thisweekinitaly.com

University Alumni Relations

Italian universities do not raise money from their alumni.  Not surprisingly, since they don’t plan to ask them for money after they graduate, the universities don’t treat the students very well while they are enrolled. Now in Italy people can check on their income tax return for a small portion of their taxes to go to a charity specified by the taxpayer. I saw at the

We Are History

This is the title of a documentary TV show aired every morning. As I have mentioned before, often the topic of such documentaries is WWII.  Recently the subject was a World War Two Italian war hero.  Yes, there was at least one such person for Italy in WWII. He fought in

Mandatory Maternity Leave

In Italy a pregnant woman must take at least four months of maternity leave, some of which can be before the birth. Why mandatory rather than optional leave? Because if it were optional, the Italians feel employers would often pressure the woman not to take the leave.  Even now, when a woman is hired, she sometimes must sign an undated resignation letter which is then implemented if she becomes pregnant even though this practice is against the law. You can look at employee-employer relations on a continuum that at one end (sort of a Marxist view) sees the two groups as inevitable enemies with no common interests and at the other end sees them as persons cooperating in a common venture to the mutual benefit of both groups. Let’s just say that in

Divorce Italian Style

From 1995-2005 the number of couples legally separated in

Criminals Beware!

The new head of one of

Course for Teachers of English

A friend who teaches English is taking a post graduate course for university graduates who majored in English to assure their certification as teachers of English. The course is taught in Italian.  The examinations are written and oral in English but on a limited subject matter that students can study and probably memorize the answers in advance.  Just another little indication of why Italy will continue to lag behind in the teaching of foreign languages.

Hardest Adjustment for Me to Make in Italy

It is being constantly on guard against thieves.  I left my house door open in Gettysburg and certainly did not worry about thieves on the street. Earlier this year my credit cards were stolen on a train. Last week my wallet was picked from my pocket at the semi-weekly market. I had been warned to be especially careful at the market, and in fact often had buttoned my rear pocket in which the wallet sits. But I am often careless.  I got the wallet back with everything but the cash in it within two hours from the police. Unfortunately I had already cancelled my credit cards by phone so again I have to get new ones. I’ll try to be more careful, but at my age such changes are difficult to make. I don’t get upset when things are stolen; it is not a lot of money, just some inconvenience.

When touring Pistoia recently with some friends, I noted that some churches now have new signs outside them telling the history of the structure and more information inside of them telling about the art works displayed in the church. The information inside is sometimes, but not always, in English as well as Italian. From what I can tell during my five years here, tourism is increasing in

Both are small nations with very few natural resources. Japan is certainly more prosperous than

Correction

The imprisoned ex German WWII officer, Eric Priebke,  about whom I wrote last week has been in prison in Italy for a little over 10 years, not 30. He was tried and convicted in the middle of the 1990s, over 50 years after his crimes occurred.

Banks and Politics

One of the recent political controversies in Italy is the story of possible political interference a couple of years ago in a proposed bank merger.  It appears that there is a major bank that is somehow allied with the center-right political coalition, and therefore the center-left coalition sought to have bank in its corner.  It is just another example of how things that in the USA are not part of the world of politics become entangled with politics in Italy.  I wrote once how even certain soccer teams are considered to have a political orientation.  If I had to make a very crude summary of the situation, it would be as follows: In Italy business is really subordinate to politics; in the

Controversial Prisoner Work Release

There is an ex German WWII officer who has been in jail in

Zuppetta di Moscardini

When I saw this item on a restaurant menu, I asked the waitress what it was.  She said a soup of octopus.  I am almost always willing to try something different at a restaurant so I ordered it. Usually octopus is served in small pieces. I discovered that moscardini are miniature octopuses, and these were cooked whole within the soup. It was tasty, but visually I can’t recall ever eating anything so ugly in my whole life.  The Italians are masters of the attractive presentation of food, but there was no way to make these little octopuses look good.

It’s Too Darn Hot!

The heat of summer arrived in Pistoia this week. Still I don’t find

REMINDER

Still from time to time I have trouble with the computer server through which I distribute this newsletter.  As always, those who do not receive a weekly copy can find it posted at www.bob.it.tt 

Points Assessed Against  Drivers License for Traffic Violations

I wrote a few years ago how Italy had just initiated a points system. A recent newspaper article noted that in over one-half of the communities in Italy the traffic police have never assessed points against any driver.  This is an example of a common phenomenon.  Italy will pass laws that are similar to those in other western nations, but enforcement is quite problematic.

On another traffic issue, Italy has the highest absolute number of deaths on motorcycles and scooters in Europe. Italian motorcyclists don’t tend to be old guys and gals on Harley-Davidsons.  They are young folks on high speed sport cycles.

Watching American Films

I show American films to my students of English with English dialog and English subtitles. I choose films that were well received by film critics but were not shown in Italy. One of these was The Squid and the Whale, a story of a marital break-up and its effect upon the parents and their two children. One of my Italian viewers noticed that the film showed a lot of relationships :  husband-wife, father-child, mother-child but not any input in the situation from the larger family and friends of the parents.  He said in Italy it is much different; the larger family and friends would be much more likely to be involved.  Of course, in Italy extended family members are also more likely to live nearby than in the

Would You Believe??

A newspaper article said that in Tuscany 90% of the trains arrive within 5 minutes of the scheduled time and 98% within 15 minutes. As I have noted Italian trains usually are reasonably, if not exactly, on time (Although when they are late, they are sometimes VERY late.), but these figures are clearly inflated.

How Much Unreported Income in Italy

I’ve written in the past that it is difficult to know the real gross national product of Italy because there is a large underground economy whose figures don’t enter the official statistics. Also people working in the legitimate economy often don’t report all their income. An article in the newspaper this week said that 20% of income earned in Italy is not reported to the tax authorities. This may be right although calculating unreported income is a difficult task. One thing is certain, given the official statistics on income in

Mural at the Florence Train Station

It was painted this year. It shows about 20 train passengers in different poses.  All 20 are white males. In the USA this mural would have shown women and minorities. Sometimes this can become formulaic in the USA — five men, five women, two Blacks. one Asian, one Hispanic, etc. Still the more diverse style now common in the

The Scrutinio

This is an Italian educational practice that makes no sense to an American. The teachers at a high school all meet to decide on the grades for the students.  Now why the teacher of mathematics should have any input for what the grade is in history and vice versa, is a mystery.  There is a desire on part of the school not to flunk (hold back) very many students. So if lots of individual failing course grades arise for a student, there will be some bargaining to raise some grades.  But there is bargaining among teachers (to raise grades a little) even when failure is not at stake. Examinations are usually oral so that grading is more subjective, but, of course, subjective grades are not always lower than they “should be” they can just as well be higher than merited. After all the bargaining, there is a great deal of paperwork to complete. A teacher friend told me it took four hours to complete the grading for a class of 15 students.  I can say one good thing about the Italian grading system: it is not one of runaway grade inflation so that 10% of the class is straight A students.

Clothes for the Semi-Weekly Traveling Market

I have written many times about buying clothes at very cheap prices at the semi-weekly traveling market in Pistoia.  In Pistoia there are bins in which one can deposit discarded clothes to be distributed to the needy.  Someone told me they saw a segment on TV that exposed the fact that these clothes donated to the poor sometimes find their way to the used clothes counters of the traveling market. This would not surprise me.  Other sources of clothes for these market stalls include items not reclaimed from the dry cleaner and clothes unsold by retail outlets that apparently are sold in bulk to the market vendors.

Pre-Election Improvements

A week before the local elections in Pistoia there were suddenly potted palm trees lining one of the main pedestrian malls.  Various civic improvement projects that were dormant for a while miraculously became active. Some things about politics are same the world over.

Courthouse Art

In the USA there was the grand controversy over the judge in Alabama who insisted on posting the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. In Pistoia in the courthouse atrium this month is an exhibit of sculptures of human figures by a local artist.  Part of this exhibit is also displayed in a nearby bank. Some of the sculptures are explicitly quite erotic–no hidden symbolism to express erotic themes.  I don’t think you would see such an exhibit in a courthouse (or a bank) in the USA.

Faroe Islands

After I wrote about these last week, a friend sent me the following link to a story in the New York Times travel section about this exotic locale.  http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/travel/tmagazine/03well.faroes.t.html  I hope the link remains active for those of you who want to know a little more about one of Europe’s smallest (and certainly least known) nations. By the way when the World Champion Italian soccer team played the squad from the Faroe Islands, whose total population is one-half that of Pistoia,  the Italians managed to eke out a 2-1 victory.  As I mentioned once before, against weak opponents the Italians never play well.

Sexy (?) Sophia’s Striptease

I wrote that Sophia Loren promised to shed her clothes in public if her beloved Naples Soccer team succeeded in being promoted to Series A in the Italian soccer league. Naples was successful. I have heard nothing yet about the time and place in which Sophia will keep her promise. I saw a film clip of Neapolitans celebrating the promotion of their team. One almost nude figure was cavorting in a fountain. Even seen at a distance it certainly was not Sophia. Italians are not forceful in making politicians and others adhere to their promises so we will see if Sophia fulfills hers.

Saturday Hours at the Doctor’s Office

The government health system in Italy is administered on a regional level, not nationally.  The Tuscan Region has ordered family doctors to have Saturday office hours. The doctors are rebelling.  One headline said that the doctors were taking their phones off the hook on Saturday mornings.  My guess is that after a while the idea of Saturday hours for family doctors will pass away except for those doctors who voluntarily keep such hours.

A Day in Bologna

I met a friend from the USA in Bologna. She had come to do some research on the sixteenth century Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi.  At the University of Bologna there are documents and other items of his both at the library and in a separate museum. Before going to the museum we had lunch together. A friend who had lived in Bologna had recommended three restaurants to us.  We chose the one called The Rose.  I looked up the address (which my friend from Bologna either had not sent us or we had lost) in the phone book. We arrived at The Rose – a Chinese restaurant. I don’t think this is what my friend meant. We the food was still good.

My researcher friend had made an appointment to view the documents in a restricted collection at the library. We checked also on the hours that the museum was open.  When we got to the museum, however, it was closed. An exhibition had just ended, and they were rearranging the space.  My friend had no other time when she could view the collection at the museum.  Her pleas to be admitted were refused. This type of disappointment is not at all unusual in Italy. So we did a little sightseeing instead. We saw a very nice exhibition of images, both still photos and films, of Charlie Chaplin.  We ran across a couple of lovely churches.  Despite the disappointing  inefficiency of Italy, one can always find something enjoyable to do. 

My Son’s Short Film, Masters of Humility   It did get featured on the web site of Entertainment Weekly, a web site I hadn’t visited before. Now it can be viewed at http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=194540543&blogID=276716492  Thanks to all of you who recorded a vote of Funny on the Myspace website.

Geography Quiz

The names for most countries in Italian are immediately recognizable in English. I was thrown, however, when the Italian national soccer team in the qualifying round for the European championship played the team from Far Oer (or Faer Oer).  Do you know the English name for this nation?  No fair looking at an Atlas. (Answer at bottom of newsletter)

Tax Evasion “ The Chicken and the Egg”

A major question in Italian politics. Do Italians evade taxes because their tax burden is one of the highest in Europe or is the tax burden the so high because, with such widespread evasion, the rates have to be high to collect adequate revenues?  Not everyone can evade taxes easily. Those with salaries only as income have taxes withheld as in the USA and the amount of the salary is reported to the government. So those who have to pay all or most of their taxes subsidize those who are in a position more easily to evade them (e.g. owners of private business).  This chicken or the egg question is important because if taxes were lowered would revenues go up as people became more compliant or would the habits of evasion persevere and tax revenues simply decline.

The Wonderful Fruit, Nespolo

Someone wrote to tell me that this fruit, as two others I wrote about earlier that I had not seen in the USA (fresh figs and persimmons) is grown in warmer areas of the USA.  My friend does not believe this fruit is grown commercially in the United States. It may well be that all three fruits do not travel well so they can be eaten only in the areas where they are grown.

Religious Matters

In a recent visit to Brazil the Pope noted with concern the growth of Evangelical Christianity in that nation. I think I have identified one Brazilian who is of the Evangelical persuasion, the soccer star Kakà¡ who plays for AC Milan. In the recent European championship game, after AC Milan won, he took off his jersey and below was a T shirt saying, “I Belong to Jesus.” This week in the daily sports paper he “confessed” (that was the verb used to admit this shocking fact) that he was still a virgin on the night of his marriage.

On another religious note, the priest at my Episcopal church in Florence told me that at this point he has been approached by five Italian Catholic priests who want to talk to him about convertint to become Anglican priests.  The reason: all five have girlfriends that they want to marry.

Shameless Advertising on Behalf of My Son Andrew

Andrew sent me the following message:

My writing partner Devon and I just posted our first short film, “24: the Interns” on FunnyOrDie.com. So I’m encouraging everyone I know to:
 
a) watch it at:
<http://www.MySpace.com/MastersOfHumility>
(and you can become our MySpace friend)

or at:
<http://video.funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=67e0916a833931bd32b2>b) Vote for it by clicking the “Funny” part of the “Funny or Die” logo.

—–

Since I don’t watch American TV, I don’t fully understand a parody of a TV show. Others may have the same dilemma. So I offer a guide for how to register your vote for this video.

If you think the video is funny, click on “Funny.”

If you are neutral about it or don’t understand the parody, click on “Funny.”

If you think the video is definitely not funny, click on “Funny.”

If you want seven years of personal bad luck and to be a cause of

worldwide disasters on an unprecedented scale such as plague, famine, and floods,  click on “Die.”

—–

Italian Sympathy Card

I went to get a sympathy card to send to a relative whose husband passed away.  I discovered that there were no cards for this purpose as there were birthday, anniversary, graduation, etc. cards. Instead there was simply a folded over plain note paper with a diagonal black line across one corner.  The matching envelope also had this same diagonal black line.

My Ignorance of English Grammar Exposed Again

In teaching English to an Italian we came across the following paragraph in the English text.

“I am taking my son with us to the football game Sunday. The Bears are playing the Lions. We will pick you up at noon.”

Notice that all three sentences refer to events in the future, but they all use different tenses â– present continuous, simple present and simple future. I had no trouble saying that the three sentences are correct, but I had no idea what the rules are that dictated the use of these tenses. I may well never have learned these rules.  There are grammar rules so well understood by native speakers that they are not taught in school. Fortunately the text we use has a grammar summary in the back.

A Different Concert

I went to a choral concert in Pistoia by a choir from Florence. It turns out that they sing compositions written using the medieval modes (as used for Gregorian chants) rather than the scales of modern music. These compositions, however, are not medieval ones but contemporary ones using these old modes.  The group sang well. The pieces were lovely, but one concert of these was enough for me.  It is too limited of a musical palette to listen to over and over.

A New Art Museum in Pistoia ??

Pistoia is considering establishing a museum of works of artists from the city during the 1900s. I went to an exhibit that showed some of the works that would be put in this new museum. I went with a local citizen who explained to me about many of the artists about whose works she already familiar.  These artists are certainly not world famous, but many were known beyond the confines of Pistoia. I often use York, Pennsylvania as a comparison city (in terms of size) to Pistoia. I don’t think you could establish in York a viable art museum of 20^th century local artists.  I doubt if you collected the works of such artists from York that many local citizens would be familiar with them.

Trip to the Mall

I finally went to the new Mall just outside of Pistoia. It is small potatoes by American standards. Furthermore, unlike in the USA where you often can find certain goods only at Walmart or a mall, everything I saw at the mall can be purchased in downtown Pistoia, often in shops of the same brand as at the mall.  There is no reason to go back there.

Quiz Answer

In English the country is called Føroyar or Faroe Islands.  They are a small group of Islands, formerly a Danish territory, directly north of Scotland. I don’t know if they have limited or full independence but they have 46,000 residents and a Parliament of 29 members.

A Bit More about Ireland 

Riding an Irish Train

I took the train from Galway to Dublin.  It left on time, but there was trouble with a signal along the way.  The conductor made many announcements to the passengers about the cause of the trouble and the estimated delay (rarely done in Italy).  The train was almost two hours late. The conductor went through the cars and asked if anyone had to get to

Irish Pride

I wrote last week about the movement in Ireland to preserve the Irish language. In the area of sports the Irish have two games I have not seen elsewhere – Irish football and Hurling. The first I am told is a mixture of rugby and soccer. The second, of which I saw a little, is a mixture of lacrosse and baseball in that instead of hurling the ball into a goal you bat it with a paddle.

Irish Politics

We were in

The Irish Countryside

In Ireland there are museums, old churches, castles, and other tourist attractions, but the main feature is the lovely countryside itself. We were in an area where the landscape is a bit more wild – large bogs, hills, and many lakes. It was very sparsely inhabited.  We saw many new houses under construction and were told that often these are vacation homes. In addition to Irish emigrants from abroad now returning home to a more prosperous nation,  Ireland has received immigration from other countries, especially eastern European ones. The Irish economy needs immigrants. In a store in a very remote area, I saw on a bulletin board a personal notice handwritten in Polish.

Back In Italy 

Medical Card

I pay a fee each year ($500 for full medical coverage including drugs) to be part of Italian medical system.  One problem I have is that my enrollment in the system is tied to the expiration date (in August) of my Permission to Stay in Italy, but one pays the medical fee on a calendar year basis. So after I get my Permission renewed each August, I have to go get a new medical card for final three months of the year. This week I got in the mail a new type of medical card that is valid thought 2012. Does this mean I never will have to pay the yearly fee again? My Italian friends tell me no; this new card is mainly to substitute ones codice fiscale (Italian social security number) for the earlier separate health service number as the identification number used for health services. But with the inefficiency of Italian bureaucracy I can still hope that this new card will give me a free ride.

What is a Nespolo?

It is a type of fruit in Italy that I have not seen in the USA.  It looks quite a bit like an apricot, but it has a shiny round pit.  The taste is unique and quite good.  You can buy them in the grocery store, but many folks have their own nespolo trees.

Local Elections in Italy

The majority center-left coalition did poorly in the local elections versus the center-right minority. When the center-right was the majority coalition, it too did poorly in local elections held between national elections.  My guess is that Italians quickly become disenchanted with whoever is in power, because there are few positive changes.  In Pistoia the center-left parties split and there were two center-left candidates for mayor.  The split had to do largely with arguments over the location of a new hospital (which you can be sure is still years in the future).  As a result the incumbent mayor did no get the required 50% to be reelected and there will be a run off. Since the incumbent got 48% of the vote in the first round versus 34% for his opponent in the run off, I think he will be reelected. 

United Colors of Benetton

This chain has three retail outlets within 200 yards of each other in Pistoia â– one for adults, one for children, and the third an outlet store. Maybe they just can’t find any one space big enough for their needs. I find their clothes to be not of high quality, but worth the price when they are sold at a deep discount. Their presence, of course,  is not limited to Italy.  I saw a large advertisement for the company completely covering a condom machine in a men’s room at a restaurant in

The Catholic Church and Politics in Italy – the Backlash

The Catholic Church takes a prominent part in certain Italian political issues. As a result, there is a part of the center-left that is openly anti-clerical in its politics and works to reduce the power and influence of the Church in Italian politics.  Most of the members of this movement are still probably members of the Catholic Church.  Recently this movement sponsored a showing of Hand of God, the award winning American film about sexual abuse by Catholic priests to which, among others, all members of the Parliament were invited.  In the United States there certainly is controversy about the growing influence of some religious groups in the political process, but there are few, if any,  politicians who openly attack mainstream churches.