Archive for the ‘uniquely italian’ Category
time for reflection
Ah the joys of living in small town southern Italy.
I called Telecom Italia again last night and now before they’ll even connect me with a real person, there’s a recording to remind me that they told me it’d be fixed by “next” Wednesday. (I’m just going to keep believing that they really mean the Wednesday that’s coming tomorrow.)
Um, no they didn’t tell me that, but it was somewhat comforting to know that they’re at least on the case. So I went to talk to one of only four other people in the village who have ADSL to see what he knew.
While I was in there, another of the Lucky Five came in and here’s a paraphrased snippet of the conversation between the two Italians:
Disgruntled Customer #1: So it’s been out for a few days now.
Disgruntled Customer #2: Yes, they’re working on the cables.
#1: I saw that, but I worked on a ship for 30 years. When fixing cables, they put in the new ones *then* take out the old so there’s no interruption of service.
#2: Yes…but we’re in Italy.
And that about sums it up kiddos.
On the bright side, they say that this will give us increased speed once the cables are in–nice since we’re still nowhere near even the speed we were promised when we signed up (we run at about a third of that on a good day).
But on the not-so-bright side, I probably won’t be able to keep up this routine of running to the internet café (yes, it’s a real one with coffee and everything!) every day (a three and a half hour journey because of the bus schedule), so I don’t know where that’ll leave us NaBloPoMo-wise.
Plus, did I mention the computers at the café move ridiculously slowly? I’ve had trouble even viewing my blog, so please excuse any weird-looking things going on. And I hope it’s just that those computers are set for strange color tones or something because my blog is so not supposed to be nearly-iridescent yellow on the sides. Ew.
Today I’m thankful for:
The fact that I can even have these stresses in my life. Sometimes it takes frustrations like this for me to realize just how lucky I am to wake up healthy with a roof over my head, food in the fridge, and loved ones similarly lucky all over the world. I even have two dogs and six puppies to cheer me up when need be.
Sometimes a little down time is needed to really stop and appreciate the basics.
A little time for reflection if you will:
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[tags]telecom italia, nablopomo, 30 days of thanks[/tags]
Murder and Xenophobia: Troubled Times in Italy
[UPDATED AS NOTED BELOW]
I don’t know even know where to begin to write this post and I don’t know where it’ll end up, but I feel like I should so here it goes. I hope you’ll stick with me.
The murder of 21-year-old British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia has thoroughly shaken Italy and England, judging from the coverage it has gotten in British press. And rightfully so. Accidents abroad happen all the time, but murder? And yes, murder is always horrible, but in this case, the suspects make it even more troublesome–especially as none appear to have had any history of violence.
Kercher was stabbed in the neck after, police say, she resisted a sexual attack that in some way involved her American roommate, 20-year-old Amanda Knox, a student at the University of Washington also studying abroad, Knox’s Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, a 24-year-old son of a urologist from Bari, and Patrick Lumumba, a 37-year-old married Congolese immigrant who runs the bar where Knox worked.
The details are murky at this point, but it’s been widely reported that Knox “confessed” to having some role in the killing; from statements leaked by Italian police, Knox said that while Kercher and Lumumba were in Kercher’s room, she stayed in the kitchen and covered her ears when she heard what were surely Kercher’s last screams. Sollecito’s statements have been all over the place, but he insists that he was at home the night of the murder.
[EDITED: Thanks to information from Steve Huff of The True Crime Weblog, Lumumba apparently now says he has an alibi and wasn’t even at the scene of the crime, making this an even stranger story.]
What it sounds like to me is that these three are telling conflicting stories and no one really knows what to believe. It looks like we’ll just have to wait this one out, possibly for forensic evidence to tell what really happened.
And while we mourn the loss of Kercher, who was studying at Perugia’s famous Università per Stranieri (just as our own Tina of Pecorino e Miele did), there is another fascinating aspect to this case from a cultural standpoint–the focus on the online presence of Knox.
Like many her age, Knox kept a MySpace (username “Foxy Knoxy”) and Facebook page, and there’s also a YouTube video of a drunk Knox slurring her words, and, well, being a young adult. Particularly interesting, though, is that on her MySpace blog, Knox apparently wrote a story about rape.
[EDITED: Courtesy of Steve Huff’s blog, you can find “mirrors” of Knox’s MySpace page here and of her blog here; both of the original pages have been made private.]
So here’s another question in all of this–how much should this online information matter? I’m not talking about from a legal perspective, but in the court of public opinion, is this fair? Is anything you put online fair game? Should it be?
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a great debate on this very subject: “Are we being fair?”
For me, I think if you put the information out there, you can’t stop people from looking unless you make it private. You also can’t control their opinions. Would I want to live my life censoring myself just on the off chance that one day something could be used against me? Well geez, just about anything can be taken out of context anyway, so even censoring myself wouldn’t be foolproof.
Drunk videos? Well that’s something else entirely. I say if you’d be embarrassed for your mom, dad, employer, insert other authority figure here to see it, don’t post it. But teenagers (and adults!) don’t often think that far ahead, do they? But they should.
A short story about rape? I’m a writer, so should I avoid touchy subjects just in case I’m ever in the wrong place at the wrong time (not insinuating this is what happened to Knox)? Well that I can’t accept.
It’s an interesting question, and I’d love to know what you think.
*
Now, shifting gears, but still taking off from the Kercher murder–on the Italian side of things, one can’t miss the irony that right now on the heels of a murder allegedly committed by a Romanian immigrant from the Roma (“gypsy”) community, Italian lawmakers would like to be able to expel any dangerous EU citizen, although the targets are clearly immigrants from new EU members like Romania.
Read what other terrible things have happened, including a Roma camp being torn down and a mob attack, here.
Just yesterday, Italian and Romanian leaders met to ask for help from the EU in dealing with large population movements, but only time will tell just how xenophobic Italy can and will get. For many of us in the expat community particularly, we’ve noted how poorly immigrants are portrayed in the Italian media — often the only crimes you’ll see on a newscast are those committed by foreigners.
And by “foreigners,” I mean mostly Albanians, Romanians, and Africans.
Maybe it’s something about coming from countries such as the United States, England, Australia, etc., that have, after many struggles, (mostly) embraced immigrants, but for a lot of us, all we’re seeing is prejudice and hate. To be sure, all of the above-mentioned countries have immigration issues too, but what’s happening now in Italy is so deeply disturbing, and I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this.
There are ways of regulating immigration without resorting to sweeping generalizations about countries and their citizens, and I can only hope that the Italian government will explore them.
Virtually every ethnicity/race that has entered a foreign country has encountered prejudice and worse — we Americans don’t need to go too far into our history to stare the Jim Crow South in the face — but for Italians, for my adopted country, to participate in similar behavior just breaks my heart.
And I can’t help but think of the 11 Italians who were lynched in New Orleans in 1891 in one of America’s largest mass lynchings–after they had been acquitted of the murder of the New Orleans’ police commissioner.
And I just wonder where the prejudice and hate will stop.
Today I’m thankful for:
The safety and well-being of myself and my loved ones.
There’s nothing I’m more thankful for, in fact.
if the shoe fits…you’re not an italian policewoman
When Italy’s Interior Ministry decided it was time to spruce up the uniform of the 14,750 women police officers (for more on the numerous branches of Italian police, head over to Mental Mosaic), they did what many of us do in a fashion crisis.
They bought new shoes–with higher heels for a “younger and sexier look” according to La Stampa.
Trying to save money, though, the government bypassed all the world-renowned (but expensive) Italian shoemakers and went with a company from Romania.
Unfortunately, when the shoes arrived, they weren’t in standard European sizes, so the shoes didn’t fit.
Which means a lot of useless shoes.
Oops.
You think they’ll give the Italian government its money back?
Floor’s open to your comments on whatever leaps out at you. Stomp away.
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[tags]italian policewomen, shoes, bureaucratic blunders, italy[/tags]
What’s Happening in Italy?
Oh a lot, amici miei.
Let’s start from the most serious and head down to the downright silly:
(1) Italian Premier Romano Prodi has called for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty in front of the United Nations General Assembly. Without getting into a huge political debate (although you’re welcome to do so in the comments!), I’m firmly against the death penalty, and I’m molto fiera that Italy has stood up against it in the UN.
Of course the United States will be one of the key opponents of the moratorium, but Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema thinks it has a good shot at passing since public opinion has shifted over the years in favor of outlawing the death penalty. Time will tell, but I’m just happy that the discussion is on the floor and that Italy is in the forefront.
(2) This isn’t technically in Italy, but we’ll get there in a second. The Vatican City State has a new stamp–and not just any new stamp. This time the saint is from Calabria! Yeah! Go San Francesco di Paola!
For those who aren’t up on Roman Catholic saints, Calabria’s own Saint Francis is often overshadowed by Saint Francis of Assisi, the co-Patron Saint of Italy with Saint Catherine of Siena (although there is some debate on that, with Saint Joseph (father of Jesus) as the other contender). Anyway, it’s nice to see *our* Saint Francis, the Patron Saint of Calabria, being recognized.
Here’s a preview:
(3) And finally, guess who’s invading the Bel Paese? You’ll never guess. Or maybe you will. Give up?
This ABC article is actually from April 30 of this year. Scary thing is that the article talks about the time frame of 24-36 months during which Starbucks plans to open branches in France, Germany, Spain, and (gulp) Italy.
Which means we’re *that* much closer to no more of this in the morning:
Yeah right.
So now that I’ve touched on politics, religion, and coffee–three subjects guaranteed to get any Italian fired up (only calcio is missing!)–I’ll leave you to your Saturday.
Hope it’s as gorgeous as ours is here!
Badolato: Into The Heart of Calabria
Ready for some history?
Badolato Basics
My village, the birthplace of my great-great-grandfather, is Badolato, and it’s located between the Ionian Sea and the Serre Mountains in Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot.
Badolato, the meaning of which is in dispute (sorry, only in Italian) was founded in 1080 by conqueror and first Duke of Calabria Robert Guiscard, who along with his brother, took over southern Italy and Sicily for the Normans around that time.
Like many villages of this period, Badolato was built on a hilltop about 5 kilometers from the sea with a good view of any approaching ships. Staying too close to the water was considered dangerous not only because of potential invasion–the southernmost part of the peninsula was the gateway to the entire territory now known as Italy and the rest of Europe–but also because of malaria, which was quite common as some of the area was swampland.
View of Badolato Superiore from the winding road leading up to the village.
And so, Badolato was built as a walled city, encircled by stone and guarded by three watchtowers, one of which is still partially standing (below); the town crest honors these watchtowers and the village’s medieval history.
Many of the original walls around the village as well as the old gates that sealed off the city from invaders also remain, but a castle on a hill that was once the town’s centerpiece (thus the name of the main square Piazza Castello) had to be torn down in the 1970s for safety reasons. Previously, it had cast a shadow on all that was below it, as castles are wont to do.
The piazza is now alternately called Piazza Fosso—fosso referring to the huge hole left behind by removing the hill and castle (it didn’t create a hole really, only leveled off the hill the castle had been on).
Political, social, and agricultural history
As rulers changed throughout southern Italy (German, French, Spanish, Turk, Austrian, Bourbon) Badolato felt each influence in turn, which you can hear in Badolatese, the main tongue spoken around here (a version of the Calabrian/Sicilian language, which some (mistakenly) call a dialect), and taste in the traditional Calabrian cuisine, noted for its fondness for the peperoncino, brought back to Italy by Columbus, although also widely used by Arabs who settled here.
Badolato soon became one of the most prominent and wealthiest cities in what is now southern Italy, swelling to a population of 8,000 (some estimates say up to 12,000) and boasting the palazzi of some of the most influential families in southern Europe, mostly due to production of olive oil, wine, and citrus fruit.
The family of the former baron of Badolato still owns a palazzo or two (although they don’t live here full-time) as well as a grand villa that sits on a huge chunk of the land surrounding the village. Almost all of the land around Badolato is still farmed, including that of the former baron, but most of it is was broken into smaller plots as the feudal system died down around the turn of the 20th century.
Incidentally, on the bigger plots, some families built workhouses (no plumbing, electricity, etc.), but still today it is rare for Calabrians to consider actually living on that kind of open land (most prefer village life and traveling by car or by foot to their land). Indeed getting permits to build is difficult as the land is zoned agricultural. Unless it has some existing structure (at least the remains of a wall!), it’s illegal to build a house on these land plots–which means no subdivisions in Calabria’s future. No complaints here.
Religious heritage
Badolato’s importance and deep religious and spiritual history are represented by its 13 churches and 17th century Convento Santa Maria degli Angeli, once a monastery but now a drug and alcohol rehabilitation treatment center; residents produce their own food on site and even operate a restaurant.
Convento nestled among olive trees
(You may remember this old monastery from the Easter procession)
Some say that it’s possible that the Holy Grail was transported here and may still be buried underground somewhere. In 1070, a group of Calabrian monks went to France and established the Ordre de Sion, which later became the Priory of Sion of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code fame–said to be the keepers of the Grail. The Calabrian monks returned to Calabria in 1090 but no one knows what, if anything, they brought with them from France; could they have incorporated valuable Christian artifacts into the underground ducts and tunnels of a blossoming Catholic stronghold called Badolato?
Effects of emigration
Like many southern Italian towns, Badolato was a victim of emigration, largely abandoned during two major waves of flight: the first in the early twentieth century (when my family left) and the second after World War II.
In both instances, emigrants were looking for better opportunities, but especially after the second World War when southern Italy was truly war-torn and downtrodden; my 82-year-old neighbor has sung for me a children’s rhyme that complained to Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, that they were living the day without bread and the night without lights (u jornu senza pane, la notte senza luce). A flash flood that wiped out a part of the village in the 1950s surely made the decision to leave easier for many.
Badolatesi fled to, among other places, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia, many leaving behind their homes with only whatever they could carry, never to return.
Others moved just down to the coast, where Badolato Marina was being built in the 1950s–living nearer to the water was now considered safe, plus coastal life was also more convenient with the railroad and highway running through there.
Indeed, P’s mom remembers where there wasn’t even a paved road leading down from the mountain village to the sea–I’ve yet to walk the path, but it’s still there–and anyway, there were only a handful of cars in the village even in to the 1960s, so you can that imagine folks tended to stay close to home.
Because of this mass emigration, the population of Badolato Superiore now stands at about 350 (total population with Badolato Marina is around 4000). This set-up is quite common throughout southern Italy, by the way, so that you’ll often see a “Superiore” town up on the hill/mountain, and its counterpart closer to the sea with “Marina” or “Lido” after the name.
Badolato Marina
(Sorry for the poor quality here; it’s an old scanned photo of mine)
The Ship of Kurds
Badolato had fleeting hope of a boom just after Christmas 1997 when 825 Kurdish refugees landed on its shores; this made international news and you can read more about it here (the man on the left in the third photo is my vicino Giuseppe!).
The Badolato community welcomed the Kurds as potential workers and young revitalizers of the old town. The new immigrants are mostly gone now, though, either deported or having left for Germany, France, or elsewhere in the EU for work.
Still, Badolato remains one of the most involved immigration centers in all of Italy in so far as welcoming migrants and helping them with housing, health care, work, and psychological adjustment to life in a new country; one of my translation contracts with the local health care agency involves a special EU project to include cultural and linguistic mediators in this process.
Current and Future Badolato
And yet Badolato remains largely empty, like the village Farfallina wrote about, although the population swells enormously in August when many return to their hometown from Germany, northern Italy, etc., for ferie–Calabria, generally, is quite a hot spot for Italians and other Europeans looking for great, clean beaches.
Even the New York Times agrees.
Photo © Franco Muìa
Badolato is undergoing a revitalization, though, as there have already been quite a few properties sold to international buyers over the years; casa by casa things are looking more lived in, although I’m the only year-round foreigner who lives here (Badolatesi would say the transplants from Genoa, Naples, and elsewhere in Italy are also stranieri, but I’m the only non-native Italian).
There is a lot of potential here for tourism, as you can probably imagine, although there would need to be a lot of infrastructure work done first–getting here and getting around isn’t always easy. No one wants to commercialize the town to the point that it’s another Siena or Cortona, overrun with tourists, but a few more visitors, a few more people who want to experience the real Italy complete with women carrying baskets on their heads?
Well that would be nice.
We may not have much support from the government, but we do have green mountains, a clear blue sea, fresh mountain air and water, warm souls, and delicious, fresh food, and for me, that’s certainly plenty.
Final Notes
For those of you who have made it this far (thank you!) and still want more, you can see more photos under the Scenes from Village Life label, my first Virtual Tour, and the two most recent posts: Destination Calabria: Photo Tour of a Medieval Village (Part I) and (Part II).
And if you want to plan a trip, just let me know!
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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