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Italians Battle Over Church Bells

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The Italian town of Sormano, about an hour from Milan, will soon wake again to the now controversial sound of church bells thanks to the generous donation of a 90-year-old grandmother. Whether the 650 or so inhabitants of Sormano will be grateful for the gift is perhaps another matter.

Maria Mazza, born and raised in the town, will fork over 20,000 euro to fix the bells in the parish church of St. Ambrogio which she feels have too long been silent.
In recent years, irritated citizens from all over Italy have waged wars against noisy church bells.

Although ringing from bell towers once regulated Italian daily life, since locals now rely on alarm clocks, cell phones and the Internet for important information there is much debate about for whom the bell tolls. The question of whether churches have the right to ring bells throughout the day — and sometimes at night — has split even practicing Catholics. While Italians may ‘listen to both bells’ (sentire tutte le campane) to mean giving equal consideration to both sides of an argument, many simply don’t want to hear bells, period.

After years of complaints, parish priest Don Bruno Ginoli was actually put on trial and fined about 150 euro in 2002 for disturbing the peace after ringing church bells ‘too vigorously.’ Part of the problem is that technology has also come to bell towers — they can now be set to ring automatically and with volume controls — so it’s a matter of trial and error before some overzealous priests strike a balance.

Sleepless Italians in numerous cities have called in the national health service to gauge the decibels of church bells — often finding that they are loud enough to be considered ‘noise pollution.’ Concern over the matter lead the Bishop of Bergamo to pen a decree about when and how often the bells can ring out, though he did reinforce the idea that bells would not be silenced because they are part of the traditional way that the church communicates with the parishioners.

Mazza, however is optimistic about her gift, “It’s a special way of thanking God for having reached this age,” said the former nurse. “I wanted to give something back to the town which has given so much to me.”

Whether the people of Sormano will remember her fondly or curse every time they hear the bells is perhaps a different story. 1999-2007 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:
A Bell for Adano
How times change — the Pulitzer-prize winning tale of an Italian-American major in World War II who wins the love and admiration of the locals when he searches for a replacement for the 700 year-old town bell that had been melted down for bullets by the fascists…

Archbishop Invites SMS Abstinence on Good Friday

Italians Boycott ‘Broadcast’ Confessionals

Sex advice? Ask the nuns online

Italy Mourns Actor Alberto Sordi

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Sordi with Federico Fellini & wife Giulietta Masina

by Nicole Martinelli

A tide of emotion swept through Rome today when 250,000 people said a last good-bye to Alberto Sordi, one of Italy’s most beloved comic actors. Sordi died Monday night of bronchitis in Rome at age 82. Thousands of Romans passed by his villa in piazza Numa Pompilio to leave flowers and notes and or visited the open coffin to pay respects for two nights in a row. The funeral, attended by luminaries and everyday folk, had to be moved to the larger Basilica of San Giovanni to hold the crowds.

Like many Italian actors, he started his career with dubbing. He gave a quirky accent to Oliver Hardy in the Laurel & Hardy comedies and then went on to lend voice to a young Marcello Mastroianni. Sordi graduated to acting with Federico Fellini, first starring as the “White Sheik” in 1952 then as an overgrown adolescent in “I Vitelloni” a year later.

Sordi, nicknamed “Albertone Nazionale,” racked up more than 190 performances as an Italian everyman — whether he played a policeman (“Il Vigile”), a taxidriver (“Il Tassinaro,” “Il Tassinaro a New York”) an Italian who emigrates (“Bello, onesto, emigrato Australia sposerebbe compaesana illibata”) or one obsessed with America (“Un Americano a Roma”). Long considered an icon, he put in an amusing cameo as himself in Fellini’s “Roma,” and won numerous awards including the Golden Career Lion from the Venice Film Festival in 1995.

“Alberto’s death is one of the saddest events of my life,” said Sophia Loren who acted in ‘Two Nights with Cleopatra’ with Sordi in 1954. “We were very good friends, even though we didn’t get the chance to work together as much as we would’ve liked.”

After co-writing many of his films, Sordi put himself behind the camera as director in “Fumo di Londra,” in the mid 1960s and kept acting and directing until recently with “Incontri Proibiti” in 1998 where he played opposite blonde starlet Valeria Marini.
On his 80th birthday, Albertone was named honorary mayor for a day in Rome. Current Mayor Walter Veltroni had this to say about him,”It’s a great loss for our city and out country. Both Romans and Italians will miss the artist who, above all others, knew how to interpret with intelligence and love the full spectrum of life and the contradictions of society. Personally, I’ll miss a friend that I had come to love before I was lucky enough to know and spend time with.”@1999-2008 zoomata.com

Related resources:
www.albertosordi.it/default.htm
Sordi’s official site — film clips, photos, sound bites…

The White Sheik

Nehemiah Hunter Brown (Florence)

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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.
Looking to move to Italy?Try the reader-recommended Survivor Package .

ID Card:
Nehemiah Hunter Brown – musician, singer, writer, arranger, vocal
coach. Age: 50 – Grandson of an American slave.

Currently living in:
I have lived in Florence for 6 years.

By way of:
Born in Charlottesville, Va., lived in Mass. and 15 years in California (San Diego and San Francisco).

How (or why) did you get here from there?
At the end of 5 years working in the investment industry I decided to return to college to study the Italian language.

What role did language skills play in your experience?
The fact that I did do some study before coming to Italy, gave me at least some sense of security while traveling and in my rapport with Italians. (It’s hard – not impossible – to “break the ice” when you don’t speak the language.)

Your biggest challenge:
My biggest challenge has been the difference in the way Italians and Americans think. We think 7 days a week,(continuously, working) 5 + the
weekend for many Italians. (Many places and services don’t exist on the weekend) We also believe, “Volere ? potere,” after years of a patriarchal society, many Italians ask permission instead of exercising their freedom to do something, that is unless the family is from the
aristocracy; in that case we often see the face of the “ugly American”.

What did you do to feel at home or adapt here?
My degree counselor told me to stop speaking English or I would never adjust to the Italian culture. A part of that was the insistence that
everything must be done the American way; The second key was to stop living like a tourist and start living as a resident. It really helps when you
need to do reality checks. It also helped to learn to express my anger in the Italian language.

What do you still have to get used to/learn?
I still don’t have a good since of direction in the cities like Florence. I call them circular Labyrinths.

Compare an aspect of your home town (or other place you’ve lived) to current town.
Florence is very much like my hometown Charlottesville (I love it but there is no ocean/breeze); It is also much like San Francisco, where I lived more
than 15 years before moving here. There is always something to do but you have to research the choices. It is cosmopolitan like my two other favorite cities.

If you think in terms of the high exchange rate, lira/dollar, it is not expensive to live here. However, if one thinks and is paid in lire, it is very expensive. Consider the cost of food; sometimes it seems more expensive than San Francisco. The bus systems sucks, especially when there is a strike, which is often…busses, trains, airlines. Information, of the transit nature, is difficult to come by. Rarely is there an announcement of your particular stop. You just pray that you can read the schedule, if you find one, or that someone is getting off where you are supposed to go.

Latest pursuits:
www.florencegospelchoir.com. My friends, here, encouraged me to go for it. It helps to be patient here and to remember the there are some things only God can do. My latest pursuit is to create two choirs in two prisons in Florence. One is at Solliciano, the men’s prison and the other is at the women’s facility in Empoli. After 3 weeks things are going well.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is not true:
I don’t know that I had one.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is true:
I had a notion that Italians know their friends better that we know ours. Friends spend a lot of time together; at first I thought that it was strange. (Like, “we just saw each other yesterday or earlier today, and you want to spend more time together? Don’t you have a life?) Friendships are a
great part of a person’s life here, and they last a long time.

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?”
My response is that one should prepare. Go to some night classes at the community college (like I did) get a good Italian teacher who teaches Italian culture and you will be In Love with the culture, in a realistic way. Don’t be clandestine about your stay in Italy, it takes a little doing but you can be here, legally. It helps to have friends that know the law–policemen, lawyers, notaries and accountants.(You need to have faith, it’s not enough to be a blond, female and American).


How would you sum up your Italian experience in a word (and why)?
“Un miracolo” (the challenges) I came to Italy 6 years ago to study. I had problems with my financial aid (it was late and /didn’t arrive/or was cut without notice), my father died 5 months after I arrived, there was an air strike so I couldn’t return home for the funeral. My oldest brother died last year. For me living here was not an escape from the states or from being a Black man in the US, with all its challenges. (I have been called everything, by
my fellow Americans.)

The rewards have been that I have studied at The University of Florence for 3 years, performed for Ferr? and members of the fashion scene at the prestigious Pitti Immagine. Last year I performed for the Pope John II at the Vatican (2 days) and at the Olympic Stadium before 75,000 people and the Italian soccer team.

I am a resident of Florence Italy, and an honorary citizen of Santo Stefano di Magra, in the province of La Spezia. I have held numerous seminars on Jazz, Gospel and Spirituals and American Music all over Italy. I teach at two Elementary schools, and an Italian high school. I have been interviewed/ in Italian magazines, newspapers and television as well as Switzerland and Portugal.

My languages skills are improving constantly as I have to communicate at a technical and business level.

Italy’s best-kept secret:
The small communities are the best-kept secret because there you find many cultural events organized at a very high level that manage to include everyone.

Italy’s Oldest Former Prostitute Turns Consultant

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Just don’t call her Granny. Fiorina Siliprandi, 85, is one of the last living former prostitutes from Italy’s legal brothels and has much to say on the subject.

Siliprandi, who has recently published her memoirs, has offered herself as a consultant to the Italian government as it struggles to stem the country’s flourishing illegal sex trade.

After joining the ranks in 1939, Siliprandi, nicknamed “Velvet Tongue,” worked in Ethiopia, Tunisia and landed in Bologna where she became the madame of a first-class brothel in 1956. Her career ended shortly after when the pleasure houses were closed forever by law two years later.

“I’m ready to lend my expertise if brothels become legal again,” said the former prostitute who has racked up about 60 years of experience. “The book tells the story without any kind of censure, because the truth is we were taken care of in the bordellos.”

Lawmakers, particularly those from the conservative Northern League, may want to take her up on the offer. Leader Umberto Bossi made a controversial proposal for government-regulated ‘Eros centers’ (apartments shared by a few prostitutes) last year that is still causing heated argument.

Italy’s sex market consists of an estimated 50,000-70,000 prostitutes, about 70% are illegal immigrants lured to the Bel Paese with the promise of a job then forced into sex work, according to Eurispes data. The study reports almost half of all Italian men regularly frequent the so-called “fireflies” (lucciole), some 70% of these are married.
Embarrassing would-be johns into staying home has been the object of numerous schemes in recent years in Italy — including exorbitant fines, photographing clients and towing away cars parked in “suspect” zones. Most have created more brouhaha than change, because they conflict with Italy’s severe privacy law which, for example, doesn’t permit photographing drivers from the front for everyday traffic violations.

Brothels were legal in Italy until 1958 when the Merlin law, named after creator senator Angelina Merlin, abolished them. At the time, these “closed houses” (case chiuse) employed 2,700 women.

Italians Launch Nepotism: the Game Show

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A new game show centers on what could arguably be one of the Italy’s worst faults: nepotism.
“I Raccomandati” (Recommended People) where celebrities root for friends or family members trying to make it into show business, made a strong debut on Italian state broadcaster RAI.
The TV show premiered the same week yet another Italian scientist fled abroad citing ‘rampant nepotism.’ The resulting brain drain has become a ‘national crisis’ said President Ciampi who tried, unsuccessfully, to keep the scientist in question from transferring his expertise elsewhere.
The first episode featured politician Ignazio La Russa promoting a comedian friend, singer Tosca d’Aquino trying to get her mother into the spotlight and showgirl Adriana Volpe with a cousin who does celebrity imitations. Admittedly, even the show’s writer says he received a ‘little push’ from TV host brother-in-law Alberto Castagna to get on board.
Celebs make a case for performers, then viewers vote the winners who, in addition to the prime-time publicity, snag a vacation.

Italians, apparently, don’t mind the entertainment version of this age-old system — ratings for ‘I Raccomandati’ were good, the show came in second after a prime-time movie but beat out the Milan-Chievo soccer game — garnering over six million viewers. .?1999-2008 zoomata.com

Italy by Numbers: nativity scene or Christmas tree?

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82% Italians prefer crèche over tree
58% because it’s “family tradition”
24% because it “allows more creativity”
18% because kids prefer it

More ammunition in the eternal debate in Italy around the Christmas holidays — what represents the season better: the Nativity scene or the tree?
For the first time in years, this poll of over 700 Italians by a radio station signals the comeback of the manger scene. The religious symbol, which can range from a tiny terra-cotta representation to an elaborate countryside scene taking up the living room, had fallen out of favor in recent years for the secular evergreen, though many homes simply find room for both.

The manger scene, or presepe, is a very old tradition — dating back to Medieval times — and many Italian towns have live representations or exhibits but that doesn’t necessarily make it much of a hit with today’s children, according to the poll. Recent popularity has led some cities to expand live versions of the scene — this year some 250 extras will participate in the living crèche taking place from December 22-24 in Roccavignale, province of Savona in Liguria. ?1999-2009 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: Virtual Italian manger scenes
www.presepenapoletano.it/default.htm

www.tightrope.it/parnea/programma.htm

www.grottaglie.net/mostrapresepe/default.htm

www.comunicarte.it/Roccavignale/index.htm

Italian Catholics Can Get ‘Unchristened’

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by Nicole Martinelli posted: Thu Dec. 5 8:24 am

Disgruntled Catholics have come a step closer to washing off holy water they were baptized in as tiny children. Upon request, priests in Italy must note alongside baptism information the will of adults to leave the Roman Catholic Church. Bowing to pressure from lobby groups who call the act ‘unchristening,’ the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) recently outlined the procedure.
Both sides disagree on the scope of the phenomenon — one activist group claims 10,000 people have presented unchristening requests; the Church says it is trying to do right by a ‘few dozen’ people who wish not to be counted as Catholics.

Statistics, however, show a large number of slumbering or disinterested members of the country’s predominant religion — although 98% of Italians are baptized, only 36% attend mass regularly and over 14% never attend at all, according to 1999 data from Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). Baptism records are used for Church statistics and influence whether last rites and religious funerals are administered.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, CEI president, made it clear that the Church considers the issue an entirely bureaucratic one. “You can’t cancel a sacrament any more than you can cancel the act of being born,” he told newspapers.

For Catholic writer Vittorio Messori, the matter is just an adjustment by the Church to avoid legal woes. “In the same way a priest can leave the church but never de-priest himself, people can decide not to live as Catholics, but if baptized they will always be Catholics,” he told zoomata. “These pressure groups have made a big issue out of nothing and the Church is simply trying to avoid additional problems.”

Bureaucratic or not, the policy change is a David-versus-Goliath type victory for small but persistent groups like the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR) that has been campaigning for unchristening since 1995. At first, they made little headway with parish priests who refused requests to modify or cancel baptism records.

Lobby groups took the Church to court finding an ally in Italy’s strict privacy law. Judges ruled that the Church must adhere to the law forbidding organizations from keeping sensitive personal data on an individual without consent or the possibility to modify that information.

Giorgio Villella, secretary general of UAAR, 66, admits he hasn’t had time to have himself de-christened yet. He’s too busy with the next item on the group’s agenda — ‘de-cruxifixing Italy,’ removing the ubiquitous symbol of the Church from post offices, courtrooms, schools and hospitals. “For too long the presence of the Catholic Church was taken for granted in Italy, but not anymore.”

1999-2007 zoomata.com

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.

“Enterprising” Son of Mafia Boss Arrested

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Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, an entrepreneur who tried to get a “Mafia-free” certificate, was arrested for getting involved in the real family business.The 25-year-old Riina, son of infamous “boss of bosses” Tot? Riina, received an early morning wakeup call from Palermo police charging him with Mafia association.

Crimes were classics of the Cosa Nostra trade: extortion, money laundering, drug trafficking and rigging public-works contracts. Among the 21 arrested with Riina were several prominent Palermo businessmen.
Giuseppe (also called Salvo) and his sister Maria Concetta made news recently for advertising an agriculture machinery business on the Corleone city web site. Although the site was ordered shut down by court, the banner is still on the city’s home page. Giuseppe also appealed Italian courts for refusing to give him a “Mafia-free” business certificate. Giuseppe wanted certification that the business was clean from Mafia ties to dispel public suspicion. After a two-year investigation, authorities discovered that operations were, in fact, a front for the family enterprises.
Father Salvatore “Totò” Riina is currently trying to appeal multiple life sentences. He’s serving time for organizing the 1993 bombings of the Uffizi, which killed five and injured 29, as well as the car bombings that same year in Milan and Rome. Older brother Giuseppe has been in jail since 1997 and was condemed to life in 2001 for four murders committed in Corleone.

Related Resources:
Midnight in Sicily
An intoxicating blend of Italian art, crime, food, history and travel, “Midnight in Sicily” is a fascinating account of events leading to the trial of Giulio Andreotti, seven times prime minister of Italy, for the killing of a journalist and for his association with the Sicilian Mafia.

Nazi-Porn Viewing Experience (Yawn)

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We couldn’t resist taking a look at Nazi Porn flick “Women’s Camp 119,” if nothing else for the sheer fun of getting an especially raised eyebrow from our newsstand man. Well, the movie is bad. Not “good bad” or “scary bad” just plain bad, even the fact that “camp” is part of the title can’t save it.
Murky audio, skittish camera work, two-penny gore and liberal dose of almost quaint soft-porn characterize an effort which can best be described as for afficionados only.
“Women’s Camp 119” called “KZ-9 Lager di Sterminio” in Italian (dir. Bruno Mattei,1977), tells the story of a group of women interned in fictional Rosenhausen, where a nefarious doctor carries out perverse and ludicrous experiments– including the “rehabilitation” of two homosexuals by lip-licking, leering former prostitutes. The love story between the good doctor and his Jewish assistant is, predictably, doomed but final justice awaits an escaped prisoner who gets revenge on the evil doctor. In our staff screening, only half the group sat through the whole thing, and that with applied fast forwarding. Legend has it Mattei, prolific director of z-movies, was once asked what he considered his best film. Mattei is said to have responded, “None of them.”
We asked a second opinion from cult movie critic Robert Firsching. Firsching, whose encyclopedic “Amazing World of Cult Movies” site reviews 1,618 flicks, is especial fan of Italian horror movies of the 1970s. Here’s his take.

Second Opinion: Q&A with cult movie buff

zoomata> Where would you draw the line between genre and dangerous?

Firsching> I think the distinction has a great deal to do with the particular film’s tone. In the case of “KZ-9 Lager di Sterminio,” (ed. note: the Italian title) the film’s point of view is clearly one of condemnation. Although it was released as part of a flood of films exploiting Nazi atrocities, it clearly takes no pleasure in them. I think it is actually a far better education for young viewers than a film like “Schindler’s List,” which tiptoes around the horrors, or the various documentaries providing camp footage which is already so familiar as to have lost its impact. I would include another war atrocity film, the Chinese “Hei Tai Yang 731” (aka “Men Behind the Sun”) as an example of graphic violence being used to hammer home a historical point to jaded audiences.

zoomata> What role does the quality/age of these films have in your answer?

Firsching> I don’t think quality or age play as much of a role as “intent,” for lack of a better word. Consider a film like “Sleepers,” certainly a quality film, but one which teaches that it’s okay to lie in court, commit murder, and basically subvert the entire justice system because you were abused as a child. I found “Sleepers” far more offensive than even the most grotesque of the Italian Nazi films, because all of the ones I’ve seen at least have some moral compass.

zoomata> These films seem to be readily available on the Internet but most people wouldn’t know they even exist–is it a matter of how they’re distributed that makes a difference?

Firsching> “Well, “KZ-9″ is not a film for everyone. It’s brutal, graphic, and quite horrifying. But I don’t think it should be banned or would incite anyone to commit a crime, if that’s what you mean. If anything, a Jewish person seeing the film might be enraged enough to seek retaliation against a German, but I certainly can’t see why Jewish groups would object to the presentation.”

zoomata> Why did Italian directors make such a contribution to what you dubbed “Nazi-themed Sexploitation Films”?

Firsching> Italian exploitation has always been based on taking one successful film and making numerous copies and reworkings of it in a brief span of time, milking all the money out of the concept as long as it lasts. Italian directors had plenty of incentive after Liliana Cavani’s “Il Portiere di Notte” (1973) and Tinto Brass’s “Salon Kitty” (1975) both did well at the box-office. That led to 8 such films in 1976 and 3 more in 1977, as well as 3 French entries between 1976-78. After that, the well ran dry and the Italians turned their efforts to zombies, cannibals, Caligula and Mad Max.

Related links:
www.awcm.com