thisweekinitaly.com

Cold Weather Wear

I picked up at the local market for a friend a brand new skirt made of Harris Tweed. In the USA, I would not buy a Harris Tweed sport coat because it is too warm to wear inside. I guess it might be ideal to wear to a late fall football game. In winter the temperature in the USA is generally colder than in Italy. So where would you wear Harris Tweed in Italy? Surprisingly it more adapted for indoor wear here because central heating is sometimes absent or kept at a lower temperature.

Collecting Water Bills

The local water company had trouble collecting its bills from a few tenants of a public housing building near Pistoia. After prolonged non payment, the water company in Italy, as elsewhere, shuts off service. It did so here. One minor problem, however – there was only one turn off valve for the whole building so all the residents lost their water including those who had paid their bill. I’m sure this build up “peer pressure” within the building for the delinquent ones to pay up. Still the idea of only one shut off valve for the whole building doesn’t really come under the rubric of Good Planning.

Talking About Water…

The local water company and a local charity teamed up on a project to bring water to two African villages. The irony of such projects is that in Sicily there are still villages without public water where the residents have to buy water from Mafia-controlled water suppliers. You can bet that it will be easier to change the situation in Africa than in Sicily.

Rare Case — Scandal of Personal Behavior Leads Politician to Resign

I’ve noted many times that scandals of personal behavior do not lead to the resignation of politicians in Italy as they do, for example, in the USA and Great Britain. This week there was an exception. The President of one of Italy’s regions resigned after it was reported that he had paid blackmail to four policemen who had a video of him cavorting with a transsexual at a party. Now this was no crime, but it may have been politically embarrassing. He said, however, that he paid the blackmail because, when the police came to his house to ask for it, he was afraid he might be arrested if the police discovered the illegal drugs in the home. Some Italians think there must be even more to the story — exposure of his taste for transsexuals and having some illegal drugs is not enough in themselves to cause a politician to resign. Already talk of massive tax avoidance is surfacing.

He did not start with a resignation. Instead the politician did what is called an “autosuspension.” What is this? Well. Let’s say you have been accused of serious wrongdoing in your job and you boss comes to you and says “we aren’t firing you, but we have to suspend you until this matter is cleared up in a satisfactory manner. Ultimately you may be reinstated or fired.” This is the conversation that took place in this case, but the politician played both parts in the colloquy.

One last point, he characterized his suspension as a “medical leave” but no doctor was involved in the process. Finally he resigned in the traditional way

Buying a Coffee in Naples

A friend of mine was visiting Naples where he went into a bar to get a coffee. As is often the case, at this bar you go first to the cashier, pay for the coffee, and then take your receipt to the bar to get your coffee. In this way the bartenders don’t have to handle money and make change. The cost of coffee was 90 cents. My friend went to the bar with his receipt and his 10 cents change in his hand. He asked for a coffee. No response. He asked again with the same result. Somehow he finally figured out (or was told) that you put the 10 cents change on the bar. The 10 cents becomes the tip for the bartender. No tip = no coffee.

The Foundation for Photo/Art in Hospitals

I first learned about this group in 2005 when I was a patient in a hospital in Italy. I saw the photos that the group had mounted on the walls to give the hospital a more positive ambience. The web site is www.HealingPhotoArt.org . I ended up buying two photos through the group to contribute to the Hospital where I stayed. The head of the Foundation is a lady who attends my church in Florence. Recently she gave a talk at church, and as a result I sent her a few of my own photos. She decided to put one on her site at http://www.healingphotoart.com/gallery_contrib.php?category_id=14&parent_id=1&photo_id=1227&countdisplay=&start=0.

This photo is of the flock of sheep we ended up following on my recent bike trip to the Dolomites.

If you like, you can submit photos for this project to epoggi@HealingPhotoArt.org. Not all will necessarily make the web site, but all will get full consideration.

The Challenges of a Political Leader in Italy

The next item in this newsletter contains an article published last Spring. Since then the political position of Silvio Berlusconi, although not at all perilous, has become noticeably weaker. Why?

Although Hillary Clinton was a political rival of President Obama, in the USA it is not typical for major positions like Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, etc, to be filled by political rivals of the President. Furthermore, once a President is elected, he is almost certain to be re-nominated for a second term. So it will be eight years before aspirants to be President within his party have a chance to try. Thus those is high positions in his administration have no reason to want him to fail.

In Italy top posts are often filled by persons from the government coalition who are not of the same party as the leader. Even if they are of the same party, they may hope to get to the top without having to wait six years until the leader’s mandate ends. A leader can fall though lack of confidence during his term. In short, any sign of weakness by the leader doesn’t just please the opposition, it also emboldens rivals in his own government to start undermining him.

The Economist Summarizes the “Achievements” of Silvio

The Economist in Great Britain has been one of the severest critics of Berlusconi for many years. In the article below it gives its rationale for so doing as well as noting some of Silvio’s accomplishments. What I find important is not their criticism of his personal or financial life but rather their final conclusion about the overall performance of his government. This is exactly the point I have been trying to make for years in writing about him.

What a pity Italy’s prime minister does not use his political muscle to reform his country

THIS newspaper has never thought much of Italy’s prime minister. In 1994, during Silvio Berlusconi’s first brief stint in the job, we called on him to resign. In 2001, before his second, we declared that his frequent brushes with the law and the conflict of interest inherent in his ownership of almost all the country’s commercial television channels made him unfit to lead Italy . A year ago, as he campaigned for the job of prime minister for a third time, we advised Italian voters to back his main opponent, Walter Veltroni . Yet Mr Berlusconi has gone from strength to strength, even as his country has not.

For the leader of a country in a dire recession, his popularity is startlingly high. Enough Italians appear to forgive, or at least overlook, his innumerable gaffes—whether on television talk-shows or at international summits. He has won plaudits for his energetic response to the earthquake in L’Aquila. His political grip is secure. On the right he is unchallenged, even though he will turn 73 in September. The centre-left opposition, which recently dumped Mr Veltroni, is making little headway. In short, Mr Berlusconi is more dominant than ever—indeed, disturbingly so (see article).

It is not just a question of worrying about one man’s power. Italy’s problems are also as daunting as ever. In a global crisis, its performance looks better, but only because other economies have fallen so fast. The IMF forecasts that GDP will shrink by 4.4% this year, less than in Germany but more than in Britain, France and Spain. Unemployment is still under 7%, but that partly reflects dreadful productivity, measured in output per person. Indeed, Italy is the only G7 rich country in which productivity has fallen in the past ten years. With real wages rising despite this, Italy is becoming less and less able to compete with other euro-area countries such as Germany.

Italy desperately needs more reform. According to the OECD, its product market is the most highly regulated in Europe. It has one of the worst records of implementing EU internal-market directives. Its labour market is sharply divided between protected, well-paid insiders and unprotected, temporary workers—one reason why youth unemployment is high. Educational standards are poor, research spending is low. The public finances remain a mess: although the budget deficit, at around 5% of GDP, is no longer exceptional, the public debt will rise above 120% of GDP in the next two years.

This should be a golden opportunity for Mr Berlusconi. He surely cannot hope to become prime minister again in 2013. If he ever wants to reform Italy, now is the time. His government, which marks its first anniversary next week, has done some good things. It helped to fix the Naples rubbish crisis. It is shaking up public administration and the education system. It has even begun judicial reform, though here more than elsewhere the prime minister’s motives are suspect. Yet the overall record suggests that Mr Berlusconi is neither a liberal reformer nor a genuine believer in competition, but a businessman who went into politics principally to protect his own affairs, not to advance the cause of Italian business in general.

Italy has huge potential. Public debt may be high, but private debt is low. The banks are exposed to eastern Europe, but so far none has had to be rescued. The turnaround of Fiat, which may now take over Chrysler, has been remarkable. The small exporting firms in the north have proved admirably nimble. If Mr Berlusconi would only do more to loosen the shackles on the country’s entrepreneurs, the results could be sensational. But Italians will probably have to wait till they see the back of him before that happens.

A Bike Trip in the Dolomites and the Veneto

I took this five day trip along what I expected to be a rail/trail on an abandoned railroad track. It turns out that item I read speaking of such a trail was misleading. Still we were able to find fairly level roads. The middle of October is a little late for a trip so far north in Italy, and in fact the first day the temperature was 20° F. when we started to ride. It got warmer as the week progressed.

We started in the German speaking area of Italy which was formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If you go a mere 20 miles south into the Veneto, Italian becomes the everyday language.

This is the area where the fighting in Italy took place in WWI. We saw some of the massive Austrian fortifications that the Italians were unable to breach. The Austrians then moved forward from their defensive lines and pushed the Italians back. The Italians eventually held their ground a week or so before the end of the War.

The slowest part of our trip was when we got lost trying to find a certain bike trail and ended up in the woods behind a migrating herd of sheep (with a few goats). There were two dogs, besides the shepherd, keeping the sheep moving forward. The scene I remember best is when one sheep got of out of line and went into a cold shallow mountain stream. The dog tried to bark the sheep out of the water with no success. Finally the dog had to do what he clearly did not want to do, go into the stream to fetch the sheep.

Finding a B&B Late at Night

One night as dark approached, we turned off to follow a sign for a B&B. When we got there, the lady said they were full (an obvious lie); they were not interested in having only three guests. We found a second B&B nearby but the owner was at an event in town and could not get back to accommodate us. At this point, her husband drove up. He called a man who has both a B&B and a hotel nearby. This man asked us to go to his hotel. It was now dark. He offered to come to pick us up in a vehicle that also would carry our bikes.

He arrived in a 4-door custom Dodge Ram pick up truck imported from the USA. As we got in, I noticed the little American flag on the dashboard. Next I was listening to Country and Western music (in English of course) on the CD player. At this point my mind is saying “Were the hell am I –in Texas?”

I have noted in the past that in Italy you sometimes get excellent service, but customer service is not an idea ingrained in the culture. This guy and his brother, owners of the hotel and restaurant, provided marvelous service at every point. The driver of the truck turned up next as the cook in the restaurant. It was like being in the best of the USA in every way. The dinner was great. The prices were reasonable. This place is in Feltre, not a big tourist area. The hotel actually mainly services business guests for the nearby industrial park. Still if you are even anywhere near Feltre, check out the Hotel Sagittario, www.albergosagittario.it

Italian Road Signs

Not real good. I’ve mentioned before how you can follow signs to a certain place then come to a fork in the road with no sign. Two times on our trip the following happened. We came to a roundabout. It has three exits. Before you enter there is a sign showing which cities follow from each exit. Let’s say you are going to Padua. The sign before the roundabout might say, take the second exit in the roundabout to go towards Padua. When you enter the roundabout, however, there are signs at each exit again saying where the exit leads. Now the first exit is signed for Padua, and the second one is not. What do you do?

Dental Tourism Not Limited to Trips from Italy

In response to my recent item about dentists in Venice trying to compete with low cost Eastern European dentists who attract Italian patients, a friend from Slovakia sent me the following:

On occasion we hop across the border from Slovakia to Hungary, to the town of Mosonmagyarovgar, about 20 km away from Bratislava. Everywhere you look in the town there are signs in Hungarian and German for dentists. The Austrian border is nearby. My wife met a dentist in Budapest a few years ago when she was visiting with a friend who specializes in dental tourism, even maintaining 56 apartments for his patients. So just as in Venice, one can vacation in Budapest and get one’s dental work done. I read some time ago that prices are about 40% lower than in Germany. Here in Slovakia dental work is becoming more expensive, at times approaching U.S. prices for some work. More and more dentists, as well as doctors, are now going private and offering concierge service, i.e., for a fixed annual fee one gets the private phone number of the provider and guaranteed appointment times.

Italian University Graduates

I have written often about the less than sterling reputation of Italian universities. It is not true, however, that graduates of such universities are not competent. The universities do little to help their students, but many students persevere and complete their studies. The standards in the average Italian university are higher than in the average American one. So there are many highly intelligent and accomplished graduates in Italy. Of course, there are also articles in Italy, as in the USA, about how some university graduates are deficient in their language skills.

Being Catholic in Italy

Before the recent waves of immigration, almost everybody in Italy was Catholic by birth. Many stop practicing Catholicism even if they are still carried on the rolls of the church as members. Remember to get off the rolls, you have to write to the local priest and ask to have your baptismal registration cancelled. One of my bike-riding partners is one of the fallen away Catholics. During the ride, he asked me to tell him the Papal name of the current Pope (who is on the news constantly). Later we were in a church were there was a Biblical quote written on a sign and the source was listed as 1 Mc. He asked me whit book of the Bible that was. I said I assumed it was First Maccabees, a book that is in the Catholic Bible but not the Protestant one. He had religious instruction in school and probably in church too as a youth, but my knowledge of Catholicism (I’m surely no expert) is better than his.

Fixing Mortgage Problems in Italy

The federal government program in the USA to help people with mortgage problems is aimed at those who signed a mortgage beyond their means and now can’t pay it. (So called sub prime mortgages) It does not help those who signed a mortgage within their means but now have reduced income due to unemployment. In Italy the banks did not issue sub prime mortgages, but there are many folks who now cannot pay their mortgages because of the current economic crisis. The banks have now agreed to a one year moratorium on mortgage payments for such persons beginning in January 2010. This was not a law passed by Parliament, but it is most likely that the government put political pressure on the banks.

Bicycle Commuting in Italy and the USA

A recent article from USA told about problems accommodating both walkers and bike riders on the path across the Brooklyn Bridge. This is a frequent problem in the USA where there are paths for both walkers and riders because of the speed difference in the two modes. Not a big problem in Italy. On my recent bike trip I rode on many such paths. In Italy bicycle commuters are going in general a short distance. They have old, slow bikes. They merge fairly easily with pedestrians. In the USA many bike commuters go longer distances. They have faster bikes. They often are combining bike commuting with physical fitness. (In Italy if you ride for fitness, you ride after work and on weekends on your serious bike.)

In the Kingdom of the Blind….

The one eyed man is king. This proverb came back to me when I attended a tour of the Jewish Synagogue in Florence for an English speaking group. A member of the congregations talked about the history of the Jewish community in Italy and Florence, the religious life of Judaism, how and why the Synagogue was built, etc. A young lady translated for him into English. Although both her Italian and her English (native tongue) were fine, she soon got into trouble because she could not translate certain religious and historical terms into English, especially those concerned with Judaism. Her background in religion in general and Judaism specifically was insufficient to do so. Soon I was helping her out. The speaker certainly gave a lot of information with which I was not familiar before the visit, but among the crowd there either was nobody (who spoke both Italian and English) with my level of knowledge or such persons were unwilling to speak up to help the translator. I was the one eyed man.

Life Insurance in Italy

A friend of mine is a young man with two young children.  He noted that he worries what would happen if he died and his family was left with insufficient resources.  I suggested that he buy life insurance – preferably term insurance (with no cash value) which is cheaper so he could afford more coverage. He said that he thinks in Italy insurance is a bit of a rip-off. I talked to a banker friend who told me that life insurance is available in Italy (He wasn’t sure about the term-insurance type.) but is not really not part of the Italian culture. 

Family Values

I’ve mentioned before that the center-right coalition tends to be more in accord with the Vatican than the center-left on what you might call “family values” even though most of the leaders of the center-right are divorced which is not true of the opposition.  The President of the Senate this week welcomed to his family the second child with his current companion to whom he is not married.  I don’t know if he is divorced or only separated from his first wife. Anyway there were congratulations all around with no hint of disapproval for a family outside the confines of marriage.

Clarification on Landslide in Sicily

I wrote last week about illegal construction in the landslide area. Not all buildings there were constructed without legal permission, but many were. As a result there was an insufficient area for water runoff, and the landslide (predicted in many reports) occurred. One local resident said “my grandmother was an uneducated peasant. She said years ago that with all this illegal building, there was no place for water to go and one day the mountain above us would collapse on us.”

Dental Work in Italy

Although I have been told that the government health service offers some dental coverage, in fact al most all Italians go to a private dentist for whom they pay themselves. The fees of dentists’ are similar to those in the USA while the income of Italians is lower than that of Americans. As a result you have the phenomenon of “dental tourism” in which Italians go to countries in Eastern Europe to get dental work done at a much lower cost while enjoying a holiday.  To fight the foreign competition, a group of Dentists in Venice have opened a center that offers low cost dental work while vacationing in Venice and even provides for a gondola ride as part of the package.

Cars in the Center of Florence

Many Italian cities ban auto traffic in part or all f the historic center of town. Florence has the same narrow streets as many Italian cities and much more pedestrian flow.  It is a natural for such a ban, but has not done so until now. As of October 25 the Duomo Piazza and some adjacent streets will be free of vehicles.

Early Childhood Education in Italy

I had dinner with an American Profession of Education doing research on the municipal nursery schools in Pistoia.  Italy of course was the home of early childhood education theorist Maria Montessori. The nursery schools of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy are world famous.  Surprisingly, the theories of Montessori and the practices of Emilia-Romagna are not widespread in Italy. Nevertheless, the American professor told me that the nursery schools in Pistoia do an excellent job of intellectual development. At the pre-elementary level the schools in Italy are outstanding even if the elementary, middle, high school, and university systems are not particularly good by European standards.

Silvio Heats Up the Rhetoric

I wrote recently about how in Italy the political leader (the President of the Council) is separate from the head of state (The President of the Republic) so that you can criticize the former without criticizing the nation itself.  Well, Silvio is trying to change all that.  He is saying that attacks against him by the media (both domestic and international) are also attacks against Italy and against its democracy.  His rhetoric is ever more hyperbolic.  He now talks of himself as not only the greatest head of state Italy has ever had but also as the most persecuted by his enemies. Anyway you cut it, he’s “the most.”

If you try to find logic in all this (maybe a useless attempt), I guess Berlusconi’s argument is as follows:

–I was elected (actually his coalition, not him personally) by a majority of the people.

– If I do something, it is following the people’s will.

– Criticizing me is criticizing the will of the people which is criticizing the idea of democracy.

– Italy is a democracy.

– So criticizing me is also criticizing the nation of Italy.

This is not an argument I would recommend to political leaders in other democracies.

Italians tolerated a lot of buffoonery from Mussolini during his 20 years in power. So they have a history of ignoring silliness that would doom a political leader elsewhere.

Advice for American Students in Florence

I read a booklet for American women students in Florence put out by an Italian organization that fights violence against women. The advice on the whole was the same that you would give for any big city: don’t walk alone late at night, don’t get drunk without some friends to take you home, don’t go home with somebody you don’t know, etc. There was not a lot about cultural misunderstandings that can lead to problems. One such item was that in Italy it’s not true that “a kiss is just a kiss.”  The booklet contained real life stories from individual students.  Reading these, it was clear that excessive drinking is clearly the precursor to many unpleasant and sometimes dangerous, situations.

Landslide in Sicily

After a torrential downpour, a hillside collapsed and a river of mud killed 28 people (with 7 still missing) and injured 57. This same phenomenon has occurred before in this area. In fact, it is an area where new construction is forbidden, but, as is often the case in Italy, the construction goes on anyway. Giorgio Napolitano, the President of Italy, projects a calm and sober attitude as is appropriate for his role, but for the first time I can recall, he was visibly angry when he spoke about this disaster. There will be a lot of talk about preventing a reoccurrence of such landslides in the future, but don’t bet on any change taking place.

The newspaper reported that in the area of the landslide there were 191 court ordered demolitions of illegally build edifices. None of these demolition orders had been executed. Here is how it works in Italy. You build an illegal structure. Perhaps a legal case is brought against you; perhaps not. If it is, you simply keep appealing the order against you. Even if the order becomes final, it probably won’t be executed for a very long time, if ever. Meanwhile, every so often, the government issues an amnesty for illegal buildings. At this point you pay a fine, and the building becomes legal.

I have lived in Italy long enough now that I am eligible to get a Carta di Soggiorno. Unlike the Permesso, the Carta does not have to be renewed every year. As I’ve noted, you can now file the application through the mail rather than waiting in long lines at the local Questura office. You still have to go the Questura to pick up the document when issued; in Italy such documents are never sent through the mail. Only one problem so far. The packet with the forms to complete included a blank payment form that you pay at the Post Office and include the receipt with the application. There was no indication anywhere in the instructions how much the fee was to file the form. There was a number you could call for more information. An Italian friend called and said that the voicemail menu had no option that would lead you to discovering how much the fee is. Fortunately, one of the major Italian unions has an office near me with a service for immigrants. I was able to get the payment information there.

Then I went to Post Office to mail the form. The clerk there has to validate that all the correct documents are in the envelope before accepting it for mailing. Of course, the clerk wanted another document that was not in the list of items in the instructions. This often happens in Italy. So back home I went to retrieve the missing item. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed for me.

I saw an item on TV about how many of the instruments on international space flights are made in Italy. As always, Italy is this strange mixture of the advanced and the backward. Italians can make the most sophisticated instruments, but compiling a governmental form with clear instructions is somehow beyond them.

He was fined something like 14 million Euros for failing a drug test years ago in England and then having to be fired by his club without completing his contract. He doesn’t have that much money. Late last week there was a story that he had exhausted all appeals and his career was about to end. When you read such a story in Italy, you know that in fact the inevitable last minute solution to the problem is about to arrive. Sure enough the headline this week said that some sports body had suspended the fine. Never a solution, however, before the last possible moment!

I am sure there will be controversy as to whether this choice was correct. I leave that to others. I view this award as strong evidence of the popularity of Obama in Europe. Obama’s background is exotic for a President, and the media always prefers the exotic over the prosaic. Still his popularity is not primarily based upon his background or his achievements. It is not based upon what he is or does; it is strongly based on what he is not. He is not George W. Bush. One can argue about the wisdom of Bush’s policies. One can argue about the importance for a U.S. President of his reputation abroad. What is beyond debate is that Bush was extremely unpopular among the peoples of Europe.

“The Italian Legal System is Marvelous”

This is a quotation in the newspaper from an Albanian man. Here is the story. About four years ago an Albanian youth was killed in an industrial accident in which a machine did not have a proper guard on it. The man quoted is the father of this boy. A legal action for what in the USA would be negligent homicide was brought against the owner of the factory. Last week a judge found the owner guilty and sentenced him to three and one-half years in prison. After the trail ended, the father made the statement about the Italian legal system.

It may be that no legal action would ever have been brought in similar circumstances in Albania. In which case, for the father, the Italian system is clearly superior. I don’t know if the father realizes what happens next. The owner will appeal the conviction. He may be found not guilty on appeal. The guilty verdict may be affirmed, but his sentence will surely be reduced as it always is upon appeal in Italy. The case may go on so long that the guilty verdict will expire because incarceration has not begun within a specified period after the trial (a particular Italian absurdity). The bottom line is that it is very likely the owner will never spend one day in prison. One could say, even in that case, that the owner was “punished” by having to go through (and pay for) the long process, but when it is all over, I doubt that the Albanian father will retain his rosy view of the Italian justice system.

Students Marching in the Streets

I went to meet some American friends in Livorno where their cruise ship was docked for a day. They told me that before I arrived there had been a procession of students marching and yelling in the streets. My friends assumed it was some kind of a protest about educational policy. I discovered that it was a protest about the proposed closing of a local factory. I explained that students are ready to march in the streets in Italy (rather than go to school) for a whole host of causes.

Some believe that Silvio Berluconi entered politics for the main reason of avoiding going to jail. There have been and continue to be numerous legal actions against him. At his urging, Parliament passed a law that forbids legal actions against the top four government officials while they are serving in office. The Italian Supreme Court just ruled this law unconstitutional. The Court said that such a change in the law could be made only through a Constitutional amendment, not by an ordinary statute. I don’t know if Berlusconi has a big enough majority in Parliament to re-enact the law as a Constitutional amendment.

An article appeared in the newspaper that I have seen in various forms many times in Italy. It reported the results of a survey (this time by a publication Higher Education Times) rating the world’s best universities. Harvard was number one. The highest Italian institution was the University of Bologna at place 174. Now I don’t have much faith in the accuracy of such surveys – who can demonstrate that the institution rated number 11 is really inferior to that at position 4? Still on a very broad sense these surveys say something. In all of them there is no Italian university that is rated highly. Italians will point to excellent scientists, scholars, authors that were graduated from their universities. This is true. There are many highly talented and intelligent students in Italy who will do very well even if their educational institutions are not of the best quality. Still the overall quality of Italian universities is simply not very good.

When I was in Paris, I took a walking tour of the Latin Quarter. The guide showed us a map of Paris in Roman times. Of course, all the streets were straight and laid out on a grid pattern. This week I was in Lucca and walking along a main street that leads to old Roman amphitheatre. I realized that this street was remarkable straight for an old Italian way. Obviously it was a street in Lucca under the Romans. For at least 1300 years after the fall of Rome, no city in Europe was as modern the Roman cities. This is very clear when you visit Pompeii. We tend to think of the world as constantly progressing, but it is not necessarily so.

Newest Type of Kidnapping

Years ago Italy was plagued with a wave of kidnapping of rich persons who were held for large ransoms. This seems to have abated. Perhaps the decline in this phenomenon is due in part to the law Italy passed which freezes the assets of the family of a kidnap victim so the family cannot pay a big ransom. Criminals in Italy, however, are resourceful. Recently four Romanians kidnapped a cat in Florence and demanded a ransom of 20 Euro from the owner. The police were notified and captured the criminals at the payment of the ransom. The policeman interviewed on TV had a hard time not laughing as he told about this incident.

Let the Show Begin

A friend went to an event in Prato featuring a prominent Italian singer and a famous Italian woman scientist and author. The show was to start at 10:30 p.m. and admission was free. There was a huge crowd as the doors opened at 10 p.m. Soon every seat was filled and there were people standing in the back and aisles. At 10:30 an announcement was made that unless those standing left the theatre, the fire police would not allow the show to begin. A grand hubbub commenced with shouts of “go,” “don’t go,” “we won’t leave,” etc. The standees did not depart. At 11 p.m. my friend left with the situation still at a stand off. She does not know if the show ever went on.

The Nightly News

National network news in Italy is noticeably more amateurish than in the USA. It is not uncommon for the newscaster to begin a story, and then announce a tape illustrating the story, and the tape doesn’t come on. The newscaster just moves onto the next story. This week, however, there was something new. The anchorwoman had lost most of her voice. She did the evening news anyway in a voice that was difficult to hear. She is not the only anchorwoman on this station, but for some reason, they had her go on anyway.

The Trio Mediaeval (and the Aegean Center)

I went to a concert in a local church by this trio of three Norwegian women singers who perform sacred music of the middle ages, modern sacred music written in the medieval style (including pieces composed specially for this group), and traditional Norwegian songs. They were accompanied by a trumpeter. It was another of the many lovely musical evenings in Pistoia, made even nicer by the beauty of the setting.

The concert was to celebrate the 20^th anniversary at Pistoia of the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts. This is a private study abroad program for American college students. Participants come for one semester and spent one month in Pistoia and the rest of the semester in Greece. Pistoia provides for the program an excellent base to visit other cities in Tuscany. In addition, Pistoia itself is a prime center of medieval architecture. I had met some students form this program before, but I did not know much about it until I was able to chat with the director after the concert.

City Con Game

I got a notice to come to a city office. When I arrived at the office there was a line, all or almost all immigrants to Italy. So I thought the notice must be about my status as an immigrant. Not so. Instead everyone there was receiving a notice and a fine of 150 Euro for not registering with the city for purposes of garbage collection. I asked the clerk how one would know of the obligation to register. I had received a Permesso to stay in Italy and a Resdienza certifying my residence in Pistoia. At neither time was I told of an obligation to register for garbage collection. The clerk admitted that there is no process of notification. I have been here seven years and a resident for at least five. Obviously somebody at city hall realized that unknowing foreigners (maybe some Italians too) had not registered. They could all be fined now for a quick source of funds for the city.

Art Works at New Dialysis Center at Pistoia Hospital

I’ve mentioned how this structure is decorated inside and outside with at works by seven prominent contemporary artists -–Sol Lewitt, Claudio Parmiggiani, Hidetoshi Nagasawa, Daniel Burden, Robert Morris, Dani Karavan, and Gianni Ruffi. A local bank donated this Center to the city and I assume paid for the art works too. Unfortunately, as is often the case in Italy, items beautiful at their inception are not maintained. One of the art works is a marble table in a gazebo with a tree growing out of the middle of the table. The tree is gone. Three spaces within the edifice have Zen garden installations; these are overrun with weeds. An outdoor sculpture is under a pine tree. Nobody cleans off the pine needles and cones.

Notes from Paris

I spent three days in Paris this week with friends from the USA. Great weather in a beautiful city.

Here are a few things I noted

• At museums and on the trains there were announcements, written or oral, in three languages: French, English, and Spanish. French is obvious. English is the most universal language spoken in Europe. Spanish is an odd choice. The next most common language is German. German tourists are all over Europe. In Italy, after Italian and English, you see signs and announcements in German. So why Spanish in France? Maybe the memory of WWII is not gone.

• French window displays are attractive but lack the flair of those in Italy.

• My sister recently visited me in Italy and noted how expensive Italy has become. She was not talking about the poor exchange rate for the dollar, but the prices in Euros. Italy may in fact have become quite expensive, but Paris costs more than Florence. Almost everything for which I was able to compare prices was more in Paris.

• French rolls and bread are wonderful. Far better than in Italy.

• France in general is much more like Germany than Italy in its level of organization, but much more like Italy than Germany in its vibrant street life. For example, the street maps and the transportation maps are excellently coordinated. Every street has a street sign. It is a beautiful country. So it may seem to be the best combination of the virtues on northern Europe and those of Southern Europe. The major shortcoming — the French people. I’ve never had difficulty with the folks in France, but there is no denying that their reputation in Europe is not the best.

• Despite the general good level of organization in France, at Orly airport I ran into a situation worse than any I have encountered at an Italian airport. At the gates for the Easyjet Company, all persons entering or exiting flights had to travel through a common hallway. Whenever arriving passengers came into this hallway, the gate was closed for departing passengers who had to wait until the hallway cleared before continuing to board their plane. As a result, it took forever the load the airplane.

• We went to the famous cemetery in Paris to see the graves of such luminaries as Balzac, Collette, Heloise and Abelard, etc. As you may know the most visited grave now is that of Jim Morrison.

Bragging by Berlusconi

He called the rapid construction of housing for persons displaced by the Abruzzo earthquake “a miracle.” He also is quick to remind folks that he got the army to take to garbage off the streets of Naples. These are definite accomplishments, but they don’t address the serious structural problems that plague the Italian nation. Maybe people are happy at these lesser accomplishments because they have no hope that any government will make meaningful change in problems such as weak economy, poor infrastructure, bloated government, Mafia, inferior educational system, etc.