Monthly Archives: October 2004

Sexy calendars go bust, Italians prefer saints to pinups

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by Nicole Martinelli

The death toll for Italy’s sexy pinup calendars has sounded: even truck drivers are sick of them.

Marketing experts are worried: these nearly-nude calendars are a 10 million USD a year industry in Italy and magazines that feature them as an extra often sell astronomical quantities with the right starlet or TV host bearing all. So worried, in fact, that they commissioned a poll of 1,000 truck drivers about calendar preferences. The sordid truth? Pulchritude is out, sanctity is in.

“The vulgarity represented by nude porn stars is beautiful, up to a certain point,” said Vincenzo Iuzzolino, president of a national truck driver’s association. “But it’s not in vogue as much as it was a few years ago. Images of Padre Pio are very common, especially among the bulk of devout drivers from the South.”

According to the truck driver poll, 76% prefer to hang religious symbols or calendars over pinups. If pressed, more than half would choose the ‘classy’ pics of respected sports journalist Paola Ferrari, 44 and mother of two, over the go-go girls, models and former-reality show contestants on offer for 2005. The litmus test for whether respondents are telling the truth or only trying to appear virtuous is perhaps the low number of truck drivers who say they hang pictures of their wives and children: a paltry 18%.

Just what does a sexy calendar have to do to get a man’s attention? Quite a lot, if the ‘coffin calendar’ is any indication. For the second year running, a calendar from a coffin maker in Rome features 12 months of live models illustrating final resting places.
In a nod to propriety, the pinups are more clothed than most calendars — they all wearing black bras and panties — and some look slightly sheepish as they hold carpentry tools as props. It may well be the nail in the coffin for the genre.

Religious calendars have always sold well in this predominantly Catholic country. The almanac style and homespun wisdom of Frate Indovino, “brother fortune teller,” was a top seller for over 50 years but when the good father died 2002, it looked like the end of an era. The priest’s publishing house decided to keep going, though, and further interest in religious calendars was boosted when Padre Pio, a 20th-century mystic said to have borne stigmata, became a saint two years ago.

An unscientific poll of newsstands in central Milan, where calendars of both stripes crowded for attention, showed the race may be long.

“It’s not over yet, the rush to buy calendars hasn’t happened so far,” newsstand owner Rosina Casari said. “Last year, though, we sold more calendars of animals and angels than ones with models, it looks like the reign of the girly calendars is finally over.”?photo + text 1999-2004 zoomata.com
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Related info:

365 Days in Italy Calendar 2005

Caravaggio: the last masterpiece comes home to Naples

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zoomata.com staff

The last masterpiece painted in the short, violent life of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the recently-restored “Martyrdom of Saint Orsola,” comes to Naples as part of the exhibition Caravaggio: The Last Years. The exhibit travels to London’s National Gallery in early 2005.
Commissioned by prince Marcantonio Doria for his daughter who joined a convent taking the saint’s name, Caravaggio focuses on the young Orsola (or Ursula) who faces death by the Huns alone instead of with the 11,000 virgins returning from a pilgrimage as the legend recounts. (scroll to view the painting here )

Restoration of the painting made certain the attribution to Caravaggio and revealed a few other surprises as well, like Orsola?s hand first covered by her red cloak and later background add-ons.
The painting is the center of an exhibit of 25 works painted between 1606 and 1610, including ?The Flagellation? and ?The Crucifixion of Saint Andrea.? The maestro’s last four years were tempestuous: Caravaggio killed a man in a duel in Rome and fled the city to settle in Naples, where he continued to paint while hoping for a papal pardon. He also worked in Malta, was knighted then stripped of the honor and thrown in prison over a quarrel.

In the last year of his life he was pardoned for murder, only to die shortly after from a fever. His haggard, bewildered self-portrait in ?St. Orsola? reveals a tragic destiny.?1999-2004 zoomata.com
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The rub:
Capodimonte National Museum of Art
From October 24 2004 to January 24, 2005
Parco di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
Free phone for information or reservations: 848800288
Tickets: 10 euro, for exhibit and museum

Italian cemeteries prepare first ‘memory gardens’ for ashes

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zoomata.com staff

Italian cemeteries are preparing special areas for people to scatter ashes of the dead after a long-awaited law allowing them to do what they wish with remains was enacted.

Cremation met with resistance from the Catholic Church, which had banned followers from being cremated until 1963. It became legal in Italy in 1987, though there were historic precedents such as the cremation of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley on the beach of Viareggio in 1822.

Even when cremation became legal, Italians were still forced to keep ashes in a cemetery for hygienic reasons.

A 2001 law abolished this, allowing them to keep or disperse ashes as they see fit. It came into force only recently, just in time for when Italians traditionally pay their respects on All Saints and All Soul’s days, Nov.1- 2.

The largest cemeteries in Rome and Milan are preparing ‘memory gardens’ to give friends and family members a place to disperse remains. Officials in Milan cited an increasing number of Italians preferring cremation, up to about 35% of total deaths, while in Rome cremations have risen 10% every year since 2001.

Lack of space may prove a determining factor in the popularity of cremation. If kin can keep remains, they don’t need to find place in what is probably an overcrowded, disorganized cemetery.
Italy’s problems surrounding the dear departed aren’t about just overpriced caskets, but what has been called a nationwide nightmare — from archaic laws that prohibit married women and their children being buried in the family plot, to loved ones gone ‘missing’ because relatives owe back rent for niches and kickbacks for finding precious space or getting the dead properly dressed.
Recent initiatives to get the trust back into hallowed ground include a non-profit cemetery and computer kiosks to help family members navigate the maze of graves often dating back centuries. ?1999-2004 zoomata.com
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Dianne Drew (Salerno, Campania)

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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.

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Dianne Drew has a post-secondary education in photography as well as sculpture and graphic arts. She has eight years experience as Shitasu Therapist and more recently Stone Therapy. She worked for a large company in the film industry — distribution
and legal affairs — until being downsized three years ago. Continue reading →