Monthly Archives: January 2003

Web-wise Jan. 30- Feb. 5

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Big Brother Reality Show Returns • Haute Couture Hijinks in Rome • Italian practice: Hypnosis for Seduction • Giorgio Gaber’s Farewell Song

 

Haute Couture Hijinks in Rome
The sexy, the wild, the just plain weird — some of the creations proposed in the Rome alta moda shows this week really do give an idea about why it’s all so out of reach..Latest looks from Italian designers like Gattinoni (who quotes Oriana Fallaci "Wake Up Occidente" screaming from a t-shirt with a model dressed in the journalist’s very personal style) and Gai Mattiolo:
www.corriere.it/av/galleria.html?moda_roma1&5
(click on photos & on number bar top left for more galleries)

Italian practice: Hypnosis for Seduction
Hard to gauge whether these folks are serious, but from the looks of the site (and the photos of Latin Lover types gracing it) we’re afraid so. You’re getting very, very sleepy….
www.autostima.net/home/stima.php?id_guida=11

Big Brother Reality Show Returns
Though the second season didn’t live up to the brouhaha from the original (participants are still popping up in Italian TV netherworld), producers are hoping the third times’ the charm for the Italian version. Catch all the "Grande Fratello action via web, if you can stand the fun. Program debuts prime time Thursday, Jan. 30 — catch the casting sessions & updates on the new cast..www.grandefratello.com

Giorgio Gaber Farewell Song
Singer/songwriter showman Giorgio Gaber passed away January 1, thousands turned out in Milan to say good-bye to theirs beloved "Mr. G." The posthumous track "Io non mi sento italiano" (I don’t feel Italian) hit stores this week, listen in & read lyrics — shows his usual bite but easy to listen to cabaret style.
http://musica.virgilio.it/extra/gaber/album/audio_modem.html

Italy by Numbers: Free Time = Family Time

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42% (circa) think free time is for family
+5% increase in Italians think free time = family
11.3% think they don’t have to account for free time
49.2% sees relatives at least once a week

Time out from work or school still means family time for today’s Italians. Statistics institute Istat recently polled some 20,000 Italian families on how they viewed leisure time and what they did with it, revealing more than a few surprises.

Though an increasing number of Italians consider free moments as dedicated to family and relationships, up nearly 5% from 1995, the percentages vary from generation to generation. For 18-19 year-olds that time is private (53%) and time for fun (42%), while over 40% of adults aged 35-64 mark any leftover moments for family time.

Stereotypes would have Italians masters of la dolce vita and when it comes to leisure time, most seem to believe, in fact, that they have a good balance between work and play. The majority (68.2%) are satisfied with the quality of free time, while 57.7% are content with the quantity of free time — though that figure drops to 38.9% for working women.

Most Italians say they still have remnants of time to relax or do nothing in particular (72.9%); other popular pursuits include photography or making home videos (40.9%), playing cards (46.7%) and dancing (18.2%). While some activities were favored by men (composing music or playing an instrument) or women (going to the hairdresser or keeping a journal), it emerged from the poll that slightly more than 2% of Italian men knit — and were willing to admit it.

Related resources:
Italy Profiled: Essential Facts on Society, Business and Politics
More on today’s Bel Paese

Italian Town Welcomes First Newborn in a Generation

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The 45 inhabitants of Sommapreda, near the Northern Italian city of Brescia, decked out the village with pink ribbon to celebrate the arrival of Aurora (“Dawn”) born to Maurilio and Marcella Canossi. The couple’s first child is the only one the Italian town has seen in 27 years.

The couple, aged 30 and 28 respectively, were childhood sweethearts who vowed to stay in the town and raise their children there, despite the scarcity of work in the area.

"We decided to name her Dawn for a reason," said mother Marcella of the first child the town has seen in a generation. "I hope that her arrival can signal a change, starting with renewed hope for life in this town and preserving its traditions."

Italy has one of the world’s lowest birth rates and is currently the ‘oldest’ country in the world, with the highest number of inhabitants over 65. Remote mountain towns and villages like Sommapreda have been particularly penalized due to high emigration rates. 2001 figures showed a slight uptick in birth rates, for the first time in almost a decade births outnumbered deaths in the Bel Paese.

Related stories:
Italy by Numbers: Birth Rate Rises

Profume to Save Ghost Town in Molise

Ghost Town Kept Alive by Retirees

Italy by Numbers: Daily Bread

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300 regional specialties of Italian bread
-20 kilos (44 lbs.) consumed per family, since 1998
4.3 days, Italians bought bread (1998)
6.7 days, Italians bought bread (2002)

Once considered a culinary sin to dine without bread, Italians are getting out of the habit of using it to sop up sauce, accompany meat or clear the palate after a cheese course. Instead of picking up fresh bread from the local baker’s every few days, an increasing number of busy Bel Paese inhabitants are picking up less bread at longer intervals.
The number of families who pick up packaged breads at supermarkets is also on the rise — up to 26%, while those who visit bakers has dropped 6% over the last four years, according to a Nielsen study.

Alarmed by drop in bread consumption, some 30 cities and towns recently formed an association to preserve and promote traditional breads. The new-born Altopascio Associazione Città del Pane bands together places like Genoa (famous for various forms of foccaccia) and Altamura, which bakes a durum wheat bread of the same name, in Puglia.
Italian lawmakers have already tried to guard ‘pane tradizionale’ with a stricter law, protecting it like D.O.C. wines, but little has come of the proposal. The study cited eating on the run as part of the reason for a demise in what Italians call ‘the white art’ (l’arte bianca), with some 55% of Italians saying they can’t resist eating between meals and that means pre-made snacks.

 

Related resources:
Italian Food Artisans: Traditions and Recipes
Learning from the old ways…

http://italianfood.miningco.com/blind4.htm
From Friselle to pizza to brioches, the skinny on Italian bread, with basic recipies. (In English).

www.atlanteparchi.com/indici/prodotti/pani.html
Guide to traditional products & who makes them, this is the bread section. (In Italian)

Italian recipies using stale bread:
pappa al pomodoro
panzanella

Web-wise Jan. 23-30

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Sexy e-cards • Dusting off Neapolitan Hits • Holocaust Remembrance Day in Italy • Carnival Kickoff

Sexy Calendar e-cards
In a last-ditch attempt to milk popularity for Italy’s sexy pinup calendar industry, here are some popular images (not for the prudish) from the cals to send as ecards. Including a few (considerably more caste) of men…
www.max.rcs.it/010peo/03car/0301/01/index.shtml

Dusting off Neapolitan Hits
Singer Massimo Ranieri is living a heady revival thanks to a popular TV show "Siamo Tutti Invitati" broadcast by RAI, his new album of songs in the Neapolitan tradition will be released Jan. 31, click ‘ascolta’ for a sample:
www.sonymusic.it/sonymusic/artist.php?id=9000&lang=ita&ze=nbm

Grazie Massimo: 30 Canzoni Di Massimo Ranieri
Vintage Ranieri on a double CD, artfully remastered

Holocaust Remembrance Day in Italy
In 2000, the Italian gov decreed Jan. 27 ‘la giornata della memoria’ or holocaust remembrance day. Here’s where read more about the 2003 commemorations…
www.triangoloviola.it/giomem03.html#linkgm
Events, organizations, exhibits

Carnival Kickoff
A sure way to beat the winter blues is to get caught up in Italy’s carnival festivities.

A couple of suggestions:
Ivrea’s Carnival Bash
One of the longest series of post-Christmas rituals the festival, which has origins in medieval times starts Jan. 6, but the merrymaking rises to a fever pitch on March 6 with the famed Battle of Oranges.. Some three thousand participants divided into 100-strong teams ride through town in carts, pelting each other with oranges. Not into the vitamin C? Try making it for the bean festival, pylon burning or fireworks. This year marks the 195th edition.
www.carnevalediivrea.com/inglese/carn_ing.htm

Viareggio’s Politics on Parade
This Tuscan version, known for colorful floats taking shots at political figures kicks off in early January…The King of the 2002 parade? Berlusca, with a float featuring George Bush in what can only be described as menacing..
www.ilcarnevale.com/htm/index/eng/indexE.htm
For last year’s winning floats, click on ‘maschera 2002’ link…

For the 2003 schedule of events: www.viareggio.ilcarnevale.com/index0.htm

Venice’s Bash
The most famous & perhaps overhyped carnival in Italy, takes place this year from Feb. 21 March 4…

www.venice-carnival.com/new/home.asp
Official site, hopefully will be updated soon.

www.gianfrancopereno.com/basecarnival_in_venice.htm
Some nice portraits of participants..

http://foto.lucien.it/carnevale/carnevale_programma_2003.htm
Partial program of 2003 happenings…

 

Italian court rules against ‘la mamma’

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Dispelling a popular myth that would have all Italians rightfully smothered by a super-protective mamma, an Italian court awarded custody to a non-worrywart father instead.

Judges of the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest appeals court, ruled that an apprehensive mother could cause as much damage to her boy as neglect.

“Her overly apprehensive and protective behavior was causing problems in her son,” judges ruled on the appeal of Stefania B. of Florence asking to obtain custody of her now 11-year old child.

The sentence is considered a blow to traditional Italian motherhood, where about two-thirds of young men still find themselves being taken care of by a doting mother at the ripe age of 29.

It also opens the way for a more even division of custody between separated or divorced parents in Italy– currently 87% of children are given over to the mother’s care, according to ISTAT statistics.

Italians are still a long way from hands-off child rearing — the Cassation Court of Bari ruled two days later that a father who had hired a nanny to watch over his two children may not be as ‘fit’ as his former wife to look after them and risks losing custody.

Related resources:
Italy Profiled: Essential Facts on Society, Business and Politics
More on today’s Bel Paese

Love better than dieting for weight loss, Italian experts say

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by Nicole Martinelli
Falling in love is the quickest way to lose weight, according to Italian diet experts. Love as the (diet) drug works because it sets off a reaction that lessens appetite and increases feelings of satiety. The benefits of that many-splendored thing are especially helpful to dieters fighting the over-40 girth wars.

If what the experts (nutritionists, psychologists, food gurus) say is true it’s detrimental to their own livelihood: 80% of people shed pounds if they fall in love and are able to reach their target weight without struggling. The 74 diet professionals polled admitted that following your heart can be just as effective as following a healthy eating plan or exercising and was nearly as effective for men (45%) as for women (55%).

The downside to l’amore as a diet aid is the duration — the so-called ‘cupid effect’ tends to wear off after marriage or, in the most rosy scenario, lasts until the first child is born.

"With passion, a neurochemical wave is activated that is transformed into psycho-physical well-being, " said Alfonso Logoro, neurologist and psychiatrist. "Recent research would confirm that this joy in living lasts from 18 months to three years."

Experts confirm that the unloved are much more likely to take refuge in food (73%), gather dust in front of the TV (65%) or spend too much time gabbing on the phone (61%).

Diet specialists, surveyed in Italian monthly ‘Dimagrire’ (Lose Weight), also noted differences in the way Northern and Southern Italians react to love. Southerners tend to celebrate with food and suffer a slight weight gain when love strikes, while those up north and in central Italy tend to immediately start watching what they eat.

Related resources:
The Mediterranean Diet
Waitress! I’ll have what she’s having…

Web-wise Jan. 16-23

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Men’s Fashions from Florence & Milan ? Sophia Loren: Test Your Knowledge? Pompeii’s Painted Rooms on Show

Men’s Fashions from Florence & Milan
So the Prada dress shirts with the hankie pocket on the rear & the pointy bras on otherwise hunky models at Vivienne Westwood probably won’t be big sellers, who said men’s wear had to be functional? Pitti Uomo and Milan’s shows…

http://www.corriere.it/vivimilano/speciali/gallerie/galleria.html?moda/12012003/uomini&1

Sophia Loren: Test Your Knowledge
How much do you know about one of Italy’s most loved divas? Test your knowledge with a crossword puzzle, anagram, rebus & quiz…
www.italica.rai.it/principali/giochi/loren.htm

Pompeii’s Painted Rooms on Show
Take a sneak preview on two of the latest restorations from the ‘painted rooms’. They’ll be on show at the Naples Archeology museum from March 20 in an exhipit entitled, "Pompeii: The Story of and Eruption.
http://arte.tiscali.it/scultura/200301/pompei.html

Italy by Numbers: Mind Your Manners!

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75% Italians would follow a modern manners book
Percentage of Italians judge manners ‘important’ in:
95% cleanliness/grooming
83% dining
90% behavior in public
90% with friends/family in private

Italians, in public or private, still care about cutting a good figure. According to a poll of over 1,000 Italians, there is no escaping the rigors of ‘la bella figura’ at home or in the office.

Italy has a long tradition of fretting over comportment, 67% of Italians are aware of the granddaddy of all good-manner manuals from the 1500s by Giovanni della Casa, il Galateo. Two-thirds would also be interested in a updated “Galateo” (the term is still synonymous with etiquette in modern Italian) and only 37% judge manners as altogether unimportant.

Don’t mistake good manners for stiffness, though, since genteel Italians will often appear fatally casual. It’s just another very Italian concept from 16th- century etiquette guide The Courtier, called ‘sprezzatura’ which can be defined as an assumed air of doing difficult things with an effortless mastery and an air of nonchalance.

Related resources:
www.executiveplanet.com/business-etiquette/Italy.html
If you’re going to Italy for pleasure or work, take a look this straighforward free guide on everyday manners in Italy..And get your wrists on the table where they belong!

Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World

Love Affair with Italy Gets Bizarre Hollywood Treatment

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“Under the Tuscan Sun,” the sentimental story of an American fixing up a villa in one of Italy’s most beautiful regions, just got a movie fix-up.
Touchstone Pictures recently wrapped up the shooting in Cortona of a story which has little in common with the autobiographical tale in the book but sports the well-known title.

Instead of a middle-aged-ish, married humanities professor (Frances Mayes) movie-goers will get a sexy Diane Lane as a single lawyer who finds love with handsome Raoul Bova, the Italian actor best known for a nearly-naked calendar and who also boasts a miniseries credit as St. Francis.
The rolling hills of Cortona sound like the only thing the book and movie have in common, but then again “Under the Tuscan Sun” has practically morphed into a brand-name for an international community who longs to lead the dolce vita in Italy.
In a relatively short time, Mayes has done for Tuscany what Peter Mayle has done for Provence — create an industry catering to would-be expats and armchair travelers . Her 1996 book was a bestseller for two years, translated into 14 languages, spawned a sequel (“Bella Tuscany”), coffee-table photo extravaganza (“In Tuscany”) and a calendar.
“The rhythm of Tuscan dining may throw us off but after a long lunch outside, one concept is clear — siesta,” writes Mayes in her first book about La Toscana. “The logic of a three-hour fall through the crack of the day makes perfect sense. Best to pick up that Piero della Francesca book, wander upstairs and give in to it.”
Right, so it doesn’t make for an action-packed scene, but screenwriter Audrey Wells has also thrown other picturesque Italian locations into the mix including Florence, Positano, Montepulciano, Siena and Rome.
Although set photos from the unofficial site show a perfectly chic Lane trotting about a perfectly lovely Italy, fans of the book are unlikely to accept her as the everywoman heroine of the print version when the movie arrives in US theaters in the autumn of 2003.

Related resources:
www.under-the-tuscan-sun.com
Bits & bobs on the filming, Cortona and Tuscany in general from the unofficial site…

http://digilander.libero.it/raulbova2001
Bova’s sexy calendar — kind of related…