thisweekinitaly.com

Update on Italian Trains

Let me recall two items I have written about Italian trains. The first is that there is no lost and found office at which you can recover items you left by mistake on a train on the line through Pistoia in Tuscany. Second there is a system (poorly administered) of partial refunds on tickets for the high velocity interregional trains when they are late beyond a certain time. On the train recently I noted an announcement that items left on the trains on my line are now sent to the Florence City Hall along with a notice of the date and train on which they were left. This same announcement noted a system of partial refunds for ordinary regional trains that are over an hour late. I would be willing to bet, however, that trying to find an item left on the train at the Florence City Hall is likely to be an unsuccessful venture and that getting any refund for a late arriving regional train (where the tickets do not specify the number of the train you are taking) is likely to be a bureaucratic nightmare hardly worth the effort.

Housing for the Poor

In Milan there is a lovely large apartment building that was left by its owner to the city to provide low cost housing for needy citizens. Last week the newspapers published the list of those who live there with rock bottom rents – a veritable Who’s Who of prominent citizens and their relatives. Now what will come of this revelation? Of course there is an investigation launched by the city. I assume the occupants may have leases, and even if they don’t, it is almost impossible to evict a renter in Italy without many years of legal process. Will at least some of those named in the newspaper be so embarrassed by the story that they will voluntarily pay more rent or leave their apartments? Don’t bet on it.

Watching the Film Winter’s Bone

Each year I show four American films on DVD to Italian friends who are trying to improve their English. I choose films that were well reviewed critically but are smaller movies that did not come to Italy. We view them in English with English subtitles. The first this year was Winter’s Bone which in fact has received so much critical acclaim in the USA that it is belatedly being released in Italy. It takes place in the Ozark mountains. The people speak slowly and in a very sparse manner. This should make it easier for Italians to understand the dialog. Of course all American films have some slang that has to be interpreted for non English speakers. The additional problem in this film is that the short conversations have meanings and implications that go beyond the words and require an understanding of the film’s environment to be understood. So I had to stop the film often to explain what was happening.

Crime and Punishment

In 2001 a 16 year old Italian girl and her 17 year old boyfriend murdered the girl’s mother and brother. They were sentenced to 16 and 14 years of prison respectively. Even for Italy (where sentences generally are more lenient) these were short sentences for a double murder and probably reflected two factors: (1) the youth of the accused and (2) the fact that mental disorders were involved which did not, however, rise to level of insanity. Now after 10 years in prison the boyfriend is about to be released, and the girl will be after another year. Prisons are both to punish and to rehabilitate. The Italian system puts more emphasis on rehabilitation than the American one so that if a person is believed to be reformed, he or she may well be released even after a sentence that does not seem to have fully “punished” him or her for the crime committed. Of course, not all Italians agree with this system so that the early release of these two has generated negative comments.

Foreign Films: Dubbing vs. Subtitles

As I’ve noted before foreign films in Italy are dubbed not subtitled. The Italians are excellent at the art of dubbing which is difficult because the dialog in Italian must be constructed so as to fit into the open mouth movements of the actors who are speaking the other language. This problem does not occur with subtitles. Sometimes at the theatre that shows films in English in Florence, they have a copy of the film with Italian subtitles rather than dubbing. (This is not the edition that is shown at Italian cinemas.) It is interesting to note the word choices in the subtitles. The greatest problems arise with slang and colloquial phrases. Sometimes a colloquial phrase is the same in both language, e.g. “the price was salty” can be translated word for word into Italian. Sometimes there is a similar colloquial phrase, e.g. “I would not want to be in his shoes” translates into Italian as “ I would not want to be in his clothes.” Sometimes there is no equivalent phrase, e.g. “he was up the creek without a paddle” might simply be translated into Italian as “he was in big trouble.” You always lose a little of the flavor of the dialog in translation.

Italy and Libya

The unrest in Libya is a big problem especially for Italy. Italy has closer relations with Libya than any other European nation. Italy has few natural resources to produce energy. In the 1970s it decided to end nuclear power plants. As a result it has to buy electricity that is produced in nuclear power plants in France. It gets natural gas through pipelines from Tunisia, Libya, and Russia. It is possible also to get natural gas by ship where it is stored in a liquefied form, but to use such liquid gas, a country needs degasification plants to turn the liquid back into gas. Italy decided that such plants were too dangerous and did not build them. So now if gas from Tunisia and/or Libya is cut off, Italy is in trouble. In addition Italy gets about 30% of its motor fuel from Libya.

Natural resources are not the only problem. Already people fleeing Tunisia are arriving in rickety boats at Mediterranean Italian islands that are near to Africa. Now Libyans are fleeing to Tunisia. How long will it be before they too arrive in overcrowded boats on Italian land? Libya also cooperated with Italy to stop African refugee boats from departing from Libya to Italy. This policy may end if the Libyan government changes.

Pistoia in the National News

The last time Pistoia was in the national news it was the case of the nursery school where the teachers were physically abusing and mistreating the children. That was at least a year ago, but I don’t think the trial has yet taken place. This week it was about the family of Hungarian immigrants, living near Pistoia, who were illegally importing purebred dogs from Eastern Europe and selling them over the internet. It’s not clear that the dogs were mistreated (as is often the case at puppy mills in the USA), but the importation was illegal.

This Week in Italy 404

Celebrating 150 Years of Italian Independence

The official 150^th birthday of the Republic of Italy is March 17.  As always in Italy, such an event is not without controversy. First, some government officials have argued that it should not be a work holiday.  In the north of Italy, enthusiasm is more muted among members of the Northern League whose program includes dividing Italy into two parts. The least enthusiasm is found in the  far northern Italian area that was part of Austria until the end of World War I.  A political leader in this area noted that it became part of Italy against the will of its inhabitants who spoke German and had a Germanic culture.  This part of Italy has been given some special rights of regional autonomy.  For this reason some say that its residents would no longer want to go back to being part of Austria.  I doubt it. If there were a referendum, I believe  the residents would overwhelmingly vote to rejoin Austria.

There are some ads on TV promoting the 150^th anniversary . A number of these use young children.  In general all the children look like typical Italians; you don’t see children from the various ethnic groups that are a growing part of the population today.  Italy hasn’t quite fully figured out that to integrate immigrants into the nation, you need to make them feel they are fully a part of it.

Party Loyalty in Parliament

In Italy you vote for a party list of candidates, not for individual candidates who run against each other for a specific seat in Parliament. Seats are allocated on the basis of the percentage of the vote received by the party. The political parties make up the lists of candidates.  Some parties have primaries; others don’t. Some parties, such as the largest party, the PDL, are really personal fiefdoms of their leaders.  For the PDL this leader is Silvio Berlusconi.  Imagine that  Barack Obama personally chose or approved every Democratic candidate running for Congress.  You could be sure that those Democrats elected would  follow President’s Obama’s lead.  Otherwise they would not be on the ticket for reelection the next time around.

Thumbnail Sketch of History of Italian Fashion

Italians were the trendsetters of European fashion from the eleventh to sixteenth centuries  when the Italian Renaissance flourished and luxury goods of all kinds were manufactured in  Venice, Milan, and Florence. In the seventeenth century with the ascendance of the French monarchy , the center of fashion became France and stayed there until the twentieth century.   Italy however made a big comeback in the 1950s when Giovanni Battisti  Giorgini began holding fashion shows in Italy.  The Italians overcame the reign of French haute couture and the label Made in Italy rose in prestige so that today  Milan and New York are considered the economic and media fashion capitals of the world.

Those Overpaid Professional Athletes

Sometimes in the United States one hears discussions of the very high salaries of professional athletes in terms of the “fairness” of these sums or the example set by them in as to what is important in a society.  Recently I heard a report that the combined payroll of two of the top English soccer teams  is over twice as large as that of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.  The top Italian League also pays similar high salaries.  In Italy and much of Europe soccer is supreme as the number one sport in a way that no sport is in the USA.

The Transformation of the Spa

A century ago spas were places where one went to drink or bathe in the healthful thermal waters. A famous spa town near to Pistoia is Montecatini Terme.  Today people don’t believe much in health through mineral waters.  So spas have become primarily places for beauty treatments and pleasures of the body.  In the USA many beauty and barber shops have added a few new services and bill themselves as spas. Fancy resorts need a spa facility to pamper guests.  There are now stand-alone spas far from thermal springs.  I visited one recently on the outskirts of Pistoia for a celebration.  (EVÖ with website www.evobenessere.com).  It is an artful conversion of an old warehouse and has a fitness center, steam bath, sauna, massage,  solarium, Jacuzzi,  etc. and various esthetic services.  In general Pistoia does not have a lot of luxury accommodations.  There is only one four star hotel and no five star ones.   EVÖ is celebrating its fourth anniversary so apparently it has found a market niche.  My guess is that its prices are probably lower than in Montecatini Terme  or Florence.  I am afraid what I need for aesthetic purposes at this time in my life is not a spa but a plastic surgeon.

Anti Berlusconi Demonstrations by Women

These were held throughout Italy on February 13.  The rule of the organizers was that no political banners could be shown at these events.  Still it was clear that the demonstrators were from the opposite side of the political fence.  Many men joined these demonstrations. The theme of the gatherings was  the dignity of women in Italy which many believe has been denigrated by Berlusconi’s personal life and his public pronouncements.  His supporters argue that the attacks on his personal life import a type of Puritanism into Italian politics that is not useful .

In my view it is a good idea to separate Berlusconi’s personal life from his public pronouncements and actions about women even though  they are related.   Assume that his personal life is not morally bad or if it is, this is not important in terms of his political role. In short put aside a Puritanical objection to his morals, and discuss only an intellectual objection to his view of women. You have a man who openly says and acts to show that to him the prime, almost only, factor important about women is their beauty.  To deny  that these are his views is simply to refuse to acknowledge the obvious facts.  Is it acceptable for a national leader to express such attitudes and act according to them?  In other western nations the answer is “no.”  You cannot say such things in public and act as Berlusconi has even if, in fact, this is what you believe.  So far in Italy, however, it has been acceptable for Berlusconi to speak and act in this manner.  Are women as a group going to turn more and more against him as a leader?  We will see.

An analogy might be useful.  Let’s say the USA had a President, not Black, who spoke often admiringly about Black people but almost always in terms of how he liked them as entertainers.  At the White House, he often hosted Black entertainers to perform at special events.  He had Black officials in high government posts, but all were former singers, dancers, and actors. When asked by a young Black for his suggestion about a good career for him to follow, the President replied  “learn to dance and sing like Sammy Davis Junior.”  His political program was not particularly pro-Black or anti-Black but what was typical for his party; some Blacks agreed with the program, others did not.  As a Black voter would his public statements and actions treating  Blacks primarily as entertainers bother you or would you view this as irrelevant? 

Surprise at the Cinema

A friend asked me to go to a film in English in Florence. I recently had seen posters for the film at Italian cinemas and had read a little about it.  I was not intending to see it, but  I decided to go with my friend.  As the film started I realized I had seen it in the USA in 2009.  I had forgotten the title.  I was greatly surprised because American films in Italy usually arrive about the same time they are released in the USA.  So if a film is new in Italy, I never expect it to be one that is old in the USA.  Maybe it was rereleased in the USA in 2011. The film was “Away We Go.”  For those who have seen it, you may recall that the opening scene is memorable enough in its theme that one would easily remember it upon a second viewing.

Libel and Slander in the Public Arena

In the United States it is almost impossible for a public official, especially an elected one, to bring a case of libel or slander against the media or persons who say bad things about the official’s public actions.  You might say the philosophy is “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”  The law is different in Italy.  So recently a case for defamation was filed in Perugia by the public prosecutor against the parents of Amanda Knox for comments made on British TV about her Italian prosecutors.  Her parents don’t have to come to Italy for the trial (if one occurs), but if there is a judgment against them, even though it would not be enforced in the USA, it would make it difficult for them to come to visit their daughter in Italy where she is currently in prison while the appeal of her conviction drags on.  As I have noted, I predict that upon appeal (of course this is only the first of what can be two appeals) she ultimately will either be found not guilty or receive a much shorter sentence.  I say this not because I am expressing a judgment on the facts but because I think the case has become embarrassing for Italy

Italian Newspapers – Sometimes You Have to Read Carefully

I’ve mentioned before that Italian newspapers will  publish stories based upon reports from the supermarket tabloids in the USA or the sensationalistic newspapers from Great Britain.  So you have to read carefully when a scandalous or otherwise surprising story is reported from abroad.  I saw an article last week reporting that Prince Charles of England has Alzheimer’s Disease.   Reading beyond the headline I discovered that the story was attributed to the Globe which was described as an American scandal sheet of doubtful authority.  In the USA mainstream newspapers simply do not report stories with such a source.

Report on the Mail System

I reported recently how postal rates from Italy to the USA have almost doubled.   I should be fair and note that the rate increase seems to have been accompanied by a change in the service too.  Recently the items I have sent to the USA are taking twice as long as usual to be delivered.  It is sort of proportional – pay twice as much to have time of delivery be twice as long.

Love Story Update (contd.)

I wrote in newsletters 385 and 398 (January 7, 2011) about the police official and female police employee in a nearby town who had been spending a lot of their work time together in a hotel room.  I discussed the penalties they were given by the court, but I thought ,despite these penalties, the woman would not be fired. (The man retired.)   I was wrong.  A new Italian law requires that she be fired, and she was. This may well be the end of the whole story except that in Italy sometimes when somebody is thrown out of the front door, he or she finds a way to sneak back in through the back door.  We will probably never know if this happens.

The Future of Italian Politics

On the NPR radio show “Inside Europe” from the USA  (produced in Germany) I heard a section on Italian politician Niki Vendola. He was presented as a bold new voice in Italian politics. He is governor of the region of Puglia.  He is highly intelligent and an excellent speaker.  He is also openly gay.  My own guess is that his ideas are too traditionally leftist for Italy today and tomorrow.  Just as Ronald Reagan shifted the whole political spectrum to the right in the USA in the 1980s. I think Berlusconi has done the same thing in Italy.  Vendola is probably the most charismatic leader in the center-left coalition, but I don’t see him as the national leader of the future.

Meanwhile in the center-right  what is the future after Berlusconi,  who can’t live for ever even if he survives his current crises?  What is interesting is that people give three main reasons for voting for him: (1) he is a good leader, (2) he is not necessarily a good leader but is better than the opposition –the lesser of two evils, and (3) there is nobody else.  I find the third rational, commonly expressed, particularly puzzling.  If he died tomorrow, Italy would certainly find a new leader and go forward.  There are many competent people in the center-right ruling coalition. Since, however, the principle party in that coalition is a personal party of Berlusconi,  there is no room for anyone else to emerge in the public mind as his successor. 

Super Bowl  Italian Style

I rarely watch the Super Bowl in the USA.  The over the top promotion of the game turns me off.  I have seen a little of it on Italian TV twice before this year, but did not plan to look at it this week.  Coverage of the game starts  around midnight in Italy.  At 3 am, however, I found myself wide awake so I turned it on and watched most of the second half.  As always, the Italian commentators have to explain the rules to the viewers.  This year one of the commentators appeared to be an American who spoke Italian – when he said something in English it was without an accent.  Although the advertisements are a big part of the Super Bowl in the USA, in Italy almost every ad was promoting the network on which the game was shown or a public service ad for a charity.  I saw only one paid ad – for a sensuous massage oil sold by a company that makes sex products.  A few years ago at the Super Bowl half time show, there was a big controversy about a very quickly exposed bare breast.  The ad for the massage oil was certainly more explicit sexually than the flash of a bare breast.

You Can Have it Your Way – Not Quite

I was with a friend at a pizza restaurant.  She likes her hot food quite hot and her cold food cold.  Her pizza had some extra cheese on top that did not get melted in the oven.  The pizza was also lukewarm. So she asked the waiter if it could be put back into the oven for a while. The answer was “no.” In Italy the food is prepared as the cook thinks is right – it is not altered for the preference of the customer.  In the USA the likely response would have been “you want it back in the oven; we put it back in the oven.”  Maybe you could see the difference as the cook is always right vs. the customer is always right.

Death in A Gypsy Camp

Fires are not uncommon in the shantytowns where gypsies live in flimsy shacks of cardboard, tin, and plastic.  Sometimes deaths occur. Recently four very young children burned to death.  In Rome, where this happened, the city government has been on a campaign to dismantle these illegal gypsy camps.  The problem is, of course, if you tear down the camp, where do the gypsies go to live?   There is not necessarily public housing for them, and private landlords don’t want to rent to them.  So the gypsies  just build another camp elsewhere.  Of course, not all gypsies live in these camps, but for those who do, the problems just seem to go on and on.

A Case Calling for the Wisdom of Solomon

In  Italy the national association for the protection of animals has a mediation service for people who have a dispute concerning animals.  This week it was the case of a 66 year old married man who wanted the cat banished from the bedroom at night because he said that the cat’s stare inhibited him from performing sexually.  The wife wanted the cat to stay.  The decision:  the cat will be outside the bedroom for three months, but if during those three months, the man’s sexual prowess does not improve, then the cat comes back and the man has to visit a physician specializing in sexual dysfunction.

When Must a Politician Resign?

I wrote in Newsletter 401 (January 28, 2011) about the member of the British Parliament who resigned from an important party post (although not from Parliament itself) after it was discovered that his wife had had an affair with his security driver.  I noted that the Italians would view such a situation much less severely.  The same is true for the case of the US Congressman who resigned this week after it came to light that, although married, he has been trolling for babes on Craig’s List using as bait a bare-chested photo of himself.  In Italy this resignation is seen as another example of those crazy, Puritanical Americans.

Correction

Last week in newsletter 401 I mistakenly said that the new Ferrari 4- seater car would go 300 miles per hour.  I meant 200 miles per hour. I apologize to any reader who placed an order for this car based upon my misinformation.

Getting it Right in The Museum of Communications

I went to this museum in Bern. It contained a section on the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell as inventor. As any Italian will tell you the true inventor was Antonio Meucci  (see This Week in Italy 126 April 2, 2005). He lived in New York city.   In fact the US Congress (undoubtedly moved by the Italian-American lobby) has recognized him as the inventor .  It may have been that  he invented the telephone but failed to protect his invention by a patent.

Superbowl

It is a big  deal in Switzerland.  American pro football is somewhat popular in Switzerland.   Interest is strong this year because the  Pittsburgh quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, has Swiss ancestors.  I saw an ad for a big Superbowl party at the arena where I went to skating championships.  The fans there will be a lot colder in the unheated facility than those at the event itself in Dallas.

Recycling Swiss Style

When I was in Switzerland it was recycling day for paper products. In Pistoia we put the paper items in large brown paper bags like the grocery stores used to use. In Switzerland all the paper items are collapsed and then tied with string in a neat bundle as if they were a present being given to someone.  They look like a lot of little packages on the curb.

Mike Buongiorno Returns to the News

He is the former Italian TV personality, deceased in 2009, about whom I wrote in newsletters 229 (May 22, 2008), 338 (September 12, 2009), and 340 (September 26, 2009). He lived in USA as a youth but came to Itlay in the 1950s bringing with him the American quiz show concept for Italian TV.  His favorite word was “cheerfulness.”  He was much loved in Italy –apparently more than we knew. Somebody has stolen his body from his grave. There has been no demand for a ransom to return it. Still a mystery.

Beware of the Badante

Badante is the Italian word for a person hired by the family to take care of an old person in his or her home.  These care givers are almost always foreigners and serve an important function in Italian society.  Almost all do a good job. Of course, life is never perfect so there is a trickle of stories in the Italian press about the misbehaving bandate . These stories have three themes:  the badante who marries the old man to get his money, the care giver who steals money from the old person, and the badante who fails properly to care for elderly client.

The Fight Against Crime

When major Mafia figures are arrested, it is national news.  Still the fight against crime can be more prosaic.  The local headline one day this week in Pistoia was that the police had captured a band of young robbers. This group specialized in robbing the outdoor condom vending  machines that are found in front of many drug stores in Italy.