thisweekinitaly.com

The Real Thing or Fake?

 When I buy clothes at the semi-weekly market, often the items are new.  Sometimes the have a fancy brand label such as Hugo Boss, Pierre Cardin, Ralph Lauren or Burberry. Shirts usually cost about 5 Euro at the market and jackets between 5 Euro and 15.  I buy them because I like their look, not primarily because of the brand.  Many people believe that almost all of such brand name items at the traveling market are fake. A neighbor in my apartment building owns a clothing store. I asked him to come over and inspect some of these premier brand items I purchased to assess their authenticity and quality. Sometimes it is possible to know something is surely false, but it is more difficult to be sure another item is genuine.  If it is very well made the fact of whether or not it is genuine becomes less important. He thought some of the brand names were false, but other garments seemed genuine or at the least were made of high quality cloth and good sewing. With such low prices, every garment was worth at least what I paid for it. At these prices you can hardly be gypped by counterfeit goods.

 The Famous $80 Plain White T Shirt

 When I wrote (newsletter 377) about my trip to Solomeo Italy where I purchased a luxury T shirt of Brunello Cucirelli for $80 (This was half price because it was a second.), some friends replied to me that I must have lost my mind. I showed this T shirt to my friend mentioned above who owns the clothing shop. He was able to show me fine details of hand sewing on the item.  He also was quite impressed with the softness and elasticity of the fabric.  I can’t say that these features make the garment worth $80, but I defy anyone to show me a better cotton T shirt anywhere.

 Fiat and Serbia (contd.)

 I wrote in newsletter 375 about the plan of Fiat to move more production to Serbia. The head of Fiat (and Chrysler) is Sergio Marchinonne who is an Italian  raised in Canada. He is again talking about moving production out of Italy.  Here are the figures for the average salary of Fiat workers in the four countries where there are factories: Italy 1200 Euro, Poland 600 Euro, Brazil 540 Euro, and Serbia 300 Euro.  Here are figures for number of cars produced per Fiat employee in these four locations: Italy 29, Poland 103, Brazil 80, and Serbia 83. These numbers speak for themselves.  The factories outside of Italy are newer and more modern which helps the increased production there, but even with equally modern factories in Italy, the salary differentials would still make Italy less attractive than the other nations for production.

 Although Italian newspaper writers think they are novelists rather than journalists, the visual presentation of data in news articles is excellent.  Whenever there is chart of illustration, it is very clear.  The information in the paragraph above is from such a chart.

 The Old Catholic Church

 In the late 19^th century, the Pope proclaimed for the first time the doctrine of Papal infallibility in matters of faith and morals. Some Catholics did not accept this new doctrine and broke away to form a new church called the Old Catholic Church.  It is stronger in northern Europe than in Italy, but has churches in Italy too. It ordains woman and retains the old Latin rite mass. It also is friendlier to gays and lesbians than the Roman Catholic Church.  A small group (made up primarily of gay men) from this church meets at my church, St. James Episcopal Church, in Florence. If this Old Catholic Church  got its act together in Italy, it would have good potential for growth.  Many Italians leave the Catholic Church because they disagree with its social and political stances, not with its ritual. These Italians tend at this point to leave religion altogether.  Such persons might well be attracted to a church that has the Catholic ritual but not all the baggage of what they see as backward social and moral stances. 

 Speaking of Religious Matters

 I am on the Vestry (church council) of my church.  Once a year the Vestry holds a weekend retreat. It usually is held at an old monastery that now rents out rooms (Spartan to be sure) to groups. This year the monastery was not available. So we were forced to meet at Le Boscarecce (www.leboscarecce.com), a lovely Italian country inn and restaurant between Florence and Sienna. I had stayed there once before. A few years ago the inn contributed a two day visit as a prize in a silent auction at my church, and I ended up buying it. Two days of sitting at meetings is not my cup of tea, but if I have to suffer through it, LeBoscarecce is an acceptable place to do so.  The setting is lovely and the food marvelous.

 Fighting Prostitution – Tree Huggers vs. a Different Type of Hugger

 In Abruzzo, in an area along the Tronto river,  there is a wooded zone where almost 600 prostitutes (Nigerians, Romanians, Brazilians, Albanians, and Chinese) carry out their trade by soliciting customers along the road that parallels the river. To stop this practice local authorities have installed cameras, conducted raids, used citizen patrols, and fined the clients of the prostitutes – all without much success. More drastic means are called for, and now the plan is to cut down 69 acres of woodland along the river. Italian environmental groups, including the World Wildlife Federation, are up in arms. They cite the environmental benefits of the woodlands such as absoring carbon dioxide and preventing fertilizer and pesticide runoff from reaching the river. Perhaps the trees will have to make the ultimate sacrifice to prevent human sinfulness.

 A little quiz for frequent readers of this newsletter. In the national groups mentioned above, how are the Brazilian prostitutes different from those of other nations?  If you have read the newsletter closely, you will recall that the Brazilian ones are the transsexuals that Italian men seem to like a lot.

 Check Out This Body

 We have all heard of cases where criminals fake their own disappearance or death in order to get the police off of their case. On the news I saw an item about the prosecutors digging up the body of a murdered Mafia leader to see if in fact it is his body.  What is most fascinating about this story is the year of the murder — 1950.  As I’ve noted before the Italian judicial system functions poorly but seems always to find time for useless investigations and prosecutions.

 Explanatory Fable

 Let’s say you meet a man who owns a number of beautiful, elegant mansions with lovely grounds and extravagant furnishings.  You notice however that these houses have not been well maintained and are in need of work to put them in good shape.  The man tells you that he has a little job. He also conducts paid tours of his mansions.  All in all this gives him enough money to live on, but not enough to do the desirable repairs and maintenance on his mansions.  You suggest that he sell one of his mansions and use the sale proceeds to do the necessary work on the other ones.  He informs you that, unfortunately, legally he cannot sell any of his properties.

 He admits that he often spends some of his money foolishly and also gives a lot of it to his children, who may or may not be employed themselves but in any case make demands upon him.  The man is not unhappy; he eats well and is well dressed, but his wealth, if you want to call it that, is in property, not in cash income. There is little prospect that this situation will change unless, perhaps, he wins the jackpot lottery.

As you well may have guessed, the man in the fable is Italy.

Pistoia Throughout History

A friend was telling me about his experience browsing a large history of the city of Pistoia.  In it were two accounts of a sort of Atlas of the entire Italian peninsula, not simply of maps but with detailed narrative descriptions of the cities and regions. One of these was written in the 12^th century and the other in the 18^th century. Both had the same general summary of Pistoia: a well developed city in a good location with ample water and surrounded by fertile land but marked by the constant conflict among factions within the city. Such conflict was often violent.  Dante too made a similar comment about Pistoia.  I doubt that the authors of the two books actually witnessed armed conflict, but Pistoia’s reputation as a particularly fractious city was one long established.

Serbia vs. Italy

A soccer match between the two nations in Genoa had to be halted because of violent behavior by a group of hooligans from Serbia. Many of these were arrested in Italy. Others were arrested after they got off the plane back in Serbia. There is some controversy about the extent to which the Serbian police warned the Italian police about these fans. Ordinarily such hooligans would rather be tried in Serbia than abroad, but there is a hitch.  Serbia is trying to enter the European Union. It is a country with a disquieting history of violence in recent years. So I think the Serbian authorities are going to throw the book at these soccer thugs in order to show the rest of Europe that the nation deals seriously with violence.

When the President of Serbia was interviewed on Italian TV, he answered the questions in perfect English. I have seen this phenomenon before when Italian journalists interview leaders or prominent persons in other European nations. Although some top politicians in Italy can speak English, I think very few would be comfortable replying to a foreign journalist in English.

Albanians Speaking English

I’ve mentioned before that Albanian immigrants speak English better than Italians. I attributed this to superior foreign language teaching in Albania.  That may in fact be true, but Albanians are quick to note that English is easier for them than for Italians because all the sounds of English (and many more) are part of the Albanian language.

My Bicycle Collection

In 2002 I brought three bicycles with me to Italy. Bike thefts are very common in Italy. One person told me he had six bikes stolen within one year. I always lock my bike, but that is not guarantee against theft.   In the place where I keep my three bikes in the basement of my apartment house, there was an old rusting abandoned bicycle.  I took it to a bike shop for an inspection.  The tires had to be pumped up. Some oil had to be applied. Although the bike shop mechanic told me the generator light could not be fixed, I repaired it myself. I had new brake pads put on, but these wore out in two weeks because the rust on the rims acted like sandpaper against the rubber pads. So I had to sand the rust off of the rims. Now I have a bike for around town that is not theft proof, but less attractive to steal.  I don’t lock it, and if it is stolen, my loss is minimal.

This is bike number four, but it may not be the end of the collection. Since my doctor forbade my riding in the hills and mountains, I have had to restrict myself to level areas or walk my bike up the hills when encountered. So I am looking into a high quality electric assist bicycle for which I will switch on the assist feature only when going up hill. These bikes however cost $2000 and up so I am trying to find the best bargain.

Advanced Study in Europe – A New Twist

Carpiagiani Gelato University in Bologna offers 9,000 courses each year for training entrepreneurs who want to enter the gelato business or for those already in the business who want to improve their abilities. You can attend for three days only or for up to three weeks.  (www.gelatouniversity.com)

If gelato is not to your taste as a business (even if as a food), how about fried potatoes? Notice I did not say French Fries because the gourmet center of this food in Europe is Belgium. Belgians consume on average 165 pounds of fried potatoes each year, a third more than Americans. There are more than 5,000 fries’ vendors in Belgium which  is 11 times as many stands per capita as there are McDonald’s in the USA. While you can learn to make fries at the McDonald’s Hamburger University, its short course is nothing compared to the year long program at the school for this purpose in Leuven, Belgium. Belgian fries stands are a growing phenomenon in the USA.

Career vs. Family

I have a friend who is a university professor and an acknowledged expert in his field.  In Italy, to become a full professor in some fields, you must qualify by taking part in a national competition. My friend won the competition to qualify for such a post, and has been approached by other universities to take full professor position, but he has refused. He wants to get such a position at his current university; unfortunately it is not clear that his university will be able to hire a full professor soon in his area. In the USA, a college teacher would be more likely to go elsewhere in order to get this advancement. In Italy leaving your extended family, selling your house, changing your children’s’ schools, etc. are seen as much bigger impediments than in the USA.  Bottom line is that family is more important and career is less important in Italy.

Pre-Trial Publicity

In Great Britain there are strong controls on what newspapers can print or broadcasters say about a crime and the police investigation of it before the actual trial of the accused. This is primarily to insure that the court can find an unbiased jury.  Such controls are less in the USA although judges can put some limits on pretrial publicity.  Finding an unbiased jury becomes a problem in some major cases in the USA. In Italy there either are no controls on pretrial publicity, or they are simply ignored. Everything an accused says to the police appears in the media.  The newspapers don’t even try to take a stand of neutrality.  I wrote last week about the uncle who murdered his niece whom he had been sexually molesting. Now he has accused his daughter of being an accomplice in the murder which she denies. There was a photo of both of them on the front page of the paper with the title “The Monsters.”

This case has transfixed Italy.  The coverage reminds me of the case of the Chandra Levy who was murdered in Washington DC 10 years ago. You may recall that her Congressman, who had an affair with her, was investigated, but ultimately cleared of suspicion.  Actually this week the trial of her alleged killer, Ingmar Guandique, began in Washington.  The delay in the trial in part was because he was serving a 10 year sentence for another crime.

Michelle, My Michelle

My favorite Italian TV babe, Michelle Hunziker, was in the news again this week.  Police captured a man who has been stalking her, including sending threatening text messages, for four years. I mention this in case you read or heard that her stalker had been apprehended, but his name was not given in the news account.  No, the stalker was not me. No also, unfortunately, she has not yet realized that I am the ideal guy for her.

Home Burglaries

 I once wrote about armed bands that break into homes while the owner is present and force the owner to open the safe (which many Italian houses have) and hand over the contents. Even when it is not a matter of opening a safe, burglars in Italy are more likely than in the USA to break into an occupied dwelling. In the most recent case in Pistoia, the criminals used a gas that knocked out the residents who were in bed at the time. I don’t know why burglaries while the family is at home are more common in Italy. One reason may be that in the USA more people have guns in their houses so that it is more risky to break in while the owner is at home. I believe that the widespread ownership of guns in the USA leads to more violence than it prevents. This is a controversial issue. It may be, however, that the profusion of firearms in the USA does make burglars more cautious than in Italy.

 Rare Solidarity in Italy

 A big case in the news for the last few months had been the disappearance of a 15 year old girl. Now her body has been found, and her uncle has confessed to the killing. He had been sexually abusing her, and killed her when she resisted his advances. Her funeral, as all funerals of tragic deaths, drew a huge crowd. These people were not curiosity seekers or those attracted to morbid events. They were people sincerely concerned who wanted to express their sympathy to the family. In Italy there is little patriotism, there is a high degree of distrust among citizens, and there is not much social solidarity. Still, when this kind of event occurs, the Italians, with their strong sense of family, are emotionally moved and express these emotions openly. This same phenomenon occurs when there are natural disasters in Italy like earthquakes and floods.

 Visit to an Artist’s Home

 A block away from my apartment is the home and studio of the artist Fernando Melani. He died in 1985 and gave his house and studio to the city. It is kept exactly as it looked on his date of death. It is open only by appointment for group tours about one day a week, but I happened to see a notice of such a tour and was able to join it. This guy worked in about every possible medium, and there is “stuff” everywhere in the apartment and studio. I can’t say that his art is particularly to my taste, but his life as an interesting one. He never studied or did art until he was almost 40, when he quit his factory job, and spent the rest of his life in an almost monastic existence as an artist. Who knows how he found money to eat. Who knows also how much it costs the city or some governmental art agency to preserve his house as a “museum” that is hardly ever open. For a quick look at the inside of this museum, check out page 1 of the images at this web site: http://www.google.it/images?hl=it&biw=1020&bih=563&q=fernando+melani&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=t-SxTO3aFIjMswa-oeTBDQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDMQsAQwAw

 Business and Berlusconi

 Given the strong participation of the communists in the past in the Italian left and the present major role of the unions in this political wing, it is not surprising that business leaders traditionally support the center-right coalition of Berlusconi. Recently, however, some top leaders have been openly expressing dismay at the direction of the government and the nation. The Italian economy has been at best static over the last 10 years. Even if Berlusconi has not done the bad things that business fears the left might do, he also has not done much good for the economy. The structural problems that must be faced to reform the Italian economic system are rarely addressed by the Berlusconi government, and business leaders are clearly weary of his inaction in this sector.

 One of my friends believes that in Italy, any government, of the right or the left, will back down in implementing a policy if the opposition mounts a campaign of public protest.  If this is true, then no government will carry out needed major reforms because any of these reforms will prompt public protests by the opposition.

 Italy + France = Disaster (Almost)

 I had plane reservations for a three-day visit to Paris to be with American friends there. The French air controllers announced a strike, and my flight to Paris was cancelled. I could not get a refund for this portion of the trip and keep the return flight reservation; I had to cancel the whole reservation and re-book the return flight. Of course, with no flights, I had to go to Paris by train. The trains were sold out. I took me two trips to train station to confirm this because the Italian trains’ computer system was not totally functioning. How likely is it that anyone in the Italian train systems realized “there is an air controllers’ strike in France; this will increase train traffic to France so we ought to add some extra cars during the strike.” Not very likely.

 In the end, the strike in France and the shortcomings of the Italian train system made no difference.  Because of an illness, the people I was to meet in Paris had to cancel their trip.  In fact, teh French strike helped me. It forced the airline to cancel my flight. They had to offer me a refund. I would not have received a refund if I simply did not use the flight.

 My Good Friend Linda Falcone….

 Is the author of two delightful, insightful, books on Italian language and culture: Italians Dance and I’m a Wallflower and Italian, It’s Greek to Me: Everything You Don’t Know about Italian Language and Culture.” These are available through Amazon.com and perhaps from other booksellers too. Her third book, a novel Moving Days, has just been published.

 Now why am I saying all these nice things about Linda? They are true, of course, but I do have another motive (Why are you not surprised?). I need to repay her for the section below from her most recent column in The Florentine newspaper as follows:

During the recentbaby-craze period, I received three wonderful two-sentence emails from this column’s readers. Tony, who found no articles published this summer, wrote to say he hoped I ‘was okay’. Millie, a student who is new in town, invited me to coffee. And Bob Nordvall, who gets his surname written out in full, wrote me a prize-winning email that I can’t help but share. But let’s premise this by telling youthat Bob and I go ‘way back.’ On a sweltering day in central Florence in 2006, he was the sole ‘fan’ who showed up to a book reading I staged. It was one of those times that you decide that selling lemonade is easier than selling literature. And it was one of those times that life forces you to have a startling realization: all one really needs in this world is a single listener. Since that day, Bob has never failed me. He sends his newsletter with frequency and a line or two at times to keep the friendship going. His email last week was this: Dear Linda, I always viewed you as an original, insightful, delightful writer who, thankfully, was not following that over-worn path of ‘writing a novel.’ Now I see, I may have been premature in my overall judgment. Love, Bob.

 Now tell me, have you ever seen such a stunning piece of electronic prose? However many years in Pistoia and the man compliments like a Tuscan! Scalding to the core and still in search of a smile. Complimenti, Bob, sei forte. Anzi, fortissimo. But if I were you, I wouldn’t be too worried—I’m not a born novelist, even if I do love this little book with an uncommon sort of fierceness. Sadly, Mr. Nordvall will be in Paris, the day ‘Moving Days’ is launched. Those of you who aren’t going with him ought to stop by. In other words, come celebrate on ‘Geese Street.’ And bring all your real babies.

 ————

As noted above, I did not go to Paris and was able to go to Linda’s book signing in Florence. I discovered that Moving Days too is already available on Amazon.com

 Communism in Italy

 After the Second World War, the two largest Communist parties in Europe were in France and Italy. Communists had played a major part in the anti-Fascist resistance movements in both nations during the War. Immediately after the War in Italy, Communist and non Communist resistance factions began to turn against each other. Soon, however, the Communists in Italy decided to take part in the government rather than to stage an armed revolt as they did in Greece.

 The appeal of Communism in my opinion was based on more than its anti-Fascist role. Communism has a theory of history that is based upon large scale conflict between various classes (different ones at different times) that is eventually resolved through the Communist Brotherhood of Man. Italy is a nation who history overflows with conflict. The peninsula was overrun by foreign invaders for most of its history. Within Italy, the cities, when they were not fighting foreigners, were fighting each other. Within these cities, the leading families were fighting each other. Is it any wonder that a theory of history with conflict at its core might resonate well among many Italians?

 Watching a Film about Italian Politics

 I viewed the British DVD (with English subtitles) of the 2008 Italian film Il Divo about the grand old man of Italian politics, Giulio Andreotti. This film did not have a direct narrative. It was rather a kaleidoscopic account of his career during the 1990s. At the beginning there was an explanation of some of the events and vocabulary used in the film. I knew all these items from my years in Italy, but nevertheless the full implications of the film are impossible for a foreigner to follow. They draw upon the vast reservoir of conspiracy theories in Italy. Italian politics make those in the USA look like a game of tic/tac/toe.

 The “Good Old Days” for the Roman Catholic Church

 In the film The Divo many of Andreotti’s witty saying are repeated. He says that the Pope once told him that whenever a report arrived at the Vatican about a priest in trouble, the Pope always said the same five words, “what is the lady’s name?”. I am sure the Pope wishes that the problems of priests were that simple today.

 Lottery Fever

 The prize in the Italian jackpot lottery reached a historic high recently. Meanwhile, I saw an item on Italian news about a guy in Georgia (USA) who won two big lottery prizes within three months. In general, as I have reported before, the lottery seems to be more popular in Italy than in the USA. You see middle and upper class people buying scratch and win tickets that in the USA are sold mostly to the poor. I’ve come up with a theory about why this is so. In the USA most people believe that financial success in life is the result of ability plus hard work. Italians are much more likely to see this as a result of good luck. (Of course in both countries this is not purely an either/or matter.) So if “good luck” is the primary ingredient in becoming rich, playing the lottery may make more sense.

 Amorous Adventures at Work

 A police official in a nearby town and his co-worker girlfriend were arrested for repeatedly spending time in a hotel room together when they were supposed to be on the job. An American reading this story might ask why this couple did not do their coupling over the lunch hour – a practice that gave rise to the phrase in English “a nooner.” I assume the problem was that in Italy over the long lunch break these two were expected to at home eating lunch with their spouses and whichever children might be present. A long lunch break is not an advantage in all situations. Of course an alternate explanation may be that a long satisfying lunch is so important that one would not use that time for other, less important, activities.

 “In Italy, Defying the Mafia”

 This is the title of an article in the October 2010 Smithsonian Magazine. (It can be found at magazine’s website Smithsonian.com). The article concerns the efforts of ordinary citizens, as well as the government, to break the hold of the Mafia Sicily. At this point, it should be noted that the Mafia exists also in other areas of Italy. The article details the growing willingness of citizens to testify against Mafia members, the arrests of top Mafia leaders, and the seizure of Mafia property by the government. In the middle of the article, however, is reference to a study indicating that in 2008 80% of Palermo businesses still paid protection money to the Mafia. In short, fighting the Mafia is a long term project that will require a cultural shift in Sicily as well as legal efforts. As I once mentioned, Mussolini did put a big dent in the Mafia, but he just had reputed Mafia leaders arrested and exiled without trial. That tactic is not possible in a democracy.

 Maybe It is Not Always Good to Have Highly Intelligent Friends

 I wrote last week about my trip to the eye doctor, and the good news that I did not need new glasses — I could now read without glasses so they are needed only for distance sight. A good friend is a Professor of Ophthalmology at a medical school. He wrote to explain this change in my sight as follows “when the ability to read without glasses returns to someone our age, it is usually because of increased nearsightedness, which in turn is almost always the result of an early cataract.” I should have known that unalloyed good news was not coming from the doctor at my age.

 A retired Economics professor wrote to tell me that the increased inflation I called for in the USA would not necessarily increase the value of the dollar vs. the Euro. Maybe the question my American friends should ask the candidates is simply “What is your plan to increase the value of the dollar abroad”?

 My First Italian Funeral

 I went to a funeral of the husband of a friend in Pistoia. In general in Pistoia the funerals are held in the same church where the ceremonies are managed by a civic group called Misericordia. In this case, the priest was a black man from Africa. He may have been the priest of the parish where the deceased man worshipped since foreign priests are more and more common in Italy. In Italy bodies are not embalmed, and the funeral is usually within two days after the death. If the coffin is open, the deceased looks much less lifelike than is the case with an embalmed body in the USA.

 I have a friend who was the director a study abroad program for American students in Italy. Once a student was killed in an accident, and the body had to be shipped to the USA. By law a body has to be embalmed to be shipped from aboard into the USA. My friend had trouble finding an Italian funeral director who could do this process. It was done but so poorly that the recommendation was made not to have an open coffin at the funeral in the USA.

 Pistoia Underground

 This is the name of a tour that explores the excavated area under the city hospital and adjacent streets. Around 1200 the city diverted a river than ran through it and then began to build the hospital and other structures over the area of the dry river bed. When you visit the underground area, you can see the bottoms of the bridges, some going back to Roman times that formerly spanned the river. The hospital threw its garbage down into this excavated area so the tour provides insight into hospital procedures over the centuries. Pistoia was also the center of a major medical school so the tour includes a visit to the museum of medical instruments. Having seen these and also having heard about how the hospital operated, I certainly would not have been in any hurry to seek medical advice 500 years ago. The hospital isolated those who were infected, cared for those for whom nothing could be done, and probably killed most of those who received medical procedures.

 A Trip to Rimini

 After visiting a large exhibition fair in Rimini a month ago, I decided to return to the area for a short bike trip. It is a major seaside resort but not necessarily of the luxury level. So the construction along the beach was not particularly attractive. The old city, however, is quite well preserved and has done a fine job of excavating and displaying some of the old Roman ruins. The City Museum was surprisingly good in the scope and quality of exhibits. One day we went to nearby San Marino, one of the two independent states within the nation of Italy (the other being the Vatican). It too is quite attractive in its preservation, but a large part of the city is covered with souvenir shops. The economy seems to be based on tourism and banking which avoids the Italian fiscal rules. For the first time in Italy I saw signs on the shops there in Russian. In Rimini too at one restaurant we visited, the languages on the menu included Russian.

 Rimini has one tall building of about 20 floors that can be seen at a great distance. When we were there it was the 50^th anniversary of the construction of this building that they call a skyscraper. I am sure some public relations firm planned this commemorative event, but I doubt that this agency expected the newspaper headline that spoke of the 50^th anniversary of Rimini’s “phallic symbol.”

 
Fat Kids
 
There was an item on the news that Italian youth are the most obese in Europe. I wrote once about a similar story about Italians in general (Newsletter 256, Nov. 30, 2007). If one is overweight, there are styles of clothes that can cover this fact somewhat and other styles that accentuate it. Now if the current fashion style is for loose fitting clothes, then fortunately what is in style also looks good on overweight folks. The opposite is true if current styles are tight fitting, as they are now with the additional factor of the bare midriff. So currently for the heavy ones there is a conflict between dressing in style vs. dressing in the most attractive way given their body type. I bet you can easily guess the choice that Italian youth makes.
 
REALLY Loving Italy
 
I am sure we all know people who have visited a foreign country, had a bad experience there (of a type that often could have happened anywhere), and vowed never to return to that country. Here is an opposite story. I gave a tour of Pistoia to a friend of a friend, a delightful older woman who has been visiting Italy for decades. On one visit, a fellow passenger on the train to Milan offered her a drink of water that was in fact poisoned. She passed out immediately. When she finally woke up, in the Milan train station, she felt terrible and sought a nearby hotel to get a room to lie down. When the clerk asked for her passport, she discovered that her bag had been opened and an inside bag stolen with her money, credit cards, and passport. The clerk did not merely deny her a room, he threw her and her suitcase out the front door and began to hit and kick her. This injured one of her shoulders. Eventually she got to the police and received help from the American Consulate. The thief threw her bag, including the money and credit cards, into a trash can, and it was found and returned to her later, but, of course, she had to replace the passport.
 
This did not discourage her from returning to Italy. On a later trip, while crossing the street in a pedestrian crosswalk in Florence, she was run over by a motorcycle. She was hospitalized for seven months (at first in Italy then in the USA), some of the time in a coma. Her other shoulder was badly injured. As a result she cannot lift either arm above her shoulders. Fortunately the young man who hit her stopped and got her aid. Hit and run accidents are very common in Italy.
She is still coming back. She is good friends with the family of the young man who struck her on the motorcycle. I think she deserves an award from the Italian Tourist Office.
 
Garbage in the Streets of Naples
 
In the last election campaign Berlusconi promised to go to Naples after he was elected and put an end to the crisis of garbage accumulating in the streets. He did so and got a lot of good publicity. At the time I cynically suggested that we should wait and see how long the solution lasts (Newsletter 310, February 27, 2009). This week the piles of garbage are back in the streets. One of problems is that the government is expanding a nearby landfill to the displeasure of local residents. These residents are blocking the highway and setting fire to the garbage trucks that arrive.
 
Mid-Term Elections in the USA
 
Although the dollar strengthened appreciably earlier this year against the Euro, in the last few weeks the value of the dollar has been in free fall. I haven’t looked into the reasons and also what future developments could reverse this trend. I suggest to my American friends that in voting next month instead of asking which candidate has the best ideas for governing the country or which candidate is better qualified in terms of abilities and experience, you ask instead: which candidate will support policies to raise the value of the dollar against the Euro. My guess is that polices that will lead to inflation are the best to raise the value of the dollar. United States interest rates are quite low. If they would rise in an inflationary spiral, more money would come to USA raising the value of the dollar. So ask of each candidate “what are you going to do to bring inflation back to the USA?”. Thank you.
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Corri La Vita
 
This is an annual event with a 12 km. race and a leisurely 5 km. walk through the streets of Florence. It is to raise funds to fight breast cancer. There are about 20,000 participants. The T shirt each year is designed by the firm of Salvatore Ferragamo. This year I walked with a group of ex pats from the USA, England, and Australia. Many of these are folks who spend only part of the year in Florence, having two or three homes altogether. If you are rich enough, there are definite advantages to living in different places at various times of the year. If I were that rich, however, my summer home would be in Sweden, not in Italy or the USA.
 
Births by Caesarian Section in Italy
 
I wrote recently (Newsletter 382) about a woman who died giving birth through a Caesarian Section. Almost 40% of the births in Italy use this procedure, the highest rate in Europe. Why? Several reasons are proposed. First, doctors believe it is less likely to lead to a claim of malpractice if something goes wrong with the birth. Remember, however, that in Italy doctors don’t pay for their own malpractice insurance – the lawsuit is against the hospital and ultimately the state. Still a malpractice claim is always a large bother. A second reason is that in Italy, unlike the USA, doctors follow the rule that if the first child is delivered via this procedure, all subsequent children must also be. Third and finally is that women find this a less painful way to deliver.
 
An interesting sidelight. People often complain that in state run medical systems patients have to wait longer for tests and operations than in a private system. In the situation of Caesarian Sections, however, if the doctor orders it in Italy, it is done without question. In the USA a doctor who was doing 40% of his or her births by this more expensive method, would surely get a call from the insurance company that is paying the tab. In Italy there may be greater “consumer choice” in this matter than in the USA.
 
Another interesting sidelight. The rates by region in Italy for Caesarian births vary widely from under 2% to well over 50%. Rates in general are higher in the South. When any practice is more common in the South, you look for a devious reason. Allow me to propose a fourth reason for this phenomenon. Doctors and hospitals have found that they can make more money with Caesarian births and are doing them even when there is no medical reason to do so.
 
The Cinque Terra – Trouble in Paradise
 
These five villages along the Ligurian coast are well known to Americans. They now form a National Park for which you pay a fee to enter. Environmentalists have praised the way this area has been developed without being degraded. The head of the Park has received much of the credit for how the area has been administered. This week he and the mayor of one of the five towns were arrested and charged with large scale fraud against the government and other types of corruption.
 
Gypsies – A Post Script
 
The Economist magazine recently published three articles on the Gypsy problem, “Hot Meals for Hard Cases” (September 16), “A Long Road” (September 16) and “Home Thoughts” (September 23). The article “A Long Road” described a successful Gypsy community in the Bronx whose members are so well integrated that their neighbors don’t even realize that they are Gypsies. In general the articles see the Gypsy problem in Europe as a difficult one, but not impossible, and not one that ultimately can be solved by deportation. The key element is to be sure Gypsy children go through the normal state educational system.
 
Good News from the Doctor
 
After age 60, every time one sees a doctor it is likely that another little problem has arrived or is on the horizon. Recently I have had trouble reading with my glasses on even though I have bifocals. I went to an eye doctor who told me that I don’t need reading glasses anymore. I can read well without them. I know this is true because I have been taking my glasses off to read. So from now on I can either take off my glasses when I want to read or get a new pair of bifocals in which the reading section will be simply plain glass. It is a pleasure not to have a doctor say that there is a new problem.
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