Category Archives: daily life

daily life

Italian Mafia Boss Fortune Up For Grabs?

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Mon Feb. 23 18:32 pm zoomata staffItalian government officials are rumored to be trying to track down relatives by the last name of Perri, unwitting heirs to a fortune left by mafia boss Rocco Perri who emigrated to Canada in the early 1900s.

Perri, who became known as king of the bootleggers in Canada, disappeared leaving around a million dollars in 1944. In his heyday during prohibition, he was said to have sold 1,000 cases of 60-proof whisky a day. His wife Bessie was killed by rival gangs, his brother Michele has since died and the whereabouts of his two children Caterina and Giuseppe are unknown.

That means a small fortune would go to distant relatives in the southern Italian region of Reggio Calabria who may have never even heard of him. If there are any direct descendants the quest may not be a quick one, since the Italian phone book counts nearly 3,000 Perris throughout the country.

Italian media reported that the town hall of Platì (population 3,500) where Perri was born in Reggio Calabria has seen a surge in requests to review birth and death records.
A fortune is a good reason to be diligent in tracing one’s roots to see whether the mythical wealthy ‘zio americano,’ or American uncle, many Italians are convinced they have somewhere?
Related resources:Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic

Christopher Columbus — a New Italian Holiday?

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Thu Feb. 19 18:25 pm zoomata staff
Overturning the old Latin proverb that no one is a hero in his own country, Italians want to celebrate Christopher Columbus with a national holiday.
Better late than never?
Americans have been celebrating, and more recently contesting, the Italian explorer from Genoa off and on since the late 1700s, his patrons the Spanish and countries in South America since 1915 — but it took the 500th anniversary of his death in 2006 for Italians to jump on the bandwagon.

The proposed public fete is more than just a nod to the past. Although Italy has one of the highest number of public holidays at more than 16 per year, almost all of them are religious. The proposed Columbus Day, Oct. 12, would also be the first national Italian holiday to celebrate an individual.

“I’m not sure I see the point, really, why Columbus and not Dante or Michelangelo?” history teacher Alessandra Daverio told zoomata. “This country has had many great men, and their anniversaries are often honored with special initiatives so I don’t understand a national holiday only for Columbus.”

Not by chance Italians, who know the sailor as Cristoforo Colombo, plan to call the holiday “Columbus Day” in English. After American cousins successfully lobbied Congress for recognition of the invention of the telephone by Italian Antonio Meucci in 2002, politicians in Italy battled to see who could out-ceremony the inventor who died in the US in poverty. City officials in his birthplace of Florence proposed a bas-relief along in the Santa Croce church, where many local sons are honored, even if, like Dante, they died in exile.

The 1,500 Italian organizations behind the Columbus Day initiative have their work cut out for them — as with Meucci, there’s very little of Columbus left to celebrate in Italy. Of the two tombs said to contain his remains, both are on foreign soil (one in Seville, Spain and the other in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic) and the ‘Columbus House’ in Genoa, thought to be where his mother’s house once stood, was built long after his death.

Daverio remains skeptical about whether plans for the holiday will come to pass.

“Another holiday in the fall isn’t such a bad idea,” said Daverio. “But it could end up the way of other proposals like the one for a patron saint of Italy — lots of talk, but it hasn’t made it to the calendar yet.”
Colombus day lobbyists hope an early start will mean they’ll manage to push the holiday through the obstacle course of the Italian government before the 2006 anniversary.?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.

Clive Hawkins (Cagliari, Sardinia)

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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.

Looking to move to Italy? Try the reader-recommended Survivor Package
If you live in Italy, we would love to hear your story–Contact form

ID Card:
I’m Clive Hawkins, 34, and I teach English as a foreign language to adults in a private school. I’ve lived in Sardinia for 3 years and have just committed to at least another year here.
Currently living in:Cagliari, Sardinia.

By way of: Watford, UK.

How (or why) did you get here from there?
I’d grown tired of life in the suburbs of London and had felt that there was a lot more out there than just the 9-5 routine I was following. Therefore I decided to take an English teaching qualification, something I’d wanted to do for years, which has given me the opportunity of working almost anywhere in the world. I chose Cagliari because at the time I had a girlfriend from here so it seemed as good a place as any to start my travels. (Note to self: It really is time I moved on? This isn’t travelling!)

What role did language skills play in your experience?
I arrived here without a word of Italian so completely relied on my girlfriend to help me get through daily life. At the time this was obviously invaluable but with hindsight it encouraged me to be lazy with regard to learning the language because the need wasn’t there. However, even this still left me severely limited in what I could and couldn’t do so after a couple of months I started to knuckle down and was surprised to find it wasn’t as difficult as I’d expected. An almost immediate result was that the local people became more accommodating as they could see I was making an effort.

Your biggest challenge: My biggest challenge was adapting to just how difficult and time consuming some things can be to do here. The infamous bureaucracy you hear about ISN’T an exaggeration! Even with locals to help me I found myself being passed from pillar to post as nobody seemed to quite know what they were doing. You just have to bite the bullet and get on with it and eventually you’ll get all the pieces of paper you need to be legal. Patience really is a virtue here.

What did you do to feel at home or adapt here?
I was very lucky that when I came here I was with my girlfriend and stayed with her family, so I never had the misfortune to feel lonely. Her family and friends were all very friendly so I was never short of anyone to show me around or help me. I’ve since discovered that this is a typically Italian trait. You really would be hard pushed to find more hospitable people.
Also finding a job almost immediately helped, especially one in an English school working with English people. It was good to be able to chat in my own language and be around people with a common culture. They also provided invaluable advice from an English perspective on how to survive. Find your own, but not to the exclusion of the locals or you’ll never adapt!

What do you still have to get used to/learn?
It’s an old cliche but the driving is abysmal. The sheer arrogance of a large proportion of the drivers is incredible. The concept of waiting patiently does not exist and they’re happy to risk their lives just to gain a few precious metres in traffic. In fact this attitude is also reflected anywhere where waiting is involved (not the life threatening bit, unless they catch me on a bad day!) i.e. bars, shops, banks etc. It’s just one of those cultural differences you have to get used to. So as not to get too angry I’ve now found myself doing the same hey, when in Rome!

Compare an aspect of your home town (or other place you’ve lived) to current town.
Don’t get me wrong, as I’m proud of where I come from, but one of the biggest differences between Cagliari and Watford is what happens after dark. In my home town (and I guess this goes for most of the UK) there is a greater drinking culture and inevitably more violence. Here, in Cagliari, people seem to be able to have a good time without getting drunk (some do, obviously, myself included!) and as a result I can honestly say that in 3 years I’ve never seen a fight! (football stadium aside).
Another noticeable difference is how people spend their free time. Here they seem to do more with it, whether it’s playing sport, going to the beach or even just taking a walk to the piazza and meeting friends for coffee. Sunday evening isn’t spent at home feeling fed up that tomorrow is a work day; they are happy because it isn’t Monday yet!

Latest pursuits:
Living on an island in a city by the sea my pursuits tend to be beach-orientated, even if that mostly involves only relaxing with a good book, swimming and chatting with friends. A recently broken toe has put paid to football and tennis (at least that’s my excuse anyway!)

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is not true:
Italian women are ugly and become fat on their 30th birthday. This is so NOT true.

A preconceived notion about Italians/Italy that is true:
They’ll argue for fun but don’t take it personally!

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?”
Do it. Study a bit of the language before you get here, even if it’s just basic courtesies for shops and bars , you’ll soon pick it up when you get here. As for a job I guess that depends on the individual i.e. qualifications, whether you can come and work for a branch of your current company, what you’d be prepared to do etc.
Try to sort out as much of the paperwork you’ll need BEFORE you get here (if possible) and be prepared to adapt. Finally, don’t be afraid to talk to people ? you’ll find them very open and usually pleased to have the chance to show off their English.

How would you sum up your Italian experience in a word (and why)?
Life changing. (I know it’s not one word but I can?t think of only one, and I’m a teacher! Che vergogna!) Why? Because I’ve become more relaxed, more open-minded, healthier and as a result a lot happier.

Italy’s best kept secret (music, culture, food, way to get round things)
Summer outdoor discos. Great music*, great locations, great vodka tonics and great company. Dancing as the sun is rising really is a lot of fun!
* Joe Dolce, Renee+Renata and Spagna are NOT typical of Italian music ? trust me!

For Italians, Grass is Already Greener

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47% Italians “never” dream of packing it in for somewhere else
74% Italian “day dreamers” relive pleasant past memories, rather than think of future
46% Italians prefer to live in present time, rather than past or future

zoomata staff posted: Thu Jan. 15 16:13 pm

Italians, though lucky enough to enjoy a mild climate, all the art you’d ever want to feast your eyes on and excellent food, are often, well, less than enthusiastic about their homeland. Blame it on the eternal government problem, wildcat strikes, nepotism, merciless bureaucracy, brain drain, mammoni — Italy remains a country where a standard response to “How are you?” can be translated as “OK enough.”

Few, however, would seem to subscribe to a ‘grass is always greener’ mentality, if this recent poll of over 1,000 Italians is to be believed. Not only do nearly half never even dream of packing in the Bel Paese for a tropical paradise, but they are also intolerant of the daydreamers who do.
When asked to opine on why they thought one might daydream, most thought that the daydreamer “just wanted escapism, even though they had people close to them to listen and help.”
Three-quarters of Italians who do get lost in the occasional reverie prefer to relive pleasant past memories rather than speculate on a radiant future.

Another indicator that Italians are more interested in living in the here and now showed up when asked whether they’d rather live in another age or the future. The only clear preference, 46%, was shown for now while the Renaissance, the Roman age and the future garnered a measly 10% each. Carpe diem!?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:
“Living La Dolce Vita: Bring the Passion, Laughter and Serenity of Italy into Your Daily Life”
grumbling excluded…

Pimp Fined for ‘Damaging Image’ of Italian Art City

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zoomata staff posted: Thu. Dec. 24 15:49 pmProstitution and artistic splendor don’t go together, according to an Italian court judging a pimp in medieval jewel Perugia.

In a landmark sentence, a 22-year-old man was fined for “harming the image and historical patrimony of Perugia” and sentenced to three years of jail for forcing a minor into prostitution. Just how much he’ll have to pay for damages to the Umbrian city, 176 km (109 miles) north of Rome, will be decided by a separate court. Prostitution is not illegal in Italy but exploiting or coercing sex workers is a crime.

“Prostitution contributes to crime and the high visibility of prostitutes working the streets in the capital of Umbria harms tourism,” said prosecutor Antonietta Confalonieri. “This is the first time an Italian court has made a similar decision.”

Perugia, where Renaissance master Raphael learned the trade from teacher Perugino, is home to an important university, an international jazz fest and is considered capital of the Italian chocolate world.
The city center hasn’t always been off-limits to streetwalkers. Like many Italian towns, in 15th-century Perugia prostitutes were allocated a central red-light district between the two main squares to ply their trade.

City council member for social services, Wladimiro Boccali, is satisfied with the judge’s decision.

“It’s not about the money, though the fine will go to the association that helps take these women off the streets, ” he said. “We’re not going to remain indifferent to this slavery, we can’t pretend it’s not there anymore.”

There are an estimated 50,000-70,000 prostitutes in Italy, about 70% are illegal immigrants lured to the country 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.?1999-2003 zoomata.com

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

Italian Mafia Town: Name Change or Trademark?

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zoomata.com staff posted:Wed Nov. 26 15:29 pm

One local man’s crusade to clear the name of Corleone, a Sicilian town long associated with the mafia, pitches him against politicians who are more interested capitalizing on the organized crime connection with a trademark.

Lawyer Antonio Di Lorenzo is collecting signatures for a petition to revert to the town’s older, less stigmatized name of Cuor di Leone ("Lion Heart").

It’s an uphill battle, because Di Lorenzo needs 50,000 signatures — or about five times the number of Corleone residents — and many would rather cash in than wipe out the town’s history.

Officials decided in 2002 that Corleone, considered home to some of Italy’s most infamous Mafia families, should become a brand name. "It’s useless to deny that it’s a very powerful name," said mayor Nicolò Nicolosi."We’ve verified that it attracts the public, so we’re in the process of registering it. Changing the name at this point is crazy."
The Corleone brand will likely be used for a line of dairy products from the town’s creamery, which is in the process of being privatized.
Notable native sons of the town of 11,000 in the province of Palermo include fugitive boss Bernardo Provenzano and clan head Totò Riina, currently serving several life sentences.

Corleone will also ring a bell with consumers because of "the Godfather" films, thanks to the fictional family of the same name. It isn’t the first time the town name has been used to sell products, it was also the subject of a much-contested campaign for Benetton clothes.

Corleone isn’t the only Sicilian town to contemplate a name change for publicity reasons. In May, Porto Empedocle in the province of Agrigento decided to change its name to Vigatà, a fictional town hopping with nefarious activity made popular by mystery writer Andrea Camilleri.?1999-2003 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:
Rebels & Mafiosi: Death in a Sicilian Landscape
An investigation of the historic orgins of the Mafia….

Italians celebrate ‘imported’ Halloween

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zoomata.com staff updated: Oct. 20 2004@ 10:02
Italians have taken a shine to ghosts, ghouls and mummies — in just a few years, the imported festival for Halloween has taken the Bel Paese by storm. Italians are expected to spend 250 million euro in parties, costumes and gadgets this year, according to consumer group Codacons, 20% more than the year before.

“Halloween is starting to overshadow carnival,” Enrico Brusa, president of a party supply company in Genova, told newspapers. “More people are choosing to throw parties on Oct. 31, it’s more trendy, more original compared to the usual costume party for carnival.”

Not everyone is getting into the macabre spirit. This year religious authorities in Palermo and Vicenza spoke out against the American holiday, the latter ‘suppressing’ a party for children organized by the city council. In 2001, Rosario Crocetta, head of public schools in Gela, Sicily offered about $500 as a bonus to schools in his district that didn’t throw Halloween parties for elementary and middle school students. Crocetta said that the fanfare and candy of the American import overshadowed local traditions for the day of the dead, Nov. 2 — in which Sicilian children await traditional marzipan sweets and toys, left the night before ostensibly as gifts from dead relatives.

The Italian celebration has a few interesting local twists. Trick-or-treating is still not common, Halloween costume parties for children are often organized as part of Italy’s fall food celebrations. Instead of the usual prepackaged hard candies, Italian kids can stuff themselves with pumpkin risotto, porcini mushrooms and chestnut specialties. Italians are also busy inventing a local alternative to the ‘dolcetto’ (treat) as this year’s contest in Modena contest for chocolatiers to invent a ‘Halloween sweet’ shows.

And, like carnival, celebrations aren’t limited to just one day. The month of October is considered fair game and in many parts of Italy, the party goes on for weeks. Ladispoli, in the province of Rome, was one of the first towns to don the Dracula teeth with a Halloween f?te six years ago. It’s become so popular that it has morphed into a full-fledged Halloween fair — last year more than half the town’s 27,000 residents took part in costume labs, “witch food” booths and general merrymaking. Amusement park Gardaland has also gotten into the act as a way to boost sagging fall attendance with an ad-hoc haunted house and specials for the second year of ‘Halloween month.’

Halloween in Italy is not just for kiddies, though. Oct. 31 is undoubtedly a good excuse to party — the day after Italians are on official holiday for All Saints celebrations. Billboards abound for a foreign beer company, hailing itself as the ‘official sponsor of Halloween,’ and night clubs throughout Italy are hosting costume parties. Ties to the local culture aren’t always excluded — adults will party all night while they relive medieval traditions in Grazzano Visconti (province of Piacenza), including a reenactment of the legend of the town’s famous ghost.

It looks as though the night of the living dead will likely become a permanent fixture in Italy.
The Halloween hoopla seems to have sparked more initiatives around traditional Italian customs. On Nov. 2, the day Italians honor the dead, Rome will hold a series of poetry readings in cemeteries and Northern League newspaper La Padania will publish photos of the dearly departed as a public service.”?photo + text 1999-2004 zoomata.com
This is an original news story. Play nice. Please use contact form for reprint/reuse info.

Italy by Numbers: Blackout Brouhaha

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1 nationwide blackout that ‘could never happen’
18 hours, before power restored completely
17% (circa) imported energy, Italy
2% European average
(infinite) bickering
1 cultural/technological shift: cell phones over church bells

Italy’s recent blackout, for which anyone in a position of responsibility is sticking to the ‘it’s not my fault’ alibi, has a few interesting cultural implications.
Italians learned they can count on their mobile phones in an emergency — and no longer on church bells — to face blackouts expected to plague the country for all of 2004.

Italy’s Chief of Civil Protection service, Guido Bertolaso, used text messages to update Italians stuck in the dark. Mobile phones users received information about what to expect and were advised not to go to train stations, use elevators or drive unless necessary.
The service was a lifeline for many Italians. Households with fiber optic Internet setups (about 300,00, among the highest number in Europe) lost use of fixed line phones along with power. However, cell phones won’t replace low-tech standbys like battery-run radios in an extended blackout. Cellular transmitter stations run on battery backup power, but batteries may not last more than a few hours.
The technology revolution has silenced one of the oldest forms of warning and emergency information — church bells. Although ringing from bell towers once regulated Italian daily life, bells throughout the Bel Paese were silenced or muted during the blackout. On Sunday sacristans, now used to pushing a button to program or amplify bells, found themselves struggling with ropes to ring bells the manual way. ?1999-2003 zoomata.com

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

Italian Ghost Town Kept Alive by Retirees

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Ceregate is a tiny town in Italy’s Val Staffara, suspended between the borders of Lombardy, Liguria and Piedmont, with five stone houses surrounded by wild cherry trees and a small church.
It has no residents, no electricity or running water. A symbol of innumerable ghost towns in the area, where industrialization has led young people away for work, it stays alive thanks to efforts of elderly residents in the surrounding areas.

Ceregate, part of the hamlet of Cegni (a whopping 75 inhabitants) hit its all-time population density with 25 residents.

“The last one died in 1996,” said Giuseppe Zanocco, 90, prior of the Ceregate sanctuary. “His name was Carlo Buscaglia. He sold coal, lived by candlelight and got by using water from the river. Once a week he went to Cegni for groceries, an hour on foot and a quick chat with the people he met along the road.”

So the residents of Cegni, most of whom get by with the minimum state pension and wood-burning stoves for heat, took it upon themselves to keep the town “alive.” Twice a year they repopulate the sanctuary, Easter Monday and the first Sunday in September. The recently-restored church opens doors for Mass, a picnic is held and an auction of local foodstuffs provides maintenance for the sanctuary—this year’s raised about $1,500.

The parish priest, who looks after a total of 500 souls in four towns, commented: "This isn’t a ghost town, but a town that’s slumbering in history. We’re happy and proud to wake it up every once in awhile."

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

Italians Protest ‘Beastly’ Traditions

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by Nicole Martinelli
posted Tue 25 Aug 9:07 am

The death of two horses in Siena’s famous Palio race has reopened debate about Italy’s celebrations involving animals. While the bareback race in Tuscany, dating back nearly 350 years, is arguably the best-known tradition centering around animals it is by no means the only one celebrated each year by Italians.

The palio incident is the latest clash between Italian traditions and modern sensibilities. Towns throughout the Bel Paese use animals for an estimated 1,000 traditional rites yearly — including donkeys, oxen, turkeys, doves, snakes, pigs, geese, cows, frogs — and animal rights’ groups are trying to put a stop to it.

Florence, for example, has already responded to pressure by replacing live animals in both the Cricket Festival and the Scoppio del Carro, where a dove used to be sent speeding into the cathedral tied to a lit rocket. A similar ritual takes place every year in the Umbrian town of Orvieto, where protests have become an integral part of the Palombella Festival for Pentecost.

"It’s not a celebration any more but a battlefield," said journalist Daniele Di Loreto. "I have the suspicion that more people show up for the fighting than the Palombella — like car races, it’s much more exciting if there’s an accident."

The bone of contention: a live dove, symbolizing the holy spirit, is tied to the center of a wheel of fireworks and placed on a steel cable. The short, albeit not very peaceful trip for the dove involves gliding down 300 meters with fireworks exploding all around. End of the line is the sacristy of the 13th-century cathedral — if fallout from the fireworks lights flames on the heads of the Virgin and Apostles it’s a good omen for the coming year. The dove, shaken but usually still alive and unharmed, is then removed from the contraption.

Local bishop Lucio Decio Grandoni, main opponent of the animal rights groups, maintains the dove doesn’t suffer. Following tradition, after the wild ride, the bird is given to a bride and groom to keep — and at least doesn’t risk ending up dinner. As a concession, the dove won’t be tied to the wheel anymore but placed in a glass box. For now, it looks like the Palombella Festival will continue as usual: the local court archived a formal complaint by protesters after last year’s celebrations.

For Italy’s Antivivisection League, these traditions may date back centuries but their treatment of animals has no place in modern society.

"These are sacred-profane rituals, usually in honor of some local saint or Madonna, linked to primitive fears of famine, epidemics," said Mauro Bottigelli of LAV. "But no holy spirit or expression of sincere devotion gives people the right to crucify a dove in Orvieto or sacrifice an ox in Roccavaldina or slit the throat of goats in San Luca."

For religious rites, groups advocate substituting the animal with a stand-in papier-mâché version. Animal rights groups lobby hard to ban altogether various races and contests involving animals. Given the number of these horse-and-pony shows, it may take some time — protests didn’t stop the recent turkey race in the province of Palermo but the geese contest in Como, part of medieval celebrations featuring jousting contests and boat races, won’t take place this year in September. ?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:
Celebrating Italy — Food & Traditions
Recipes and folklore from the Bel Paese

Italy’s Snake Procession
www.zoomata.com

Italians Battle over ”Dead” Holidays
www.zoomata.com