Web-wise Nov. 19-26

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Check for or Give the Evil Eye online • Francesco DeGregori’s New Take on Italian Folk Standbys• Mind Games in Italian • Designing Your Kitchen, Italian Style

Mind Games in Italian
Sharpen your Italian along with your reasoning skills — riddles, math problems, optical illusions for adults and kids.
www.intelligiochi.it

Francesco DeGregori’s New Take on Folk Standbys
New album from singer/songwriter Francesco DeGregori takes on popular Italian folk songs with a political bent like "Bella Ciao," "I treni per Reggio Calabria" and "Sacco & Vanzetti." Listen in with real audio or windows media, click on song titles for lyrics and historical footnotes to songs.
www.sonymusic.it/degregori/discografia/index_disco.html

Check for or Give the Evil Eye online
Having a bad hair life? Rule out the possibility of the evil eye with this simple test. Or if you’ve really got it in for someone, "give" the evil eye or malocchio, virtual like. You can even choose four levels of evil…Credible? Boh, but staff members spent an afternoon playing with it….
www.iettatore.it/malocchio_test.asp

Designing Your Kitchen, Italian Style
Check out dozens of solutions for the most used room in your home from Italian magazine Brava Casa — particularly interesting for those short on space…
www.rcs.it/bravacasa/progettazione/progetti/cucine.htm

Lights Out on Michelangelo?

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Darkness may fall over masterpieces by Leonardo and Botticelli if Florence’s Uffizi gallery can’t come up with money to pay the electricity bill. The lights-out threat also includes other state-run museums in the most famous Renaissance city in Italy — including the Accademia where Michelangelo’s David is housed, the Bargello and museums in Palazzo Pitti.

"All museums are in a dramatic situation, " said Uffizi director Annamaria Petrioli Tofani.

Electricity company Enel, which frequently sponsors initiatives like lighting up Pompeii at night, has threatened to pull the plug if payments aren’t made soon. Something doesn’t quite add up about in the running of some of the world’s most famous museums. In March of last year, the Department of Artistic Patrimony in Florence was granted independent status from state administration, a status also accorded to Venice, Naples and Rome.

Since then it has been running on empty: there is no money for operating expenses, maintenance, including items like paper towels and fire extinguishers. Income shouldn’t be a problem — each year some 1.5 million visitors fork over 8 euro, bringing in an estimated yearly income of 12 million euro to visit the Uffizi alone. The bureaucratic fiasco could be a distaster for Florence, which by some accounts holds one-fifth of the world’s art treasures.

Administrators blame the lag in money transfers from the old system to the new one, leaving the museums with stacks of unpaid bills — including 250,000 euro for lighting. ?1999-2004 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

Related resources:

http://www.weekendafirenze.com/museifi/uffizi.htm
Reserve tickets at the Uffizi — bring your own flashlight?

Florence: A Delicate Case

Italy by Numbers: Traffic Problem

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47.6% Italians consider traffic a problem
41.6% Italians consider parking a problem
39. 9% Italians consider pollution a problem
38.5% Italians consider noise a problem

If it honks, revs or needs to be parked, Italians are irked by it. Asked by national statistics institute ISTAT to name everyday irritants, the top spots were almost all related to cars and traffic in congested cities. Car-related concerns beat out crime and safety of drinking water. Another study showed, however, that Italians are also more likely to rely on public transportation than European counterparts. According to ANFIA data, 10.5% of Italians use busses or the subway, compared to 6.2% in the UK and 4.9% in France, despite the notorious unreliability of these means in the Bel Paese.

Results from the poll also show a strong divide between the industrialized North and Southern Italy — over half of residents in Lombardy considered traffic and pollution the most severe environmental problems while only 19% of those in Basilicata and 18.2% of Calabria residents did. ?1999-2004 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

Related resources:
Italy’s Certified Picturesque Towns

The Most Beautiful Villages of Tuscany
Where traffic shouldn’t be a problem…

Italian ‘Thumb Tribes” Drive Charity Efforts

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Recent charity drives to raise money following two natural disasters in Italy have been bolstered by money sent in through text messages on cell phones.

“Help Now,”the campaign organized by daily Corriere della Sera and news program TG5, has seen donations sent in by so-called ‘thumb tribes’ or mobile phone users top or equal those sent in by credit card. Aid for earthquake victims in San Giuliano was approximately three million euro for both credit cards and SMS messages; at 942,000 euro the amount pulled in from text messages is more than triple sent in by credit cards to help flood victims in Northern Italy.

The bulk of donations were still sent in the old-fashioned way, by bank transfer, because Italians are also wary of trusting checks to the vagaries of the national postal system. With 40,000 text messages sent in Italy daily, these humanitarian SMS campaigns may soon catch up with traditional methods. Part of the phenomenon is certainly the ease and low cost of sending an blank SMS at the cost of one euro to help earthquake or flood victims and the other part is likely attributable to low numbers of Italians who own and use credit cards.

“Thanks for your help for people harmed by the recent floods in the North,” the text message sent as confirmation is a quick hit, one of the keys to success for this type of communication. Italians are among the most pro-mobile phone in the world — by 2005 the number of mobile phone lines will outnumber Italians by almost three million. The explanation given by the national observatory for mobile phones is simple: many Italians have more than one SIM card for the same phone. About half of Italians consider cell phones essential for keeping in touch with friends and family, some 40% use them every day, while less than 20% use them for work. This element of family ties to the ‘cellulare‘ or ‘telefonino‘ has led to exponential growth in the mobile phone sector — in 2001 there were 33 million cell phone numbers and, if expert predictions hold true, that number will almost double in the next three years.

Italian Sexy Calendar Craze

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by Nicole Martinelli
posted Tue Nov 8 14:07 pm

In an effort to fuel Italy’s sexy calendar craze, one noted photographer has shot 12 months of nearly-naked "Madonnas."
The Italian press calls it the starlet war and they mean it: calendars are a 10 million USD a year industry here and magazines that feature them often sell astronomical quantities for getting the right starlet or TV hosts to bear all.

The "erotic-artistic" photos by Alberto Magliozzi are sure to stand out in the ranks of 2003 girlie calendars — the cover of "Madonne" features a bare-breasted woman with a halo, bloody hands, gauzy white fabric draped around her waist and stiletto heels. Shot in Matera and set in and around the town’s famous stone cave dwellings, most are over the top even by Italian standards. Magliozzi says the photos show a "new dimension," saying they transmit "innocence, desperation, pain, suffering and sincerity" — the milder ones feature models breast feeding, washing their hands and bearing stigmas.

The fall race to grab the public attention for next year’s calendars is on in full force. Before truck drivers and office managers get through last years’ glossy nearly-nude shots, news shows are flaunting “exclusive backstage footage” of Italian small-screen stars like Elisabetta Canalis, Emanuela Folliero and Alessia Fabiani pouting for 2003 calendars. While these sexy shots might be considered strictly "men’s magazine" fare outside the country, they have become a staple of mainstream Italian publications. Top newsweekly Panorama, never loath to feature a naked woman on the cover under any pretense, features curvy Mediterranean beauty Louisa Corna in this year’s calendar. The record for calendar/magazine combo is currently held by Sabrina Ferilli posing for Max, which sold 750,000 copies in 2000.

Fans of the famous Pirelli calendar, known for its arty shots and extravagant themes, will be surprised to find men along with the international beauties in the 2003 version. Among them are actors Enrico Lo Verso and Alessandro Gassman posing, mostly dressed, with the likes of Heidi Klum, Sophie Dahl and Yamila Diaz-Rahi. Good-looking men with staples in their navels are, however, harder to come by this year: Alessandro Gassman will bare all for his second sexy calendar and newcomer Albanian dancer Kledi is making his debut.?1999-2004 zoomata.com

Zoomata is the brainchild of a bilingualjournalist based in Italy who thinks out of the box. This brain is for hire.

Related resources:
www.materanet.com/notizie/madonne/copertina.asp
Holy Mamma! The Madonna calendar

www.panorama.it/societa/protagonisti/media/ix1-A020001016141
Soft news? The Panorama calendar

www.corriere.it/speciali/calendari2003
Calendar round-up (includes the Pirelli and the Housewives Calendar) from leading daily Corriere della Sera.

www.puntinipuntini.it/gassman/gennaio.html
Preview of Gassman’s calendar

www.kledi.it/download.htm
The dancer in shirtless version…

Italy by Numbers: Stay at Home Woes

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49% say ‘mammoni’ stay home because they can’t support themselves
48% say ‘mammoni’ cause problems to family/society
58% say the government should help unmarried couples find housing

If 70% of 29-year-old Italian men are still living at home, these mama’s boys (mammoni) say they can’t afford to leave the nest. For the first time economic reasons won out over comfort as the reason young people in Italy live with parents.
Some 74% said that high rents cause this prolonged childhood, while only 23% said that young Italians simply weren’t willing to make sacrifices to break out on their own. The poll of over 1,000 Italians conducted by Abacus showed that inhabitants of the Bel Paese consider the fact that young people stay at home well into their 30s a "pathological" problem and one that causes many serious rifts in the family. They would also like to see the government do something about it — 58% were in favor of incentives to help young couples buy or rent houses, even if they aren’t married.

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

Web-wise Nov. 12-19

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Italian for Beginners: the Movie • Gonzaga Family Treasures on Show• Cough! Italy’s new anti-smoking law • Italian practice: are you an ugly duckling or swan?

Italian for Beginners: the Movie
Easily staff’s favorite flick about the power of studying Italian, this independent film from Denmark tells the tale of a ragtag group of people brought together in a night-school class. Requisite happy ending in Venice, but they deserve it.
Italian for Beginners by Anders W. Berthelsen

Italian practice: are you an ugly duckling or swan?
This interactive test, designed to gauge your self esteem, is also a telling one about Italian society with questions about permanent hair removal etc. Guess which zoomata staff member came up with the ‘narcissist’ profile?
http://news2000.libero.it/index_test.jhtml?id_test=1161

Cough! Italy’s new anti-smoking law
Here’s the skinny on what may very well become another civic-minded law, more or less ignored by Italians — despite the new ‘smoking police.’ The senate recently passed a tougher anti-smoking law, banning the ciggie in all public places…The gallery of vintage cigarette ads is also worth taking a look at…
www.concento.it/documenti/Attualita/2002/11_Novembre/11/fumo.jhtml

Gonzaga Family Treasures on Show
It took five years of study and research by over 60 European scholars to track down and document the legendary art collection of the Dukes of Mantova, the Gonzaga family. The exhibit (including the Portrait of the Hirsute Girl) is a one of a kind and shouldn’t be missed. It’s on in Mantova until Dec. 8, tickets can be bought online, otherwise take a virtual tour…
www.mostragonzaga.it

Italian Town Holds Grape Stomping Workshop

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In an effort to raise an interest in dying traditions, a town near Naples held three days of back-to-basics lessons on the fall harvest, including a grape-stomping workshop for kids.

Cicciano, 30 kilometers from Naples, was livened up with an estimated 600 purple-legged youngsters as they learned to crush grapes to make wine like their ancestors did. Grown-ups, including Mayor Giuseppe Caccavale, were on hand to explain that small feet tread lightly on grapes — and are less likely to crush the seeds making the must bitter. A series of "antique" harvesting tools once common in Italy were also on display, next to high-tech machinery currently in use.

"In an area that is 65% farm lands we thought it important for our children to discover the old methods," said city councilor Giuseppe Itri. "The agricultural economy is in a moment of profound crisis, so we wanted to bring home the importance of continuing to work the land using new technological methods but with the unique pleasure of being in contact with nature."

*Photo courtesy Comune di Cicciano

Related resources:
Italian tips: Talk your way around a glass of wine

Burton Anderson’s Best Wines of Italy

Italy by Numbers: TV Diet

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73.8% Italians average or "poor" media consumers
14.8% "omnivores"
9.1% "marginal" users
2.3% "pioneers"

Italians love their television, a Censis study showed, noting a large digital and cultural divide in the country’s media use. Of those with an average or poor media ‘diet,’ television and radio are the prime sources of information, with text messages to cell phones making a strong showing.
This largest group still shies away from using the Internet for information — only around the heaviest media users, around 17% of the total polled, turned to new technologies for information. Of marginal users, 99% percent watch only television (63% of them watch news programs) and some 70% of these say they "aren’t capable" of using computers or the Internet.

Rome’s New Temple to Dionysus

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The Eternal City pays homage to the old god of the grape with a new space dedicated to wine — including free tastings. The Temple of Dionysus, which takes up three floors formerly dedicated to a convent library, is now all about regional wines spanning the Bel Paeseand a permanent exhibit on the latest techniques in wine production. Afternoons are set aside for tastings for small groups with a sommelier as a guide.

The Rub:
Events (concerts, exhibits, wine tastings) are free but for the latter you must reserve.
"Il Tempio di Dioniso," via Quattro Fontane 113, Rome
tel. 06-57301575
email: info@iltempiodidioniso.it