Monthly Archives: September 2004

Rome traffic ‘electrified’ by microcars

Posted on by
Reply

zoomata.com staff

Italians call it the ‘art of getting by,’ and the chaos of Roman traffic has made locals true maestros of that art.

Tough new driving laws passed by the Italian government last year — including a points license and the introduction of a license for scooters — have left many in the Eternal City without wheels. Public transportation, famously crowded and unreliable, simply isn’t a practical option.

The solution? Electric microcars. They require no license, are easy to park and are allowed to circulate in limited traffic areas — called ZTLs — practically the entire heart of the city.
Visitors are fast catching on to the fact that with these second cousins of the Smart car, thankfully blessed with automatic transmission, they can sidle up to the Pantheon or take spin around the Trevi fountain without the expense of a taxi. Prices range from 32 – 50 euro ($39-61USD) per day, comparable to compact rental car rates, but microcars can be rented by the day making them the choice for Romans on shopping jaunts. Electric cars can go 100 chilometers of in-town driving — they’re not allowed on the autostrada — before having to be recharged.

Golf carts, though they do require a driving license, are another option. Going golf in Rome costs more than a microcar – at 15 euro ($18 USD) an hour – but they are a valid option for those looking for a slower (they reach speeds of 25 kilometers/15 miles per hour) and wider means of transportation.
One caveat: electric cars are so popular it is worth making a reservation before arriving in Rome.?1999-2004 zoomata.com
This is an original news story. Play nice. Please use contact form for reprint/reuse info.

Italian town battles over ‘fighting’ saint

Posted on by
Reply

by Nicole Martinelli

A debate over war and religion in an Italian town has lead to the creation of a ‘pacifist’ statue of St. Michael, the archangel credited with defeating the devil.

City council members in Monza, 12 miles north of Milan, voted last year to spend 150,000 euro ($183,000 USD) for a new statue of St. Michael, or Michele as he is called in Italian, to grace the town’s main square.
The largely left-leaning council was, however, uncomfortable building a tribute to a fighting saint when Italian public opinion has been largely against the war in Iraq. And so St. Michael was commissioned without his usual attribute, a prominent sword.

The archangel found in Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions is sometimes referred to as a “warrior-prince” for his role at the helm of celestial armies against wicked forces. Depicting saints with attributes is a common practice that dates back to when art was the only means of relating episodes of the bible to a largely illiterate community.

His ‘disarmament’ has led to wide protest, including one by Massimiliano Romeo, of the Lega Nord party, who rushed into city hall brandishing a plastic toy “Zorro” sword. Political opponents aren’t the only ones to take issue with the new statue; religious groups have taken the protest to the web arguing that the unarmed statue strips the saint of his significance.

The new, peaceful St. Michael was unveiled to the 700 Micheles and Michelas of Monza, namesakes of the saint, and the parachutists St. Michael also protects on Sept. 29. Petitioners, wearing t-shirts asking for the resignation of the mayor, were also out in force gathering signatures to add a sword and ‘correct’ the 3.8 meter-high(12 feet) bronze statue.

One local religious figure, says the debate over the sword, though far from over, misses the target. Monsignor Enrico Rossi reminds both sides that it is high time to brush up on iconography, pointing out that sculptor Benedetto Pietrogrande took his inspiration from an historic local fresco where the saint is empty-handed.?1999-2004 zoomata.com
This is an original news story. Play nice. Please use contact form for reprint/reuse info.

Italy says grape harvest: no grazie

Posted on by
5

The grape harvest in Italy this year, said to be a small but good vintage, may wilt on the vine because no one wants to do the work.

Sicilian mayor Calogero Trupiano predicts empty vineyards because of a labor shortage — a serious threaten to the Italian wine industry, accountable for more than 20 percent of worldwide wine production.

Granted, grape harvesting is no picnic. Workers rise at dawn to avoid the worst of the late-summer heat and spend a long day bending over vines with pruning shears and hauling heavy, grape-laden baskets for processing.

“I did it once, thinking it was an easy way to pick up extra money,” Marco Paoletti told zoomata. “Never again. It was grueling work. There were ten-hour days with only a break for bread and cheese, you need serious stamina.”

In recent years, fewer Italians have been willing or interested in the job and the immigrant labor force has stepped in where locals bowed out: no more, says the mayor. Trupiano fears the grapes may turn sour on the vine because despite quotas that help bring in foreign workers for field work, not even they are willing to spend 45 days in the fields to earn total wages of around 2,000EUR.

Italians are drinking less wine than ever — about half as much as they did in the 1950s — raising concern that a symbol of the country may go by the wayside. In an effort to raise an interest in dying traditions, last year a town near Naples held three days of back-to-basics lessons on the fall harvest, including a grape-stomping workshop for kids.?1999-2004 zoomata.com
This is an original news story. Play nice. Please use contact form for reprint/reuse info.

Related resources:
Ready to give grape picking a try? Get hooked up with the Italian branch of Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WOOF)….
www.wwoof.it

David Thorpe (Scalea, Calabria)

Posted on by
35

First Person: real life in Italy

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.

ID Card: David Thorpe. I am English and work as a telecoms engineer in
Nottingham. At the moment I live in Nottingham, UK. However for one week in four I live in Scalea, Calabria. I am also the webmaster of www.scalea.info, a site in English aimed at helping people visit or move here. I live with my fiancee Melanie. I am 24 and she is 23. You can contact me at info@scalea.info

Continue reading →

B-movies get revenge at Venice Film Festival

Posted on by
Reply

by Nicole Martinelli
updated Sept. 1 @ 16:07

Director Quentin Tarantino says he owes a lot to Italian filmmakers, but he’s not talking about art-house greats Federico Fellini or Luchino Visconti.
He’ll pay respect to some unlikely cinema heroes at the Venice Film Festival with a retrospective called ‘Kings of the Bs,’ featuring over 20 films largely unknown to the public, Italian or otherwise.

The 61st edition of the world’s oldest film festival will showcase Fernando Di Leo, prolific writer/director/actor of films like “Death Commando” and “Murder Inferno.” Di Leo, who died in late 2003 without so much as an obit in the national papers, is one of “Kill Bill” director’s favorites. Other featured directors including Mario Bava, Umberto Lenzi, Sergio Sollima and Sergio Martino are more fortunate: they’ll be glorified as special guests during the festival.

B-movies all’italiana are decidedly back in fashion. Designer Miuccia Prada, whose ultra-hip Prada Foundation is a partner in the Tarantino effort, will fund a four-year continuation of the series called “The Secret History of Italian Film.”

Lesser lights of Italian cinema have long been a national guilty pleasure. The so-called erotic Italian comedies of the 1970s, for example, were rediscovered recently by mass audiences when Walter Veltroni, former Culture Minister, professed his admiration for Edwige Fenech, first lady of the genre. (Trailer for her cult favorite “Ubalda, All Naked and Warm”)
The return of the B-movie hasn’t always been without controversy. A series of “Nazi-porn” flicks from the 1970s
released as a supplement to cult-movie magazine Nocturno sparked debate on whether certain chapters of Italian filmmaking weren’t better forgotten.
Otherwise, this blast from the past has been unstoppable. DVDs have given these forgotten flicks a new lease on life, especially outside Italy.

“The DVD has really created a new market for what was previously considered just junk,” journalist and pop-culture observer Aldo Dalla Vecchia told zoomata.”Film buffs abroad were a lot more interested in them than the Italians were up until now.”

That may change if Tarantino’s B-revival is a success.?1999-2004 zoomata.com
This is an original news story. Play nice. Please use contact form for reprint/reuse info.

Related resources:
Dedicated to the best of the worst in Italian movies…
www.italiatrash.it
www.freeuniverse.it/cinema_trash.htm