Monthly Archives: January 2004

Italian Baby Has 13 Great-Great Grandparents

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zoomata staff posted: Tue Jan. 20 10:49 am

Looks like a lot of spoiling in store for the Italian baby boy with four grandparents, eight great-grand parents and a great-great grandma.

Nicolas Cristini was born in Sondrio, 37 kilometers (85 miles) north of Milan, to a large brood of relatives who have already presented him with a soccer ball and tiny soccer shoes. The fifth-generation bambino breaks the previous Italian record of eleven surviving “greats” cooing over Sicilian granddaughter Martina Giudice.

Cristini is a dramatic example of the changing Italian family — where one of the highest life expectancy rates in Europe meets one of the lowest birth rates in the world — often called a ‘demographic time bomb’ for problems ranging from schools to healthcare to pensions.

Cristini will have a one-of-a-kind welcome home given by his nearby mountain village when all 1,400 inhabitants of Colorina, including his great-great-great grandmother Ancilla Trutalli, almost 101 years old, come out to celebrate this record-breaking baby. ?1999-2004 zoomata.com

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

Related resources:
Italian baby name finder: www.mamma.it/servizi/nomi/ricercanome.asp
Lots of sites in English list ‘Italian’ baby names but many have either names that aren’t really Italian or just plain weird. Try this one in Italian that allows you to choose first letter (‘iniziale’), length (‘lunghezza’) popularity (put yes or no in the ‘diffuso’ field).

Bilingual Baby: Italian
Italian for your bambino…

Italian Town Welcomes First Newborn in a Generation

Italian Mayor Immortalized on Church Doors

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zoomata staff posted: Thu Jan. 15 17:49 am

Art patrons throughout the centuries have often indulged in having their portraits put in larger works, but an Italian mayor is the first present-day official to have himself sculpted with the saints.

Vanity got the better of mayor Fedele Melas when a local artist asked to portray him in bronze on church doors in the village of San Gavino, on the Italian isle of Sardinia. Cost of the doors, more than three meters high (9.8 feet) and two meters wide (6.5 feet), was 60,000 euro ($76,000).

Melas is easy to spot in the tableau gracing the outside of Santa Chiara church, unveiled to incredulous villagers recently. He’s depicted in a modern suit and tie, grinning as he offers a basket of local civraxiu bread and saffron flowers to San Gavino, a third-century Sardinian martyr and protector of the town.

Parish priest Fiorenzo Pau also succumbed to the desire of sculptor Pietro Longu to use “realistic images,” since he, too, appears in the doors next to Melas in a bottom corner. Longu maintains that to avoid abstract faces, he chose the only people he knew in the town as models.

Inhabitants of the town of 9,500 have been quick to protest, though most recognize there is no point in whining over cast bronze, even if they are governed by a faccia di bronzo, a ‘bronze face,’ a brazen or cheeky person.

“It’s in very bad taste, having the mayor on our church doors,” said Mauro Casu. “We were happy to finance the new doors, but this is just uncalled for.”

There has been a constant line of locals waiting to see this one-of-a-kind portrait, but many stop for a quick jaw-drop without taking in the details. An inscription in Latin on the inside serves to remind future generations about the man in strange clothing. It explains that the city government paid for nearly a third of the bronze doors. ?1999-2004 zoomata.com

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

For Italians, Grass is Already Greener

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47% Italians “never” dream of packing it in for somewhere else
74% Italian “day dreamers” relive pleasant past memories, rather than think of future
46% Italians prefer to live in present time, rather than past or future

zoomata staff posted: Thu Jan. 15 16:13 pm

Italians, though lucky enough to enjoy a mild climate, all the art you’d ever want to feast your eyes on and excellent food, are often, well, less than enthusiastic about their homeland. Blame it on the eternal government problem, wildcat strikes, nepotism, merciless bureaucracy, brain drain, mammoni — Italy remains a country where a standard response to “How are you?” can be translated as “OK enough.”

Few, however, would seem to subscribe to a ‘grass is always greener’ mentality, if this recent poll of over 1,000 Italians is to be believed. Not only do nearly half never even dream of packing in the Bel Paese for a tropical paradise, but they are also intolerant of the daydreamers who do.
When asked to opine on why they thought one might daydream, most thought that the daydreamer “just wanted escapism, even though they had people close to them to listen and help.”
Three-quarters of Italians who do get lost in the occasional reverie prefer to relive pleasant past memories rather than speculate on a radiant future.

Another indicator that Italians are more interested in living in the here and now showed up when asked whether they’d rather live in another age or the future. The only clear preference, 46%, was shown for now while the Renaissance, the Roman age and the future garnered a measly 10% each. Carpe diem!?1999-2004 zoomata.com

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

Related resources:
“Living La Dolce Vita: Bring the Passion, Laughter and Serenity of Italy into Your Daily Life”
grumbling excluded…

Kate Little (Cinque Terre)

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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:
Kate Little, 33 , originally from La Marque, Texas, USA I have a
3 1/2 year old son, William and a Milanese husband, Fabio. We live in
Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre. We own FAST (a caf?/bar), TONNO SUBITO (a
fishing shop), and my baby, Fishnet Internet Lounge. I have a noncommercial
info site about the Cinque Terre at www.fishnet.it and my email is
kate@fishnet.it

Currently living In: Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre, Italy.

By way of: I lived in London for a couple of years after high school- working and going to school.

How (or why) did you get here from there?
By chance.. I was 19 when 2 friends and I decided to hitchhike across southern Europe. We came to the Cinque Terre with during Easter 1989 and then again with one friend in June 1989. By chance, that June there was a train strike and our Interrail passes expired. My friend had to go back to London to school so we pooled our leftover cash and sent her back. I stayed on in Monterosso, moved in with a local fishing family and earned money by baby-sitting and fishing. By the time that I had made enough money to leave, I didn’t want to go. In 1990 the Legge Martelli came out (an amnesty law for
non-European citizens living Italy) and allowed me to have residency, health coverage, working papers, etc. and so I started working around town. I went to Siena and Florence to study Italian and then started really integrating myself in the culture. I started going out with Fabio in 1992 and then…the
rest is history.

What role did language skills play in your expat experience?
The main reason for applying myself to learn Italian was to communicate with the people that had shown me so much kindness and generosity in my first months here. I had no previous knowledge of Italian but, with my base of scholastic Spanish, I found it fairly easy to learn. At the time that I ‘moved’ here, barely anyone spoke English in Monterosso. Therefore it ended up being a do-or- die situation. The funny thing is that before learning real Italian, I learned the local dialect without even realizing it. Eventually, upon getting together with my future husband, I needed to work on perfecting my Italian language skills in order to avoid miscommunications. It has always been an ordeal involving trial and error — a lot of inventing words on my part — but, as they say in Italian, “sbagliando, si impara” (by making mistakes, one learns).

Your biggest challenge: First and foremost, the bureaucracy — the catch 22s — the general big mess of trying to get anything done. A close second would be the problems involved with ‘shaking’ the classic American mentality, learning to relax and enjoy the day as well as not getting too stressed when things don’t go as I plan or would like them to go.

What did you do to feel at home or adapt here?
I get regular shipments of Reese’s peanut butter cups from the states. I also have a VCR that works with US cassettes as well as European ones. That way I can bring over my favorite ‘comfort’ movies in English.
I bring LOTS of stuff back from the States each time I go; food (tortillas, ancho peppers, hot sauce), books, cooking equipment, cook books, the toothbrush that I like, medicines. The Internet is fantastic — I can read Texas Monthly and CNN and keep up with popular culture. I am very fortunate as well because my family and friends come and visit me regularly and I am able to travel back to Texas at least once a year. The people in Monterosso have accepted my ‘funny’ ways and now look forward to Easter egg hunts or crazy birthday parties for my son. I order from Amazon.co.uk a few times a year- they are extremely prompt about sending things to Italy.

What do you still have to get used to/learn?
‘Le solite italianate’ of not being able to get anything done when you want it done, or even worse- thinking that FINALLY you’ve gotten something right and then you find out that one document’s missing or you have missed the deadline.

Compare an aspect (or aspects) of your home town (or other place you’ve lived) to current town.
I grew up in Galveston Texas, a typical seaside surfer town. The attitude there was very laid back and oriented around the outdoors, as it is here. In Texas though, life revolves around your car and air conditioning, two things that are unheard of in the culture here. It goes without saying that to get anything done in America , from getting a marriage license to finding a pork loin is way easier than it is in Monterosso. Housing in the Cinque Terre is a nightmare, an expensive nightmare at that, whereas in Galveston, they literally throw houses at you.

Latest pursuits:
Right now my husband and I are starting to form a tour agency kind of thing. We already offer kayak and walking tours and want to add scuba diving and complete packages. (Keep checking www.fishnet.it for updates) The bureaucracy is nuts, you need permits for everything and anything. I am also on the town activity board and that’s equally a mess — permits, taxes and documents here there and everywhere. I want to have another child eventually. That’s in the plans when we are able to find a bigger house — right now we are 3 in a bedroom! That’s Monterosso for you.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is not true:
Italians are a kind and generous population but, contrary to popular belief, they are gossipy and spiteful when they want to be. My easy-open American personality has definitely been modified by trusting the ‘wrong’ people. I am sure that this is just a small town phenomena but it certainly was against my preconception of the classic Italian.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is true:
Loving children — since my son was born, I’ve realized how much Italians adore children. I wouldn’t live anywhere else with my son now just because he is treated like royalty by everyone he comes across. He is welcome everywhere and everyone, anyplace, has something to give or share with him. He has experienced love and trust in a rare way and I would never take that away from him. The Italians are very physical and very quick to show their affection. Just as they are rapid in showing their distaste in something (which I often view as tactlessness), they are open in showing their pleasure and love for any and every child.

Your response/advice/warning to the following question: “I love Italy! I really want to live here, even though I don’t speak Italian or have a job.”
Hmmm. It takes a special person to move to Italy. Especially if you are North American and used to the efficiency and opportunities available there. If you don’t speak Italian, everything could seem great until you hit the bureaucratic barrier. After that, nothing seems like it will ever go right.
I generally discourage people from selling everything to move over unless they are very young or very rich. Italy is a fantastic place to live but it is also extremely difficult. It seems that most people I know that live here indefinitely had their ‘move’ happen by chance, without really realizing it (not unlike myself). I’d tell people who are very convinced that Italy is the country for them to come over for a while – try it- work a little bit ‘in nero’ (without papers), get a taste of life and then decide. I know that I’ve considered abandoning ship many a time. It could be quite a disappointment for someone who is expecting paradise to find out that they are in the extreme opposite of fully-functional America.

How would you sum up your Italian experience in a word (and why)?
Infatuation. Something new and unexpected is always around the corner.

Italy’s best kept secret
Sardegna. Foreign tourists rarely make it over there. It is uncrowded, unspoiled and relatively inexpensive. The beaches are lovely, the people are friendly and the food is great.