by Martin Solly
The Eat-alian Way
The Italians are foodcentric people. Much of Italian life revolves around the growing, buying, preparing and, above all, eating of food. Whenever possible, meals are shared and eaten in company. The very word ‘company’ comes from two Italian words, con (with) and pane (bread), implying breaking bread in friendship.
“Italian enthusiasm knows no bounds when it comes to arranging a meal.”
But the Italian meal in company is much more than breaking bread, for Italian enthusiasm knows no bounds when it comes to arranging a meal. First there must be the antipasti (starters), usually a minimum of five, then the first course (the primo), with a choice of different pasta or rice dishes; next the main course (the secondo), which will be meat or fish with the accompanying vegetables (the contorno); then cheese, and finally the dessert (the dolce) followed by coffee (espresso). The meal can happily take from two to five hours to consume. If it is lunch, you have a couple of hours to recover before supper time.
Food
The Italians have always appreciated quality and keep the very best of foods for themselves. Italy is still an agricultural nation and its small farmers (i contadini), who wield enormous power in the community, are highly practical men. They pay little attention to E.U. directives and farm according to time-honoured ways, harvesting wonderful produce.
Many city-dwellers have relatives in the countryside who will keep them stocked up with home-grown and home-produced specialities. The salad and wine that are put on the table in honour of a guest will be very special, and every bite and drop will be truly memorable.
The Italians acknowledge the changing of the seasons and the different delicacies linked to each. The whole family will take part in preparing the passata di pomodoro (tomato purée) in the late summer, go mushrooming in September, grape-picking in October, and in March collect those exquisite young dandelion leaves that add a zest to salads.
“They learn how to cook when young, and a look at Italian cookbooks shows that the writers start from the premise that their readers already know how.”
The secret behind Italian cooking lies not only in the fact that the ingredients are fresh and of good quality, but also that most Italians, male and female, are excellent cooks. They learn how to cook when young, and a look at Italian cookbooks shows that the writers start from the premise that their readers already know how. Italian recipes are much less precise than British or American ones and don’t say, ‘carefully add 150 grams of this’ or ‘slowly pour in 4 fluid ounces of that’; they simply say, ‘take a pinch of this’, or ‘add a couple of drops of that’.
Despite their admiration for many things American, the Italians have been remarkably resistant to some American foodways. Coca-Cola and hamburgers have been accepted, but peanut butter and baked beans have not; breakfast cereals are advertised, but without much success. Italy is the only country in the world where the marketing strategies of McDonald’s have been hampered by the highly successful Slow Food Movement.
Grain, grape and grappa
Italians are the world’s largest consumers of whisky, especially malt – an average bar in Italy will stock a greater selection than most pubs in Scotland – and beer is becoming fashionable with the young, especially if it is strong and imported. But what really runs in the nation’s veins is wine.
“What really runs in the nation’s veins is wine. Country wines vary from the regal to the robust, each with its own distinct character.”
Italian wines range from purple-black table wines frothing in your glass to sparkling dry whites. They are generally drunk locally and young, and the fact that many of the best Italian wines are unknown outside Italy serves to keep their prices reasonable. Country wines vary from the regal to the robust, each with its own distinct character. As a village salami-maker remarked as he savoured a glass of his region’s vino nero: ‘A wine is like a man; it can have flaws and still be pleasing.’
On the whole, Italians drink only when they eat, but this does not mean that they stint themselves. The meal will be preceded by an aperitivo, and each course will be accompanied by a different wine, with a sparkling wine reserved for the dessert.
“On the whole, Italians drink only when they eat, but this does not mean that they stint themselves.”
Unfortunately, the human stomach was not designed for such conspicuous over-indulgence, so the Italians have thought up a variety of ingenious ways to help their digestive system cope. They drink mineral waters throughout the meal, and after it can choose from a host of evil-tasting medicinal preparations called digestivi, or perhaps a fiery grappa, in the hope that it will spur their jaded innards into action.
“The human stomach was not designed for such conspicuous over-indulgence, so the Italians have thought up a variety of ingenious ways to help their digestive system cope.”
Despite these precautionary measures, the hard work that Italian digestive systems are asked to perform often leads to their going on strike, and constipation is a common complaint. Other nations’ remedies are suspect, and Italians refuse to eat the German-style wholemeal breads and American-style high fibre cereals which might solve their problems, in much the same way as they refuse to change their eating habits, by eating, for example, a little less.
Health
“Italians are in general fairly healthy people who spend a great deal of their time thinking that they should feel healthier than they do.”
The most common Italian illness is hypochondria. Italians are in general fairly healthy people who spend a great deal of their time thinking that they should feel healthier than they do. This is partly because they imagine that everyone else feels better than they do, and partly because they have absurd expectations about their own health. They worry constantly about it. Could that stomach ache be the beginnings of a peptic ulcer (forgetting that they ate too much the night before). Might that headache be the beginnings of a brain tumour? (forgetting that they drank too much the night before).
Italians are always eager to tell friends and neighbours about their preoccupations at length, so that animated exchange you witness as you pass may as well be about piles as politics. The recipient may not be quite so happy to be targeted, and when health bores have run out of friends and neighbours they may be obliged to button-hole any available stranger.
People are happy to spend vast sums of money servicing their hypochondria. If their doctor tells them they are in the pink of health, they will go to a private specialist. If this specialist finds nothing wrong, they will go to another one, and so on, until they find a doctor who is prepared to prescribe for them. The prescription will then be taken to the local chemist and discussed at length, before the medicine is bought (and one or two others that the chemist has recommended as well; after all, you never know…). Consequently, the typical Italian bathroom cupboard is crammed with as many medicines as most dispensaries, most of them years beyond their expiry date.
Problems can occur when Italians are genuinely ill. They have already exhausted their doctor’s patience and precious time, and they have already visited half the specialists in town. One possible solution is the hospital Casualty Department. But is that ingrowing toenail a serious enough ailment? Or might the hospital surgeon remove the wrong toenail in his zeal?
“The typical Italian bathroom cupboard is crammed with as many medicines as most dispensaries.”
Italian news reports are full of hospital horror stories, like the one about the Franciscan friar who went into hospital for a hernia operation and came out with only half his trachea. Or the footballer who had the wrong knee operated on. Despite the fact that there is little real evidence of Italian hospitals being any better or worse than those of other European countries, Italians will often travel to Switzerland or France for treatment, in the unshakeable belief that hospitals function better elsewhere.
Dental care
Most Italians look wonderfully fit and healthy, until they open their mouths. Dental treatment
in Italy is very expensive and, unfortunately for them but fortunately for their dentists, Italians tend to wait until they have serious problems with their teeth before making an appointment. They treat their teeth as they do their ancient monuments, waiting until they are almost beyond repair rather than investing in continuous maintenance. Why bother to do a temporary fixing when you could wait until there is a really big job to be done?
Politics
Government
“The government is seen as an alien, hostile organisation to which the people have no real link.”
Centuries of government by foreign powers have given the Italians a strange idea of government. It is not viewed as a friendly public organism designed to protect and look after their interests at home and abroad. Rather it is seen as an alien, hostile organisation to which the people have no real link or sense of belonging, one that is hungry for taxes that will go into the pockets of the current group of fat cats who are running it. Fortunately, it can conveniently be blamed for the nation’s problems. An old political cartoon sums up the Italians’ attitude. A man is standing on his doorstep looking out at the pouring rain. The caption reads: ‘It’s raining. The Government’s a bunch of crooks.’
“As it was always obvious who would win any election, the majority of Italians became used to being on the winning side.”
Italy has had upwards of 58 different governments since the Second World War, but until 1994 its politics were basically dominated by one political party, the Christian Democrats, kept in power by a coalition of allies. Cambio di governo came to mean a cabinet reshuffle rather than a ‘change of government’. So, as it was always obvious who would win any election, the majority of Italians became used to being on the winning side. Much of the present uncertainty in Italian politics is that people are no longer sure which is the winning side.
Politicians
Italian politicians behave in much the same way as their ancestors. The power struggles, political corruption and clientalism that plagued the Late Roman Empire are alive and well in Italy today.
Italy is a country which seems to survive despite the efforts of its politicians to ruin it. The Italians love playing politics and the aim of the game is often difficult for foreigners to understand. One of the rules of Italian politics is that nothing which is said means exactly what it appears to, and de-codifying the speeches of the nation’s leading politicians is an art form in itself.
“Politics permeates Italian life, and office or boardroom meetings can be fraught with tension.”
Politics permeates Italian life, and office or boardroom meetings can be fraught with tension. The most highly charged meeting of all is that held annually in every apartment building, the riunione di condiminio. No holds are barred as administrators and homeowners spend hours heatedly debating whether the front façade should be redecorated. If you can survive one of these meetings successfully and have actually enjoyed it, then you are probably ready to become a rising star on the Italian political circuit.
Achieving power and patronage are regarded as all-important goals; a Sicilian saying runs ‘Comandare è meglio di fottere’ (‘Ruling is better than screwing’). And yet, perversely, in Italian politics it is often considered more important to destroy what your rivals are trying to build than to try and build something yourself.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), the Italian people, like the Roman mob of old, can still be kept happy and quiet with ‘bread and circuses’ and Italian politicians and leaders know this. It is no accident that Italy has one of the best football league championships in the world. Matches starring the world’s most expensive football players have replaced the gladiatorial combats and displays in the Colosseum.
Left or right
The labels of Italy’s political parties have often been very confusing. The Liberals were never particularly liberal, the Socialists not especially socialist, the Communists definitely not communist, and the Christian Democrats neither very Christian nor very democratic.
“Italians worry enormously about what should be labelled right- and left-wing.”
Italians, particularly those on the left, worry enormously about what should be labelled right- and left-wing. Debates take place over whether bodybuilding is right-wing, or whether employing a home help is left-wing, anxieties not lessened by the increasing awareness that it really makes little difference either way. And in the end, despite their great individuality, the Italians tend to follow the herd instinct. It was one of their own, Italian journalist Indro Montanelli, who said that they are ‘pecore indisciplinate’ (undisciplined sheep).
Bureaucracy
“There are so many laws and ministerial directives in the Italian system that their strict application can more or less paralyse any bureaucratic procedure.”
All Italians believe that long bureaucratic procedures are of the utmost importance, but for gli altri, of course, not for themselves. Without these procedures other Italians would most certainly get up to every kind of mischief. Moreover, there are so many powerful interests involved in the Italian bureaucratic system that it is unlikely that anything will change. The Italian state earns vast revenues from the fact that many bureaucratic or legal procedures involve carta bollata (taxable, officially stamped paper), and the same procedures also keep hundreds of thousands of civil servants in gainful employment. The longer the bureaucratic process, the greater the number of people involved. Furthermore, without the long bureaucratic process, there would be no point in circumventing it, and the thousands of galoppini (unofficial specialists in accelerating bureaucratic procedures) would also be without employment.
There are so many laws and ministerial directives in the Italian system (it has been calculated that to be entirely in line with the law, an Italian citizen should know some 800,000 rules), and they are so diverse, complicated and often contradictory, that their strict application can more or less paralyse any bureaucratic procedure. And because even minor civil servants have very strong powers in Italy, to accept, refuse or delay requests or procedures, they are treated with enormous respect and courtesy, especially when they are wearing uniform. Conversely, the officials ‘become’ their jobs when they are in uniform and expect to be treated with the kind of deference northern Europeans reserve for crowned Heads of State.
“Every citizen knows that falling foul of the system, by upsetting the wrong official or not contacting the right middle man could mean years of waiting.”
Italian bureaucracy needs to be approached tactically. If approached the wrong way, officials become intransigent and will make little or no effort to help you solve your problem. If approached the Italian way, it can be flexible enough to permit a solution to be found.
Every citizen knows that falling foul of the system, by upsetting the wrong official or not contacting the right middle man could mean years of waiting. Officials can make your life easy or difficult, depending upon their whims. A Californian teaching at an Italian university wanted to take some courses. In order to enrol he went to the university admissions office and was told that he would need a copy of his university degree certificate, with a translation certified by the Italian consulate in Los Angeles. Having gone to California during the summer vacation and obtained the necessary certificate and translation, he returned to the admissions office. “Ah, very good, now all we need is a copy of your high school diploma.” The Californian’s protestations that obviously he couldn’t have entered university without a high school diploma were of no avail. According to the admissions office he had to return to Los Angeles, get it and have its translation certified by the Italian consulate there. In the end he was forced to do what he had wanted to avoid doing at the beginning, which was to ask one of his senior colleagues to do him a favour and intervene so that he could by-pass the official.
“While officials are treated with respect by Italians, this is not the case for places or objects that are public.”
While officials are treated with respec
t by Italians, this is not the case for places or objects that are public. The Italian has no feeling that these things are his, and therefore he should treat them well. His house or flat will be spotlessly tidy and clean, but he will think nothing of leaving litter and rubbish untidily on the pavement and street outside; there they become the city council’s responsibility, not his.
Referenda
From time to time the Italians are called upon to vote in referenda on important issues, such as divorce, abortion, nuclear power, the use of pesticides in farming and the number of television channels any one Italian citizen can own. This gives them a sense of being involved in political decision-making.
“Referenda give Italians a sense of being involved in political decision-making.”
A referendum requires a 50% turn-out to be a valid quorum. Thus, despite an increasing number of Italians wishing to protect the country’s ever-diminishing number of birds and beasts, a referendum on the issue only resulted in a 45% turn-out and new legislation was blocked. On the other hand, the Italians turned out in force to vote in favour of having television films and documentaries interrupted by commercials.
The mafia
Mafia is a word used all over the world both for criminal organisations and for coteries of power, so that people talk about a sports mafia, an arts mafia or a business mafia, yet the model is always the Italian mafia.