs

I was eating at a table with a number of Italian women and one man (married
to an Italian woman) who had lived in Scotland for many years. We began
discussing the Scots dialect (or Scottish language as the Scots would say).
I pointed out that there is a famous song, Auld Lang Syne, whose title is in
Scots and which is sung at New Year’s in USA. Then one woman remembered
that this song was included in the film Waterloo Bridge (Robert Taylor,
Vivian Leigh, 1940). Almost every woman at the table had seen the film, and
they began to reconstruct the plot of this tear-jerker movie. This is not a
famous film, but their memory of it was remarkable.

Tobacco Company Ordered to Pay

This week was the first big legal judgment against a tobacco company in
Italy in a law suit brought by the family of a smoker who died of lung
cancer. I was a bit surprised. Italy is not a country of rampant law
suits. If somebody slips and falls on the floor of the supermarket, they
don’t sue. Also I think Italians, and Europeans in general, are more likely
to say that anybody with half a brain knows that cigarettes can cause
cancer. So if you smoke, you do so at your own risk. With the slow Italian
legal system (and the inevitable appeals) it will be a long time before the
family gets any money, if ever.

An Item of Food I Did Not Like

I think for the first time I was served something in Italy that I did not at
all care for—hoof. It is sort of a soft fatty substance (not the hard
hoof) with little taste and an unpleasant consistency. It is supposed to be
good with vinegar. I put on some vinegar—it wasn’t particularly good, but
it was edible.

The European Dream

This is title of a book I read by American author Jeremy Rifkin. His thesis
is that the plans of the European Union for the future show a vision that is
superior to ”The American Dream” for dealing with the realities of the 21st
century. You can read it and decide for yourself what you think. I found
one point very interesting. European countries have low birth rates. As a
result the European population is aging even more quickly than the American
population. The implications of this for future economic growth and
financial stability (with high pension costs) are frightening and certainly
a major impediment for these countries realizing The European Dream. There
are two possible solutions: higher birth rates or more immigration. The
first is unlikely. The second will exacerbate the already strained
relationships between “native” Europeans and the newcomers. As I have
mentioned before perhaps the major challenge to European countries in the
next 30 years is to figure out how to absorb immigrants and get them to rise
up the social ladder as was done in the USA:

Give Me Back My Chariot

In 1902 a farmer in Monteleone di Spoleto (Umbria) in Italy found an intact
Etruscan chariot in his field. He must have known it had value because he
hid it immediately. Local lore has it that he sold it for either 30 terra
cotta tiles or two cows. It was smuggled out of Italy and found its way to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now the village is suing to get it back
because it was exported in violation of Italian law. The Museum has refused
saying that any legal claim is beyond any possible statue of limitations. A
spokesman for the museum said the suit was “like Italy saying it now wants
France to give back the Mona Lisa. It’s too late to discuss.” Stay tuned.

Pavlovian Patriotism

This is my phrase for the reactions of most Italians and Americans to the
shooting incident at Baghdad airport. Most assume immediately that the
story told by “their” side is correct. When there has been such an incident
knowledge of basic human nature tells us that both sides tend to tell a
story that makes them look less culpable. Not only that but often the
people telling the story may reconstruct reality in their minds so that they
truly believe the story they tell is exactly what happened. The stories of
both sides are implausible. Would American troops just decide to fire at a
car for no reason at all? On the other hand would two experienced Italians
(stationed in Baghdad and knowing full well how American roadblocks work)
simply ignore warnings with the obvious risk of being shot at? There are
investigations both in Italy and the USA. I suppose they will both find
that the other side was at fault. The only conclusion of an investigation
that I will find credible is one that admits that the parties from the
country making the investigation in fact were at least partially at fault.

Although the Italian government denies it, most believe that a ransom was
paid to release the journalist just as it was paid recently to release the
two Italian women aid workers. Italy obviously should evacuate all non
essential women from Iraq before there is a third kidnapping of one or more
woman and we go again through the whole process (including large
demonstrations in the streets) of forcing the government to pay another
ransom.

Clarification

My Italian friends tell me that the prolonged procedure I reported last week
for obtaining the sample I had to submit for testing is not the typical one.
Instead it is required only for certain tests. I am glad to know that
there are not hundreds Italians each day carrying around the white box that
I was given

Internet Service

Anyone with a computer knows that Internet provider service can be a problem in the USA, but it’s worse here.  When you want a DSL line it takes a month to get it activated—not because the line must be installed but because of the paperwork necessary.  A friend finally did get his “kit” from the provider to hook up to DSL.  It did not work. He called  customer service six times and got six different answers about the problem until he finally discovered that the company had not yet activated the line to his house.

The Big News in Italy

The killing of the Italian Secret Service agent and the wounding of the recently released Italian journalist by American troops at Baghdad airport was big news here. It took up 30 minutes of the nightly news broadcast and even made the front page of the daily sports newspaper.  The Italians and the Americans have radically different stories of how this happened –each telling a story that serves their own interests.  I doubt if we ever be able to tell what is the truth.  Well it is not as bad as 1998 when a low flying American military plane (which had no reason to be so low) cut the wire on an Italian ski lift, killing 20 people.

Getting a Blood Test

I had to get a blood test for my doctor so I went to the central office where this is done.  Then I discovered that one must also provide a urine sample.  In the USA, they would give you a little bottle and send you to the bathroom.  In Italy it is a little more complex.  You get a large plastic container (enclosed in a white box)  into which you go to the bathroom for 24 hours.  Then you bring a sample from this container.  Now if you don’t stay home all day, you are not going to be able to return home every time you have to go to the bathroom.  So you have to carry the white box with you and hope that nobody asks “Hey, Bob, what’s in the box”?  By the way the large plastic container has measurements on one side – you also have to record the total volume for the day.

Inflation

One of my favorite places to shop “The 85 Cent Shop” has changed its name (and prices) to “The 99 Cent Paradise.”  This is 16% inflation.  The store said the change was necessary to increase the items they could carry, but the inventory to me looks suspiciously the same as it was before.

Weather

This is probably the most severe winter since 1985.  The temperature dipped to 20° in Pistoia and we had a few inches of snow.  Snow in Pistoia is like snow in Charleston, South Carolina  or Mobile, Alabama.  When it comes, nobody knows what to do and things just slow down or shut down.

Trip to Lucca

I went to Lucca to visit an artist whose work I had admired at an exhibition and her husband.  She is working on a project making paintings of all the churches of Lucca (including many that are no longer churches) and producing a guide book of  illustrated walking tours of these churches.  One church is now a prison; another is a bank.  But the most unique use of a former church was as an X rated movie theatre.

Italian National Health System

When I tell Italians that I am now enrolled in the National Health System, they start to tell me what is wrong with the System, but when I speak to fellow Americans who are in this System, they almost always praise the it.  Americans see it as a System with very low cost which provides comprehensive coverage and good service even though one may have to wait a little longer at the doctor’s office.

Mike Tyson at the San Remo Festival

The San Remo Festival is a multi-night event featuring the very best of Italian popular music.  It is a big event in Italy.  There is nothing like it in the USA.  Often there are a few famous singers from abroad.  There also tends to be someone from USA who is a guest but not a singer.  One recent year it was Dustin Hoffman.  This year it was  Mike Tyson.  I can’t imagine Mike being invited to do a special guest appearance at the Academy Awards or Grammy Awards in USA; but maybe since I left the USA, he has been “rehabilitated” and is back in the spotlight.

Some women’s groups complained about his presence (since he was imprisoned for rape).  His appearance at San Remo illustrates two things to me about Italy. One, the Italians I think are very forgiving.  When I mentioned to a friend Mike’s checkered  past, my friend noted “that was 10 years ago.” Second, I think the Italians worry less about whether something might offend women; it is a more masculine society than the USA.

Chinese Competition

The government stated that it will seek greater import duties on goods from China (and I assume s other low-cost labor nations).  On TV there was a segment showing a Ferrari Shop that sells shirts, caps, etc. with the Ferrari logo.  When one looks at labels, the items are made in China, Bangladesh, etc. In general low cost goods from China are not as pervasive here as in the USA, but the trend is clear.  Meanwhile, there was a headline in the local paper about local furniture makers complaining about unfair competition from Chinese goods.  I did not read the article to discover if these were goods imported from China or goods made in “Chinese” factories right here in Italy.  Nearby Prato has the highest percentage of Chinese residents of any Italian city.