Dealing with Loitering
A friend lives in an area of central Florence that is more and more inhabited by immigrants. Don’t ask me how they can pay the rents –they must live 20 to a room! Anyway on the steps of my friend’s apartment building some immigrants gather to drink and make a general mess. The residents of the building ask the loiterers to leave. Sometimes the police are called. The police usually come, and the people move. Soon they are back. If you call the police too many times, they stop coming saying that they can do nothing. Here is a difference between Italy and the USA. The police in Italy are very courteous and reluctant to use force of any kind. Consequently few fear them (although, to be accurate, there are some cases of police brutality.) . In the USA after a policeman was called the third time to disperse some loiterers, he likely would tell them “the next time I come here, I’m going to arrest you and you are going to spend the night in jail. It doesn’t matter whether you have broken any law, I’ll find a reason to arrest you.” In Italy the goal of the police often is to “do their job” not to “solve the problem.”
Divorce Growth in Italy
Italy is holding its first divorce fair, to help couples facing marriage break-ups.
Organisers say the event in Milan aims to help divorcing couples with legal proceedings and how to start afresh. Services include life coaching, beauty tips and advice on how to get rid of ex-spouses who turn into stalkers. Divorce levels in the traditionally Catholic country have been relatively low until recently, but there has been a dramatic rise in the last few years. (from the BBC news service)
True Flavor
I’ve mentioned that drinks in Italy with the name of a fruit on them must contain at least 12% fruit juice. Maybe this law isn’t limited to drinks. In Italy stores and offices often have a dish of candy on the counter. Recently I took a hard lemon drop from such a dish. When it was half finished, suddenly I was tasting real unsweetened lemon juice. Sucking on a lemon drop is fine; sucking on a lemon is something else.
P.S. on Minicars
These are the little cars I wrote about that you can drive without a license. I also told how kids were modifying the engines so they will go faster. Parliament has passed a new Motor Vehicle Code. It has fines for both the mechanic and the owner who modify the engines of such cars. It also prohibits those who have lost their driver’s license for medical reasons or violations of the law from driving these tiny cars. I can’t imagine that any rational legislature would have authorized such cars in the first place without forbidding their use by people who had lost their license.
The Cabinet Minister’s Apartment
I wrote about the cabinet minister who said he did not know who had paid 900,000 Euro toward the purchase of the Minister’s apartment and why the person had done it. Of course the name of the benefactor is known. Still there is an Italian Facebook page with thousands of adherents that is dedicated (in jest) to helping the Minister find out who made the payment and why. This reminds me a little of O.J. Simpson offering an award for information leading to the arrest of whomever murdered his wife.
Charles DeGaulle Airport
In newsletter 355 dated January 23, 2010, I gave my low opinion of this airport after it took one hour to get from one flight to another there. I was through the airport again recently. This time the signs were very clear, and there was a person at the door to help people changing flights. It was very efficient. I had a boarding pass given to me at the Pisa airport that showed the gate for my flight from Paris, but I discovered when I arrived at that gate that the gate had been changed. Not only was it changed but it was from the end gate on one wing of the terminal to the end gate in the other wing. Luckily I had plenty of time between flights. Thanks to a mechanical problem with one of the emergency doors and the longer route taken to avoid the Iceland volcano ash cloud, the flight was four hours late.
Orange Juice – Squeezed or Bottled?
At a bar recently I ordered a glass of squeezed orange juice. The bar tender said he would glad to make this for me, but at this point of the year oranges are out of season and, in fact, the bottled orange juice tastes better. The price of the squeezed orange juice is higher so he was forgoing a little better profit on the order. Italy is still a country where foods have their season and the best of flavor is important.
Italy’s 150th Anniversary
Next year is the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification as an independent nation. This had led to a lot of discussion about just how unified Italy is or is not today. A large majority of Italians are proud of the historic fact of unification . Eighty-seven percent are very or somewhat proud to be Italians. What is not asked is the question of how proud they are to be citizens of the Republic of Italy. As I have noted, I believe this would be a much lower figure. Italians see as their three most distinctive traits: the strong sense of family, the ability to overcome problems to get through a situation (muddle through?), and creativity in artistic and economic activities. They are most proud of the beauty of the nation, the country’s artistic and cultural patrimony, and Italian food. Thirty per cent agree strongly that the south of Italy is a detriment to the development of the nation.
Bargain Apartment (not Mine) for Rent in Pistoia
This is from a friend whom I know and trust
Tuscany – Italy – Pistoia Studio Apartment (sleeps 2) Located near Pistoia’s historical city center (5 min. walk).
Graciously charming living room with kitchen space and sofa-bed. Bathroom equipped with shower.
Amenities: Television, DVD player, small fridge, electric kettle moka coffee pot, microwave and Internet services.
*4th Floor (no lift)
Weekly rental rate: Saturday to Saturday
low €200 mid. €250 high. €300 (these rents refer to tourist season of year)
Vacation Time — Apartment for Rent
I leave for the USA on May 10 and will return to Italy on July 2. So there will be a hiatus for This Week in Italy Newsletters.
I did not plan to rent out my apartment during my absence, but if anyone does want to come to Italy during the time I am in the USA, I can offer a very good deal on an apartment in Tuscany.
May Day
This is the European version of Labor Day and a traditional holiday of the political left. There was a big a parade in Pistoia. The center left is in power in Pistoia and most of Tuscany, but is in decline on the national level. I look at the left in Italy a little like the Republicans were in the USA when FDR was President (1932-45). The country is headed by someone they dislike, but they can’t find a way to break his political hold. In the last election the candidate of the center-left tried to move this coalition more to the center (as Bill Clinton successfully did with the Democratic Party in 1990), but his attempt failed.
Italian Cuisine — Dissenting Opinions
I was at a dinner with some ex.-pats and the subject of Italian cuisine came up. All agreed that food is very well prepared in Italy from good ingredients. There was also agreement that except in the largest cities, there is little variety in the restaurants. Almost all serve Italian cuisine, not exactly Italian cuisine but the specific cuisine of the region. So in Tuscany, you get Tuscan cuisine, in Sicily Sicilian cuisine, etc. After a number of years some find the food in Italian restaurants to be boring.
As a counterpoint to this argument, I should note that Pistoia, with a population of 90,000 has at least three ethnic restaurants in additional to the ever-present Kebob shops. Furthermore, the last time I ate with a friend in one of the nicer restaurants near my house, he ordered a dish I had never seen before. It was pasta with sardi (a fish) pine nuts, fennel, and raisins. I asked about it, and he told me in was a Sicilian specialty. So it is not all Tuscan food.
A Little More About Food
I don’t know if the American Fast Food restaurant across from my house is a success or a failure. I don’t see big crowds there. Furthermore, they have expanded the menu. They haven’t started offering pizza, but now they sell the Middle Eastern kebob sandwiches.
Reliable News Sources
I’ve mentioned how Italian newspapers will reprint stories from abroad, usually about celebrities that come from scandal sheets such as Great Britain’s News of the World and The National Enquirer in the USA. Recently such a story; about the exact number of extra-marital liaisons of Tiger Woods, cited as its source The National Enquirer. The Italian newspaper went on to note that the Enquirer at one time was considered mainly a gossip sheet, but the paper had been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for is uncovering of the John Edwards’ affair story. So in Italy and maybe in the USA too, the Enquirer is suddenly legit.
Now that the Enquirer has published a story alleging an extramarital liaison by Barack Obama, I am sure my Republican friends in the USA are joining the Italian newspapers in affirming the reliability of this source.
Is Ignorance a Defense for Alleged Political Corruption?
The government Minister of Economic Development resigned when it was revealed that the head of a major construction firm had paid 900,000 Euro toward the purchase price of the Minister’s luxury apartment in Rome. The Minister’s defense was that he did not know that anyone had made a contribution toward the purchase of the apartment, and he did not why such a contribution was made. Although few, if any, believe his story, it tells a lot about Italy that a politician can say this in public with a straight face.
When the Communists in Italy Saved American Lives
April 25 is a holiday in Italy celebrating the date of the end of World War II in 1945 on the Italian peninsula. In the last few weeks of the war, as Allied troops were advancing toward major cities in northern Italy, the head of the Italian Communists ordered Communist partisan units to enter these cities and expel the Germans before the Allied troops arrived. One could view the partisans who were killed in these last battles as having died for no good reason; the Allied troops would soon arrive and throw the Germans out without the loss of the lives of Italian partisans. At this point, however, the issue was not defeating the Germans (the war was almost over as the Russians were entering Berlin) but to gain the best position for the post war political conflict in Italy between the Communists and the Christian Democrats. The Communists wanted to be seen as the liberators of these cities. One side result of all this political maneuvering was that Allied casualties were reduced because the partisans did some of the fighting.
Home Town Fans Cheering Against Their Team
If you were a non Italian who happened to attend the recent soccer game between Lazio and Inter, held at the Lazio stadium, you might have been surprised to see the Lazio fans cheering for Inter to win. What was going on? For Lazio the match was not of particular importance for their standing in the Soccer League. Inter, on the other hand, is engaged in a tight race with Rome for first place in the League. Shall we say that the Lazio fans, in this situation, hate Rome (their arch rival) more than they love Lazio. So they were opening rooting, with banners too, for Inter to win.
Another Boxing Story
Many know the story of how Max Schmeling, who fought two famous fights with Joe Louis in the 1930s, in later life helped Louis financially when Schmeling was a successful businessman in Germany. A similar story appeared this week in Italy. In 1967 Italian Nino Benevenuti defeated Emile Griffin to win the World Middleweight championship. Benvenuti is a great hero in Italy. Now Griffin has Alzheimer’s disease and Nino is paying for his care. I saw them on TV together. Griffin unfortunately is hardly able to talk.