30-36 vacation days, yearly (France)
24-36 vacation days, yearly (Italy)
22-25 vacation days, yearly (Spain)
10-20 vacation days, yearly (USA)
70% Italians considered "obnoxious" on holiday
Italians have longer vacations than most but that’s not enough to make them well-behaved on the beach, according to newspaper reports. Something to think about when picking a spot for the umbrella: the worst “neighbors” are usually either teenagers or 40- somethings. Offenses range from endless cellphone chatter, impromptu soccer games and blaring radios…The good news is that yesterday, Aug. 19, an estimated six million Italians headed back home.

Related resources:
http://mm1.rai.it:8080/ramgen/rainet/clip/spot5.rm
State broadcaster RAI has taken upon itself to reeducate rude Italians–here’s one of a series of ads aimed at ending rude behavior, starring the aptly-named Scortesi family.

The clock at Bologna’s train station was frozen at 10:25 a.m.–the exact time when a terrorist bomb killed 85 and injured 200 in 1980. On August 16 2001, the clock was again set in motion to appease travelers who kept missing trains because they didn’t know any better. “It wasn’t a decision we took lightly,” train officials told newspapers. “But how do you explain to a tourist that a particular clock, stopped at that precise time, is of great symbolic value?” So the clock has started ticking again, along with protests from political groups and families of the victims. Possible solutions include providing a multi-lingual plaque explaining the reason for “stopping time” as well as an exhibit showing just what happened the morning an explosion ripped open the waiting room and a waiting train on the track. Some twenty years later, offcials have yet to attribute responsibility for the deliberate attack.

Related resources
http://valeoggi.tiscali.it/immagini/200108/18/3b7e04cb03e9d
A photo gallery of the bombing…

In folklore garlic was said to keep vampires at bay, now the city of Vercelli is hoping it will have the same effect on those other bloodsuckers–mosquitoes. The first fumigation of “Garlic Reset,” a concentrate of the stinking rose, wafted through city parks in early August. The local government, which spent about $100,000 on the operation,will continue spraying tree-lined streets for the remainder of the month. The evening stroll will never be the same.

Related resources:
www.onde.net/desenzano/comune/servizi/zanzara/ZT-1.htm
An info booklet on the "tiger mosquito" (zanzara tigre) the latest, fiercest version to plague central-Northern Italy

The hottest new flavor in Italian ice cream takes its name from the Etna volcano. Vanilla and cherry ice cream laced with anise liqueur, perched on a base of sponge cake. The final touch: black powdered sugar, for that realistic ash-effect.
In an attempt to drum up business since rolling lava scared off tourists, caf? owner Francesco Urz? of Catania started giving away the “Etna Earth” flavor to regular customers. He told zoomata only about 10% of them refused–convinced it would bring bad luck. Etna, which got busy again the last half of July 2001, is Europe’s highest active volcano.

80% regularly exceed speed limits (1998)
61.5% regularly exceed speed limits (2000)
76.1% refused to wear seat belts (1998)
42.6% refused to wear seat belts (2000)

Italians are stereotypically reckless drivers, but a recent seems study to show an improvement.
A relative improvement: compared to fellow EU nationals, Italians are in first place for speeding, second for not wearing seatbelts and fourth for running red lights.

*Source: Study by ACI-Censis www.aci.it/Variabili/LucchesiACI_CENSIS.htm

Florentines will burn wooden gallows in Piazza della Signoria Nov. 30 to commemorate the end of the death penalty in Italy–the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was the first to abolish it in 1876. A somewhat gruesome way to celebrate what’s also considered “Tuscany day,” especially in the same square Savonarola went up in smoke… Public sentiment is high following the Sept. 14 2000 execution of Derek Rocco Barnabei, an American with Tuscan roots. The positive news: officials will announce the restoration of Donatello’s St. George statue, considered a symbol of the Florentines’ fight against governmental tyranny…

Related resources:
A close-up on the St. George statue, currently housed in the Bargello museum.
www.thais.it/scultura/image/sch00011.htm

20-25% Italians suffer from chronic anxiety (2001)
9 out of 10 have monotonous, underpaid jobs
Northerners most anxious about interpersonal relationships
Southerners about lack of public services
15-50 age group considered “most anxious”
Women suffer twice as much as men
According to psychiatrists, Italians are most preoccupied by measuring up to modern society. Top worries include not being able to use Internet, not knowing English and choosing the right model cell phone. In a recent convention entitled “A Turning Point for Anxious People,” Pier Luigi Scapicchio, ex-president of the Italian Psychiatrists’ Society, noted that certain people are “born worriers” but the modern enviornment detonates chronic anxiety.

Related resources:
www.risateonline.it
Jokes & general stupidity to ease the strain.

26% Get headache even thinking about planning vacation
17% Anxious because doesn’t know where to go
12% Worried will end up alone on vacation
1 tasteless villa vacation rental

A slightly more serious study in an avalanche of frivolous summer polls (we skipped “hot weather turns up office romances” & “the female body hair debate”) which appears to illustrate Italians famed lack of planning causes some distress. Of the 965 Italians queried, 40 year-olds and women were hardest hit, and especially concerned about not having enough money to take long vacations.
One Italian was determined not to wait until the last minute to make plans–an unidentified businessman offered circa $50,000 a month for Villa Altachiara in Portofino, according to newspaper reports. The villa, built in 1874 by Lord Carnavon, boasts 40 rooms, a helicopter pad, swimming pool–but is also where countess Vacca Augusta fell to her death on Jan 8, 2001. Investigators have made little headway in discerning whether her tumble from the villa’s cliff was murder or suicide.
The story rivals any mystery novel– a scheming ex-husband, handsome foreign butler/lover, various hangers-on and several wills. The proposal may be accepted to settle the debts discovered after her death.

466,000 students taking high-school finals
60/100 minimum passing grade
3 written tests + 1 oral exam
4 minutes for "hints" to appear on web
1 site offering "emergency help" via WAP

High-school compulsory exams, which mark the end of 5 years of school, often provoke years of nightmares for Italian students. In fact, this crucial rite of passage (called “maturity,” maturit?) was recently deemed ‘traumatic’ by the European Association of Psychologists (EPPA).
No wonder students have long taken to getting unauthorized ‘help’ –usually in miniscule scraps of paper called "papyrus" (papiri) or "accordions" (fisarmoniche). The 2001 session, however, was the first time mass cheating was through mobile phones and the internet. The pre-exam sequester of the little ringers did no good, as translations of passages in Greek and interpretations of Cesare Pavese sped over the internet minutes, and not hours, after exams started.
Authorities have decided not to make students re-take tests, but Education Minister Letitzia Moratti commented: "Obviously, we’ll have to adopt adequate measures to combat new technologies."

Related resources:
www.studenti.it
Most notorious "student-aid" site. Offers the "prof-search" data base, so test takers know whether, for example, emphasis will be on dates..