After decades of upheaval, Italians battle new political foe: boredom

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June 10 11:57 a.m. by Nicole Martinelli

Italians and politics: never a dull moment, right?

Wrong.
When Silvio Berlusconi broke the record for the longest-serving Italian government since World War II on May 5, it seemed to break the spell of revolving-door coalitions that had made for nearly 60 years of tumult. EU elections on June 12-13 threaten to topple his reign and boredom may be a deciding factor.
In a country where aesthetics are king, Italians won’t waste a second glance at election posters. In fact, this crop is considered so bland that even satirists are bored. Association Peace Link sent out a call to creative types to take a shot at lampooning politicians, complaining that “gray” styles and uniform slogans don’t lend themselves to parodies.

Berlusconi, known for his dynamic communication style, is trying to capture votes with ho-hum slogans like “vote Forza Italia to be protagonists in Europe and the World.” Other yawn-provoking tag lines include: “Let’s give a voice to the environment” (Green Party), “Only one interest: the Italians,” from right wing party Alleanza Nazionale and “a vote to defend local products and interests and our Christian roots,” from the Northern League.

“We’re stuck in the 60s and 70s (for slogans), the 80s (for style) and the 90s (for candidates and parties),” pundit Beppe Severgnini summed up the general mood in leading daily Corriere della Sera. “Apparently all the brilliant copy writers have been drugged and locked up in a basement somewhere. Either that or they looked at the usual suspects they were asked to promote and begged to write copy for ready-made pasta sauce and photocopy machines instead.”

Candidates are also remarkably boring for the Italian scene. In what has so far been a tame electoral season, off-the-wall candidates like porn-star Cicciolina or the self-proclaimed “Dr. Seduction” have been replaced by a glut of TV hosts and a 99-year-old nursing home resident.
To liven things up, one journalist candidate for Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party made a lame half-confession of bisexuality, but it is a far cry from the Love Party and even the media seemed bored by it.

The resulting apathy coupled with forecasted beach weather may be a deciding factor on whether Berlusconi stays or goes, but for some the heart of Italian politics remains the same.

“Politics and political communication will always be essentially boring,” Diana Eugeni, who teaches visual communication at the Politecnico University of Milan, told zoomata. “Parties need to create heroes, journalists need to talk about single candidates and this is the result. They are the driving force in this hero game and we’ll follow them like it or not.”?photo + text 1999-2004 zoomata.com
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Related resources:
Satired posters —
http://www.clarence.com/satira/manifesti_elettorali/

http://italy.peacelink.org/votantonio/indices/index_1281.html

The real deal

http://www.forza-italia.it/congressonazionale/homepage.htm

http://213.203.143.185/an/default.asp

http://www.verdi.it/banner/liste.htm

Italy mourns beloved actor Nino Manfredi

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updated June 7 14:42 p.m. by Nicole Martinelli

Some 10,000 Romans paid respects to beloved actor Nino Manfredi over the weekend.
Manfredi, 83, died Friday following a stroke. A chorus of Romans shouted “Nino, Nino!” following funeral services in the Artists’ church of San Maria del Popolo this morning. He is survived by wife Erminia Ferrari and three children.

Manfredi was best known for films like “Bread and Chocolate” (Pane e Cioccolata), where he played a hapless Italian emigrant in Switzerland and Ettore Scola’s tragicomic “Down and Dirty” (Brutti, sporchi e cattivi) as a paterfamilias struggling to get by in a shack on the outskirts of Rome.

Generations of children also knew him as Geppetto, from the popular made-for-TV version of Pinocchio directed by Luigi Comencini still aired at least once a year in Italy during holidays.

Manfredi, who like many Italian actors began his career doing voice overs, made over 100 films with directors such as Vittorio De Sica, Nanny Loy, Alessandro Blasetti, Antonio Pietrangeli, Luigi Zampa, Dino Risi and Luigi Magni.

“With his passing, we lost the fourth musketeer of the commedia all’italiana,” entertainment journalist Paola Jacobbi told zoomata. “He was one of the key actors — Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi — and they are all gone now.”

Jacobbi’s personal favorite is “We All Loved Each Other So Much” (C’eravamo tanto amati), another film directed by Scola that follows the lives of a group of ex-partisans. Manfredi’s character is one he will play with varying shades throughout his career, that of the naive, unsophisticated bumbler. In this film, although he is not cunning like Gassman who makes a strategic marriage, his character Antonio remains true to himself and his ideals — and gets the girl they all loved, played by Stefania Sandrelli.

Manfredi kept working with success in television into the late 1990s, in the mini-series “Linda e il Brigadiere,” playing the retired carabiniere father of bombshell Claudia Koll, who, although somewhat less convincingly, was a carabiniere officer who often turned to dad for advice.

Fans in Rome never left him. When first hospitalized following a stroke in July 2003, hundreds of everyday citizens lined up outside the hospital of Santo Spirito to donate blood. Banker Enrico Mannozzi told Italian media that he had never donated blood before but felt a “moral obligation to help a person who gave me so many happy moments.”?text 1999-2004 zoomata.com
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Italian monuments: better as billboards?

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updated June 10 17:40 p.m. by Nicole Martinelli

Imagine the Coliseum sporting a McDonald’s billboard. Or maybe the Tower of Pisa draped in an ad for dirty denim. Michelangelo’s David perhaps hawking Calvin Klein underwear.

It’s not as far off as it sounds. Rome’s Pantheon will get a fix up thanks to advertising sold on scaffolding and officials throughout the country are grappling with the ethical problem of financing much-needed restorations by using monuments as giant billboards.Italy is chock-a-block with monuments, UNESCO estimates the Bel Paese holds 60% of the world’s art treasures, but unfortunately does not have the budget to maintain them.

Case in point, Florence Renaissance jewel church Santissima Annunziata. Italian media recently reported that the roof has such a steady leak it is ‘raining’ inside but there is no money for repairs. The city government is responsible for 12 churches; fixing damage to this church would eat up 25% of the meager maintenance budget.

Yet the same Florentines protested when an ad featuring a sexy pouting model advertising a brand of watches went up on the scaffolding in front of the Bishop’s Residence in the religious center of the city, Piazza Duomo. The diocesan administration, somewhat embarrassed by the brouhaha, said they were just trying to find a way to finance the work.

Some see saving art through advertising as a question of practicality.

“Let’s face it, when they started charging tourists entrance fees churches became museums, not places of worship,” architect and Florence resident Dario Notari told zoomata. “Now they are splitting hairs. If only every art work could find a sponsor, Italy would be in good shape.”

Environmental protection group Italia Nostra is of the same opinion, having gathered up enough money to restore the Pantheon in Rome with an ad scheme. They recently criticized city officials for refusing to restore more monuments through ads and imposing size restrictions on those they did accept, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported. After a billboard selling cosmetics was plastered over the front of Trinit? dei monti church, city officials have decided to review the policy and handpick ‘appropriate’ ads.

Halfway measures don’t seem to please anyone. In Milan, the enormous gothic cathedral sports a somewhat discreet side billboard for a cell phone service. It’s not large enough to finance the restoration of the facade but its presence doesn’t go down well with the Milanese.

“What’s next? A church should not be a place for advertising,” passerby Luigi Mancini, 73, told zoomata. “What bothers me most is that we may come to accept it, to not see it any more.”

In fact, scandals broke out in both Milan and Florence last year when alert citizens noticed that restorations were finished, but the scaffolding stayed. The reason? There was still plenty of money to be made from giant ads on the facades.?photos + text 1999-2005 zoomata.com
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Italy opens archeology sites to night crawlers

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Stunning, not-to-be missed but unfortunately impossible to air condition: two famous Italian archaeological sites are trying to convince tourists to visit during hot summer months by opening at night.

Nocturnal tours of Pompeii, arguably one of the most decadent cities of Roman times, start at the ‘pleasure baths’ (terme suburbane) to the accompaniment of music written for the tours by spaghetti-western soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone.
These 2,000 year-old thermal baths feature a series of frescoes with graphic scenes of various sex acts, thought to be a kind of sex menu for visitors.

Officials reckon that visitors to Pompeii doubled last summer due to nighttime visitors; neighboring site Paestum hopes to bring tourists to its dusty ruins featuring some of the best-preserved Doric temples in existence by staying open after sunset.
It may bring new life to the often deserted site, previously closed one hour before sunset, where the temple of fertility goddess Hera was said to be a fortunate spot for would-be parents to make love at night.

*image courtesy Soprintendeza archeologica di Pompei

@1999-2008 zoomata.com This is an original news story. Please use contact form for reprint info.

Related resources:

Pompeii: the Inside Story

Reservations are suggested for Pompeii visits. Tickets can be purchased in Pompeii, at the Porta Marina ticket office from 7 – 9 p.m., at least 20 minutes before the tour.
Or get them online:
www.arethusa.net

Details for Paestum visits are available at the tourist office: Via Magna Grecia 887 (tel. 0828-811016)

Parking lot of love for Italians opens

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by Nicole Martinelli It’s tough being a young Italian in love: there’s just no privacy. Ask the 90 percent of Italians between the ages of 20 and 24 who still live at home. As a result, Italians will do it anywhere, especially in the car.

But while surveys say 88 percent of Italians have car-copulated at least once, back-seat sex has continued to come under fire from officials.

In 1999, one Italian court even ruled that unless the car windows are covered up it can be considered an obscene act. (Italy’s sexier streets and parking lots have since seen a huge rise in ad hoc entrepreneurs selling newspapers to drape over the windshield.)
Finally, it seems some local governments are coming around, too. The town of Vinci in Tuscany has just become home to Italy’s first “Love Park.” The town’s mayor, Giancarlo Faenzi, appropriately announced the plans on Valentine’s Day 2003 but in true Italian fashion only managed to get things ready for the summer lovin’ season.

“There’s nothing revolutionary here,” mayor Faenzi told zoomata. “It’s a practical consideration, we’re simply trying to keep in mind the way the space is used. This is the city of Leonardo da Vinci’s birthplace, after all. We are very rational — there’s no point moralizing or trying to discourage people simply looking for privacy.”

Whether Italians will flock to the park is another question. Call it the Love Park, but it’s basically a re-furbed sports-center parking lot on the outskirts of town. That’s 172 (compact) parking spaces for the amorous, with soft lighting, extra trash cans within easy reach, flower pots and condom dispensers for a love haven away from home.

Still, Italians may come to appreciate their new getaway when they remember the alternatives: either the local polizia looking over their shoulder as they sneak their lover a kiss, or Mama watching every move as she makes more manicotti.

Vinci isn’t the first Italian city where proposals to legitimize these alcoves for lovers have been bandied about, but this is the first time local government has given it the green light. Making official this basic necessity may also help improve safety — smooching couples are regularly prey to robberies or worse, as in the still unsolved murders of nine young couples parked in lover’s lanes in the Monster of Florence case. This story first appeared in Newsweek.

”WOP” power: Italian musician takes back the slur

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Monday May 24 14:45 p.m. zoomata staff

Maybe it had to happen, like when blacks re-appropriated the word “nigger,” but WOP as a term of pride may not go down well with everyone of Italian descent.
Italian singer Gennaro Della Volpe, stage name Raiz, calls his new solo effort “WOP,” after the disparaging term used for Italians.

“I’m 100% WOP,” Della Volpe, who sings in a mix of Neapolitan dialect and English, told Italian media. “It’s all about being a global citizen.”

Origins of the slang term are unclear, it is said to come from dialectal “guappo” (or thug) or to mean “without papers” referring to illegal Italian immigrants. Della Volpe evidently prefers to use it as a spin-off from this last meaning.

Interesting to see what the Italian American cousins will have to say about his declaration of WOPishness, since organizations have been lobbying so hard to remove offensive Italian stereotypes from everything from the Sopranos to spaghetti sauce commercials.
Time for a WOP Power movement??1999-2004 zoomata.com
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Environmental group names Italy’s top beaches

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Wed. May 19 13:19 p.m. zoomata

Tourists looking for pristine beaches in Italy would be wise to head south this year.
Italian environmental group Legambiente’s beach guide, which uses 128 parameters to comb 243 coastal spots in a yearly quality test, again gave Southern Italy or the Mezzogiorno top marks. Not all of Italy’s extensive coastline — 1,850 kilometers or circa 1,150 miles — makes the grade, but figures are improving.

The list can be used to decide where to go, but also where to expect crowds — in a recent poll 41% of Italians said they plan to vacation by sunning on Bel Paese beaches.There has been some jostling over the previous years’ top ten, but Southern Italian beaches continue to dominate better-known locales in Liguria and Tuscany. Famous beach spots Rimini and Riccione on the Adriatic coast were towards the bottom of these ratings, scoring two and three out of a possible five respectively.

These 10 spots received a perfect five out of five “sails” rating: Otranto (Puglia), Buoso (Sardinia), Cinque Terre (Liguria), Orosei (Sardinia) , Pollica Acciaroli e Pioppi (Campania), Tropea (Calabria), Castiglione della Pescaia (Tuscany), Arbus (Sardinia) and Tremiti Islands (Puglia).

Ratings also take into account natural beauty, contamination but also tourist structures, noise levels and environment-friendly waste systems. Sandy spots with a “four-sail” rating (30 total) include: Sirolo (Marches), Isola del Giglio (Tuscany), Positano and Anacapri.

This is an original news story. Please play nice. Contact for reprint info.

Related resources:
www.legambiente.com
Here’s the online free searchable guide to Italian beaches, in Italian only. Can be searched by ‘rating’ (‘punteggio’), province or region. Among the other symbols rating beaches are stars for environmental soundness and petals for tourist amenities.

The Rough Guide to Italy

www.multimania.com/natur/ita/#en
Map of Italy’s nudist camps & beaches (with terse descriptions in in English, Italian & French) in collaboration with FENAIT, Italy’s largest ‘naturist’ association. Keep in mind these are places where nudity is tolerated — associations are still awaiting a law to make nude bathing legal.

Italian creates ‘mismatched shoes’ for singles

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Thu. May 13 17:25 pm
by Nicole Martinelli

Sole mates no more: an Italian entrepreneur has created a line of ‘single’ shoes aiming to break down one of the last bastions of coupledom, matching shoes.

“Breaking up the couple, addicted to freedom” is the slogan for Add’s shoes, currently available in Milan, Turin and Rome.
The flat, round-toed shoes come in five colors and two models — no coupling allowed, they are only sold in odd numbers. Buy two of your color choice and get a third shoe free. Or you can buy just one, or up to five at a time.

Creator Simone Cassola, 38, himself “nearly single” (and sporting a pair of matching leather shoes) told zoomata he came up with the idea while window shopping.

“Why not break things up a bit? The same models look good in different colors on display, there’s no reason people shouldn’t wear them that way,” said Cassola, a former accountant and manager in Italy and South America, now based in Milan. “Pairs, matching pairs are really boring.”

It’s an idea whose time has come: national statistics center ISTAT said that singles in Italy are increasing at “breakneck speed,” gathering steam after 1974 law made divorce legal.

Marketing to singletons in Italy is relatively new, in a country where just about everything was sold only ‘family size’ and lifesavers for the unmarried like self-service laundromats were unheard of until recently.

The supermarket is where the revolution is most evidently taking place — sales of pre-cooked and frozen foods, many with names that evoke home-cooking, have increased exponentially over the last 20 years, according to data from the national association for frozen foods. Not surprisingly, Italians who chose to live away from the famiglia told ISTAT they did so “seeking freedom.” ?1999-2004 zoomata.com
This is an original news story, not wire service rehash. Please use contact form for reprint info.

Related resources:
www.addproject.com

Italians Patent ‘Diet’ Bean, Politics as Usual

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updated Thu. May 13 16:47 pm
zoomata staff

Proving once again that politics touch everything in Italy, scientists patented a genetically-modified bean containing a substance commonly used in diet pills naming it “Silvio” after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Scientists at the National Research Center in Milan genetically modified a kidney bean to remove phytohemagglutinin, a toxic substance, from phaseolamin a common ingredient in starch blockers made from bean extract.
Diet pills made with the recently-patented bean won’t be hitting the shelves anytime soon but the controversy is bound to linger.

Italian media had a field day with implications of the name, speculating on whether it referred to the leader’s somewhat portly appearance or his height. Berlusconi went into hiding for a month around Christmas while on a drastic diet and after reportedly having a face lift. The Premier, who claims to stand five foot seven, is also said to be conscious about his stature and has been satirized as a dwarf. His legume namesake is technically a ‘dwarf’ variety.

“Everyone’s been asking about the name,” researcher Roberto Bollini told zoomata by email. “It was meant simply to thank the government for an innovative law on patents, but there have been a lot of jokes made. Especially about the dwarf part.”

The homage to Berlusconi comes at a time when Italy’s scientific community is increasingly at odds with the government — including strikes and researchers threatening to leave the country.

Low salaries, nepotism and cuts in spending have all been credited with creating a brain drain of Italy’s scientific community.
Efforts to lure them back have not met with much success. Highly-esteemed oncologist Lucio Luzzatto came back to his home town to work at the Institute for Tumor research in Genoa only to be fired earlier this month, ostensibly for moonlighting at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York.
A petition signed by colleagues in seven countries couldn’t get Luzzatto reinstated; leading daily Corriere della Sera reported that the real problem was old-world politics in the form of friction between Luzzatto and the managing director. ?1999-2004 zoomata.com
This is an original news story, not wire service rehash. Please use contact form for reprint info.

RJ Aguila (Naples)

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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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For more on expat life in Italy, First Person Interview Archive

If you live in Italy, we would love to hear your story–Contact form

ID Card: R.J. Aguila, university student, five months in Italy, 21 years old, nationality
Filipino-American.

Currently living in:
A military base in Aversa, about a 20-minute drive
from Naples.

By way of:
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii=>Putuxet River, Maryland=>Gulfport,
Mississippi=>Okinawa, Japan=>Beaufort, South Carolina=>Okinawa, Japan=>Santa
Cruz, California (whew!)

How (or why) did you get here from there?
I’m a military brat (an affectionate term for children brought up by
parents that happen to work in the military). While I was in college in
Santa Cruz, CA my family moved from Japan to Italy. I decided to move with them to have a chance at experiencing Italy while I finish a degree.

What role did language skills play in your experience?
Language skills were one of my primary reasons for me wanting to come to
Italy. I’d lived in Japan for many years, yet I could only speak very little
Japanese. I didn’t see the value or importance and was a little lazy. I
didn’t make the effort. I really regretted that once I went to college in
Santa Cruz because I met lots of students that adore Japan and try really
hard just so they can live there for a year. So in a way I’m trying to make
up for not taking advantage of improving my language skills in Japan by
coming to Italy. Right now I know basic phrases and can carry a VERY limited
conversation.

Your biggest challenge:
I really want to improve my ability in Italian. Speaking, writing, listening.
One day I would like to be able to read Italian literature. Right now my
main hurdle is just getting out there and putting myself into social
situations where I must speak Italian. It’s very easy just to stay on base,
which is in effect a little American bubble. Many people here do just that —
stay on base most of their time in Italy. I’m planning to volunteer at a
nearby orphanage and also am looking for tutoring opportunities for
students that want to practice or learn English.

What did you do to feel at home or adapt here?
Actually since I spent a lot of time growing up on bases, I feel home on overseas bases much more than I feel at home in the States. I adapted to the Neapolitan driving pretty quickly, even learned stickshift here. Like I mentioned, the bases are in a way small American bubbles, so it’s not hard to feel at “home.” The challenge for me is to step out of the bubble and adapt to that.

What do you still have to get used to/learn?
I still want to keep progressing in my Italian. One thing I noticed is that if I want to do something with a friend, it helps to plan it out. Lots of times an ATM might not be working, or we’ll drive around forever looking for a tabbachi (ed. note: caf?s that sell cigarettes). Not too many 24-hr services.

Compare an aspect of your home town (or other place you’ve lived) to current town.
I love how European cities generally have much better public transport systems than most American cities. One thing I hated about California is the car culture. Having to drive five minutes to get some food. I love how some main streets are blocked off from cars, and you can get around most of the city easily without a car. One of the things I dread is living in my car, in the sense that it’s normal for some people in California to have 1-2 hour commutes. Which I think is crazy! Less hippies here than in Santa Cruz. 😉 I love the idea of everyone going for a Saturday or Sunday night walk.

Latest pursuits:
Finishing a degree in English, practicing Italian with a language buddy I met online, and looking for work as an English language tutor. If I can get the money I’d like to take an immersion course too.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is true:
The pizza is the best, especially Naples. I love the fashion — we Americans tend to be pretty casual and I think it’s cool how you won’t see too many Italians walking around in a T-shirt and some sweats. Also the constant beauty that surrounds you. From the weather, art and architecture — and especially the women.

Your response to the following question: “I really want to live here, but I don’t speak Italian or have a job. What do you think?”
I would say go for it, but remember that visiting and living in a place are two very different things. Try and find a local that you can email/interview before you make the plunge. Do your homework!

How would you sum up your Italian. experience in a word (and why)?
Invigorating, it’s a challenge for me to get the most out of my time here and I enjoy discovering the pleasant (and sometimes unpleasant) nuances of another culture. To have your first real shot of espresso or to haggle at the local market is something that I’d probably never do if I lived my whole life in a typical American suburb. (Sorry all you suburbanites, I hate the suburbs!!)

Italy’s best kept secret (music, culture, food, way to get round things)
I’m not sure if it’s a secret, but the mozzarella di bufala of
Naples is the best cheese in the world. Insalata caprese is great too.