$10 million, circa (19,536 billion lire) income, state lottery (1999)
50% increase from 1998
$15 million, circa (34,029 billion lire) total income betting
$400 million, c. (830 billion lire) income est., State bingo halls Italy’s first bingo halls, hailed as a sure thing by the government, are scheduled to debut in Fall 2001.
While bingo certainly isn’t new to Italy, it’s just now getting out of the living room at Christmas time and into the already-crowded betting arena–which includes three soccer-betting schemes, wagers on horses and numerous state lotteries. To make sure folks don’t consider it the same old game, it won’t be known as “tombola” (the Italian name) but will go by the more “exotic” bingo. The 800 halls, expected to bring in $25,000 a day, are being hailed as a boon to state coffers and entrepreneurs alike.

Related resources:
www.lasmorfia.it
Looking for your lucky numbers? The Neapolitan tradition of interpreting dreams into numbers (“La Smorfia”) is now online.
www.giocodellotto.com
Official lottery site, online games

In three days 19,736 signatures were gathered on a virtual petition to stop the execution of Italian American Derek Rocco Barnabei.
Despite fervent protests, Italian public sentiment once again failed to sway the governor of Virginia, James Gilmore. Derek Rocco Barnabei, the Italian American accused of murdering his girlfriend, was killed by lethal injection Sept. 14 2000. In the aftermath of general hysteria– safety warnings by the government for Americans abroad and accusations of barbarity– the obituaries for Barnabei passed unnoticed. Some by everyday citizens, some by officials but perhaps the most significant was from the city of Palermo. The notice published by the Corriere della Sera, which named Barnabei an honorary citizen of the city, brings to mind another execution. James O’Dell, executed in 1998 in the same prison as Barnabei, sparked the first wave of public outcry against the death penalty and is, in fact, buried in Palermo’s cemetery.
The Corriere’s round-up special on Barnabei & the protests www.corriere.it/speciali/barnabei.shtml
Italians, already passionate against the death penalty, have taken this case to heart. Derek’s mother, Jane, visited Italy several times (as far back as 1998) to raise funds for his defense. Premier Giulio Amato, the Italian parliament and Pope John Paul II have all made an effort to intervene. But the grass roots protest, especially in Tuscany –where the Barnabei family comes from– has been especially strong.
www.regione.toscana.it/campagne/barnabei.htm

Related resources:
The death penalty, even in fiction, is enough to mobilize Italians into action. Writers of popular radio drama "Alcatraz" were forced to change the ending because the public refused to accept the demise of Jack Folla, an Italian American DJ on death row. Folla escaped from prison and met, however, an untimely end as a TV program. The radio show archives live on: www.radio.rai.it/radio2/archivi/forziere/Alcatraz/alcatraz.htm

Teenagers are notoriously reckless drivers, perhaps even more so in Italy where, from the age of 14, they can zip around on small scooters without a license or any training. Florentine youngsters will, no doubt, get some very special training when British historian Paul Ginsborg, 55, steps to the podium in November. Ginsborg, author of “A History of Contemporary Italy," will teach teens how to avoid accidents, emergency procedures and basic driving rules. The city government, which sponsors courses for some 400 youngsters between the ages of 14-19, proudly announced Ginsborg’s involvement–he was the first professor to volunteer. Now, if they’ll only listen.

Related resources:
www.espressoedit.kataweb.it/formula1/test/tipo_intro.msn.shtml
Would you be considered a safe driver in Italy? Take the test

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..

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.

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

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

In September 2000, the Italian Post office issued the first digital signatures for individuals, formerly considered a major speed bump on the information “superstrada.”

Banking customers or businesses wishing to purchase domain names, for example, were required to either fax a signature or have a signature witnessed and authenticated. Interesting to see whether security-conscious Italians–who never mail checks and are wary of credit cards–will change their habits.

Related resources:
For more info http://web.poste.it