thisweekinitaly.com

h3. Controversy in Pistoia

The town council has decided to register Civil Unions (heterosexual and homosexual) on the town records. This will entitle the couples to some benefits that are administered locally. Italy does not recognize homosexual marriage so I assume at least the gay couples would not be entitled to benefits handled at the national level. The local Bishop wrote a scathing letter to the town council criticizing its action. This has been followed by a debate in the newspapers.

Meanwhile in a related issue, in another part of Italy a priest refused to say a funeral mass in the church for a woman because she was living with a man to whom she was not married. The priest said he was simply following church doctrine, but, interestingly enough, a higher church official chastised this priest for his decision saying that ?mercy? is also a virtue practiced by the church.

h3. A Concert: Talk vs. Music

I went to a concert by a local town band in a nearby city. The father of a friend was singing with the band that evening. There was a narrator who introduced the selections. He also introduced various people in the audience and gave gifts to some of them. The mayor spoke among others. I would say that at least 25% of the time of the concert was taken up with talk rather than with music. This is typical in Italy.

h3. An Interesting Artist

I met an American who has lived 44 years in Italy making a living as an artist. He is interested in the art of the 16th and 17th centuries, but he does not simply paint reproductions of famous works from this era. He paints original painting using the subject matter (most often religious) and techniques of this era. There is not a big market for such paintings. Many of his customers are wealthy ?born again? American Christians who want religious art in their homes, but not the low quality typical religious art. One of this customers is Pat Robertson of TV fame.

h3. Surviving Bureaucracy

I met an American lady who has lived here for over 40 years. As she got older, she wanted to retire and she checked with a local union office to determinehow much she was entitled to under the Italian state pension system. When her monthly payment was large enough to retire, she did so, but the first payment was only one-half of what she was told she was entitled to. For three years she tried to get the local pension office to review her case, without success. Then, at the suggestion of the union official, she filed suit. Immediately, without any judicial hearings, she was given the larger pension and all back payments. Meanwhile, she also was entitled to a little Social Security from the USA. This is handled through the American Embassy in Rome. After one phonecall and sending them a certified copy of her birth certificate, she started getting payments.
I know people who have had difficulty with Social Security, the IRS, or other bureaucracies in the USA, but, believe me, Italy is another world in this regard. Many Italians tell me that the bureaucracy here is much better than in the past; the past must have been really terrible.

h3. The Tour de France

You get good coverage of this event on regular TV in Italy; you don?t have to subscribe to a special cable or satellite channel. Amid Lance Armstrong?s victory, there was another interesting fact in this year?s event. Among the top 10 riders three were from the USA; among the top 20, five were American. Italy had one rider among the top 10 and three among the top 20. There are probably more Italian riders than American riders in the Tour de France. Competitive cycling is a much bigger sport here than in the USA. So Italian cycling is surely in a state of decline at this point.

h3. Item from The Florentine newspaper

Study Gives Italian
Students Low Marks

According to a recent study conducted by a researcher at the Economics Department of the London School of Economics, Italian students are the least prepared in science, literature, and mathematics out of all European students; meanwhile school spending per student in Italy is one of the highest in Europe. The same study demonstrated that Germany spends almost exactly half the amount of money on students, but German students? performance surpassed that of Italian students in every field.

I’ve often noted that Italian schools at elementary and secondary level are better than American ones. It is just that Italian schools are not very good compared to other European ones.

h3. American Imports to Italy

As I’ve mentioned before, anything tacky in American culture inevitably finds its way to Italy. Italy is now seized by wrestling mania on TV. Beyond this,the other day on TV I saw a monster truck race in which the pick-up trucks with gigantic tires jump over obstacles. I am waiting next to see one of those giant tractor pulls on Italian TV.

h3. A New Experience on the Train

When a train arrives in the station in Italy, there is an announcement that includes a list of the stations where the train will stop. Going to Florence the first stop after Pistoia is Agliana/Montale Not all trains stop there. I got on a train for which the announcement included this stop, but the train flew right through the station there. In about ? mile the train came to a stop. It backed up a little and then stopped. Then a little more in reverse and a stop. Finally it backed up all the way to the station. It was Sunday; the engineer was probably thinking of the good time he had Saturday night.

h3. Speaking of Trains

I’ve made by last trip for a while by train to Germany and within that country. My son Chris who lived there has moved back to the USA with his wife to theWest Point Military base where she has taken a job. Civilian employees of the US Army, in the face of new base closings, now seek work at a base that is likely to stay open. West Point is certainly secure in this way.

h3. Marketing with a Vending Machine

I saw on the street a vending machine recently that disbursed three products. I could not figure out what the first one was for. The second one was condoms; the third was breath-freshening chewing gum. You buy the gum and condom, you freshen your breath, a few kisses, and then?. Perhaps the first product had something to do with love-making in a way that I am too old to understand.

h3. Figs

Growing up in Illinois, figs were a fruit that only came dried in a box. I suppose they are available fresh in California, Florida, and other warm places,but they have a short shelf life so they don’t get shipped far away. A friend brought me some fresh ones this week. Fresh ones are delicious–far superiorto the dried product. There are two harvests — a small one early in July and then the large harvest later in the summer. When the big harvest comes in,there are more figs that anyone can eat in the small time frame when they are fresh. I guess that is why they get dried or made into fig jam.

h3. Mythologizing WWII

I mentioned last week that the Italians have mythologized WWII by over-emphasizing the role of anti-Fascist partisans in defeating the Germans. (Italy has a particular problem dealing with WWII because it was on both sides of the conflict.) All countries do similar things. In American films showing WWII armyscenes, you sometimes see units that contain black and white soldiers. In fact there were no integrated units during WWII, but this is a fact that Americans are not eager to recall.

h3. Annual Meeting of the Condominium

Condominiums are much more common in Italy than in the USA. I live in one. The annual meeting is next week. I probably won’t go, but such meetings in Italy are legendary. Reaching consensus easily is not an Italian trait. There is a commercial on TV in which there are two rogue angels in heaven whom God isalways having to bring back into line. One of the “punishments” God metes out to them is to preside at the meeting of the heavenly condominium.

h3. A Delightful Sunday Afternoon

One can write about the beauty, historical sites, food, etc. in Italy in describing the pleasures of life here, but there are also more mundane aspects tothe enjoyment of Italian life. Last Sunday I went to an outdoor art exhibit (one of the artists was a friend-an American) in a mountain town near Pistoia. I arrived early and shared lunch with the organizer (another friend who is American) of the event. Then I met a variety of interesting people including: an Italian poet whose father was an unknown American soldier, two young criminal lawyers with whom I compared the American and Italian legal systems, the another artist whom I did not know previously, and other local residents. There was good food, good wine, a cool temperature, and a general atmosphere of gaiety-nothing extraordinary, but all very enjoyable.

The lady who arranged the exhibit is from Chicago. She was married to an Italian, but now is divorced. Like most foreign women in that situation, she struggles to make a living in Italy. Her economic prospects would be much better in the USA. I sometimes wonder why she stays in Italy, but the delightful Sunday afternoon provided at least a partial answer.

h3. Italian Fiscal Woes

Below is article from Wall Street Journal (for those of you with a deeper interest in Italy) that is a good summary of some of the financial problems of the country. Note that in it, there is a mention of the high prices caused by the monopoly of pharmacists that I discussed recently.

h3. Golden Handcuffs
With Italy in the Doldrums,
Many Point Fingers at the Euro

Strong Currency Hurts Exports,
Causing Some to Want Out;
Another Blow to the EU

h3. Buying Baby Formula in Austria

By Gabriel Kahn and Marcus Walker
Staff Reporters of The Wall Street JournalCapolona The euro has faced different but daunting challenges since the experiment was launched in 1999. The U.S. has one national government that can direct aid to depressed corners of the country; the euro zone has 12, each with its own fiscal policy. Workers in the U.S. can freely move from a slumping area to seek jobs in a prosperous one. Europeans, tied down by different languages, pension plans and legal systems, are far less mobile.

Still, the euro is in many ways a triumph. It is so sound that it has quickly emerged as the world’s second-most-widely-held currency by central banks after the dollar. The euro has brought big benefits for companies trading across European borders by eliminating currency swings and foreign-exchange fees. It created huge, unified capital markets akin to the U.S.’s, which have helped many European companies raise capital. Returning to a weaker currency would mean returning to higher interest rates.

Thus no one is expecting Italy or any of the other 11 euro members to bolt any time soon. And many analysts say Italy’s problem doesn’t lie with the euro, but with Rome, which has failed to slim down the country’s vast bureaucracy or break down the barriers to competition in big parts of the economy. “The remedy is not to leave the euro, but to correct the structural issues,” says Patrick Artus, an economist at French bank Groupe Caisse d’Epargne.

But the chafing of Italians and Germans at the euro, coupled with the anti-EU feeling exposed by the French and Dutch “no” votes, have raised questions about long-term political support for the currency. All four countries are euro members. “Breakup is back on the radar screen as a theoretically possible option” for the monetary union, says Holger Fahrinkrug, an economist at Swiss bank UBS in Frankfurt.

When the new currency was launched on Jan. 1, 1999, it was greeted with champagne toasts in Rome, Paris and Frankfurt. Economists and politicians predictedthe euro would one day rival the dollar as a benchmark currency and, consequently, Europe would one day rival the U.S. as a superpower.

The euro was all things to all nations. Italians thought the euro would let them trade their feckless politicians in Rome for technocrats in Brussels. TheFrench gambled that monetary union would enhance their own power. Newly reunified Germany, haunted by Europe’s history of wars, thought giving up the mark was a necessary sacrifice for durable peace and acceptance by its neighbors.

Euro advocates vowed Italy would emerge as a big winner from the new money. Ceding monetary policy to the European Central Bank and joining the euro wouldusher in stable interest rates, which in turn would help Italy pay down its crushing public debt, the third largest by value after Japan and the U.S., and larger than Italy’s entire gross domestic product. Much of that came true. Interest rates fell and Italy cut in half the interest it pays on its debt. But adopting the euro had two downsides. First, the euro shot up in value against the dollar — by nearly 50% since 2000. Three of Italy’s biggest exports — shoes, clothing and furniture — are facing huge competition from China, which pegs its currency to the dollar. That currency swing priced Italian exports out of the market, and gave an extra advantage to already-cheap Chinese products. More fundamentally, joining the euro took away Italy’s trusty safety valve of devaluation. Large parts of the Italian economy, from trucking to electricity, are clogged by red tape and cartels, which hold down competition. That pushes up costs for Italian businesses, hurting their ability to compete with rivals from Germany or France.

In the past, when the prices of Italian exports got too high, currency markets would adjust, sending the lira lower and spurring demand. That would give Italian exporters a quick shot of adrenaline, but it didn’t cure the economy’s underlying problems.
Now, the only way Italy can compete is to cut prices. The only way it can cut prices is to cut costs. But the opposite is happening. Inefficiencies in Italy’s cartel-pocked economy have caused prices of everything from electricity to zucchini to shoot up faster than elsewhere in the euro zone.

Unions began demanding higher wages to offset lost spending power. Companies had to grant raises that outstripped any gains in worker output. Adjusted for productivity, Italian labor costs have risen 17% since the euro came in, while German labor costs have risen only 1%, according to Barclays Capital. Italian productivity grew just 0.5% a year in the past decade, compared with 1.6% in Germany, and 2.4% in the U.S., according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The result: Italy is falling further behind other countries inside the euro zone. The euro’s one-size-fits-all value was supposed to be the glue binding the currency zone into a whole stronger than its parts, but instead has highlighted the discrepancies among the European economies. Sluggish euro members like Italy need low interest rates, while faster-growing ones like Ireland could use higher ones.

The OECD says the 12-nation euro zone is the weakest major component of the global economy, and predicts it will grow only 1.2% this year, compared with 3.6% in the U.S. Italy’s economy contracted 0.9% over the most recent two quarters, and the OECD forecasts that it will shrink 0.6% in 2005. All that is prompting a rethink of the logic underlying the single currency. “It would have been better for Italy to stay out [of the euro] for a few years,” says Julian Callow, chief European economist at Barclays Capital in London. “There’s no easy solution now.” The risk: The weaker countries in the euro zone will return to heavy deficit spending, undermining the euro’s strength. With Italy’s public debt already at 106% of its GDP, rampant deficit spending could mean other euro members would have no choice but to bail Rome out.
Italians had worked hard just to get into the euro club, fearing that if they didn’t get their act together Europe’s third-largest economy would be shunted to the sidelines. The race to qualify, which forced Italy to cut its budget deficit to under 3% of GDP in 1997 from over 11% in 1990, galvanized Italians to act. The government was able to levy new taxes to pretty up Italy’s books ahead of the entry into the euro.

When Rome made the cut, by a hair, on May 1, 1998, Italians were elated. But there was little political will left over to tackle the root causes of Italy’sinefficiency: a huge and stifling public bureaucracy, and vast swaths of the economy that were still insulated from competition. “Our mistake was thinking that joining the euro was the solution, the end to our problems,” says Vincenzo Visco, a silver-haired politician who served as finance minister and then treasury minister from 1996 to 2001. “Instead, it was only the beginning.”

One problem never fixed is the country’s creaky infrastructure. Andrea Tomat, president of sport-shoe maker Lotto Sport Italia SpA, is dealing with the consequences. To ship its goods, the company, based in Treviso near Venice, must truck them about 170 miles to the nearest international air hub in Milan. The only highway is usually clogged, meaning the journey often takes six hours. To be sure of catching flights, Lotto’s delivery trucks leave during the night — or arrive a day in advance. “This basically doubles our cost of moving goods,” says Mr. Tomat.

Another drag, he says, is Italy’s bureaucracy. Lotto is trying to bring two employees from China, where it produces 60% of its goods, to work in Italy, butgetting the paperwork approved will take six months. “In a world where in six months you can develop whole new stores over there, we are traveling by bicycle when everyone else has a car,” he says.
Other business owners feel like they are in a losing battle. Maurizio Brevini, an engineer in Reggio Emilia, runs a 130-person maker of specialized hydraulic pumps founded by his father. Over the past five years, he has boosted his revenue by 13%, to ?18.4 million, or $22.3 million. But his costs have risen even faster in the same period and his profits have fallen more than 10%, he says. Part of the problem: two wage increases for his workers.
“I feel badly for them because they have lost spending power,” he says. But the salaries are rising faster than worker productivity. “This is like poking holes in the bucket,” he says.

Federica Mongiello, a 31-year-old mother from Rome, was shocked when, traveling in the Austrian Alps last year, she discovered that baby formula cost the equivalent of about $10 for 2.2 pounds, when she was paying $48 in Italy. The reason for the huge difference? In Italy, baby formula can be sold only in pharmacies, where discounting is rare.
“Fa schifo,” she says, Italian for “disgusting.” Some friends have since joined Internet-based collectives of mothers who import baby milk from Austria and sell it for sub-Italian prices.

After years of trying to adhere to the euro zone’s strict fiscal criteria, which require that deficit spending not exceed 3% of GDP, Rome is now letting down its guard. The EU estimates Italy’s deficit will hit 3.6% of GDP in 2005 and 4.6% in 2006. France and Germany have already busted through the 3% limit, but Italy, with much higher public debt, presents even more of a risk of destabilizing the currency’s soundness. Brussels has been urging Italy to pass a newround of spending cuts to keep its budget in line. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has rejected the idea. Instead, Mr. Berlusconi has argued that a just-approved law that will, among other measures, make it easier for many of Italy’s small companies to merge will improve the country’s competitive position.

Despite the chorus for a return to the lira, an Italian exit from the euro zone looks extremely unlikely. For now, such a move would cause interest payments on public debt to skyrocket and might force more onerous taxes on Italian citizens and businesses in order to cover the cost. Nonetheless, a growing number of Italians profess a new affection for their old currency. After stocking up on cheap baby formula in Austria, Mrs. Mongiello’s enthusiasm for the euro has waned. “There’s no doubt,” she says. “We were richer when we had the lira.”

h3. Wonderful Naples

I have a friend whose car was stolen in Philadelphia many years ago. The police located it in a rough area of the city. When he asked the police to retrieve the car, they told him that they don’t go into this area to get back stolen autos; if he wanted the car back he had to go get it himself. I thought of this story when I saw on the news recently an attack on the police by residents of an area of Naples. Apparently this is an area where the police ordinarily do not venture. When they followed a purse snatcher into this neighborhood, the residents attacked them. Twelve police were injured. Some local residents were arrested, but none were injured. The police here are very reluctant to shoot at citizens. The “rules of engagement” for police are much stricter than in the USA.

h3. News from the Beach Resorts

In Tuscany it is now illegal for a man to go “topless” on the streets of some beach towns and for women to wear a bikini on such streets. This is a far cry from the topless beach for that I saw in Spain. Also there is a big move in beach areas against the street vendors who sell illegal knock-offs of designer goods. A foreign tourist was arrested for buying a pair of such sunglasses. How typically Italian to treat this as a problem of foreign tourists. Themain customers of these vendors are Italians looking for a bargain. The law against such goods has little support among the Italian populace. Although the manufacturers of the real designer goods obviously support the law, how many buyers of a $10 “designer” purse from an African vendor would buy the $150 authentic object if the cheap imitation was not available? The big losers in this trade are the companies that make CDs; I can envision customers buying the real CD rather than the pirated product. But in Italy real CDs cost much more than in the USA.

h3. 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Italy from Fascism

Italy was totally “liberated” from the Germans and Italian Fascists in 1945. There have been events marking the 60th anniversary of this event. Interestingly some of these events seem to treat the liberators as the Italian Partisans. Apparently what happened is that the Germans often retreated from a city in the face of advancing Allied troops. Then local Partisans came in and probably eliminated any remaining Italian Fascist fighters. So the Partisans were the first ones to come into the newly free city, but it doesn’t take much brains to figure out that the Germans retreated only because of the advancing Allied troops, not because of the Partisans. So the claim that the Partisans liberated the city is at best self-serving for the Italians – another example of how they sometimes mythologize what happened in WWII.

h3. Italians and Germans Speaking English

I’ve noted before that Germans speak better English than Italians and with less of an accent. Recently I was watching the Tour De France on TV when it wasgoing through Germany for a day. Listening to the Italian announcers pronounce the names of German towns, I realized that the Italians are right about onething. Pronunciation between German and English is closer than between Italian and English. It was clearly harder for the Italians to pronounce the German names than it would be for an American. So the Germans may have an inherent advantage over the Italians in learning English.

h3. Speaking of Learning English in Italy

An Italian-American friend recently hosted her 9 year old Italian nephew for a week. Although his parents speak English, they do not talk to him in English at home (a mistake in my view). He has studied English for three years at school. My friend worked with him on his English. They studied the verbs “to be” and “to have.” These are the two major auxiliary verbs both in English and Italian. He did not know them well. Just a small example of the weak instruction in English in Italian schools.

h3. The Cinque Terra

In any country there are natural tourist attractions such as large cities with museums, historical sites, restaurants, shopping etc. The Cinque Terra are five formerly obscure fishing villages on the coast of Liguria. I would be interested to discover how these became a tourist Mecca. Was it word of mouth among Italians and then foreigners that brought these picturesque towns to fame? Or was there a well conceived campaign by local authorities to promote the area to tourists?

h3. Nighttime in Pistoia

In winter the streets of Pistoia are deserted by 9 pm. In summer it is another story. On some nights the stores stay open until midnight. There are oftenstreet events at night. I was coming home from an outdoor film at 11:45 pm–the streets were overflowing. Often the children are still up with their parents. Italians don’t put children to bed early as Americans do, and they are less likely to leave a child with a baby-sitter.

h3. Tax Evasion

With Italy’s economic woes, President of the Council (his real title) Berlusconi has said that the widespread tax evasion in Italy is now intolerable. Nowif St. Francis of Assisi returned to earth and urged Italians to honestly pay their taxes, he would have little effect. If you asked a group of Italians if they believe that Berlusconi rose to be the richest man in Italy while faithfully paying his taxes, it would take about 30 minutes for the laughter to stop.

h3. Why an Expresso in Italy is Better Than in the USA

I have a friend who runs a company that makes a high end commercial Expresso making machine. They supplied Starbucks in the USA with this machine. But with the high employee turnover, Starbucks opted for an automatic machine that required almost no employee training. My friend says that an automatic machine involves some inevitable compromises that limit the quality of the coffee. In Italy, when you go to a bar, often the same person is there year after year making your expresso.

h3. Clarifications

The 10 German officers about whose trial I wrote last week are, in fact, still alive and in their 80s. They will not be extradited to Italy to serve a sentence. I have written a few times about the Ingresso Libero signs on Italian shops. Entrata Libero is another version of this sign. At bottom of this newsletter is an article from “The Florentine” that seeks to explain this phenomenon as well as the rules of shopping in Italy.

h3. Taking Care of Old Folks

There are homes for senior citizens in Italy, but they are expensive. As I have mentioned before, Italians prefer to keep an elderly parent at home —his home or a child’s—and possibly hire a “badante” (live-in caretaker) from Romania or Poland to stay with the person. You can even get money from the state to help pay for the “badante” if you get medical certification that the person can not take care of himself. People say they cannot afford to puta parent in a home for senior citizens. The three stage homes with independent living, assisted living, and then medical care either do not exist or are rare here. Now in the USA older people often sell their residence to pay for the cost of going into a three stage home (or the monthly charges at a regular home). Italians could do the same, but this violates the social custom that the home is to be passed on to the children.

h3. A License to Drive

Many years ago in the USA, perhaps still, you did not need a license to pilot an ultra light airplane. It was too small to be covered by the rules of the Federal Aviation Administration. In Italy there is a car that is so small (smaller than a Smart car) that you do not need a license to drive it. I have anolder friend who worries that he will not pass his next sight and hearing test for a license. If so, he may buy one of these very small cars.

h3. Still Trying to Change Phone Companies

When I last wrote on this subject, the local phone shop was submitting my request to change from Wind to TIM for the third time. Nothing happened. I then got a message from TIM that there was still a problem in the transfer. I went to the shop where the clerk told me that probably Wind just would not approvethe transfer for some reason. I gave up and decided I just would have to remain with Wind. I then needed to put some more credit on my phone. If you put $60 or more credit on a phone, you don’t pay a fee for this. So I put on $60. Then, that same day, I got a call from TIM. The problem was a minor one; theshop had submitted the wrong serial number for my phone’s computer chip. I gave TIM the right number. Then I was told that the change in providers wouldoccur on July 1. Now I had a $60 credit with Wind on the phone that I had to use up by July 1 – it would not transfer to the new provider. So I used up the $60, but on July 1 the change did not take place. It is now July 9 and it has not taken place. The local phone shop can’t tell me when it will take place.

h3. Pistoia Blues Festival

The three day festival is this weekend. I call it the Geriatric Blues Festival with aged performers like BB King, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Last year a young woman died of a drug overdose in one of the campgrounds near the city where the Hippie crowd stays for the festival. Thursday when I returned to Pistoia from a trip to the Cinque Terra, there was a drug sniffing dog at the train station. I noted two hippy-looking types that made it past the dog, but within two blocks they were stopped by the local police who made them open their knapsacks. So at least the local police are making an effort this yearto keep Pistoia Blues from being Pistoia Drugs festival.

h3. Trademarking Natural Beauty

A number of years ago, the region of Tuscany made the novel proposition that it should “trademark” the natural beauty of the area. This meant that if you made a calendar with photos of the Tuscan landscape, you would have to pay a fee to the region. I don’t know if this radical idea was implemented; my guess is “no.” Recently I visited Cortona (home of Frances Mays of “Under the Tuscan Sun”) in Tuscany and Gubbio in nearby Umbria. Both are set on a hill overlooking smaller hills and a plane below. The panoramas from both cities were exquisite. You could certainly understand why the region of Tuscany tried to trademark such beauty. In Gubbio my friend Chuck and I happened upon a tour of a large garden complex. Included in the tour group were many children who politely listened to the technical explanations of the features of the gardens. It is hard to imagine many American children being so well behaved at a garden tour. Early on Italian children learn that “beauty is important.”

h3. Buying Drugs in Italy

The good news: if you take a drug prescription covered by the National Health Plan, it is free at the Pharmacy. The bad news: for all other drugs includingsimple drugs like Aspirin, you must buy them at a Pharmacy at fixed prices (no price competition) that are quite high. In Italy the number of pharmacies ispre-determined by a law which sets demographic and geographical limits as to where a new Pharmacy can be opened. Recently a large Supermarket nearby wantedto put a Pharmacy in its store. It was challenged by local Pharmacists who said that according to the demographic and geographical limits in the law, a newPharmacy could not be authorized in that location.

h3. Entrata Libera —Shopping in Italy

Italian Voices: A Window on Language and
Customs in Italy… “Entrata Libera”
by Linda Falcone

The Entrata Libera signs are there because there is actually no word for “browsing” in Italian.” The shoppers who flock to Florence from all over the worldcome with the strange misconception that shopping in Italy is fun. Armani’s class, Ferragamo’s craftsmanship, a bit of Versace sparkle, and a dash of Valentino red might make you think so. Fun, however, is not exactly the word I would use. Intimidating is more like it. Baffling might work. Not that any of us usually admit it.

Telling people that shopping in Italy is more excruciating than enjoyable is like going to a Christmas party and telling your host’s five-year old that there is no Santa Claus. Besides, visiting shoppers are generally too anxious to grab their new Gucci luggage with San Lorenzo leather to be bothered with the likes of me and my Italian shopping traumas. So, go ahead, immerse yourself body and soul in the joys of a city-centre shopping spree. It usually only takes about three “Entrata Libera” signs before you’ll start wondering: “Free entrance? What exactly do they mean by that? After all, these are shops not museums. They certainly don’t expect you to pay an entrance fee just for browsing, do they?”

Well, no. The Entrata Libera signs are there because there is actually no word for “browsing” in Italian. The concept of walking into a store without the slightest idea of what you will find in there, or if you’ll want to buy something once you find out, is a relatively new idea in Italy. And indeed, phantom shopping is not choice Italian entertainment. Let’s just say that Italians don’t find anything fun about picking through overstuffed clothes racks to find a bargain. Not that there are too many overstuffed racks or bargains in Italy to begin with. Mostly, when Italians walk into a shop, they go with a purpose. Prior to stepping inside, Italians will closely scrutinize the shop window and memorize everything that the store has in stock. For most Italians this process takes about 3.5 seconds and is especially effective because most of the smaller shops display all of their merchandise in the window. Therefore, there’s really no reason to browse. It’s all right there, for the whole strolling world to see.

“I want a pair of black trousers, size forty-two, wool-cotton mix, low waist, no pockets, narrow legs, crease in front, and hem turned up at the bottom, per favore,” is what Italians say when they march into a store ready to make their purchase. Is there any room for browsing in all that? Basically, in a society of secure shoppers and fashion experts, the Entrata Libera sign was designed to give customers permission to be indecisive. Does this mean that most Italian shopkeepers expect you to buy just because you timidly venture over their threshold? In Florence, probably not. In an international city like this one,most clerks have probably had to get used to the idiosyncrasies of foreign shoppers who touch everything and buy nothing.

Francesca, a shop assistant in one of Florence’s many specialty shops, explained, “At first it was shocking to see people wander into the shop and pull things off shelves without so much as a glance at me. It was like having someone come into my house and rummage through my drawers! But I have finally understood,” continued Francesca with a smile, “that many foreign customers are used to looking with their hands. In Italy we talk with our hands, but look with oureyes. It takes a little while to get used to, ma va bene, it’s okay, because it proves the world is a varied place.”

So happy shopping! But next time you are tempted to mosey liberamente into a central boutique, prepare yourself psicologicamente before entering. Then justmarch right in there with a click in your step and demand (yes demand) to see the tailored cotton collared shirt with the pink and green butterfly motif you saw hanging in the window. The clerk will ask, “Che misura?” You will unflinchingly respond “Una 44.” And you will be sure to have made a friend.”

A Visit to the Rotary Club

The Rotary Club of Pistoia-Montecatini recently dedicated a public sculpture
in Pistoia as a gift to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of
Rotary. I was a member of Rotary in Gettysburg so I decided to visit a
dinner meeting of this local club. Among the flags at the front of the room
were the American, Italian, and Rotary flags. At start of meeting a
recorded medley of songs was played that had the Star Spangled Banner as the
first song and the Italian national anthem as the second. The food and wine
were better than at a Rotary meeting in the USA. There was even a printed
menu of the evening’s food.

Bob Dole and Pistoia

In his new book A Soldiers Story Bob Dole tells of how he was evacuated
to the hospital at Pistoia after he was injured in Italy in WWII. Some
friends heard him mention this fact in an interview about his book on NPR.
This old hospital is best known for the series of Della Robbia ceramics
(illustrating the Seven Cardinal Virtues) that form a frieze around the
building. These were covered for protection in World War II. Bobs wife,
Senator Liddy Dole, was a law school classmate of mine. So I sent to her
(to pass on to Bob) a set of post cards illustrating the frieze. I offered
to be their guide if they ever returned for a look at Pistoia. Bob wrote
back thanking me for the cards and saying that they had visited Pistoia
about six months ago. This obviously was a low key visit without any
official pomp and circumstance.

Talking about World War II

In World War II the Germans had a policy in Italy of executing 10 Italian
civilians for every German killed by Italian partisans. I dont think this
policy was totally implemented, but many Italian civilians were killed
including over 200 in a particularly famous massacre. Lat week there was
the end of a trial of 15 German officers (in abstensia) for this killing.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment. I dont know if any 15 are still
alive. Interestingly, the German SS officers in this case were aided by
some Italian Fascists who did not do the shooting but helped round up the
victims. After WWII there was a general amnesty in Italy for crimes
committed by Italians during the War, but it did not extent to particularly
cruel crimes. I feel sure that the Italian court could have, if it wanted
to, tried these Italian Fascists (whichever are still alive) in addition to
or instead of the German officers. Such a trial might have had real meaning
because the people accused would be in the courtroom and the sentences could
be carried out. Of course, maybe this whole proceeding was delayed until all
or almost all of those involved were dead. Often in Italy, the symbolic is
more important than the realistic. I personally would not have favored the
trial of either the Germans or the Italian Fascists, but a trial of the
Fascists to me has a little more sense.

Another example of the prevalence of the symbolic over the realistic is the
recent arrest order by a judge in Italy for 13 American CIA agents accused
of having kidnapped a Muslim cleric in Italy. The Italian government is
denying that it knew anything about this event which almost nobody believes.
You can bet your life savings that these 13 will never be tried in Italy.

La Maturit

This is the name of a national examination given to Italian High school
students at a certain point in their career. It is the same all over Italy.
It is more rigorous than such an examination could be in the USA. This year
the essay questions were leaked on the Internet the night before the exam.
There was talk about voiding the results and doing a new examination, but
this will not happen.

Bicycle Ride (Race?) for the Elderly

Recently there was bike ride (perhaps it was even a race) up a steep
mountain course for riders all of whom had to be 60 years of age of more. I
know elderly Americans who could ride this course, but among older riders
the percentage of Italians who can do so is much higher. Often they are
riding on bikes that do not have the low mountain gearing that makes such a
ride easier. As I have mentioned before, because so many Italians have been
bike riders, as drivers they are much more respectful of bicyclists than are
drivers in the USA.

Air Conditioning

In Italy there are many people who dont like air conditioning and think it
is bad for your health. I dont know many Americans who get sick in the
summer from going from air conditioning to outside heat to air conditioning,
but maybe this is a bigger problem than I realize. An extreme example of
the Italian attitude is the husband of a friend who gets vertigo from the
extreme heat in their apartment, but is adamant about not using air
conditioning. Actually if I were the Italian government, I would promote
these fears of A.C. Italy is short on energy resources, and electricity is
expensive here. Greater use of A.C. will simply exacerbate this problem.

Silvio Berlusconi

In the USA, there are, of course, various views of George Bush. Similarly
there are conflicting views of Berlusconi in Italy, but his situation is
more complicated because, before entering politics, he was both the richest
man in Italy and also the subject of numerous legal controversies concerning
his business methods. So with Silvio you get the following perspectives
(which are not mutually exclusive):
1. He went into politics to keep himself out of jail. His government had a
law passed by Parliament exempting office holders of a certain level from
legal processes while they are holding office. (This is not an untypical
law; it exists in other European countries too.)
2. He went into politics to prevent the bankruptcy of his financial empire
which has overextended bank loans.
3. He went into politics to exercise the pleasures of power however one
might conceptualize them.
4. He went into politics to institute a program of general reforms which
benefit him and his rich friends but not the nation as a whole. In this
view, his inability to carry out many of these reforms is fortunate.
5. He went into politics to institute a program of general reforms that
benefit the nation as a whole. In this view, his inability to carry out
many of these reforms is unfortunate.

Italian National Fiscal Accounts

The European Union has rejected the financial accounts of Italy which show
its deficit within required dimensions. It is no surprise that such
accounts might well include a little sleight of hand. In addition, in
order to keep its deficit within limits, Italy often resorts to one-time
solutions like selling government assets. The European Union has given
Italy two years to put its financial house in order. It has called for
structural reforms rather than short-term solutions. My advice: dont hold
your breath.