16 February 2010, 3:38 pm
There’s a documentary you guys should watch. It was reviewed by the New York Times (“It feels as if you were watching a transmission from another planet”) and it should be in (very selected) theaters in the US right now (and then probably on Hulu, for those of you who live in the US or browse with an US IP). It’s called Videocracy, it’s by an italian-swedish director and it shows pretty well what Berlusconism is like. It’s not a “fair and balanced” movie but it’s true and very funny, and it answers a faq I get: “Why don’t you live in Italy anymore?”*
* Considering that mr Videocracy was elected with a landslide of votes for the third time.
29 October 2009, 4:32 pm
Among the reasons that convinced me to merge my english and my italian blogs there is the strange relationship many italians have with this language. On one hand some of us like to use lots of anglismi, english or english-derived words, in normal conversation (often mispronouncing them). On the other hand lots of people are learning it, thus discovering small but meaningful joys such as understanding what the heck Dylan is singing about, or hearing Al Pacino’s amazing voice. Yes, because one of the problems with italians and english has to do with the savage practice of dubbing movies and tv shows; add to this the almost mythological italian laziness and you have a nation where, according to most tourist guides, “english is seldom spoken, especially in small towns”.
I write in italian quite a bit, for a number of reasons; I love the language, and if you don’t know it you should give it a try. This country is also very inspiring as far as constructive (and destructive) criticism, and this blog is well known for it. My english blog is a more neuter space (I don’t like to bitch about Italy in english, unless I have to). Merging the two means also to connect two universes where I do slightly different things (and so I am slightly different, too). Then of course there’s the unpredictable element which is also fun: there are people at least from 3 continents reading this blog, and you never know where things may begin.
There will be posts either in a language or the other. Only in a few instances (special announcements or news) the posts will be in both: in these cases they will belong to english and italian categories.
1 October 2009, 1:27 pm
There’s a new bus line in Milan, Italy. It has bars on the windows and local policemen inside. It roams the city, searching for illegal aliens (a condition that since a couple of weeks is a crime over here). It stops at regular bus stops, the cops jump down, ask for IDs and take people without papers to the Identification and Expulsion center. Obviously they devote their attention mostly to non-whites. This aberration has been reported only by a few newspapers, including La Repubblica, but not by Tv. Please spread the news – over here it’s getting weirder every day. (Click on the photo for more images) (This news in english, from Adn/Kronos)
12 August 2009, 3:57 am
People often ask me why I want to leave Italy and become dutch. One of my main motives is explained in a nasty but realistic article by Michael Wolff on Vanity Fair, entitled All Broads Lead to Rome:
“A Berlusconi-employed journalist (…) explains, “Italians need someone like him because he is just like them. Everybody has a mistress. Everybody cheats on taxes. Everybody does something illegal because it’s impossible to live legally.”
I don’t do any of these things, so life here can get really complex and frustrating. What’s more:
“Also, we love authoritarians. We need a strong man. If not Mussolini, well, then someone like Mussolini.”
The italians actually might, I sure don’t.
6 May 2009, 11:54 am
Many people here in the US asked me why I’m permanently leaving Italy. Among other reasons, I simply cannot stand anymore to live in a country that has elected, with overwhelming majority, Silvio Berlusconi as Prime Minister. His latest, public controversy with his wife – over his unabashed passion for very young women – falls perfectly within his pimpy, little Cesar style. This isn’t a simple case of Bushism, I’m not surprised italians elected him and I will not be when they will elect him again and again: he is the Prime Minister most italians chose, elected and deserve. I’m just not italian enough to appreciate a guy for which the rules, any rule (including laws), is an obstacle to be removed. I have good reasons to believe most italians truly appreciate his style and approve of his conduct. I feel just like a transexual now: someone born in a nationality he doesn’t recognize as his own. But I’ll be dutch very soon, and so Berlusconi will be just another international clown, from a country that produces the best food in the world – and unfortunately very little else.
3 February 2009, 12:07 am
I love the imaginary Italy you often encounter in America, mostly in food-related situations. It is of course a postcard version of my country that bears very little relation to actual contemporary Italia. The main character of this fictional Italy is certainly Alfredo, a not so common name that here seems to symbolize all food italian. The legend says that the actual Alfredo pasta recipe (which italians call Fettuccine alla Panna, and generally avoid) was passed on by an actual restaurant in Rome (Alfredo alla Scrofa) that I’ve never seen – and believe me, I literally spent my adolescence in the vicinity of Via della Scrofa. Still, it might be that some chef named Alfredo suggested to someone that a very cool pasta recipe was Fettuccine with butter and milk cream. In this case I wouldn’t recommend his restaurant (but 110,000 websites seem to think otherwise).
Wanna have something simple and nice? Try Spaghetti alla Carbonara (for 2):
1/4 lb. bacon
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 lb. pasta (spaghetti or linguine)
2 whole eggs, moderately whipped
Fresh grated Pecorino cheese
Cut the bacon into little pieces and fry in the olive oil until crispy.
Boil the pasta al dente. Drain and put it back in the pot. Immediately throw in the eggs, the (very hot) bacon with its cooking oil and sprinkle with cheese. Toss and serve. Add black pepper to taste.
PS: By the way, there’s also an imaginary USA in Italy: it usually features some dude in jeans and cowboy hat, a low rent version of the Marlboro man.
Benvenuti su Fosforo, compilation di amenità verbali di 
