Truck drivers demanding government subsidies to meet rising fuel costs mean closed gas stations and empty shelves in pharmacies and grocery stores across Italy.

Strikers are vowing not to hit the roads again until December 14, but three days into the protest, my local supermarket in Milan already looks like the scene of wartime famine: there was no fresh fruit or vegetables and only a few half pints of milk left.

Strikes in Italy are a frequent nuisance but generally polite — sure, you may have to re-arrange a few appointments or leave work early but you’re still going to be able to get on with it.

But as Bloomberg reports, things are different this time around:
The strike will cost food producers 200 million euros ($294 million) a day because of delays in the delivery of milk, fruit, vegetables and meat, according to the Italian agricultural association. Pharmacists warned yesterday that they may run out of medicine.

Touch Italians and food, though, and things suddenly become serious.

Most Milan residents don’t blink when standing next to a 10-foot, 20-pound model at the supermarket and they’re pretty used to dodging sidewalk photo shoots as if they were trash.

Not a lot of major Hollywood productions choose Milan as a backdrop, though, so the city held a special presser to boast that “The International” directed by Tom Tykwer (“Perfume,” “Lola Runs”) starring Naomi Watts and Clive Owen has come to town. (Watts and Owen snapped here with president of the Lombardy regional government, Roberto Formigoni).

The plot? Owen (an Interpol agent) and Watts (a Manhattan district attorney) are on a whirlwind investigation to uncover a corrupt banking scheme that finances an arms dealing ring, bringing them to Berlin, Istanbul and yes, even Milan. Not overly original (or hugely compelling) but whatever.

For the next 10 days or so, there’s a chance one might see Watts or Owen by hanging out near the train station. The crew will be shooting there as well as at the Victorian Hotel Gallia across from the station or the one real skyscraper — the Pirelli Tower — at the other end of the square. Prepare to gawk.

Italians are often thought to wear their hearts on their sleeves, now an enterprising headhunter wants them to wear resumes emblazoned on their chests.

Massimo Rosa, who has two decades of experience in the hr biz, invented the “Curriculum T-shirt.” And patented the idea, he’s so sure of its marketability, said to already have fans outside Italy.

I’m not sure I buy it, partially because of the Borat-worthy claim on the English homepage ( “The only T-shirt to the world that it makes to find job you!”), where two vaguely Germanic models wear shirts with job titles on them. Cost ranges from €30-40 euro ($42-$57) via the online shop.

One of the great things about Italians is that if they’re not broadcasting an affinity for Roberto Cavalli or Guru, their clothes are textless triumphs. The subliminal message is: “Look at me!” “Admire me!”

They are not an invitation to read, and never to chuckle, “I’m with stupid” or “If you’re rich, I’m single.” (Another reason to admire Italians: they don’t go in for bumper stickers.)

I’ve mentioned it before, it’s easy to think of Italy as a pleasure country, but if you go by the constitution it is “founded on work,” and labor problems are almost always front and center here.

A few recent examples: at the end of the newscast on the radio every day the announcer reminds me that journalists have not managed to renew the national contract for almost two years, the finance minister railed against “big baby” bonus to get 30-somethings out of the nest and work-related deaths continue to loom large.

I have a hard time, though, imagining where the unemployed Italian might sport the T-shirt: the Sunday passeggiata, stroll through town? Nah. That means broadcasting to absolutely everyone that your family has at least one desperate element.

Having an aperitif with friends? Even an Italian would have a hard time flirting in an iron-on tee that says you need a job.

At the park? Clearly you’re a loafer and not much of a job hunter. A conference? Too casual. (I can, however, imagine buying armfuls for American friends: the mish-mash of Italian and English — “area manager mercati asiatici” — has a certain playful appeal. )

So, wear a T-shirt, get a job? If the devil wears Prada, only a poor slob would wear his CV.

When police broke into an ordinary-looking villa near Palermo to capture mob boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo on Nov. 6, the Cosa Nostra bigwig was trying to flush orders to henchmen, called pizzini, down the toilet.

What police found among his papers, strewn along with bags of dried pasta, was better than that: a modern-day etiquette guide for men of honor.

More than one Italian TV news report made fun of it, interspersing the rules with scenes of Marlon Brando in “The Godfather” and comic Roberto Benigni in his send-up of the Mafia “Johnny Stecchino.” It does seem almost too stereotyped to be true.

Here’s part of what the typewritten, four-page photocopied guidebook said, in somewhat rickety Italian (translation mine):

1. No one can introduce himself directly to another one of our friends, an intermediary must do it.

2. Never look at the wives of our friends.

3. Never be seen with police.

4. Don’t frequent pubs and clubs.

5. It is your duty to always be available for Cosa Nostra – even if your wife is about to give birth.

6. Appointments must absolutely be kept.

7. Wives must be treated with respect.

8. When asked for information, the truth must be told.

9. Do not take money from other people or other families.

10. People who can’t be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone with a close relative in the police force, anyone with a traitor in the family, anyone with bad behavior who doesn’t adhere to moral values.

SESTO FIORENTINO, Italy — Professor Stefano Mancuso knows it isn’t easy being green: He runs the world’s only laboratory dedicated to plant intelligence.

At the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV), about seven miles outside Florence, Italy, Mancuso and his team of nine work to debunk the myth that plants are low-life. Research at the modern building combines physiology, ecology and molecular biology.

“If you define intelligence as the capacity to solve problems, plants have a lot to teach us,” says Mancuso, dressed in harmonizing shades of his favorite color: green. “Not only are they ‘smart’ in how they grow, adapt and thrive, they do it without neuroses. Intelligence isn’t only about having a brain.”

Plants have never been given their due in the order of things; they’ve usually been dismissed as mere vegetables. But there’s a growing body of research showing that plants have a lot to contribute in fields as disparate as robotics and telecommunications. For instance, current projects at the LINV include a plant-inspired robot in development for the European Space Agency. The “plantoid” might be used to explore the Martian soil by dropping mechanical “pods” capable of communicating with a central “stem,” which would send data back to Earth.

In addition to studies on the effects of music on vineyards, the center’s researchers have also published papers on gravity sensing, plant synapses and long-distance signal transmission in trees. One important offshoot of the research activity is an international symposium on plant neurobiology. Next year’s meeting will be held in Japan.

More from zoomata’s Nicole Martinelli at Wired.