thisweekinitaly.com

h3. Advertisement of Italian Shoe Industry

In the newspaper was a full page ad showing two shoes. The first one was labeled “Costs More than it is Worth.” On it was a tag “Made in ?” The ad noted that the shoe has totally synthetic materials except the rubber sole. The other was labeled “Made in Italy.” And it was said to be “ Worth More than it Costs.”
It was shown to have genuine leather components and a rubber sole. Now some foreign shoes may be made of inferior materials, but many are also made from genuine leather. They are cheaper not because of their inferior materials but because of the low labor costs of producing them in the third world. This is a challenge that Italy will increasingly have trouble meeting.

h3. Scheduling a Medical Test

I went to schedule a non urgent medical test at the Pistoia hospital. Although I have paid for my national medical plan for all of 2005, my medical eligibility card is tied to the expiration date of my Permesso di Soggiorno which was in September. I have applied for a new Permesso, but it won’t be ready to pick
up until the end of November. So my medical card, for the moment, is not valid. The computer at the scheduling office showed this fact, but when I explained
the situation to the lady, she was very nice and made an appointment for the exam anyway. The appointment is in February (first available date for non urgent exam of this type); by that time I will have a valid medical card anyway.

h3. Scheduling Another Medical Exam

I need to get a CAT scan in November which is done in Florence at the hospital of my cardiologist. An Italian would make the appointment over the telephone;
I do it by going to see the doctor personally. He then takes me to the scheduling office in the hospital. We did this, but nobody was in the office. So he has to call me later with the time for the appointment. The last time I was at this hospital was with my friend who was suffering from poison ivy. I commented that we had to walk a mile from the hospital to find the nearest pharmacy to get his prescription. I noted on this trip, however, that here is a pharmacy closer to the hospital than the one we sere sent to; the person giving us advice apparently did not know about this closer one.

Italians are very helpful when you ask for assistance, but there is one thing you will never hear an Italian say. Here is is. “You ask where is the nearest pharmacy. I’m not sure. Here is the address of one about two kilometers from here. I suggest, however, that you check with somebody else to see if there is one closer.”

h3. Getting Married at an Advanced Age

Italian men marry for the first time later than men in any other country. This is another reason, among many, for the low Italian birth rate. Without immigration Italy would be declining in population and have even greater economic problems than it already has. By the way, when they do marry, Italian men marry considerably younger women.

h3. Mock Terrorist Disaster Drills

Major Italian cities are carrying out mock terrorist disaster drills to test their preparedness for such an event. In Naples two ambulances participating in
the drill collided. Five crew members were injured; two had to be taken to the hospital.

h3. Alternative Medical Methods

I’ve seen some large signs that tell Italians that if they want to use homeopathic medicine or acupuncture for certain medical problems, this is allowed under that national health service. The ads then have a telephone number to call to access such therapies. My guess is that these therapies cost less than traditional western medicine so that making them available not only increases the choices of citizens but also saves money for the national health service.

h3. The Battle Against American Imperialism –the Halloween Front

This is part of an article from Yahoo News Service:

“Although Halloween has become increasingly popular across Europe — complete with carved pumpkins, witches on broomsticks, makeshift houses of horror and costumed children rushing door to door for candy — it’s begun to breed a backlash.

Critics see it as the epitome of crass, U.S.-style commercialism. Clerics and conservatives contend it clashes with the spirit of traditional Nov. 1 All Saints’ Day remembrances.

And it’s got purists in countries struggling to retain a sense of uniqueness in Europe’s ever-enlarging melting pot grimacing like Jack o’ Lanterns.

Halloween “undermines our cultural identity,” complained the Rev. Giordano Frosini, a Roman Catholic theologian who serves as vicar-general in the Diocese of Pistoia near Florence, Italy.

Frosini denounced the holiday as a “manifestation of neo-paganism” and an expression of American cultural supremacy. “Pumpkins show their emptiness,” he said.”

Now if I were making a plan to spread American cultural supremacy, promoting Halloween would not be a big item in it. I don’t see it as something that Americans see as particular emblematic of their culture and values. Furthermore, when Halloween candy, decorations, and costumes are sold in Europe, none of these are from the USA. They come from the local European nation or some third world producer. Who promotes Halloween in Europe? European businesses that make money form the Holiday.

h3. Watching an Almost Accident

While I was at an outside restaurant in Florence, I saw a near accident. A bicyclist rode up alongside of a van and then suddenly turned in front of the van
at the corner. The van, going forward, almost hit the cyclist. I was very close to the street; it seemed to be the cyclist’s fault. After the near collision, the van driver yelled at the cyclist, and the cyclist gestured at the van driver, and it was obvious that the cyclist was deaf. He did not speak. It was at
this point that the customers of the restaurant noticed the encounter. In my opinion without knowing the facts, the customers immediately sided with the cyclist and began to upbraid the driver. One even threw a glass at the van. The incident exemplified the Italian tendency to side with the perceived underdog regardless of the facts.

h3. The Church Library

My American church in Florence has two quite informal library rooms of English materials –one for children and one for adults. In addition to books, they contain some videotapes. All materials are donated by members of the English speaking community. I think that the videotapes tend to be shelved in the room where the donor drops them off. So I borrowed probably the only copy in the world of a videotape of episodes of “Sex and the City” which has on it a sticker saying “Children’s Lending Library.” When I brought it back I said to the volunteer librarian, “I know the young kids have all been asking for this tape.”

h3. Photos of My Trip to Sicily

I used to have photos on my web site www.bob.it.tt but after the format of the site was modernized, the photos are no longer there. My friend Roger Fross took pictures of our trip in Sicily. They can be seen on his site www.frossfamily.com in the section Italy 2005: Siracusa –Agrigento. After he is finished celebrating the White Sox’s World Series victory. I think he will label the photos, but they are lovely even without labels.

h3. Stop Dont Get that Tattoo

The local paper says that the tattoo craze has crested in Italy. Since
Italy is ahead of the USA in matters of style, this means that the
popularity of tattoos will decline soon also in the USA. There is a growing
business here in removing tattoos. It is my understanding that in the past
this was done by tattooing over the design with skin colored ink. Now
lasers are used. When I was a boy, the removal of tattoos was mainly for
sailors who wanted Marys name removed from their arm now that they were
married to Betty. Today they are removed simply because they are out of
style.

My uncle Steve had the answer to avoiding a tattoo that was too specific and
thus subject to later removal. Instead of a lady’s name he had T-R-U-E
L-O-V-E tattooed on his fingers. Unfortunately his wife, my Aunt Stella,
discovered that he had two True Loves — the lady down the street and the
liquor bottle. My aunt and uncle did manage to adopt two children born to
the lady down the street who looked just like my uncle Steve.

h3. Cultural Commonalities

As Ive noted, some things in Italy are quite similar to the USA. Here is
another. Places that sell Persian Rugs seem to hold perpetual Going Out of
Business Sales.

h3. Dyslexia

An American friend read an article saying that dyslexia is much less common
in Italy than in the USA. The author hypothesized the reason to be that the
Italian language has far fewer sounds than English and far fewer letter
combinations that make up the sounds of the language. Pronunciation and
spelling are much simpler in Italian than in English.

h3. Throwing Rice at Weddings

This now is rarely done in the USA in large part because it is supposed to
be bad for birds who eat the rice. The Italians still throw rice. Score one
for Italy on this account. Here is a report from one of the Internet sites
that investigates various rumors on the Internet to determine their
validity:

h3. Summary of eRumor:
The old tradition of throwing rice at a departing wedding couple should
be avoided because birds eat the rice, it expands in their stomachs, and
they are harmed by it. Some folks say the birds can even explode!

h3. The Truth:
The consensus of the multiple organizations we checked with is that
this is Fiction! It’s an urban legend that some say got started, or at
least propelled, when Ann Landers gave advice in her column in the
mid-sixties that the rice would do bad things to birds.
The folks at Birder’s magazine, Birdwatcher Digest, The Cornell Lab of
Ornithology, and the USA Rice Federation all agree: rice causes no harm to
birds. There are varieties of birds that routinely eat rice in the wild and
with no harm. As one observer put it, if rice caused birds to explode,
there would be bird parts all over Asia.
Most of the wedding planning organizations say that the main reason for
not using rice is because there is too much of a risk of people slipping on
it and falling.

Actually I am a little sorry that the bird story is untrue. In Italy I often
see pigeons eating the wedding rice. The thought of fewer pigeons is not
unpleasant for me.

h3. Small Change

Last week I was asked to help count the collection money after the church
service. I was surprised at the number of one cent, two cent, and five cent
coins. In the USA young children often put little coins into the collection
plate, but our service has very few young children in attendance. The Sunday
School takes place at the same hour. We have a lot of Africans in our
congregation who are probably much poorer than the Americans and Italians.

h3. Examinations, Examinations, Examinations

In Italy examinations for professional certification or employment are much
more common. For example, if you graduate with an undergraduate degree in
Chemistry, you must pass a state examination to be put on the register of
chemists. Otherwise a job is unlikely. If you want to do graduate study
you must take an examination for one of the limited number of graduate
fellowships. Unlike American universities, Italian universities don’t use
graduate students to teach undergraduates so there are fewer fellowships
available for graduate students. If you want to be hired by the government
as a chemist, you must take a competitive examination given to all
applicants for a government job as a chemist.

All these examinations are to insure that there is a fair system in which
positions go to the most “qualified” person. In fact, this may generally
work for governmental positions. But nobody in Italy believes that in
general Italy is a meritocracy. . Everyone thinks that “who you know” is
far more important than “what you know.” The flaw with any system that bases
employment solely on examination scores is that studies show that job
success is allied to three factors (1) intellectual ability and theoretical
knowledge of the field, (2) willingness to work hard, and (3) ability to get
along with other people. The examinations only look at one of these
factors. Yet, Italians are very leery of any “subjective” factors in
employment decisions (like numbers 2 and 3 above) because then, they
believe, all jobs will go to relatives and friends of the persons doing the
hiring.

h3. Buy Chicken

The Avian Flue scare (cases are now reported in Turkey, Romania, and
Macedonia) has caused chicken sales to plummet in Italy. There are no cases
yet in Italy. If you cook the chicken thoroughly, there is no danger
anyway. I bought chicken at a 40% discount at the Supermarket this week.

h3. Political Discussion

On the train back from Sicily the passengers in my compartment engaged in a
spirited political discussion. I dont think in the USA strangers would be
so willing to do this, especially if it involved sharp disagreements.
Political discussion in Italy is often at a sophisticated level, although
often also unfortunately endless. I think both the right and the left in
Italy have a central myth in which they believe. For the left it is the
idea that they are the heirs of the partisans who rid Italy of Fascism in
1943-45 (with maybe a little help from the Allied forces). For the right it
is the myth that Mussolini really was a good leader in Italy until he made
his one big mistake of entering World War II.

h3. Older Men Younger Women

I wrote about the phenomenon in Italy last week. Then a few days later I
met a retired American in Pistoia who was eating with a much younger woman
maybe not young enough to be his granddaughter. I discovered that he was
single. His family came from Pistoia, and he comes here twice a year for six
weeks at a time. So his continuing Italian roots make him at least part
Italian.

h3. Translator Needed

Ive mentioned before that today, even if they speak a dialect, almost all
Italians understand standard Italian because of schooling, radio, TV, films,
etc. Last week in Pistoia there was a civil trial in which a lady from
Naples claimed she had been defrauded by a man from Pistoia. When she
started to tell her story in the Neapolitan dialect, the judges could not
understand her and called for a translator. Id be surprised if she did not
understand Italian, but apparently she could not speak it.

h3. Primary Elections

The first primary elections ever in Italy were last year at the local level.
Not many people voted. Next week the center-left coalition is holding a
national primary election to select its candidate for President of the
Council (political leader of nation). The center-right will not have such a
primary election even though some in that coalition have called for it. I could (but dont plan to) vote in the primary. Foreigners who have lived in Italy for at least three years are eligible to vote. The rules for who can vote in this election are not set by national law but by the parties in the center-left coalition.

h3. Friends from America

I was due to meet some visiting friends from America in Florence recently at
3 in the afternoon. In the morning I got a call that one of them had poison
ivy and, although he had medicine, it was getting worse. He wanted to see a
doctor. I did not think poison ivy existed in Italy. I was right; he got
this in the USA. So I met them at train station, and we went to hospital in
Florence. The doctor in the emergency room did not know what poison ivy
was. So she went to confer with a colleague, and perhaps look at a medical
dictionary. She then came back with some prescriptions. My friend obviously
was eager to start taking the medicine to relieve the itching. I asked if
there was a pharmacy in the hospital; there was, and we went there. But it
turns out that this pharmacy could not be used by us. Im not sure why. So
then we walked about a mile to closest pharmacy in the USA I think there
would be a drug store closer to the hospital. It was closed for the lunch
break. So we had lunch and went back at 3:30. We finally got the medicine.
As always for tourists, the trip to the hospital was free, although we did
pay for the medicine.

h3. News vs. Entertainment

In USA there are nightly national news shows and then shows like
Entertainment Tonight. The kind of things that end up on Entertainment
Tonight in the USA often are shown on regular national news in Italy. The
recent rare illness of George Clooney got extensive coverage here. Of
course, since he has chosen to live a lot of the year in Italy, he is very
popular here. A few days ago a young man who is a member of the Agnelli
family that controls Fiat almost died from an overdose of cocaine. This
would be news anywhere; be it was big front page news for more than a day
here. Perhaps the importance of this story may have been heightened by the
fact that at the time of the overdose he was in the company of three
transvestites with whom he may have been engaged in an orgy. There is no
industrial family in the USA that has the role and prominence of the Agnelli
family in Italy.

h3. Envelopes

I mentioned once that Italian hate to lick stamps. They almost always use a
wet sponge. Envelopes here very often have a pull off strip over the
adhesive so you dont have to lick them. But I sometimes dont notice that
there is such a strip. I lick the envelope and then wonder why it doesnt
close. I get the picture eventually.

h3. Italy –Just a Little Bit Sexist

In the percentage of women in its parliament Italy ranks last in Europe and
73rd in the world. So in the battle over the new election law, the
center-left opposition introduced an amendment that would have guaranteed
more seats for women –this became known as the “pink quota.” In a very
rare response, the center-right majority agreed to the amendment and added
it to its proposal. All votes on the new election law were by secret
ballot. The “pink quota” failed 452-140 meaning that lawmakers on both
sides of the political divide voted it down. One opponent of this quota
said “These woman mustn’t break our balls.”

Now the pink quota may have been a bad way to deal with the problem of women
in Parliament, but lawmakers in Italy almost always vote the “party line”
regardless of the wisdom of the proposed law. So you can put its defeat
down to the sexism that is greater in Italy than in the USA.

h3. Election Reform in Italy

National leader Berlusconi is proposing a reform on how seats are allocated among the parties in the national Parliament. Naturally his opponents are saying he wants to change the rules because he thinks his coalition will lose the next election (2006) under the current rules. Some seats are won in individual races in districts; others are awarded according to the number of votes received by various parties and coalitions. To try to understand this change, I asked a knowledgeable friend to give me a description of the current system and the proposed new one. The explanation of the current one, with examples from the election of 2000, was 15 pages long. Not one Italian in 1000 could correctly explain this system. It is an attempt to reach some impossible perfect fairness. As is typical in Italy, something that looks good on paper is appreciated for it aesthetic completeness; the fact that it does not work in practice (the parties have found ways to evade some of the rules) counts less. I’m not sure the new one is simplier.

h3. Riding the Train First Class

On the last long train trip I took overnight. I bought a first-class seat to sleep better, but the first-class car did not have air conditioning that worked. A waste of money. This time I first tried to get a room with a bed, but was told none were available; so I bought a second class ticket. I discovered later that for some reason there were no cars with beds (as there should be on overnight trains) on this train. The second class compartment was full, without air conditioning, and the folks in it liked to keep the windows closed. It was very unpleasant, but after 1 am, I happened on a good solution. I just went and took a seat in a first-class compartment that on this train was air conditioned and comfortable. This time I got the first-class ride that I paid for and did not get last time.

h3. In Sicily

I had a lovely week touring eastern and southern Sicily with my friends Roger and Madelon Fross. . We were in sections that formerly had been Greek colonies. There were Greek and Roman ruins. Much of the architecture was from after 1700 because in a lot of this area an earthquake in 1693 had destroyed the cities. Many of the attractions we wanted to see were closed for repair or reconstruction. I have the feeling that these buildings in Sicily fell into a greater state of disrepair than did similar edifices in
Tuscany.

h3. Using Music to Help Plants Grow

Here is comment from a scholarly friend about my item last week of the man who played music in his vineyard to help the grapes grow.

“There have been many studies published on the effects of music on the growth of plants. Under controlled conditions it appears that soft, repetitive classical music (or elevator music) is conducive of active plant growth, but rock-and-roll, or heavy metal is not. The music pitch, din and rapidity of notes tend to affect the plant cell membranes which result in hampering or enhancing the passage of electrolytes, chemicals, and hormones into and out of the cells.”

The music the Italian farmer was playing appeared to be operatic arias. No “elevator music” for the grapes in Italy.

h3. Ordering from an Italian Menu

I was at a restaurant in Italy that had the menu is Italian, German, and English. There was dish in Italian that (translated into English) was a fillet of sole rolled with a stuffing of various items that Italians then
call “of the fisherman.” The English translations was “It rolls you of forms ears of the fisherman.” Maybe this was one of those translations using a computer translating engine.

h3. Service in Italy

I like to say it is because I wear bifocals, but in the last few years I have an increasing tendency to spill glasses of liquids. I spilled my Coke at a bar in Pistoia. The bar tender wiped it up, but he did not, as he would in the USA, refill my glass. Maybe other bartenders in Italy would have done so, but, in general, these little niceties of good service are less common in Italy.

h3. Dinner with Your “Granddaughter”

My friend Roger noticed that it Italy you often see older men out with much younger women who sometimes are dressed in provocative ways. He noted that in the USA an older (often married) man might have such an assignation, but it would not be in a highly public place. Italy is different on this count.
Men often have “open” mistresses known to the family, and to be seen in public with a sexily dressed woman much younger than you is not an embarrassment.

h3. The Power of Music

I’ve seen news stories in the USA about farmers who played music in the hen house (to get hens to lay more eggs) or in the cow barn (to get cows to give more milk). I saw a new twist on this on the news in Italy-a farmer who played music in his vineyard to get grapes to grow better. He claims it is a big success.

h3. Autovelox

This is the automatic machine that police use in Europe to take a photograph of a speeding car. A ticket is then sent to owner of car who is known from license plate number on the photo. In Italy now a speeding ticket costs “points” against your driver’s license. The owner’s of cars complained that they might not have been driving the car when speeding so the points should not be automatically deducted from their license. So the rule was established that the owner could tell police that someone else was driving, and then the points would be deducted from that person’s license. Of course, this means that now an owner who was driving (and who has some points already against his license) tells the police that another family member or friend (who has no preexisting points against his license) was the driver. The best possible situation: someone in the family has a foreign driver’s license (for whom the Italian “points” mean nothing) . This person then always turns out to be the one who was speeding.

h3. Italian vs. American Universities

I’ve pointed out before than Italian universities are not “user friendly.” People here think the university does little to encourage the progress of students toward graduation-in fact just the opposite. Most students go to a university near their city and commute from home. If you go to a university in another city, that university does not provide student housing; I heard a discussion on the radio of how hard and expensive it is for students to find housing when they attend a university in another city. Of course, Italian universities don’t see their students as potential donors to the university after graduation-alumni are not tapped for contributions.

I read in Newsweek an item that epitomizes the different attitude toward students in American and Italian universities. Residence halls in American universities have facilities with coin operated washing machines and dryers. These are often crowded. Now some institutions have purchased a software system that connects student computers to these facilities. Students can look on the computer to discover (1) the general patterns of when the facilities are most used and (2) whether, in fact, there are machines
available to use right now. After the student puts his or her laundry in a machine, a message arrives at his or her computer (or an SMS message to the cell phone) telling the student when the machine has completed its cycle.

h3. Graduates in English Who Can’t Speak English

You can major in English at an Italian University and not learn to speak English. You have to pass some tests of English that are grammar based. You have to read famous works of English authors, but you can read these in Italian and be tested on them in Italian. I have a friend who will teach a graduate course in English to students who already have their bachelor’s degree in this subject. She has been told that she will probably have to begin instruction at the elementary knowledge level.

h3. Visit to the National Library in Florence

Last weekend was a weekend in which museums, castles, and some other public places in Italy were open free of charge. A friend asked me to join her Sunday on a visit to National Library in Florence that has some interesting items in its archives. My friend had downloaded from the computer a description of which facilities were open specially in Florence for this weekend and the times. Early Sunday she noted that a reservation was necessary. So she called the telephone number on the computer print out to
make a reservation -the number was not functioning. A bad sign. Sure enough when we got there, the Library was closed. There was on the computer printout also a general information number about all facilities open for this special weekend. Of course, at that number nobody knew why the Library
was closed.

h3. What is a young person?

The work “giovane” in Italian means young person. You probably start to use this word when a person reaches teen age years. I saw a newspaper headline about a “giovane” arrested for beating his wife. The guy was 33 years old. I don’t think we would use “young man” in the USA to describe a 33 year old. But in Italy, where children often remain at home until they are well past age 30, I suppose it is easier to think of a 33 year old as a “young man.”

h3. Comparative Cost of Living in Italy and the USA

When people compare the cost of living in different countries, they often compare the price of things like a cup of coffee, a gallon of gas, a loaf of bread, etc. Here is a more esoteric comparison. Recently a headline in the newspaper said a man was asked to pay (perhaps did pay) blackmail of 16,000 Euros to his former male lover so the latter would not reveal their homosexual relationship. What would this cost in the USA?

h3. The Piazza della Sala

This piazza in Pistoia is where the “street people” (probably homeless), hang out. Many of them have dogs that run loose. They tend to be noisy well into the night. The piazza also has some pubs with outdoor seating which stay open late. As a result there are constant complaints (and newspaper headlines) from residents of this area about the noise and dogs. I think there may be a notice on the wall at local newspapers that says – “Slow News Day? — Print an article about noise complaints in Piazza della Sala.”
This week the local police closed a tavern (with outdoor seating) on a street adjacent to the Piazza. It was closed because the owner did not have some required official document, but I feel that it was closed so the police could show local residents they were “doing something” about the problem. It will be interesting to note how long the closure lasts.