Monthly Archives: June 2003

Italians Curb Kids with Electronic Bracelets

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by Nicole Martinelli
posted Thu 12 June 11:36 am

Joining the chorus of cell phones animating Italian beaches this year will be warning bells from a kiddy safety device that works like an electronic bracelet for criminals.
In an effort to restore some peace to the burning sand, use of the electronic ‘restraining’ device has been promoted by the local government in Rimini, the Bel Paese’s family beach haven.

Why Italy? Indulgent mamme make for some incredibly bratty children — a recent poll of 2,500 travel-industry professionals voted Italian kids the most obnoxious and unruly in the EU. In a country where, according to UNICEF, only 50% of parents reprimand their kids, the ‘crimes’ committed by bambini on holiday range from running and shouting on airplanes, playing in elevators and generally wreaking havoc.

“Safe Kid” (perhaps better named tamed kid?) will be used to keep under control the 500,000 visitors under age 10 expected to vacation this year on the 110 kilometers of the Emilia Romagna coast. Parents can set the distance kids are allowed wander from 15-50 meters before the warning bell sounds.

Beghelli, local leader in “Help I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up” gizmos, created the devices. The unbreakable, waterproof wrist band and receiver combo sell for around 85-95 euro, but the many private beaches are offering them free to families after a promotional campaign backed up by the local tourist board. The Safe Kid program debuted shortly before Italian mothers banded together for a week of fun in the area at the second annual ‘mamma convention.1999-2007 zoomata.com

Rob Keynes (Todi, Umbria)

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Each month we introduce you to someone who has made the dream of picking up and moving to the Bel Paese a reality. In their own words they share the good parts, the bad parts and the just plain absurd moments of day-to-day life in Italy.
Looking to move to Italy?Try the reader-recommended Survivor Package If you live in Italy, we would love to hear your story–Contact form

ID Card: Rob Keynes, Australian slacker turned bio-farmer…It’s a long story…

Currently living in: Todi (Perugia)

By way of: Sydney, Australia

How (or why) did you get here from there? As I said, it’s a long story…The short version: I had burned through about the 13th of those odd-jobs you’re supposed to get after university when a friend (also out of work) suggested a drive through Europe. The used car we bought, which had given us problems the whole way, rolled over and died while visiting friends here. He went back home, I wasn’t ready to leave just yet…That was 1998.

What role did language skills play in your experience?
Language is everything, don’t believe those people (especially other foreigners) who say you can get by, Italians don’t mind etc. It’s simply not true. Italians have a good attitude towards foreigners but you really can’t expect to make any real friendships or relationships if you cannot communicate…For me, learning Italian has been a huge challenge, I still wouldn’t call myself bilingual or even fluent, really. But I’m getting to the point where at least I can try to translate jokes–and sometimes they work out..

Latest pursuits: I’m a farm hand! I never thought I’d say that (and say it with pride, even) but that’s what I do now. My friends introduced me to some friends who have an azienda biologica –that’s bio-farm to you–and I help out wherever they need me. I learn something new every day, they’d also like to market some of these products abroad so hopefully I’ll have a big hand in trying to pull that off…I don’t regret not doing more with my studies, I’m much happier in this sort of life, at least for right now. Whether you’ll find me here in 20 years, I don’t really know…

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is not true:
Just about everything you see in those black & white Neorealist movies– the big family, the loud voices, “talking” with their hands, etc. All stereotypes have some basis in truth, but modern Italians just aren’t like that..

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is true:
Italian women do not fancy men who look like farm hands! Just kidding. I mean, the other guys I work with, if you see them after work look like regular business men, they have that Italian non-casual, casual thing. Whereas I tend to look like I’ve been digging ditches all day, even if I was sweating over the business registars…It’s true there’s an expectation to cut a good figure, to look at least well groomed at all times…

Your response to the following question: “I really want to live here, but I don’t speak Italian or have a job. What do you think?”
Oh boy. I’d say go for it, I don’t think I would try to tell anyone to think twice about it even. Maybe it’s only the kind of move you can make if you’re completely ignorant as to how difficult it will be. Fortunately, I have an EU passport but that didn’t keep me from having to go through the permesso di soggiorno nightmare, it took me a long time to even get my head around it…


How would you sum up your Italian experience in a word (and why)?
Wild and worth it. Though that’s not one word, sorry. It’s been an extreme experience–the car trip was the first time I’d even been in Europe and then trying to stay here, learn the language and settle in was wildly different from just taking a long vac…

Italy’s best kept secret (music, culture, food, way to get round things)
Definitely the sagre–the food fests. They’re pretty much everywhere from summer/fall, it’s a great excuse for a ramble out to the country and fantastic foods. I keep threatening my friends they’ll have to take me to the frog fests and boar fests, but so far they’ve been spared…

Italian TV: Dancing Grannies, not Sexy Girls

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A program featuring high-kicking grannies accidentally flashing their panties was served up as an alternative to the usual sexy ‘garnish girls’ gracing Italian TV programs.

“Velone” is low-budget summer TV fare at best: a 20-minute pseudo-talent contest for women over 65 that kicks off with a recycled theme song from last years’ version — a contest for young go-go dancers for popular satirical show “Strip the News.”

These senior citizens won’t be replacing skimpily-clad dancing girls anytime soon — they’re competing for a 250,000 euro prize that show creator Antonio Ricci calls ‘a violent boost to the average pension.’ It’s certainly compensation for having to twirl around the stage in a public piazza to last year’s disco hits while a graphic displays name, age, height and weight to the nation.

Wisecracking host Teo Mammucari, who regularly got the better of sexy young babes, fared worse with the four over-aged 65 contestants. They stole his lines, interrupted his jokes, ignored his cues — and the winner of the first episode, 72-year-old Gugliemina Bianchi who improvised a samba in a lacy white getup, grabbed his bum.

The debut on leading commercial channel Canale 5, owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset company, came shortly after state TV director Lucia Annuziata announced a ‘anti-bimbo’ decree for the RAI. So what’s the “dignified” alternative to senior shenanigans? Flagship state network RAI uno offers a no-budget random telephone call quiz show that would probably better suit radio, hosted by Sunday variety-show matron Mara Venier. Not surprisingly, Velone topped “cold phone call” in ratings — with 21.19% share compared to 17.54% for RAI uno

At the tail end of “Velone” a bit of pulchritude had to be thrown in for good measure, though, with two 20-something women competing to become “Good Evening Girls” or nearly-extinct announcers. A blonde with a plunging neckline and a brunette with an exposed midriff tripped through announcements about upcoming programs with relative success — a jury of mostly tabloid journalists gave Miss Bellybutton the thumbs up.

The Italian viewing public is in for a long, hot summer — both programs are on six nights a week right before prime time until September.

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingual journalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

Related resources:
The Dark Heart of Italy
British author Tobias Jones calls Italy “the country feminism forgot” in his take on today’s Bel Paese — calculating that the average Italian watches about four hours of soft-porn a day.

Garnish Girls Get Expensive Good-by

Italians Launch Nepotism: the Game Show

Miss Over 40, beauty without age–but with plastic surgery?

Italy by Numbers: Cleanest Beaches

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1,850 kilometers of Italian coast off limits for cleanliness
70% Italians plan to vacation in Italy 2003
10 beaches get top ratings

As vacations approach, so do competing beach rankings — we’re banking on environmental group Legambiente’s list, which uses 128 parameters to comb 243 coastal spots for its yearly quality test. Not all of Italy’s extensive coastline passes the grade, but figures are improving.

The list can be used to decide where to go, but also where to expect crowds as Italians favor vacations close to home this year — there’s been some jostling over the previous years’ top ten, but again Southern Italian beaches dominate better-known locales in Liguria and Tuscany.

Beaches are rated in "sails," these 10 spots received a "five-sail" rating: Otranto (Lecce), Buoso (Nuoro), Cinque Terre (Liguria), Orosei (Nuoro) , Pollica Acciaroli e Pioppi (Salerno), Tropea (Calabria), Castiglione della Pescaia (Grosseto), Arbus (Sardinia) and Tremiti Islands (Foggia) .

Ratings also take into account natural beauty, contamination but also tourist structures, noise levels and environment-friendly waste systems. Sandy spots with a "four-sail" rating (thirty total) include: Sirolo (Marches), Isola del Giglio (Grosseto), Positano and Anacapri.

Zoomata.com is the brainchild of a bilingual journalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

Related resources:
www.legambiente.com
Here’s the online free searchable guide to Italian beaches, in Italian only. Can be searched by ‘rating’ (‘punteggio’), province or region. Among the other symbols rating beaches are stars for environmental soundness and petals for tourist amenities.

The Rough Guide to Italy

www.multimania.com/natur/ita/#en
Map of Italy’s nudist camps & beaches (with terse descriptions in in English, Italian & French) in collaboration with FENAIT, Italy’s largest ‘naturist’ association. Keep in mind these are places where nudity is tolerated — associations are still awaiting a law to make nude bathing legal.

 

Italians create ‘non-profit’ funeral home

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by Nicole Martinelli
posted Mon 9 June 16:07 pm

A co-op in Turin has started the first nonprofit funeral home in a move to get trust back into Italy’s troubled hallowed ground.
Italy’s problems in dealing with the dear departed aren’t about just overpriced caskets, it’s a nationwide nightmare — from archaic laws that prohibit married women and their children being buried in the family plot, loved ones gone ‘missing’ because relatives owe back rent for niches and kickbacks for finding precious space or getting the dead properly dressed.

Enter Farewell, the first nonprofit funeral home with a code of ethics. "We want to recover the respect for death and the grieving that is a social responsibility," said spokesperson Alessandro Di Mauro. "That’s hard to do when the company is out to make money." This new kind of nonprofit has common characteristics with other similar organizations — including a job training scheme for the socially disadvantaged and a percentage of profits given to charity.

It’s a timely initiative. Citizens of Palermo recently spent an afternoon crossing themselves and touching iron (the Italian version of knocking on wood) when dozens of funeral cars jammed traffic to protest what they call the city governments’ ‘corpse monopoly.’ Space is another problem and many towns throughout the country are building new cemeteries or, in the case of Milan, installing computer kiosks to help family members find loved ones in the maze of graves often dating back centuries.

The co-op idea is also a way of catering to those getting ready to shuffle off this mortal coil — currently the only growing segment of Italy’s population. The average Italian funeral costs about 2,300 euro, according to statistics released recently in a funeral sector conference, which estimated the funerals a 4 billion-euro industry in the Bel Paese.

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingual journalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.