July 2006
Monthly Archive
Sat 29 Jul 2006
Posted by Robert C. Nordvall under
2006No Comments
A Disclaimer
I realize that in my newsletters I often point out thinks about Italy that strike me as silly or foolish. Of course, an Italian living in the United States could do the same thing about many aspects of American culture. All in all, Italy is a pleasant place to live, but to give the flavor of life here, I tend to point out the differences, not the similarities.
The Big News
Remember when all America rushed to a TV set to see the announcement of the OJ verdict? Well something similar happened in Italy. The nation huddled around the sets to hear the verdict of the appeal court considering the punishments for the scandal in soccer. You may recall from an earlier newsletter that Italy has three levels of soccer leagues A, B. and C — A being the highest. The original proposed penalty for four squads (all at A level) involved in the wrongdoing was that one of them be put down to level C and the other three to level B. I said this would not happen because of the major TV contract for soccer broadcasts. In fact, the appeal court sent one squad down to level B and the other three remain at level A. (The penalties had some other aspects too.) I don’t know what are the right penalties for these transgressions. I do know, however, that in Italy, you can be sure of one thing. There will be further appeals and negotiations. The old saying of basketball coach Dick Motta is always true in Italy — “the opera is not over until the fat lady sings.”
New Shoes
A friend bought some shoes from a vendor at the semi-weekly open air shoe market and then found out that they did not fit well. He got a credit for his purchase but could find no other shoes from this vendor that he liked. So he gave me the credit to use. I ended up getting a nice pair of Italian loafers. The vendor said that these in fact were Bally shoes (a high end brand also sold in USA) without the label in them. I can’t confirm this, but I do know that even if they are Bally shoes, without the label, they are certainly worth much less in Italy. The Italians love, and pay top price, for goods by well known designers, but these items must have the label (sometimes the name is on the outside) so the Italians can impress their friends with the quality and price of their purchase.
Salads
On the menus in restaurants both in Italy and France is a variety of large salads with ingredients such as fish, meat, or cheese in addition to vegetables. France always had the Salad Niscoise, but other salads of this type seem to be more and more common. These items are probably more typical in summer and seem to reflect a desire to accommodate those who want lighter fare.
The Background of Floyd Landis
Tour De France winner Floyd Landis is from a Mennonite family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Although the family lives a simple life, they do drive in cars, have electricity, and listen to the radio (but not TV). They have a nice home. His father owned a laudromat and car wash and Floyd went to public schools, not a special religious one. The Italian TV commentators got these facts a little mixed up. They announced that he was from a Mennonite family, but then described something even more primitive than what the Amish have. Floyd was said to have been raised in a hovel without water or electricity in a community without paved streets. I guess to the Italians, if a home did not have water and electricity, it must have been a hovel. (My son in Germany tells me that the media there too mixed up Mennonite with Amish.)
Heat Wave
As in the USA, we are having a heat wave in Italy. In general I don’t find the summers here to be hotter than in Pennsylvania. I do notice however that temperatures of 40° centigrade (105 Fahrenheit) are not uncommon during a heat wave in Italy. This is a little hotter than northern cities get in the USA. I only remember a temperature of 105° one or two times during the many years I lived in Pennsylvania.
Why Italy is Incapable of Dealing with Problem of Illegal Immigration
Here is a story from a friend. She was called recently to the courthouse to act as interpreter in a case involving a Nigerian immigrant. This man had been in trouble with the law in Italy. At this point he faced one of three options: (1) plead guilty to the crime for a shortened prison sentence, (2) undergo a trial with the chance of a longer sentence if found guilty, or (3) agree to be deported back to Nigeria. He chose the third option. He was then released and given five days to leave Italy. The marshal in the courtroom said to him something that he probably already knew –’if you don’t want to leave, just go to Rome or another large city and disappear.’ I think that in the USA, he would have been kept in jail until he was put on the airplane for home. In Italy illegal immigrants who are kept in detention centers often just walk away from the centers.
Lawyers Take to the Streets
I found out what made the lawyers so mad about the new governmental measures liberalizing the economy. Although only a few of these items concerned lawyers, the one that seemed to upset them the most was the outlawing of the minimum fee schedule followed by the attorneys. Under this arrangement lawyers would not charge less for their services than the minimum fee specified. The lawyers mounted a mass protest demonstration in Rome. Imagine lawyers marching in the streets in the USA to protect their restrictive fee agreement. Would by-standers: (1) laugh at them, (2) yell obscenities at them, (3) throw garbage at them
or all three?
Sat 22 Jul 2006
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Visit to Provence
This last week I visited Provence. My good friends, Paul and Sue Chummers, had swapped for two weeks their apartment in Spain (which I visited last year) for a house near Avignon. Avignon was in the midst of a large theatre festival –plays shown for a month in over 100 locations. If we had only spoken French, we could have taken advantage of this cultural bonanza. I did get to see the end of one of the stages of the Tour de France which was fun. The stage ended at Montelimar which any educated persons knows is the nougat capital of France.
We visited museums and towns in the area. At the museums the audio guides were included in the entrance fees which were quite modest.
Speaking of the Tour de France
The American Floyd Landis was leading the Tour when on July 19 he faltered badly in the mountains and fell from first to 11th place. The articles in the paper said that he was finished as a contender this year. The next day in a brilliant ride he broke away from all his rivals and jumped to third place, only 30 seconds behind the leader. Here is how the Italian sports newspaper reported his comeback.
“Let’s tell the truth. On this earth there is nobody (if you say there is somebody, prove it) who would have bet one penny on DisneyLandis.
Favorite, strong favorite, yellow jersey on the Alpe d’Huez; cooked, collapsed, dead 24 hours later on La Toussuire; reborn, arisen, resuscitated after another 24 hours at Morzine. From the altar to dirt, from Paradise to Hell, from the podium to the casket, from the amusement park to the prison of horrors, from eternal glory to eternal rest, always with a return ticket within 48 hours.”
It’s hard to beat the Italians for florid writing style.
Story of the Week in Italian Newspaper
This set of stories took up an entire page. The first one was that a guy discovered his wife’s picture on an Internet site advertising prostitutes. It did not tell how he happened to be looking at this site. So he planned to sue his wife for divorce, but she beat him to the punch — suing him and claiming physical abuse. He denied the abuse, and there was an article in which his parents also said he never abused her. So it was up to the court to decide, but when the case arrived in court it had to be delayed until October because the lawyers (as I reported last week) were on strike.
Renting a Bicycle in France
Paul and I went to rent bikes for a ride in France. The shop clerk completed the paperwork and prepared the bikes. Then he discovered that neither of us had our passport. No passport, no bike rental. Now the purpose of taking the passport is as security for the return of the bike. The shop could have run, let’s say, a $400 deposit on Paul’s credit card to insure that the bikes were returned. But the shop rule is to take a passport as security. Just a small example of how things are generally more bureaucratic in Europe. I don’t know if the clerk who waited on us was the owner or just an employee. If he was an employee, he may have felt unauthorized to bend the rule. In the USA ‘making a profit’ is often more important than exactly following the rule. I think in Europe the opposite is often true.
Trains
I took some of the TGV trains in France. These ones made frequent stops so they did not go at high speeds, but they were very smooth. I assume for the TGV train you must have a very solid roadbed, and this makes all trains run better on these tracks. As always the costs were much higher than in Italy, but the trains were better. On the Italian train I took from Milan to Nice, the PA system announced many times the location on the train of the car with a bar and snacks. The only problem was that this train had no such car. On the way back I had a 10 minute train connection in Milan. Of course, I missed it. A long distance train is almost never on time in Italy.
One of the mysteries of Italy is the relationship between poor service and low expectations. Do people in Italy have low expectations for things such as train service because it is inevitable that service will be deficient so to have higher expectations is mere foolishness? Or do the low expectations in fact encourage and allow poor service because such service is expected and tolerated without complaint? I suppose the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Language Etiquette in Italy
Obscene language no crime if it’s tit-for-tat says court (ANSA) – Rome, July 20 – Italy’s highest court has ruled it is okay to hurl abuse at someone provided the other side gives as good as it gets .
The Court of Cassation said a woman was entitled to call an acquaintance a “bastard, fool, a cretin and a drug addict” because the insults had been “mutual” . “There was justification for the crime,” said the judges . Confirming a lower court’s acquittal of the woman, they ordered the insulted man who brought the appeal to pay 500 euros in costs .
This was the second case on “mutual insults” to make its way to Italy’s supreme court this year . In March, judges acquitted a woman who called an immigrant co-worker a ‘bloody n**ger’ . Upholding an earlier ruling, they said the woman’s reaction was justified because the man had “cursed” her family and her insult was an “equivalent” response .
Number One Story in Italy
The war in the Middle East is important, but, of course, in Italy the premier story for discussion is the punishments given by the international soccer organization to Zidane and the Italian player who ‘provoked’ his head butt. The fans are livid that the Italian player got almost as severe a penalty –suspension for three games. Since Zidane is retiring, his penalty of a three-game suspension has no meaning. I am reading a history of Italy in which the author talks about the Italian Prime Minister who are the end of the 19th
century tried to start a war with France because he thought that Italy needed a war with someone to unify the patriotic spirit of the nation. If he were alive today, he would have an easier task.
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My Latest Article in The Florentine newspaper (July 13 issue)
Bicycling in Tuscany
By Robert Nordvall
Lists of Dream Bicycling Destinations almost always include Tuscany. So you know it is a great place to cycle, but what is the best way for you to experience a Tuscany cycling adventure? Consider the following.
Planning Your Route
Tuscany is a bike riding paradise. Great routes abound throughout the region. Bike routes are available both on the web and through bookstores. Map shops have maps that show both roads and trails that are open to bikes. Local tourist agencies have brochures of suggested cycling routes. The regional Tuscan agency, APT, has a map ‘Coast to Coast’ of 14 routes for mountain bike and 14 for touring bike from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Adriatic through Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. Sometimes commercial bike tour companies post their routes on their web site — a good place to get some route planning advice.
The most popular areas to ride in terms of terrain and scenery are Chianti and south of Siena. South of Siena popular towns to visit are Castelnuovo dell’ Abate, Pienza, Montalcono, and Montepulciano. In Chianti tours often stop at Gaiole in Chianti, Radda in Chianti, Greve in Chianti, and San Gimignano. You sometimes have the choice of taking a state road or a more secondary one from town to town. The minor roads obviously have less traffic, but when you see a squiggly line on the map, beware. This indicates a steep road with switchback turns.
What Kind of Bike to Take
You ride a touring bike on paved roads. A mountain bike also goes on these roads (some prefer it even for paved roads) but also gives you access to dirt roads and trails open to bicycles. Touring bikes are a little easier to pedal because of the narrow, high pressure tires. If you choose a touring bike, be sure it has low gears with three front chain rings. Another popular bike for touring is the hybrid bike that is halfway between a road bike and a mountain bike. In any case, on a self-guided trip, you need a bike with a rack for your big bags as well as some tools to make repairs.
How about renting a bicycle? Most cycle rental shops have only lower quality bikes for short trips. So you may have to look around to find a rental bike that is suitable for a longer tour. A rental site in Florence is Florence by Bike, Via San Zanobi 91/R –120-122/R 055-488992. As for repairs, fortunately in Italy bike shops are common so you can get help in almost any town. Even if the shop owner speaks only Italian, you can usually communicate your problem without difficulty.
Commercial Bike Touring Company or On Your Own ?
Many bike touring companies offer full service tours in Tuscany. Some of these, for example, Backroads (A Tuscan Sampler, South of Siena for 6 days and 5 nights costs $3698), Vermont Bicycling Touring (Tuscany, tour of 6 nights and 7 days costs $2095), and Butterfield & Robinson (Tuscany Chianti Getaway 5 days and 4 nights for $3995), are based in English speaking countries, but even foreign tour companies will usually have an English speaking guide. Why the difference in prices — primarily in terms of the quality of accommodations, meals, and amenities. European based bicycling tour companies often charge less. A web site that lists tours in Tuscany from numerous vendors, so you can easily make comparisons, is bicyclingworld.com
Commercial tour organizations provide the routes, accommodations, support vehicle, good quality rental bikes, a group to ride with, and a professional guide (who also can do minor mechanical repairs) . There is a choice of routes each day to serve your particular needs. You can ride these with other members of the tour or on your own. A typical group might be 15-20 on a tour. Local touring companies (for example, I Bike Italy, tour_info @ibikeitaly.com) also provide shorter trips such as one or two days.
If you plan your own tour, the cost is half or less of a commercial tour. You can choose your own routes, dates, and pace. Some bike touring companies also, at a lower cost, will arrange routes and accommodations for a self-guided tour. Often people prefer a commercial trip for their first long bicycle trip, but, as in many travel realms, considerations of cost and the self-confidence to do your own planning may determine what is best for you.
Transporting Your Bike
The train schedule indicates (by a little bicycle symbol) which regional trains have a special car, usually the front car, to accommodate bicycles (which require a separate ticket). Sometimes these trains don’t have this car, but on any regional train, even without a bike coach, you can find a place between cars for your bicycle. For non regional trains, you have to check carefully if bikes can be transported. On intercity buses, bikes can be put in the luggage compartment under the bus (no extra ticket required). If it rains during your tour, don’t be shy about taking a train or a bus to your next stop.
Before retiring in Italy, Bob Nordvall was at one time President of the League of American Bicyclists. He has planned group bike tours in Tuscany and elsewhere.
Sat 15 Jul 2006
Posted by Robert C. Nordvall under
2006No Comments
World Cup
I watched the final match against France at the party of an American friend from Chicago (Renita) in the mountains north of Pistoia. Among those attending were some musicians including Guitar Crusher (The Big Voice from New York) who is based in Germany. So during the second half of game we had musician accompaniment to the soccer activities. After the famous head butting incident by Zidane near end of game I said to Renita, ‘I think the Italian player must have said some to Zidane.’ To which she replied ‘I think he said something about this mother.’ (Her suggestion later received some confirmation from Zidane and among the various lip readers who reviewed the television tape of the incident.)
I actually thought the French played better than the Italians, but in soccer the team that plays best doesn’t always win. A famous example of this was the 1950 World Cup in which the USA beat England 1-0 — perhaps the greatest upset in the history of soccer. ( A 2005 film, The Game of Their Lives, tells the story of this match.) An account of the game indicates that the English played far better, but non of their many shots on goal went in whereas one of the few American shots did. The British press intimated that the American team had its origins at Ellis Island but in fact 8 of the 11 American players were native born. This is probably a much higher percentage of native born players than the French team had this year. The Italian team is somewhat unusual in that it has all native born players and they all play in the Italian professional league.
After the game I returned to Pistoia where the streets were full of people. Cars and trucks were roaming the streets blowing their horns with people waving Italian flags, many of which were probably purchased that very day from the foreign street merchants who had adjusted their merchandise to take advantage of the new demand. As in the USA after, for example, a Super Bowl game there was some violence by fans of the victorious side. One young boy was run over and killed by a car driven by a drunker underage fan.
I included the article recently in my newsletter about how Italians are unified as a nation only when the national soccer team plays. Like the original 13 American colonies, the people of the many little states in Italy at the time of Italy’s War for Independence were unified only by the desire to throw off foreign domination. Once this happened, they faced the task of becoming a new nation. In the United States this transition went more smoothly and quickly than in Italy for historical reasons that are too complex to summarize easily. Suffice it to say that the problem of becoming a unified nation has been a constant one in Italian history since 1861, little by little progress is made.
The usual Monday paper has about a 28 page sports supplement. The day after the World Cup there was a 44 page supplement on the World Cup only and another 8 pages of other sports news. In Italy, unlike the USA, major politicians are asked to comment upon important sporting events. There was even a picture of Bill Clinton with his short comment.
As expected some suggested that those teams, referees, and team officials involved in the big soccer scandal should receive amnesty because of the World Cup victory. This idea fortunately is not widely shared, but the fact that it was even made shows a not untypical triumph of emotion over logic in Italy.
Beggars in Restaurants
Beggars come into restaurants here to ask for food. This may happen too in USA. A friend who owns a restaurant tells me that once a guy came in and began to eat the fat that surrounds the large ham. The owner then gave him some better food, but then the beggar began to come in regularly. Next the beggar brought some of his own food and wanted my friend to cook it for him. At this point the relationship ended. Usually beggars do not often enter restaurants asking the customers for money, but people do come in selling things like flowers and trinkets. The deaf mutes sell little trinkets (not the sign language alphabet card as is typical in the USA). One wonders if they are in fact deaf. My owner friend once tested this proposition. He dropped a tray behind one on these deaf vendors; she did not flinch at the sudden noise. So she, at least, could not hear.
Correction
Having reported earlier that Bruce Springsteen would perform in Pistoia, I must sadly report that his concert has been cancelled. As far as I could tell other major Tuscan cities were upset that his sole appearance in the region would be in Pistoia. They bugged him to do another concert in the area, and his response was to cancel the one in Pistoia without scheduling another. Maybe Bruce did not want to be part of the modern version of the medieval squabbling of Italian city-states.
Correction number 2
Many friends wrote to tell me that, despite my guess otherwise, in fact that 50th anniversary of the Bikini swimsuit did get coverage in the American media. Still, trust me, in general there is more news about fashion and style in Italy than in the USA.
The Triumph of True Love over Theology
I wrote a few weeks ago about the Catholic archbishop Milingo from Africa who will be singing at the Porretta Soul Festival. At one time he had left the Catholic Church, joined that of Rev. Moon, and married a Korean woman. But he repented, came back to the fold, and left his wife. Now he has switched sides again. He is back with Rev. Moon and reconciling with his wife. I think they are going to have to take away his archbishop’s robes this time.
Advice for George Bush
Bush’s approval ratings are low. In Italy, among the various economic reforms recently instituted was one that angered the nation’s lawyers. So they went on strike. Now Bush should call Prodi and ask just what he did to make the lawyers go on strike. If Bush could get the lawyers in the USA to stop working, he would be immediately much more popular.
I can’t say exactly what it was that upset the lawyers for this reason. In Italy when some group gets upset with the government, the first story in the media explains exactly why the group is mad. After that all following stories simply describe the actions of the protest. If you miss the first story, you never know what all the yelling and shouting is about. These kinds of protests are so common in Italy, that the public probably cares little about the reasons — the public only wants to know if and how it might be inconvenienced.
Sexual Protocols — Italian Style
One of my favorite commentaries by Garrison Keillor concerns his description of the annual sermon on birth control by Father Emil of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility in the fictional town of Lake Wobegon; Minnesota. The essence of the sermon is “if you did not want to go to St. Paul, why did you get on the train.”
The excerpt below shows that Father Emil’s philosophy is shared by some top Italian judges.
In essence, the nation’s top judges this week said it was OK to go ahead with sexual intercourse even if your partner changes their mind halfway through .
Ruling in the case of a young couple from Latina, the court said lower judges were wrong to give the 20-year-old boy a four-year rape term because he didn’t stop when his 16-year-old girlfriend begged him to, complaining of strong vaginal pains .
“The couple clearly agreed on consensual sex and the boy may not have been aware of the pain his partner was in,” the Cassation Court said .
It rapped lower-court judges for not “taking into proper account” the fact that the girl agreed to sex, and that she “was seen happily driving with him the day after the alleged rape” .
The girl only came forward a few days after the incident, encouraged by friends .
Like some previous sex verdicts, the no-rape-even-if-she changes-mind ruling sparked outrage among feminists and women MPs .
Italian Politics
Political life in all countries has certain common elements, but politics in Italy do nevertheless differ from the USA. Here is a situation that developed differently in Italy than it would have in America. The new center-left government proposed a bill to continue to finance the Italian contingent of troops with the UN peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. Unfortunately some parties in the governing coalition oppose Italy having troops there. But the center-right opposition originally sent the troops to Afghanistan (when it was in power) and has consistently supported their presence there. So with the votes of all of the center-right and most of the center-left, this bill should easily pass. Right? Not so easy. First the center-right intimated that it might vote no simply to embarrass the majority and expose its divisions. Next, the center-left held an internal peace conference and papered over this differences on this issue. Then the center-right announced that, for the good of the nation, it would vote yes. This announcement, that a group agreed to support what it had always supported in the past, was greeted as an exemplary act of bipartisan statesmanship.
Sat 8 Jul 2006
Posted by Robert C. Nordvall under
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What Ever Happened to ‘This Week in Italy’ Number 188?
The number was inadvertently skipped. My mistake reminded me of the story that when baseball cards first came out (I think they came with tobacco products, not gum), they were numbered. Some tried to get the whole set. The company quite cleverly did not print a card number 12. So those hoping to get a full set kept buying more tobacco in the hope of finally getting card number 12.
World Cup
Prior to the World Cup of 2002 I read an article in which a sportswriter predicted Italy would win the Cup because its defense was so hard to score against. In fact, Italy played poorly in the 2002 World Cup and exited after the first game of the second round. That sportswriter should have revived his article for the 2006 Cup. The only goal the Italians have given up was one kicked in by an Italian player (called an autogol) in the match against the USA.
In its match against Germany, the Italians knew they had to score a goal because Germany over the years almost always wins a match decided by penalty kicks at the end. This seems strange in that I would think that top flight players from all nations would be adroit at making penalty kicks. I asked an Italian why Germany is so much better at penalty kicks. He said in the penalty kick situation you must be cold, calculating, unemotional. Naturally he said the Germans are better.
Construction in Italy
I have two friends who are renovating apartments. Interior walls in Italy are made of solid block, but for particular reasons both of these renovations involved walls made of wallboard as in the USA. In Italy they don’t use wooden studs for such walls –they use aluminum ones. It is more difficult to attach the wallboard to the aluminum studs. In fact one of my friends, a woman, had to give advice to the Italian workmen on how to construct the wall with wallboard.
Vehicles Allowed on the Road
In the USA there are rules about what constitutes a ‘vehicle’ that one is able to use on public roads. Maybe there are such rules in Italy too, but they are different. Recently in a car we suddenly came upon a motorized wheelchair going down the road at about 5 mph. Around Pistoia there is also a guy who travels on the roads in a motorized bed complete with side view mirrors.
New Economic Regulations
The new government has issued some decrees that are intended to liberalize certain economic markets in Italy. One of them ends the cap on the number of licenses for taxis and allows municipalities to issue more licenses. Another allows supermarkets to sell non prescription drugs such as aspirin or cough medicine (Previously all such items had to be sold in a pharmacy where the prices were high.). Naturally the pharmacists are not happy, and the taxi drivers in major cities have gone on a national strike. These are the kind of changes that one would have expected the former Berlusconi government (headed by a politician supposedly enamored of the free market philosophy) to have made, but it did not.
Request for Executive Clemency
The leader of a famous criminal band in Milan was sentenced in the 1970s to four life sentences for four murders attributed to him. Now his ailing, elderly mother has asked the President to release him from prison so he can be free before she dies. The fact that she made the request does not mean it will be granted, and certainly many oppose releasing him. Still I think this kind of request resonates more with people in Italy than it would in the United States. One of the reasons, among others, that the Mafia never involved women in its operations is that it realized that the mother-son bond in Italy was so strong that a mother (unlike a brother or a father) would never agree to the killing of her son for the good of the Mafia.
50th Anniversary of the Bikini Swimsuit
The nightly news in Italy featured this story. The new style of swimsuit was named after the island that a few days earlier had been the site of a major atomic test. The creator of the swimsuit though its effect upon the fashion world would be similarly explosive. I don’t see American news, but my guess is that American media did not pick up on this anniversary. News of fashion and style is about five times more important in Italy than in the USA.
A Small Victory for Modernization at the Supermarket
In Italy you bag your own groceries. Often if the customer ahead of you has not finished putting his or her items in the bags, you have to wait to start to check out until the belt is free on which the cashier puts the items after scanning them. Now, as is typical in the USA, they have a bar that the cashier can use to direct groceries only to one side of the belt. So while the last customer is completing the bagging on one side, you can start to bag on the other side. Such little conveniences always arrive in Italy, but slowly.
Exhibition at Montecatini on Italian Immigration to the Americas
This exhibit had photos and other artifacts of the Italian immigration to USA and Argentine at end of 19th and start of 20th centuries. A speaker at the panel discussion was Joseph La Palombara, professor of Political Science at Yale University (which the program listed as Jale University). It turns out that he was born and raised in the same Italian neighborhood in Chicago as my mother. As always in discussions of immigration in Italy, it was noted how Italy which once sent immigrants elsewhere now receives immigrants from all over the world. One difference, which is often not mentioned, is that when the Italian immigrants came to the USA, the growing nation needed cheap labor. Italy too needs the labor of immigrants (because of its low birthrate), but receives far more immigrants than are needed to fill the labor shortfall.
Excitement for the Elderly
In Italy calendars of naked (or near naked) woman are popular — sort of like the kind you see in the work area of auto service shops in the USA. The newspaper announced that one of these calendars will feature an undressed Sophia Loren, at age 72.
Sat 1 Jul 2006
Posted by Robert C. Nordvall under
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A Minor Note in a Scandal
In the telephone interceptions that led to the scandal involving the prince of the House of Savoy, it was also discovered that a man who was the press secretary for a major politician had exchanged sex with a starlet in return for a recommendation for her by him to a television network. For this he was arrested (apparently on the theory that he coerced the sex although the starlet says it was consensual) . I don’t know what law he broke –sex in return for favors doesn’t seem to be uncommon in Italy. If it is a crime, they had better build some more prisons. And if this law ever spread to Hollywood, America would need some new prisons too.
Results of Referendum
As predicted, the Constitutional changes passed by the Berlusconi government were rejected by the voters. In the last few months the Center-Left headed by Prodi has won regional elections, a national election, municipal elections, and now the national referendum. Prodi is bragging about these achievements. But there is a problem. Probably the greatest glue that holds Prodi’s diverse coalition together is the hate and fear of Berlusconi. As Berlusconi appears weaker, this glue also weakens. This week some members of Prodi’s coalition revolted over the plan to refinance the Italian military mission in Afghanistan. In short a weakened Berlusconi is a mixed blessing for Prodi.
Meanwhile, a man named Fini looks more and more like the best future leader of the center-right coalition. Berlusconi seems to me one whose star has crested. But the largest party in the center-right group is one founded and controlled by Berlusconi. So you have the situation of an aging captain of the squad who should be replaced –but he owns the ball.
Women Lawyers
I don’t know what percentage of Italian attorneys is women. In general in Italy the role of women is lower than in the USA. But I do note that often when a prominent legal case is shown on TV, the lawyer is a woman. So the progress of women in the law may be an exception to the general rule here.
Customer Service in Italy
In Italy there is no general ethos of good customer service, but there is an important exception. Known customers of a business are given very good service. In Italy giving good service to a stranger runs against the grain, but doing favors for a friend is very much in the Italian tradition.
Air Conditioning
It’s use is growing in Italy and causes electrical supply problems on hot days. Italy imports much of its electricity and the national supply is limited. Many Italians still resist AC (although their number is diminishing) as unhealthy. Ice in drinks too is bad for you. A breeze blowing on you is not good. So you can be trapped in a car with an Italian on a hot day with the AC (if the car has it) turned off and the windows closed. If the Italians were correct, almost everyone in the USA would be ill all summer from air conditioning, open windows, and ice in their drinks. But is is not worth the trouble to confuse the Italians with the facts.
A Minor Victory
I set up a second e mail account on vigilio.it a year ago because at the computers at the town library one could not access hotmail.com. Now hotmail.com does work on the library computers. Who knows why it didn’t before and finally does now.
Pratesi Linens
While I was in the USA at Christmas, I saw a book “Shopping in Italy.” I discovered in this book that near Pistoia is the factory of Pratesi, one of Italy’s best known makers of top quality bed and bath linens. I went to the factory store. The items are of exquisite quality. At the factory store prices are 50% off. After the 50% discount, a set of sheets and pillowcases for a king bed is available for the bargain price of $700. Two full sized bath towels can be purchased for $250. Any of my friends who want me to purchase on their behalf some of these linens at these ridiculously low prices should let me know what they need and send the money.
Italian Soccer and Patriotism– an article from last July’s Florentine newspaper
ITALIAN VOICES:
A Window on Language and
Customs in Italy…’Gli Azzurri’
‘ Stadium patriotism works out quite well. Gli Azzurri play for everyone and are
careful never to step on anyone’s regional toes. ‘
‘Finish that later, the game’s about to begin…’
by Linda Falcone
When
gli Azzurri the Italian National Football team, are together on the field, Italy’s citizens call themselves Italian.
Othertimes they are veneziani, fiorentini, romani, o siciliani.Other times they walk their regional walk and talk their regional talk. But when those blueshirted fellows step into the stadium, regional pride dies, or at least sleeps, for two forty-fiveminute time slots and one long commercial break.
‘Siamo tutti italiani quando giochiamo a calcio, we are all Italian when we play soccer,’ Mauro Galletti told me last Friday. ‘It is Italy’s only form of patriotism.’ Mauro is a banker from Arezzo who only makes the twenty-five minute drive to Firenze when he absolutely has to. Arezzo and Florence were enemies in the fourteenth century, you see, and the antagonism still runs strong in his blood today. Once I had him in Florence, I was going to bleed him dry. Mauro is one of my favourite students. He pays me to teach him Business English, and amidst faxes and business correspondence, he gives me weekly Italian cultural analysis for free.
‘Patriotism in Italy knows nothing of the flag-waving, parade-going, band-playing, summer-picnic atmosphere you
find on Independence Day in the United States,’ he told me wryly. ‘Last time we waved that flag, they had a picnic on our heads.’ I nodded. In Italy, most families still have members who remember the Fascist years. Memories of Mussolini’s search for l’Italianità still foster the belief that patriotism is a vice rather than a virtue. Il Duce’s patriotic dream chased after the splendour of ancient Rome and was founded on ‘moral’ bellicose activity, totalitarian government, and autocracy. Let’s just say that Italy’s brief affair with patriotism ended badly. Italians don’t like to think they will let themselves fall for it again. Mauro continued, ‘We found out the hard way that patriotism means you’re either extraordinarily simplistic or quite fanatic. Entrambi non convengono ad un italiano neither is a convenient thing for an Italian. It has proved best to keep our passion for the playing field.
Italians can afford to be patriotic at the stadium. But only there.’ Soccer is safe, really. The field is clearly delineated, fouls are called immediately, and the results are known in ninety minutes. Ninety minutes of proud Italian-ness. In truth, it was not the cultural movements of nineteenth-century intellectual elite nor the battles fought in two world wars that succeeded in creating an Italian identity. The efforts of modern political systems and Italy’s constant race to establish itself as a world power have failed to achieve widespread patriotic sentiment. That’s why Mauro will smilingly tell you, ‘Soccer has succeeded where everything else has failed.’ Stadium patriotism works out quite well. Gli Azzurri play for everyone and are careful never to step on anyone’s regional toes. At the end of the game the fiorentini, veneziani, milanesi, and siciliani are allowed to put on their regional clothing. They return to their own pizzas, pick up their precious vernacular, wallow in regional humour, and affirm their own superiority because no one in Italy makes steak or squid or pesto sauce just so. Once gli Azzurri retire, each city’s citizens remember what they own. The Renaissance belongs to Florence, and Venice has dibs on the doorway to the Orient. Rome still rules all of the Western World. The Neapolitan and his humour is still king-jester of the Regno di Napoli, and the Sicilian still looks at the Italian mainland as part of the European continent rather than part of his own pride and joy…at least until the next time La Nazionale plays and Italy, the nation, is formed once more.
The welcomed ‘Blues’ carry our improvised national pride onto the field, kicking our position on the globe around like a soccer ball. The flag is hung from window sills, and for an hour and a half, people are allowed to forget that it was Mussolini’s tricolour excuse for two decades of power and struggle. As we ended last week’s lesson, Mauro summed it up for me. ‘In essence, Italy’s flag should not be red, white, and green. People from all regions have to admit that. We may agree on nothing else, but everyone knows che l’Italia ha un cuore azzurro. Italy has a heart that’s blue.’ I smile. It’s good when students teach teachers. It makes one think that all is right in the world.