Italian Culture

Speak the Culture Italy
I
BE FLUENT IN ITALIAN LIFE AND CULTURE
HI S T ORY , S OC I E TY A N D L I F ES TY L E • L I T E R A T U R E A N D P H I LO S OP HY
AR T A N D A R C H I T E C T U R E • C I N EMA A N D F AS H ION
M US I C A N D D R AM A • FOO D A N D DR I NK • M E D I A A N D S PO R T
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I
B E F L UEN T IN ITA LIA N LIFE AND CUL TURE
H I S T O RY, S OCI E T Y A ND L IF E S T Y L E • LIT E RATURE AN D PHIL OSOPHY
A RT A ND A R C H IT E C T U R E • C INE MA AN D FASHION
M U S I C A N D DR A M A • FO O D A ND D R IN K • MEDIA AN D SPORT
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ISBN: 1 85418 628 0 / 978-
185418628-7
Publisher Editor in chief Design & illustration Acknowledgements
Neil Thomas Andrew Whittaker Phylip Harries Special thanks to:

Editorial Director Richard Grosse Denise Bianchini
Additional editorial
Angela Spall falconburydesign.co.uk John and Pauline Davis
contributors
Lisa Kramer Taruschio Johnny Bull Matt Rendell,
David Banks plumpState Mariella Scarlett
Johnny Bull plumpstate.com Carlo Presenti at the
Amy Wilson Thomas Italian Cultural Institute
iStockphoto
Patrick Carpenter
Jonathan Schofield Printed in the UK by
Ashford Colour Press
Rome, as seen from

Castel Sant’ Angelo
Contents
3. Art, architecture
and design p87
3.1 Art and design p89

3.1.1 The eternal
template: Ancient Italian
art p90
3.1.2 Killing time ’til
Giotto arrives: medieval
art p93
1. Identity: the 3.1.3 Master strokes:
foundations of the Renaissance in Italian
Italian culture p3 art p98 4. Music, theatre,
3.1.4 Back to reality: dance and comedy
1.1 Geography p5 2. Literature and
the power of Baroque p137
philosophy p53
1.1.1 Italy: where is it p107
4.1 Music p139
and what does it look 2.1 Literature p55 3.1.5 To the avant-
like? p6 4.1.1 The sounds of
2.1.1 A book shy nation garde and back: modern
tradition: Italian folk
1.1.2 Local colour: the p56 Italian art p110
music p140
Italian regioni p9 3.1.6 Style and
2.1.2 Classically 4.1.2 Life in opera’s
1.2 History p19 trained: the Roman substance: modern
shadow: classical music
1.2.1 Did you know we authors p58 Italian design p113
p143
used to rule the world? 2.1.3 The Three 3.2 Architecture p117
4.1.3 Italian by design:
Ancient Italy p20 Crowns of the early 3.2.1 Built to last: opera p148
1.2.2 From the Dark Renaissance p61 Ancient architecture p118
4.1.4 Rock, pop, rap,
Ages into the light p26 2.1.4 The anti-climax of 3.2.2 Classical hip hop, dance and the
1.2.3 United in name the High Renaissance leanings: the medieval rest… p154
at least: the making of p65 builds p121
4.2 Theatre, dance and
modern Italy p33 2.1.5 Telling it like it is: 3.2.3 Designing comedy p161
1.3 Language and literature in the modern harmony: Renaissance
4.2.1 Dramatis
belonging p43 era p68 architecture p124
personae: the key figures
1.3.1 Speech patterns: 2.2 Philosophy p79 3.2.4 The high drama of of Italian theatre p162
language in Italy p44 2.2.1 The greatest hits Baroque p128
4.2.2 Italy on the
1.3.2 Being Italian: of Italian philosophy 3.2.5 In the shadow dancefloor p169
identity and psyche p48 p80 of greatness: modern
4.2.3 Laughing matter:
Italian architecture p131
Italian comedy p173
8. Living culture:
the state of modern
Italy p271
6. Media and
communications 7. Food and drink 8.1 Upsetting the old
p209 p233 order: class, race, family
and women p274
5. Cinema and 6.1 Media p211 7.1 Food p235 8.2 Issues of faith:
fashion p177 6.1.1 Best of the 7.1.1 Home advantage: religion in Italy p278
press: newspapers and the culture of Italian food 8.3 Rule benders:
5.1 Cinema p179 magazines p212 p236 politics, the Italian state
5.1.1 The importance of 6.1.2 Thinking inside 7.1.2 Regional tastes: and green issues p282
Italian cinema p180 the box: Italian television the flavours of Italy p238 8.4 Money matters: the
5.1.2 Epic tastes: from p217 7.1.3 Food rituals: eating economy, wealth and
silent classics to noisy 6.1.3 Radio: an Italian and buying p246 social security p288
propaganda p182 passion p220 7.2 Drink p253 8.5 Law and order: the
5.1.3 Grit and 6.1.4 New media: Italy 7.2.1 The culture of police, the Mafia and the
determination: online p222 Italian wine p254 legal system p292
Neorealist cinema p186 8.6 Class struggles: the
6.2 Communications 7.2.2 The Italian wine
5.1.4 The golden age of p225 regions p257 education system p297
Italian cinema p188 8.7 Time out: holidays,
6.2.1 Staying in touch: 7.2.3 Thirst for
5.1.5 The era of false sending letters and knowledge: beyond festivals and free time
dawns: modern Italian making calls p226 wine p264 p300
cinema p195 8.8 Passion plays:
6.2.2 Italy on the move: 7.2.4 Drinking habits:
5.2 Fashion p201 transport types and habits when and where to Italian sport p303
5.2.1 Made in Italy p202 p228 indulge p268
First, a word from
the publisher…
This series of books and this book are designed to look at

a country’s culture – to give readers a real grasp of it and
to help them develop and explore that culture.
The world is shrinking – made smaller by commerce,

tourism and migration – and yet the importance of
national culture, of national identity, seems to grow.
By increasing your cultural knowledge and appreciation

of a country, be it your own or a foreign land, you reach a
genuine understanding of the people and how they live.
We’re talking about culture in all its guises: the creative

arts that give a country its spirit as well as the culture of
everyday life.
Speak the Culture books sit alongside guidebooks and

language courses, serving not only as a companionable
good read but also as an invaluable tool for understanding
a country’s current culture and its heritage.
1
2
1. Identity: the 2. Literature 3. Art, architecture 4. Music, theatre, 5. Cinema 6. Media and 7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
foundations and philosophy and design dance and comedy and fashion communications the state of
of Italian culture modern Italy
1 Identity: the foundations
of Italian culture
1.1 Geography p5 1.2.3 United in name

1.1.1 Italy: where is it at least: the making of
and what does it look modern Italy p33
like? p6 1.3 Language and
1.1.2 Local colour: the belonging p43
Italian regioni p9 1.3.1 Speech patterns:
1.2 History p19 language in Italy p44
1.2.1 Did you know 1.3.2 Being Italian:
we used to rule the identity and psyche p48
world? Ancient Italy
p20
1.2.2 From the Dark
Ages into the light p26
4
1.1 Geography
The Italian landscape can be as varied
and stirring as any; it has peaks, plains
and more volcanoes than the rest of
mainland Europe combined. However,
it’s the breadth and diversity of culture
– the traditions and the sense of
campanilismo – that shape the real
identity of each region.
1.1.1 Italy: where is it and
what does it look like?
Grain drain If the boot fits
Half of Italy’s beaches The Italians sometimes call their prong of southern
are disappearing, Europe lo Stivale, the Boot, for obvious reasons. It’s
deprived of sand by
an iconic physique, from the muscular Alpine thigh
natural erosion and
human interference. right down to the bony Calabrian toe that punts Sicily
As sea levels rise, the eternally towards Africa (Sicilian capital Palermo is closer
prognosis looks bleak. to Tunis than Rome). Running clockwise from Trieste in
Shrinkage is already the north-east, the country is bordered by the Adriatic,
causing friction: in 2008
Ionian, Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Seas, all of them a part
Lecce and Brindisi, both
in Puglia (where 65 per of the Mediterranean Sea. Land borders with France,
cent of beaches are Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia in the north are
losing their sand), fell dominated by the Alps. Italy has a number of islands out
out when Lecce tried in the Med, of which Sardinia (120 miles adrift from Rome
to dredge for new sand
in the Tyrrhenian Sea) and Sicily are by far the largest.
offshore from its near
neighbour and longtime
rival. Lie of the land: the hills are alive
The hills and mountains that cover two thirds of Italy
comprise two chains: the Alps and the Apennines.
The Alps formed when the African tectonic plate slid
north millions of years ago, collided with the Eurasian
plate and pushed up the peaks. These shifting plates
still affect Italy more than any other European country,
initiating earthquakes and giving vent to three active
volcanoes, Etna, Vesuvius and Stromboli. The same
tectonic clash also shaped the Apennines, the peninsula’s
spine, curving all the way from the Ligurian Alps to the
toe tip of Calabria. The northern Pianura Padana forms
Italy’s largest lowland plain, the Po River (Italy’s longest)
draining its fertile soils. The other large Italian plain is the
Tavoliere delle Puglie (Chessboard of Puglia) down in the
boot heel. Lakes Garda, Maggiore and Como sit in steep-
sided northern valleys (when people talk about the ‘Italian
Lakes’ they mean these), while smaller lakes to the north
of Rome inhabit old volcanic craters.
What is the weather like? Boughing out, Tuscan
The coastal lowlands of southern Italy enjoy a style
Mediterranean climate of hot summers and mild winters, Few sights evoke the
Italian landscape,
and the warm weather stretches north up the western
Tuscany in particular,
coast bringing uncomfortable heat in summer. Elsewhere, like the tall, slim
the norm is cooler, particularly in the north-east where cypress tree. Cupressus
the cold winds can blow in from central Europe. By sempervirens (if you’ve
consolation, east tends to be drier than west. The Po got dining companions
to impress) probably
Valley experiences harsh winters and warm, humid
came to Italy from the
summers, and is known for prodigious winter fogs. eastern Med with the
The Alps have their own climate of bitter winters and Etruscans. Despite being
mild summers. When the Sirocco wind comes up from darkly green, long-
North Africa the whole country bakes. Italy’s undulating lived (they can grow
for a thousand years)
topography creates some intriguing microclimates (and
and sweetly pungent,
correspondingly fine wines). Despite Lake Garda’s the tree has strong
northerly position, for instance, the surrounding associations with death.
mountains provide enough shelter to grow palms and In Metamorphoses,
lemons. Climate change is already having a serious effect Roman poet Ovid
described the tree
on Italy – summers in southern Italy are 0.7 degrees
being born from the
warmer than they were 20 years ago. body of Cyparissus,
the grief-stricken
Forces of nature youth who accidentally
speared Apollo’s pet
Earthquake: Italy’s worst quake (indeed, modern Europe’s worst) and the attendant deer. Convinced of
tsunami killed as many as 200,000 people when it hit Messina in 1908. The most a connection to the
devastating recent event came in April 2009, when a quake in Abruzzo killed nearly underworld, the Romans
300. would lay their dead
on a bed of cypress
Flood: When the Arno River flooded Florence in 1966, it killed over a hundred
branches and place a
people and destroyed or damaged thousands of works of art, Donatello’s Magdalene
tree at the front of the
sculpture included. The so-called ‘Mud Angels’ helped clean the city up.
house during periods of
Volcano: Vesuvius’ most famous outburst came in 79AD when it buried Pompeii mourning.
and killed as many as 25,000 locals. A more recent eruption in 1906 claimed more
than a hundred lives.
Vital statistics
Where do the Italians live?
Almost three quarters of Italians now live in towns and
Area: 301,338 sq km cities, a preference for urban life that only developed
(116,356 sq miles) in the post-war economic boom (see section 8.4 for
(roughly the same size
more). The population density is relatively high (almost
as Arizona).
200 people per sq km – the fifth most densely peopled
Population: 58 million. country in the EU) although the distribution of people is
Length: Around 745 unbalanced. Over a third of Italians live in the Pianura
miles (1,200 km), Padana, while the lands south of Rome can be quite
depending on where you empty. It’s a north/south split connected to prosperity, to
measure from.
the divide between industry and agriculture and to a clash
Width: 380 miles in attitudes and culture. Rome may be the biggest city by
(610km) at its widest population (2.7 million), but the metropolitan areas around
point.
Milan (up to 7.4 million by some estimates) and Naples
Life expectancy: 77 for (4.4. million) embrace more inhabitants.
men, 83 for women.
Average age: Early to
mid 40s (and rising every
year).
Highest mountain:
Monte Bianco di
Courmayeur, 4,748m
(15,577 ft) (smaller,
conjoined sibling of
Mont Blanc).
Tallest surviving
Ancient statue:
Colossus of Barletta,
5.11m (16.7ft).
1.1.2 Local colour: the Italian regioni
The 20 regions of modern Italy may have been formally

created in 1960, but each has much older origins, a pre-
Unification identity usually based on subservience to a
duke, king, city or pope. Each has a distinct culture, a
mode of life with its dialect, customs and rivalries, to
which the inhabitants subscribe and which, typically,
eclipses any loyalty to the Italian nation. In fact, pride
in the locale often only extends to the immediate
community. They call it campanilismo, that connection
to your birthplace, your hometown or village; the word
derives from campanile, or bell tower, recognising a
loyalty to your own corner of civilisation with the church
in its midst. Five of the 20 regions (Valle d’Aosta,
Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sicily and
Sardinia), the regioni autonome, are more ‘separate’ than
others, enjoying a degree of autonomy that brings the
power to levy and spend taxes.
i. Northern Italy
Italy abuts its northern neighbours at the Alps. The
mountain chain has given the country a natural frontier,
and yet, in places, languages and customs still lap over
from other cultures. Northern Italy is richer in industry and
agriculture than the regions to the south; its resorts are
slicker, its cloth better cut and the people, perhaps, more
taciturn.
Valle d’Aosta.
The Romans, Hannibal and his ensemble, St Bernard
and Napoleon – they’ve all passed through Italy’s high
north-eastern limits, a small region of prodigious peaks
(including Monte Bianco, Monte Rosa and Cervino (also
known as the Matterhorn). Today, some here speak
Italian, others French or Walser German; many still use
a Valdôtain patois. Under Mussolini the region was
‘Italianised’ with encouraged migration and language
curbs, but today it’s allowed a measure of autonomy.
Skiing, cows, hydro electricity and metalworking pay the
bills.
Something in the water Piedmont
The Ligurian resort of Sit up straight; Italy’s second largest region is a place
Sestri Levante exerts of business and industry, the dynamic doer of French
quite a pull on romantic influence that initiated Italian Unification in the 19th
creative types. Danish
author Hans Christian
century. Turin is the hub, an undemonstrative (by Italian
Andersen enjoyed a standards) city of cars (it’s home to Fiat), Baroque
long stay in 1835, and porticoes and breadsticks (grissini). Piedmont’s alpine
the town now holds landscape softens south and east of Turin, flattening to
a children’s literature paddy fields alongside the widening Po River.
competition in his
name. Similarly, Richard Liguria
Wagner took refuge in Liguria, with its forested, scented hills, crowns the warm
the town one night after
being harried off the
Gulf of Genoa like a luxuriant head of green hair. Most are
sea by a storm. Local drawn here by the stretch of Riviera, a less uptight affair
hotels now claim, rather than its French counterpart. Genoa, the sole sizeable
hopefully, that the event city, is a hard modern port with a soft medieval centre. A
inspired parts of Der once powerful republic, it bore confident characters like
Ring des Nibelungen.
Columbus and Garibaldi. Cliffside villages like Portofino
Duce in disguise have inspired artists and writers for centuries – just ask
Mussolini was caught Guy de Maupassant, Lord Byron and Truman Capote (if
in Lombardy; discovered you can rouse them).
in Dongo, Lake Como,
by a partisan checking Lombardy
German troop lorries in Italy’s most self-assured region envelops the Alps,
retreat in April 1945. The
the flat Pianura Padana and the country’s finest lakes
accompanying soldiers
tried to pass Mussolini (Como, Maggiore and Garda are all here). Milan has
off as a drunken fashion houses and fiscal clout (location for Italy’s stock
comrade, disguised with exchange, the Borsa), while the environs sprawl with
glasses, a greatcoat industry, closing in on architecturally blessed old towns.
and Nazi helmet. The
Southerners talk of a superiority complex; the Lombards
resistance fighter who
spotted him, Urbano don’t care. Their name derives from ‘long beards’,
Lazzaro, subsequently recalling Germanic occupants of old.
became something of a
celebrity as Partisan Bill, Trentino-Alto Adige
writing about his role in No really, we are Italian. It’s just that we speak German,
the demise of Il Duce. eat schnitzel and some of us want to be independent
from Italy. Trentino (the more Italian half to the south)-
Alto Adige (the fundamentally Austrian bit to the north,
also called Süd Tirol) is a two-faced tease. Tour guides
describe a harmonious meeting of cultures, but it can
10
feel more like a skirmish. When Mussolini compelled Respecting the old
Süd Tiroleans to chose one camp or the other in the late landlord
1930s, most chose the other, and moved north to Austria, North-east Italy is
under Nazi rule at the time. Scenically, the western end sometimes referred to
as Venetia, a region
of the Dolomites distract from the identity crisis. that includes much of
Friuli-Venezia Giulia modern day Veneto and
Friuli-Venezia Giulia,
Italy and Central Europe meet in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, bits of Lombardy and
an autonomous, ethnically mixed north-east region of Trentino, and harks
mountains, plains and coastline. It got the worst parts of back to the territories
the 20th century; blood-soaked in the First World War of the once robust and
then bled dry by the Fascists, Nazis and Communists. The ‘Most Serene’ Venetian
Republic.
main city, Trieste, a large port, encapsulates the different
flavours: built by Austrian Habsburg overlords in the 18th
century, today it’s an Italian city hemmed in by Slovenia.
All parties unite in moaning about the region’s freezing
north-easterly wind, the Bora.
Veneto
The wealthy Veneto lands reach from the Austrian border “V EN I C E I S
in the Dolomites to the Adriatic coast. Venice, once the LI K E EATI N G
hub of a republic that dominated Mediterranean trade for A N EN TI R E B O X
centuries, merits its reputation as a breathtaking city of O F C H O C O LATE
LI Q U EU R S I N
canals, medieval palazzos and artistic treasures. Inland, ONE GO.”
across the rice fields, vineyards and patches of industry, Truman Capote
lie Padua, where Giotto redirected European art 700 years
ago with naturalistic, reverent frescos, and Verona, with
its Roman amphitheatre, so well suited for staging full-
blooded opera.
11
Emilia-Romagna
Five cultural icons
from the north Straddling northern Italy, the old, frequently foggy
provinces of Emilia and Romagna used to form bits of the
Umberto Eco Papal States, which may explain a 20th century leaning
(Piedmont). Apparently away from the Church to the left (Communists held
‘Eco’ is an acronym
of ex caelis oblatus (a
power here in the 1970s and 80s). Under-appreciated
gift from the heavens), Bologna, the big city, has delicate arcades and some of
given to Umberto’s the finest food in Italy. Modena has a leaning tower (up
grandfather, a foundling, yours Pisa) and its balsamic vinegar, while Parma enjoys
by a creative civil its prosciutto and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. All three
servant.
cities are on the Via Aemilia, a Roman road named for
Dario Fo (Lombardy). consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 187BC.
The playwright helped
his father smuggle ii. Central Italy
Allied soldiers through
Lombardy to Switzerland
Central Italy is the prime guardian of Italy’s cultural heritage
during the war. (whatever northerners might tell you). In Florence and
Rome it has the finest Renaissance cities in Europe, each
Pier Paolo Pasolini
(Emilia-Romagna). The with its trove of art and architecture. And with its hills,
inveterate lefty was cypress trees and medieval villages, the landscape is more
born in Bologna to a powerfully ‘Italian’ than anywhere else on the peninsula.
father who distinguished
himself by saving Tuscany
Mussolini’s life. Tuscany’s legion foreign (and Italian) fans will attest to its
Niccolò Paganini beauty, to the rolling vineyards, hilltop towns and marbled
(Liguria). Took up the cathedrals. Artists, architects and writers made this the
mandolin, aged five, in
Genoa under his father’s
tuition, and conquered
the violin two years
later.
Italo Svevo (Friuli-
Venezia Giulia). When
the writer was born in
Trieste, it was still in
Austro-Hungarian hands.
12
Campanilismo on
horseback
Siena’s famous Palio,
the biannual breakneck
horserace around the
city’s broad Piazza
del Campo, is among
the most celebrated
expressions of Italian
campanilismo, of civic
pride. It’s all about
supporting the horse
from your own contrade
(city ward), of which
centre of the Renaissance world: Dante and Boccaccio there are 17 (at one time
ensured the national tongue had Tuscan roots; and there were over 50). In
Siena the riders began
Michelangelo, da Vinci, Brunelleschi, Botticelli et al did
on buffalo, later moved
the decorating. When the crowds in Florence, Pisa, Siena to donkeys and finally
and San Gimignano get too much, seek out Apennine settled on horseback in
tranquillity or untroubled medieval villages. 1656. Today only ten
horses run, with the
Umbria contradas represented
Or ‘Tuscany in waiting’ if the hype is believed. Umbria on a rotating basis. The
has the Renaissance art, the architecture and the ‘palio’ originally referred
medieval hilltop towns, but, as yet, not the hubbub of to the piece of silk cloth
given as a prize to the
its neighbour. A certain humility, born perhaps of aged race winner. The Palio
piety (it was another Papal State), has settled over the d’Asti, a similar, even
green landscape: St Francis (Assisi, his home patch, is the older race dating to the
region’s prime tourist town), St Benedict and St Valentine 13th century, rides round
were all Umbrian. All this and mountains, the River Tiber a town in Piedmont each
September.
and the largest lake south of Garda, Lago Trasimeno.
Marche
With Adriatic to one side and Apennines on the other,
Marche feels sequestered. All the ingredients of central
Italy are here – sleepy hilltop towns, snow-capped
mountains (the Monti Sibillini range), monasteries,
Etruscan remains, Renaissance cities (Urbino, Raphael’s
hometown is the finest; Ascoli Piceno, the quietest) –
but there is little of the potential for mania, perhaps a
reflection of the region’s former role collecting taxes for
the pope.
13
“N E VE R, IN ITS Lazio
BLOODIEST PRIME, Italy often pokes fun at Lazio, at its relative poverty,
CAN T HE SIG HT
slow development and lack of identity. The region has
OF T HE GIGA NTIC
C OLISEUM, F UL L to contend with Rome in its midst, overshadowing the
AN D RUNNING parched farmland, hills and volcanic lakes that form the
OVE R WITH THE landscape. But the Latin story began here, as the outlying
LUSTIEST L IF E, region proves with Etruscan necropolises and well-
HAVE MO VED ONE
preserved Roman remains, notably at Hadrian’s Tivoli villa
HE ART, A S IT MU ST
M OVE AL L WHO and Ostia Antica, Rome’s ancient port. For foreigners,
LOOK UPO N IT rural Lazio has the lure of being largely untroubled by other
N OW, A RUIN.” visitors. Not so Rome of course. But Rome is worthy of
Charles Dickens its crowds. The city’s prime talent is to make you feel
part of a living process, part of the cultural evolution
Abruzzo’s got talent that deposited the Romans’ Pantheon, Michelangelo’s
Abruzzo’s brooding,
Renaissance ceiling and Bernini’s Baroque fountains, rather
empty feel has much to than a visitor at the world’s biggest museum.
do with the landscape,
but the fact that locals
Abruzzo
migrated in droves This is central Italy at its most feral; a wild region of
in the 20th century mountains (the Apennines reach their height in the Gran
didn’t help. Many Sasso massif) and silent valleys that still shelter bears,
went to America. In chamois and wolves. Ski and beach resorts bring a share
particular, the ‘musical’
gene pool upped and
of visitors, but most come for the large national parks. A
left: Madonna, Dean tradition of folklore and mysticism (and a reputation for
Martin, Perry Como and witchcraft) add to the Middle Earth ambience. L’Aquila is
Henry Mancini all had the earthquake prone capital, but the medieval hill villages
Abruzzan parents. around (some abandoned), all but bypassed by the 20th
century, are more interesting.
Molise
In 1963 Molise parted company with Abruzzo (or the Abruzzi
as Molise and three provinces in Abruzzo are collectively
known) and went solo. Scenically it’s in the untamed
Abruzzo mould, albeit with lower hills, but culturally it’s
distinct: many here descend from medieval Balkan settlers.
It has its Roman remains, notably at Saepinum, a little
visited walled town, but also boasts Europe’s oldest human
settlement at Isernia (700,000 years old). Such delights
haven’t stopped the region’s population dwindling: fewer
people live here now than 150 years ago.
14
The oldest and the
Five cultural icons from the centre
smallest: nations within
Alberto Moravia (Lazio). The author from Rome began writing during a five-year a nation
childhood stint confined to bed with TB of the bone. San Marino. A tiny
throwback to Italy’s
Monica Bellucci (Umbria). The multilingual model and actress was born in Città di pre-Unification days,
Castello, once home to Pliny the Younger. the republic shouts loud
Gabriele d’Annunzio (Abruzzo). Son to the mayor in Pescara, young Gabriele was about being ‘Europe’s
already publishing poetry at the age of 16. oldest state’ (apparently
established by Marinus,
Gioachino Rossini (Marche). Spent his childhood years in theatres, where his a stonemason, 1,700
father scraped a living playing the trumpet. years ago). It’s a
Sandro Botticelli (Tuscany). Like his fellow Florentine master, Donatello, the young collection of small
Botticelli was apparently apprenticed to a goldsmith. settlements on top of
a big rock sandwiched
between Emilia-
iii. Southern Italy Romagna and Marche.
Southern Italy, the Mezzogiorno as it’s frequently
labelled, is still regularly written off. Too often, the tales Vatican. The smallest
independent state in
of unemployment, poverty, corruption and neglect are the world (now, that
true; almost everything south of Rome, the islands of is something to shout
Sicily and Sardinia included, has suffered centuries of about), ensconced in
hardship. But this ignores the south’s charm, its inherent Rome, is the HQ of
lust for life (insouciance was always a luxury too far down the Roman Catholic
Church. The Vatican
here), unparalleled cuisine, multi-ethnic culture and largely wrestles to reconcile its
unspoilt scenery, all of which, finally, is starting to get the dazzling cultural heritage
attention it deserves. with the demands of
modern life: not so long
Campania ago archaeologists
Campania gathers around Naples and its sweeping bay. stumbled across a
The city is dense and lively; its art treasures, Renaissance Roman necropolis
buildings, fine food and atmosphere of disobedience while excavating an
underground car park.
creating a real cultural buzz. Nearby lies Mount Vesuvius,
Among the remains, they
and Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Roman towns it found terracotta tubes
buried. The Campi Flegrei (Fiery Fields), a steamy patch of once used by mourning
craters west of Naples, include Lago d’Averno, pinpointed families to feed honey to
by Virgil as the entrance to Hades. South of Naples, the the dead.
Amalfi Coast is renowned for dramatic towns and large,
knobbly lemons. Venture inland and Campania becomes
quieter, poorer and rockier.
15
Trulli strange Puglia
The roofs of the Italy’s hot heel stretches 400km (250 miles), from the
whitewashed, Tavoliere plain (a former sea bed) of the north, a sea of
windowless stone corn in summer, to the Salento peninsula in the south, its
trulli of Puglia are
often daubed with
reddy-brown dust broken by olive groves and vineyards
symbols. Some are arranged in family plots. A centuries-long cycle of invasion
ancient, paying homage deposited Germanic castles, Romanesque cathedrals and
to Jupiter, Saturn or Spanish Baroque frippery (at its best in Lecce). Pointy
Mercury; others are trulli houses and whitewashed hill towns on the Salento
Christian or Jewish.
peninsula recall Greek connections.
Basilicata
Inaccessible and rocky, Basilicata has been held in check
by grinding poverty for centuries. Finally, the shackles
are loosening. The hilltop town of Matera, with its sassi
(dugout caves), has gone from malarial slum to UNESCO
World Heritage site in 30 years, while Maratea, on the
Tyrrhenian coast, now draws tourists. Basilicata’s isolation
was such that ‘agitators’ were exiled here under the
Fascists. One such figure, Carlo Levi, famously described
the region’s daily struggle for survival in Cristo si è
fermato a Eboli (1945).
Calabria
Like Basilicata, Calabria is Mezzogiorno proper, a world
away from slick Turin or Milan. Poverty has been
virtually endemic since Magna Graecia declined under
the Romans. Elements of the Greek heritage survive,
although earthquakes have reshaped the once great
classical cities (often in dull concrete), regional capital
Reggio di Calabria included. Calabria is mountainous
(there’s even a ski resort in the toe tip Aspromonte
highlands), bordered on three sides by long, unspoilt
beaches. The slow pace of progress is hampered by the
pervasive Calabrian Mafia, the internationally powerful
‘Ndrangheta.
16
Sicily Draw me ten Hail Marys
Strange to think that Italian unity launched from Sicily When restorers began
(with Garibaldi’s Red Shirts (see section 1.2.3 for more)), chipping whitewash
a region so close to Africa. A succession of foreign off the walls of a
university building in
overlords – Greek, Arab, Norman, Spanish, Bourbon – left Palermo, Sicily, in 2006,
their mark on the ethnic mix, the food and the language. they found graffiti left
Palermo, the capital, is intense, a city that’s monetarily by prisoners awaiting
poor but culturally rich. The Mafia still has an impact on interrogation by the
life, although few will mention it (the culture of omertà Spanish Inquisition in
the early 17th century.
also runs deep). Etna, the volcanic giant, is the high point A life-size St Andrew
of mountains that stretch across the sparsely populated and a crying Mary
interior. Magdalene were among
the drawings, sketched
Sardinia by inmates either in
Like Sicily, Sardinia has a multicultural past featuring a a bid to prove their
similar cast of invaders and traders. Carthage, Rome, Pisa, Christian credentials or
Genoa, Madrid: all set up camp here and left elements under duress from their
captors.
of their culture behind, although the most distinctive
buildings, the basalt-built fortresses of the native Nuraghic
culture, predate them all. Modern Sardinia mixes glossy,
expensive resorts with fine empty beaches and an interior
of restful, wooded hills. The Sardinians have a reputation
as a hardworking, dogged (somewhat un-Italian) bunch.
Five cultural icons from the south
Salvatore Quasimodo (Sicily). The Modica-born poet moved to Messina, aged

eight, where the aftermath of a devastating earthquake informed his early verse.
Sophia Loren (Campania). Sired by cats (not really, mum was a piano teacher) in
Pozzuoli, near Naples, the young Loren was hit by shrapnel when the local munitions
factory was bombed in the war.
Gianni Versace (Calabria). Reggio di Calabria’s famous fashion designer began
helping out his mother, a dressmaker, at an early age.
Rudolph Valentino (Puglia). Born to a vet who died of malaria soon after, the
actor Valentino himself died young, from peritonitis contracted after surgery on a
perforated ulcer.
Pier Angeli (Sardinia). The starlet from Cagliari dated James Dean and Kirk
Douglas in the 50s, and was lined up for a part in The Godfather when she
overdosed on barbiturates in 1971.
17
18
1.2 History
Italy is spoiled for history of the kind
you can walk amongst, the sort relived
through architecture, paintings or even
old sewerage systems. More recent
history, from the years of Fascism to the
Years of Lead, can be harder to unearth
yet equally relevant to Italian culture.
19
1.2.1 Did you know we used to rule the world?
Ancient Italy
The iceman cometh,
Key dates
eventually
Europe’s oldest human Tenth to fifth century BC The Etruscans and Magna Graecia dominate the Italian
mummy was found peninsula.
in the Italian Alps.
Ötzi (because he was 753BC Romulus (allegedly) founds Rome, becoming its first king.
discovered in the 510BC to 27BC The Roman Republic rises to dominate Italy and the Mediterranean.
Ötztal region) poked his
leathery physique out 44BC Gaius Julius Caesar, ‘dictator for life’, is killed.
from a glacier in 1991 27BC Augustus (né Octavian) becomes the first de facto Emperor of Rome.
after 53 centuries of
hibernation. Analysis Early second century The territory and powers of the Roman Empire reach their
of the body showed apogee.
that Ötzi died, aged 45,
324 Constantine adopts Christianity as the official state religion.
from an arrow strike
to the shoulder about 476 German general Odoacer declares himself king of Italy as the Empire falls apart.
eight hours after he
finished a last meal of 568 The Lombards swarm into Italy. Some refugees find safety across a lagoon,
red deer. It also revealed where they establish Venice.
59 small tattoos on his
back, knees and ankle, It began, as these things usually do, with rocks
possibly related to some Palaeolithic and Neolithic settlers in Italy left behind
form of acupunctural the usual array of Stone Age graffiti when the last ice
treatment. Perhaps in
age retreated. In the Valle Camonica, Lombardy, they
tribute, actor Brad Pitt
appears to have a tattoo excelled themselves; the Camunni etched over 140,000
of Ötzi on his own arm. petroglyphs into the rock 8,000 years ago. Alongside the
staple hunter-gatherer scenes, they also left cosmological
and ritual images, and scenes of bestiality. Bronze Age
tribes arrived on the peninsula from all directions 4,000
years later and deposited more than artwork and piles of
stone (at their best in the nuraghe buildings of Sardinia):
the Ligures (Liguria), Veneti (Veneto), Latins (Lazio),
Sards (Sardinia), Umbrii (Umbria) and their like also began
shaping the Italian regions.
20
Tuscans from Turks
Temples and tombs: the heady days of Etruria and
Magna Graecia Recent DNA testing
confirmed the assertion
By the seventh century BC, two cultures had pushed their
by fifth century BC Greek
way to the top. Greek trading posts and colonies gathered historian Herodotus that
in the south forming Magna Graecia, or ‘Greater Greece’. the Etruscan civilisation
To the north, from a powerbase between the Arno found its way to Italy
and Tiber rivers, the enigmatic, iron-mining Etruscans across the sea from
Turkey. The scientists
controlled trade and tribes as far north as the Alps.
made the connection
Both cultures were governed by powerful city states. by testing the DNA of
modern Tuscans from
Magna Graecia had Taras (now Taranto) on the mainland and
old Etruscan towns.
Syracuse on Sicily, the rich trading centres whose profits
built the chunky, stately temples that survive in southern
Italy 2,500 years on. Cities in Etruria (as Etruscan territory I saw it in a goat’s
was named), such as Tarquinii (now Tarquinia in Lazio), kidneys…your Sharon’s
with their kings and ruling noble magistrates, were relatively having a boy
self-contained, although they did trade (and sometimes war) It seems the Etruscans
had a fairly formalised
with each other and with foreign states. Very little of the
code of religion based
Etruscan cities survives today. What does remain suggests on divination. Lightning,
they threw a good wake – murals depict dancing, feasting flying birds, the entrails
and games at funerals. The arrangement of Etruscan tombs of freshly killed animals
and the primacy they gave to the female ancestral line also – all were studied for
clues on what the future
suggest a pioneering equality between the sexes. Alas, for
might hold.
Greeks and Etruscans alike, the good times couldn’t last.
War with northern tribes and mainland Greeks weakened
the Etruscans while Magna Graecia was damaged by
infighting. By the fourth century BC, both were being
shoved around by Italy’s rising city star, Rome.
Republican Rome: let the good times roll… for some

So, wrote historian Livy, the twins Romulus and
Remus were sired by Mars, abandoned next to
the Tiber and then suckled by a she wolf. And one,
Romulus, grew up to found Rome in 753BC, killing
his brother along the way. A good story, and perhaps only
fanciful in parts: the lineage of Rome’s Etruscan kings
may have descended from a certain Romulus. That
lineage came to an abrupt end in 509BC when power
was handed to two elected Latin consuls, advised by
the old senate, and the Roman Republic was born.
21
Roman birthday Rome, wedged in relative obscurity between the old
Rome still celebrates realms of the Etruscans and the Latins, grew rapidly
the purported date in strength. By the early fourth century BC it was
of its founding, 21 mopping up rivals, the remnant tribes around central
April. Museums and
archaeological sites let
and northern Italy, defeating, absorbing and taxing the
people in free of charge, Etruscans (Tuscany), Volscians (southern Lazio) and
mock gladiatorial battles Samnites (southern Apennines). Magna Graecia folded
are held and locals throw next, speeded by the acquisition of Sicily by Rome in
on a tunic or maybe even the First Punic War. Victory over Celts in the Po Valley
a toga to process through
the streets.
brought virtually all of Italy under Roman rule circa
200BC. Macedonia, Corinth, bits of Asia Minor, Spain
and Africa were added to the portfolio soon after. The
Courtship, Roman style conquered lands helped nourish a new Roman aristocracy
One event in Rome’s (drawn from both patrician (noble) and wealthy plebeian
early history has proved (common) ranks) that indulged in slaves, hedonism and
particularly emotive for large country estates. Impoverished Italian farmers gave
artists ever since. In
the eighth century BC,
up their land (which was recycled into those country
women of the Sabine estates), unable to compete with cheap foreign grain
tribe were snatched by imports, and, with nowhere else to go, flooded from
Roman men after being the land into Rome and its insulae (apartment blocks),
invited to Rome for a expanding the plebeian ranks and creating the biggest city
festival in Neptune’s
honour. Apparently
in Europe.
there was a shortage
of childbearing women Life in the Roman Empire
in the city. As Livy tells While Rome’s far-flung territories grew, trouble brewed
it, after the initial grab, at home. The aristocracy entered moral meltdown
the women were won and the growing, poor multitude took umbrage at the
over by the romantic
entreaties of the men.
nobility’s excesses. A string of political figures tried to
The ‘Rape of the Sabine assuage their annoyance and were assassinated, before
Women’ (with rape a military general, Sulla, established himself as dictator
usually interpreted and crushed any popular resistance to the oligarchy in
as kidnap rather than 83BC. The ‘people’ were avenged, mildly, by the arrival
sexual assault) has been
depicted by countless
of Gaius Julius Caesar, a reforming consul who initially
artists, from Renaissance shared power in a triumvirate but ultimately, after military
sculptor Giambologna successes in Gaul and the defeat of his rival, General
to the French Classical Pompey, became sole governor. Caesar’s job spec is
painter Nicolas Poussin usually headed ‘dictator for life’, but it’s somewhat
and Cubist maestro Pablo
Picasso.
misrepresentative: he brought welcome reform to Rome,
bolstering the economy and cleaning up the aristocracy.
22
Caesar made enemies with his new broom and was The Punic Wars
murdered by Brutus, Cassius and friends on the Ides of The Punic Wars of
March, 44BC. Civil wars followed as various pretenders Rome’s republican era
vied for control of the Empire. The power struggle were pitched against
Carthage (Punic means
ended in 31BC when Caesar’s great-nephew Octavian ‘of Carthage’), a North
(confusingly, adopted as a son by Caesar) defeated consul African city that
Mark Antony, who then famously committed suicide dominated trade in the
with his Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. Octavian took the Mediterranean:
title of Augustus, as offered by the now servile senate, First Punic War (264-
became effective emperor and established the lineage 241BC). Rome wins its
of rulers that presided over the Empire, and got through first foreign territory,
Sicily, and becomes
several imperial dynasties, until its stuttering demise five
established as a
centuries later. maritime power.
In the early second century the Empire reached its Second Punic War
height. Territories that stretched from northern Britain, (218-201BC). Having
encircled the Mediterranean on all sides and spread lost naval supremacy,
Carthage sends General
east to Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) fed Rome with
Hannibal up through
fiscal revenue, food, precious metals, slaves and cultural Spain and over the Alps
diversity. While Rome remained imperial master, as to the gates of Rome.
the centuries passed its territories became more like a His defeat transfers
rainbow collective than brutalised dominions (unless you control of the western
Med from Carthage to
were a slave of course), urged to adopt the mechanics
Rome.
of the Roman state but allowed to retain an indigenous
cultural identity. Third Punic War
(149-146BC). Rome
finishes the job with the
The good, the bad and the homicidal:
complete destruction of
five Roman emperors
Carthage.
Caligula (ruled 37-41AD). If Suetonius’ (probably biased)
biography is to be believed, Emperor Caligula was wildly
popular for the first six months, giving out tax rebates
and the like, but ruined it all by becoming a rotten tyrant
who murdered family members, slept with his sisters and
watched people being tortured or beheaded whilst he ate
dinner. Some now think mental illness pushed him off
the rails. Caligula was killed, aged 28, after less than four
years as emperor.
23
Good times bard times Nero (54-68). Rome’s fifth emperor stepped into the role
Augustus’ relatively aged 17. Five years in, after a generous, tolerant start,
stable, long reign as he murdered his mother. He also killed his first wife,
Rome’s first emperor may have killed his pregnant mistress, took an interest in
ushered in a ‘Golden
Age’ of culture in the
religious sects, was laughed at for acting on stage and,
first century BC. Wealthy contrary to the legend, didn’t fiddle while Rome burned
patrons funded artists (he actually helped rebuild it). When a coup forced him
and writers, with out he committed suicide; four different emperors ruled
Maecenas, Augustus’ in the subsequent year of chaos.
trusted adviser, doing
most to promote the Vespasian (69-79).
new talent that glorified An ordinary boy-
the achievements of
Rome. The poets Virgil,
done-good (his dad
Horace and Ovid all was a tax collector),
wrote heroic stuff, Vespasian won his
inspired, like so much imperial title through
Roman culture, by military skill. Once in
lessons learned from
the Greeks. The Golden
charge, he stabilised
Age extended beyond chaotic frontiers
the bounds of culture; it and public coffers,
was a period of financial put Judaea and the
stability, of legal and German Batavian tribe
social reform and the
Pax Romana, a relative
in their place and
peace throughout the built the Colosseum
Empire. A Silver Age (then named the
followed Augustus’ rule, Amphitheatrum
a less original affair in
both title and deed than
Flavium in honour
its Golden forebear (see
of the dynasty he
section 2.1.2 for more established).
on the Golden and Silver
Ages).
Hadrian (117-138). Hadrian, a respected poet, acquired a
fondness for the arts while serving in the army in Greece,
and when the same army proclaimed him emperor he
put up some fine buildings (including a rebuilt Pantheon
in Rome and the villa at Tivoli). He reined in the Empire’s
undisciplined expansion, secured its borders (with a
famous wall in Britain) and displayed tolerance if not
affection for his subjects. Always keen to try a new look,
he made beards the big thing in second century Rome.
24
Diocletian (284-305). By the time former soldier Celebrating Caesar
Diocletian became emperor, Rome wasn’t the force Modern day Romans
it was. Battered on all sides by angry tribes, he did, retain a fondness
however, shore it up for a few years, splitting the for Caesar. They lay
wreaths at the feet of
Empire into East and West, ruled by emperors in Milan his statue beside the
and Nicomedia (now Izmit, Turkey). Diocletian is also Via dei Fori Imperiali in
remembered for being beastly (as in burned, decapitated Rome each year on 15
and even slowly boiled) to the Christians, and for being March, and flowers on
the first emperor to voluntarily ‘retire’. the site in the Roman
Forum where his body
was cremated, now just
All good things… a muddy pile of rocks.
After Diocletian, the victimised Christians didn’t have to
wait long for salvation. In 324 his successor, Constantine,
ditched traditional Roman polytheism and adopted What have the Romans
Christianity as the state religion. He also, briefly, patched ever done for us?
the Empire’s two halves (East and West) back into Perhaps the Roman
Empire’s greatest
a single entity before moving the hub from Rome to
legacy, “apart from the
Byzantium on the Bosphorus, or Constantinopolis as he sanitation, medicine,
modestly renamed it. However, the formal East/West education, wine, public
division soon returned and the Italian half of the Empire order, irrigation, roads,
withered over the next century, eaten away from the the fresh water system
and public health” (to
north by Barbarian attacks and from within by infighting, a
quote Reg in Monty
bloated bureaucracy and overstretched resources. As rival Python’s Life of Brian),
factions fought for control, civil war became common, was the Catholic Church.
reducing the ability to fend off external attacks. Constantine’s adopted
religion ensured the
Talent and money ebbed from Rome (often moving survival of Latin and
north, contriving the north/south split that remains in Italy maintained Rome’s role
today) and the once grand city became marginalised and as a cultural centre well
beyond Italy.
weedy. With the army now stocked by foreign recruits,
‘barbarians’ included, their loyalty to Rome wasn’t a
given. When Germanic general Odoacer invaded and
declared himself king of Italy in 476, the Western Empire
was effectively over. Justinian, ruler of the Eastern
Empire that sustained in one form or another for a
thousand years, briefly reclaimed the Italian peninsula in
536 but the Germanic tribes (weirdly, now more ‘Italian’
than the Roman ‘invaders’) soon regained control, led by
the Lombards.
25
1.2.2 From the Dark Ages into the light
Key dates The rise of the popes

An array of small states evolved from Italy’s fractured
754 Frankish king, Pepin Western Roman Empire, emerging and receding in a
the Short, marches in
Dark Ages merry-go-round of alliances and disputes.
and helps to establish
the Papal States. Throughout, the papacy grew in strength. Pope Gregory
800 Charlemagne is and his considerable personal wealth beefed the Church
crowned Holy Roman up with land in the late sixth century, before Europe’s
Emperor by Pope Leo III. rising superpower, the Franks (yes, of France), started
877 Saracens begin doing deals with the papacy in the eighth century,
the slow process of offering land and conquered pagan souls in return for
conquering and culturing
Sicily. Catholic sponsorship and a role in government.
c.1080 The first comuni, Officially, Rome was still under the authority of Byzantium,
town or city states,
but when Pope Stephen II rummaged around behind the
emerge as a political
force. sofa in the mid eighth century and found the Donatio
1130 Norman ruler Constantini, the situation changed. The document,
Roger II unites southern apparently written 400 years earlier by Constantine (but
Italy as the Kingdom of now assumed a forgery), appeared to transfer power over
Sicily. Rome and the Western Empire to the pope. Stephen
1309 The papacy then asked for Frankish help in clearing Lombard and
relocates to Avignon,
France, where it remains Byzantine influence from Rome and its surrounds, a
for 67 years. mission accomplished by King Charlemagne in 774. It all
1334 Artist Giotto is contributed to the establishment of the Papal States, ruled
made director of public temporally by popes
works in Florence; with the assistance of
the Renaissance is
underway.
the Carolingians (the
1348 Plague wipes out
line of Frankish kings).
as much as half of the On Christmas Day
population. 800, Charlemagne,
1512 Michelangelo king of a sizeable
finishes work on the Carolingian territory,
Sistine Chapel ceiling.
was crowned Holy
1542 Pope Paul III Roman Emperor by
speeds the Counter-
Reformation, Pope Leo III.
establishing the
Inquisition in Rome.
1714 Habsburgs,
Savoyards and Bourbons
all eye up Italian
possessions in the Peace
of Utrecht.
26
Halcyon days for the Muslim south The first pope
While the papacy and the Franks got their teeth into St Peter, the first Bishop
northern Italy in the Middle Ages (only Venice escaped of Rome (which is what
the pope is), in the job
with relative autonomy), the post-Roman south stayed
for 30 years in the first
more loyal to old masters. Calabria and Puglia remained century AD, was actually
loosely in Byzantine and Greek hands while other regions, called Simon before
notably Benevento, a mountainside duchy inland from Jesus renamed him.
Naples, were kept by the Lombards. Kings, dukes and ‘Peter’ means stone,
apparently emblematic
lords in the south paid nominal homage to Carolingian
of the rock on which he
kings but effectively did their own thing. Throughout, the established the Church.
culturally capable Saracens (some Arab, some Berber) Nero supposedly had
of North Africa and Iberia attacked southern cities, even Peter crucified upside
looting Rome in 746. On Sicily they put down roots, down, a scene rendered
by Caravaggio in 1601.
capturing all the main towns by 877 and establishing a
cultural milieu that outstripped anything on the mainland.
They brought learning, a degree of tolerance (Christianity It’s a dirty job…but
was permitted, although its followers were heavily taxed), someone’s got to do it
irrigation and big bags of oranges. Popes used to be
allowed to marry. The
Crusades, Normans and the rise of the comuni last Vicar of Christ with
Charlemagne’s empire crumbled rapidly in his a bride was Adrian, who
died in 872. Some also,
descendants’ hands and, by the late ninth century,
notoriously, fathered
northern and central Italy was a squabbling seigniorial children by the dozen.
mess. Local lords were at the mercy of the northern Perhaps the most
Europeans who fought for control of the peninsula and famously scurrilous,
the coveted Holy Roman Emperor title. In 936 Otto, a Alexander VI, pontiff
from 1492, was accused
Frank, finally won out, but the bloodline didn’t last long.
of incest with his
The papacy was similarly contested and weakened, pulled illegitimate daughter,
this way and that by noble families hoping to gain control. Lucrezia Borgia.
However, in the late 11th century, Pope Gregory VII rebuilt
papal power and demanded that he, not the emperors,
had the power to appoint Church personnel – this, the
so-called Investiture Controversy ended with humbling
defeat for the Emperor in the 1122 Concordat of Worms.
27
Sicily ahead of the Flush with power, Rome ploughed men and money into
learning game the First Crusade, helped by a third emerging Italian
The importance attached power base, the comuni, the independent town or city
to education by the states like Milan, Pisa and Venice that were flourishing
medieval Muslim world
ensured that Sicily had
on trade and pushing northern Italy’s feeble feudal lords
a relatively high literacy around (in contrast to the rest of Europe, the rurally
rate during its years based feudal system never gripped Italy, where the
under Saracen rule. Roman fondness for city living survived).
Some estimates suggest
as many as 45 per cent Southern Italy maintained its cultural superiority, this time
of the population could spurred by Normans who captured land south of Rome
read in the 11th century. and pushed out Lombards and Byzantines before moving
Shocking to think that
800 years later, in the
over to Sicily in 1060 to oust the Saracens. Under Roger
19th century, only 30 per II, the Normans united the whole of southern Italy as the
cent of Sicilians were Kingdom of Sicily in the early 12th century. Where the
literate. Saracens had built latticed Moorish palaces, the Normans
added Romanesque cathedrals and castles, and nurtured
Sicily as one of the wealthiest, most tolerant and cultured
societies in Europe.
In the red corner, the pope…

Successive Germanic emperors (the Hohenstaufen
dynasty, of Swabian origin) continued their efforts to
dominate northern Italy in the later 12th century. Frederick
I came unstuck at Legnano in 1176, defeated by the
Lombard League, an angry consortium of northern cities
who added to their power and independence. Frederick
II had more success, thanks in part to a marriage that
added the Normans, and therefore, control of southern
Italy, to his stock. The rift
between emperor and pope
grew and famous political
factions emerged behind each:
the progressive(ish) Guelphs
cheered for the pope, while
the conservative Ghibellines
got behind the Holy Roman
Emperor.
28
Don’t let the fighting fool you: we’ve never had it so good Feud for thought
By the late 13th century, the oligarchic comuni of northern The Ghibelline faction
and central Italy had grown powerful on trade. With adopted black as their
colour; the Guelphs
growing autonomy, they paid little attention to the pope
chose white. For further
and even less to the Holy Roman Emperor. Florence, clarity, the Guelphs
Genoa, Milan, Venice, Bologna and other comuni (in all shaped the battlements
there were around 300) flourished, establishing their on their castles to
boundaries by force when necessary. Many evolved a be square, while the
Ghibellines employed a
mildly democratic system of government, forming town
fishtail design. Tuscany
councils led by wealthy families. Within each city, the old saw the worst violence
factions of Guelph and Ghibelline usually vied for control, between Guelph and
often calling on other city states for support. Wars were Ghibelline factions: in
frequent and alliances short-lived as the factions jostled 1260 the triumphant
Ghibellines demolished
for power and territory. As a consequence, the shoots
103 Guelph palaces in
of democratic rule soon withered. Absolute rulers, the Florence, and six years
signori, assumed control on the pretext of ending the later, when the Guelphs
constant squabbles and soon the Guelph and Ghibelline decisively regained
identities became less relevant. The cities continued power, they created
the now famously open
to prosper, ruled by hereditary and frequently despotic
Piazza dell Signoria by
elites. Smaller states were assimilated into larger ones flattening a block of
until, by the late 1300s, Venice and Genoa, both maritime their rivals’ housing.
republics, Milan, a Dante was a politically
duchy, and Florence, active Florentine
Guelph (although he
with its city council, had
was eventually exiled
risen to the top. by his own side) and
While the city states duly portrayed various
Ghibellines in the
grew in the north, the Inferno.
papacy struggled to
control lands in the The Windsor connection
centre. Things got so The Guelph faction of
bad that the pope, medieval Italy took their
name from a princely
reliant on French help,
German clan, aligned,
relocated to Avignon like them, against the
for a period in the 14th Holy Roman Emperors.
century. To the south, The Swabian Guelphs
the old Kingdom of (or Welf in Middle High
German) are antecedents
Sicily fell to the French
of the British Royal
House of Anjou in Family.
29
Extreme measures in 1266 but rose up 16 years later during the ‘Sicilian
Milan Vespers’. It began with an angry mob in Palermo (on
When the Black Death cue when the bell rang for vespers) slaughtering French
moved through Italy in overlords, and led to rebellion across the island. Pedro III,
1348, Milan suffered
less than elsewhere.
king of Aragón, stepped in and established the Kingdom
Perhaps Giovanni of Naples, under Spanish control. For all the power shifts,
Visconti, the city’s fights (which usually took place, by clever convention,
archbishop, made the beyond city walls) and factions, Italy’s mercantile society,
right decision when he the most urbanised in the world, flourished between the
ordered the first three
houses where plague
12th and 16th centuries, eclipsing the rest of Europe with
struck to be bricked up its wealth and civilisation.
with the occupants, sick
or healthy, left inside Yes, ‘Brainfest’ is good, but what about ‘Renaissance’?
to die. In 1348, just when things were going so well, the Black
Incoming wounded Death arrived on the peninsula, coming ashore at Genoa
If the reports of Gabriele in the north and Messina in the south. For a century
De’ Mussis, a lawyer the disease swept back and forth: Siena lost half its
from Piacenza, are to be population, Florence and Venice more than half. And
believed (and perhaps yet culturally it seemed Italy barely broke stride. Indeed,
they shouldn’t be), the
first Italians to catch
some contend that the plague and its attendant recession
the Black Death were put wealth into the hands of figures more likely to
Genovese merchants patronise the arts.
besieged by a Mongol
lord, Janibeg, in the The intellectual vibe initiated by the Moors on Sicily,
Crimean town of Caffa attaching increasing significance to human reason, fed
in 1347. When Janibeg’s a wider appetite for Classical learning in central and
troops were struck down northern Italy. The trade routes to the Levant, Spain and
by a virulent plague, he
Africa that brought wealth to northern cities, particularly
fired their dead bodies
into the city using Florence and its trade guilds, also gave passage to Arabist
catapults; the disease and Greek scholars, escaping re-Christianised Spain and
spread amongst the newly Turkish Constantinople respectively. They inspired
Genoese traders and Italy’s new, politically strong intelligentsia. Rich patrons
was carried back to Italy.
like the Medici, a family of Florentine bankers, funded
the corresponding explosion of cultural activity that artist,
architect and biographer Giorgio Vasari first labelled
30
Rinascita, Renaissance. Initially the Church was less
enthusiastic about self-determination, about Humanism, a
key tenet of the Renaissance, but was making fine use of
the movement’s artists by the 16th century, redecorating
Rome along Classical lines. The Renaissance spread
throughout Europe from the 14th to 17th centuries, building
a bridge from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age.
Spain moves in, and brings the Inquisition

By the 16th century, Italy’s once-powerful states were
stalked by foreign armies, often invited in by the states
themselves to get one up on the neighbours (for
example, Milan asked for French help to snatch Naples).
The Habsburgs (uniting the Austrian and Spanish thrones)
and the French fought for control of the peninsula, and
the Habsburgs won out with Spain, under Charles V, Holy
Roman Emperor (a title he bought), taking charge.
As the Reformation moved through northern Europe,
Rome’s omnipresent papacy liked the look of Spain’s
hysterical response, and in the later 16th century the
liberal Humanist ideas of the Renaissance were crushed
as Rome embraced the Inquisition. Galileo Galilei,
astronomer and physicist, was imprisoned; Giordano
Bruno, a philosopher expounding on the infinite universe,
was burned at the stake.
31
The long fall from grace
The 17th century was one of
decline. Economic strength
had moved to the new colonial
powers in northern Europe,
away from Mediterranean cities
like Genoa and Venice, while
political and social growth was
stifled by tax-happy popes and
foreign overlords. There were
some causes for celebration:
despite the strong-arm
suppression of Renaissance
ideals, Catholic cardinals
still managed to sponsor
Bernini and other artists and
architects to build and decorate
sumptuous Baroque churches.
However, by the 18th century
Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s
Ecstasy of St Theresa even the artwork had fizzled out. The country languished,
held in docile submission by northern Europeans. Spain
lost most of its Italian possessions to the Austrian
Habsburgs in the War of Spanish Succession in 1713.
In Lombardy and Milan the new rulers brought a slow
upturn in fortunes, but southern Italy, where control
passed to the French House of Bourbon in 1731,
remained shambolic. A third force, the Duchy of Savoy,
grew in strength in the early 18th century; it won Sicily in
the Peace of Utrecht after the War of Spanish Succession
(although swapped it for Sardinia soon after) but more
importantly nurtured its control of Piedmont, bolstering
the new kingdom that would lead Italy to unity 150
years later.
32
1.2.3 United in name at least: the
making of modern Italy
Key dates
1871 Unification is completed, with Vittorio Emanuele II as king.

1915 Italy joins the First World War on the Allies’ side.
“I O FFER N EI TH ER
1922 Mussolini and the Fascists take power. PAY, N O R
Q U A R TER S , N O R
1940 Italy joins the Second World War on Hitler’s side. FO O D ; I O FFER O N LY
1945 Mussolini is shot dead shortly before Italy surrenders to the Allies. H U N G ER , TH I R S T,
FO R C ED M A R C H ES ,
1946 Referendum makes Italy a republic; the monarchy is shown the door to B ATTLES A N D
Switzerland. D EATH . LET H I M
1957 Italy is among the six founder members of the EEC. W H O LO V ES H I S
C O U N TR Y W I TH H I S
1978 Former PM Aldo Moro is murdered by left-wingers amid the anni di piombo H EA R T, A N D N O T
(Years of Lead). M ER ELY W I TH H I S
LI PS , FO LLO W M E. ”
1992 The political establishment falls apart under corruption charges.
Hmm, tempting.
2006 Longest serving post-war government (five years), led by Silvio Berlusconi, ends. Garibaldi’s call to arms
Nearly Italy but not quite

Italy had a first taste of unity
under Napoleon when he declared
the Kingdom of Italy in 1805,
establishing a band of regional
puppet rulers operating under
French control. But any semblance
of unity evaporated with the
1815 Congress of Vienna, which
reallocated Napoleon’s territories
(he’d come unstuck fighting Russia)
and left Europe’s old guard –
Austria and the papacy included
– fighting over Italy’s constituent
but un-unified parts. The regions
changed hands frequently during
Europe’s turbulent mid 19th century.
Between the 1820s and 50s,
numerous independent uprisings
33
Blood group occurred, many led by secret societies like Giovine Italia,
Garibaldi’s famous a nationalist movement instigated in exile by patriot
team kit for invading Giuseppe Mazzini. None achieved their ultimate aim of
Sicily, the Red Shirts, national unity. In 1848 Mazzini joined forces with military
was apparently inspired
by the outfits of South
man Giuseppe Garibaldi and pushed the papacy from
American slaughtermen. the capital. Again, however, the Republic of Rome they
established was short-lived, and France soon seized
control for the Pope.
New York humility
Garibaldi is the only Congratulations Mr and Mrs Italy, it’s a bouncing
figure to turn down baby boot
a ticker tape parade It took an initiative from outside mainland Italy, from
through Manhattan. He Sardinia, to finally bond the nation together. The liberal
declined the honour for
fear of stirring up New
king of Sardinia, Piedmont and Savoy, Vittorio Emanuele,
York’s Irish Catholics. created a kind of safe haven on the island for the growing
rabble of malcontents pushing for Italian unity. His
shrewd Piedmont prime minister, Camillo Cavour, did a
deal with the French, who fought and beat the Austrians
and handed Vittorio Emanuele sections of Lombardy in
1859. And with that, il Risorgimento, as the movement
for Italian unity (the Resurgence) was dubbed, was on.
The central northern belt around Romagna and
Tuscany decided to join up with Sardinia by
referendum in 1860. Garibaldi and his Red Shirts
(armed volunteers) then enlisted covert help
from Cavour to kick the Bourbon rulers out of
Sicily; mission accomplished he moved on to
Naples before trying his luck in the Papal States,
at which point Cavour stepped in to make sure
Vittorio Emanuele, not Garibaldi, was in control.
The pope had to make do with Rome. As Umbria
joined up with the king so, on March 17 1861,
Vittorio Emanuele II declared himself ruler of the
new Kingdom of Italy. Cavour was given the post
of prime minister. It took ten further years to
Vittorio Emanuele II
bring Venice (wrested from Austria in 1866) and Rome
(abandoned by Napoleon III in 1870) into the fold. Finally,
by July 1871, Italian unification was complete, and the
capital moved from Florence to Rome.
34
Factions, social strife and land grabs: Italy’s difficult Garibaldi: an Italian hero
teenage years Giuseppe Garibaldi is
The morning after the Risorgimento romp was always still revered in Italy.
going to be something of a let down. Admittedly, by the Every town has its
piazza or street named
late 19th century Italy had a relatively liberal constitutional
for the military leader
monarchy, but the same old landed gentry still held most of the Risorgimento,
of the power. The south, as usual, had it worst: corruption the great Italian patriot
increased and the peasants tried to rebel – Rome sent who was actually born
30,000 troops to quell the farmers in Sicily. in Nice. Condemned to
death for his Giovine
Right and left fought vociferously in Parliament. One Italia activities as a
figure, the progressive Giovanni Giolitti brought some young man, he escaped
stability as well as social and political reform (alongside to South America and
honed a talent for
the usual quota of corruption) in five separate shifts as military leadership.
prime minister between 1892 and 1921, nudging Italy He fled to the USA
(particularly its industrialising northern regions) towards for three years after
modernisation. He gave men over 30 the vote in 1912 the failed 1848 Rome
(women would have to wait until 1945). Despite being occupation, settling
down in Staten Island,
a liberal, Giolitti couldn’t suppress new Italy’s greed for New York, where he
colonialism (‘why not, the rest of Europe’s doing it’): worked making candles.
the humiliating failure to capture Ethiopia in 1896 was After the famous
followed, to general international condemnation, by the assault on Sicily and
more successful annexation of Libya and a few Aegean Naples he was roused
from semi-retirement
Islands in 1911. on various occasions,
employed to piece the
Fighting in the streets Italian jigsaw together.
Italy was on the winning side in the First World War but Garibaldi is traditionally
felt more like it had lost. Perhaps it should have stuck seen as a selfless figure,
with the gut instinct of 1914 and remained neutral; apparently unconcerned
for personal power,
instead, tempted by the promise of new territory to the although dissenting
north and east, Italy joined the Allied cause in 1915. In voices have been raised
1918, with more than 600,000 dead, it received much of in recent years, notably
the land pledged (Trentino, Trieste and Süd Tirol included), among the Lega Nord, a
but saw the main prize, Dalmatia, go to Yugoslavia. political group seeking
autonomy for northern
The loss of face fuelled a growing nationalism, while a Italy (Garibaldi brought
powerful socialist movement emerged amid post-war false unity they say)
economic, social and political trouble. Polarisation was and similarly separatist
swift. Armed gangs, the Fascisti and the Communists, elements in Sicily.
fought pitched battles in city streets. Parliament limped
35
on under old favourite, Giolitti, but the Biennio rosso, the
two red years of 1919-20, in which revolutionaries seized
factories and farms, found the nationalist, predominantly
Catholic brigade looking round for a stronger antidote
to the left. It appeared – bull-necked, uncouth but
charismatic – in the shape of Benito Mussolini.
Black days with the Black Shirts

Mussolini started his political life as a red, editing
Avanti, a well-thumbed Socialist newspaper. But the
First World War reoriented his politics to the right, to a
rabid (but rarely racist) nationalism, to a belief in the rule
of a single, central figure (namely him): it was dubbed
Fascism. Mussolini founded the Fascists in 1919, and
their black-shirted Squadre d’Azione, action squads (or
thugs-for-hire), won support from influential landowners,
industrialists and military figures keen to see socialists
and communists beaten down. Mussolini quickly became
a force in Italian politics. By 1922 he was threatening
to march on Rome to seize power. When King Vittorio
Emanuele III refused to call in the army, there was little
option but to offer Mussolini the prime minister’s job.
Initially, the Fascists governed with
some respect for the constitution, but
by 1926, via rigged elections, bullying
and legislative wangling (new laws
criminalised trade unions and censored
the press), Italy had become a single
party state run by a dictator, with all
the brutal human rights abuses and
restrictions on personal freedom
which that entails. Mussolini wooed
the Catholic Church in 1929 with the
Lateran Treaty, establishing Catholicism
as the state religion and securing papal
recognition for the Kingdom of Italy in
return. The Fascist state had its fingers
in everything, from industry (which
36
Symbol of power
The term Fascist comes
from the Latin fasces,
a ‘bundle’ of rods tied
together and attached
to an axe head. In
Ancient Rome the
fasces symbolised a
magistrate’s power;
Mussolini duly adopted
the axe as an emblem of
authority.
Beware the lies of march

Propaganda maestro
Mussolini built the
myth of the Fascists’
glorious ‘March on
Rome’ in October 1922.
He recalled 300,000
black-shirted devotees
following their leader,
fared comparatively well in the global economic gloom
who rode on horseback
of the early 1930s) to sport to family life (Mussolini gave triumphant into the city.
out medals to fecund mothers). Behind it all, controlling In truth Mussolini and
in their own ways, lay propaganda and an expanding a handful of Fascists
military. travelled to the capital
by train, first class, and
didn’t march anywhere,
Losing on all fronts: Italy’s Second World War
power having been
Fascist Italy fell out with Britain and France (its allies) by already handed over.
invading and annexing Ethiopia in 1936, the same year
that Italian forces helped General Franco’s Nationalists
out in the Spanish Civil War. Adolf Hitler, in need of
European friends, commended Mussolini on his African
acquisition and the Rome-Berlin Axis began to bloom.
By 1939 Italy and Germany had signed a pact of military
agreement (of course, they couldn’t call it that; Mussolini
suggested the suitably belligerent Pact of Steel).
Italy didn’t actually join the Second World War until 1940,
when France was beaten and Britain was on the ropes.
Mussolini sent Italian troops to Africa to take on
37
Mussolini and the Jews the British, and then invaded Greece, looking for kudos
Prodded into action by (of the Hitler kind) and new territory. Neither move went
Hitler’s anti-Semitic well. It was all typical of Mussolini’s vanity. He excelled
policies, Mussolini’s
government passed the at bluster, at image building, but rarely backed it up with
first in a series of race substance: the Italian army was poorly trained, equipped
laws in September 1938. and coordinated. Mussolini had to call Hitler for help, and
Jews, a minority with a
by 1941 Italy was a German pawn, its troops sent off
long-established place in
Italian life (many actually to fight (and flounder) against the USSR. Back in Italy,
supported the Fascist rationing, the routine of life in a dictatorship and Allied
party in the 1920s), bombings made for a miserable time.
were barred from all
public office, expelled With the Allied invasion of mainland Italy imminent,
from schools and denied
Mussolini, now aged 60, was confronted by the king and
marriage with non-Jews.
Around 7,000 Italian Jews his own Fascist Grand Council in 1943, asked to resign
were later deported, most and then locked up. His successor, Pietro Badoglio,
of whom died in Nazi commander-in-chief of the army under Mussolini, signed
concentration camps.
an armistice with the Allies, but the majority of Italy now
How the treasures of fell to the Nazis who rushed south to grab land. Along
Rome were spared the way they liberated Mussolini from incarceration at
In July 1943, British Gran Sasso in the Apennines, and set him up as head
planes dropped leaflets
on Rome, warning of of a Republic of Salo, governing from Lake Garda. Two
their plans to bomb years of bitter fighting followed as Allied forces crept
the city but pledging to north, helped by growing bands of Italian partisans. The
spare the city’s cultural
German retreat left burning towns and misery in its wake.
landmarks. Bombers then
targeted strategic points In April 1945, partisans caught up with Mussolini as he
– airfields, factories and attempted to flee for Switzerland. He was shot along with
so on – in and around his mistress and their bodies were strung up in Milan’s
the city. When Allied
soldiers fought their way
Piazzale Loreto. A month later the Germans surrendered
to Rome’s edge almost a Italy to the Allies.
year later, Hitler ordered
the withdrawal from
the city, apparently to
prevent its destruction.
Pope Pius XII addressed
the cheering, liberated
crowds under his balcony
on June 5 1944: “Today
we rejoiced because,
thanks to the joint
goodwill of both sides,
Rome has been saved
from the horrors of war.”
38
Cultivating la dolce vita Facing up to the
On its beam-ends in 1945, Italy slowly began to recover. fascist past
America’s Marshall Plan (a financial aid programme) got Italy worked hard to
forget Benito Mussolini
the economy moving again, while elections brought the and the Fascists after the
first taste of democracy in two decades. In April 1946 war. Schools only taught
the public (or 54 per cent of them) voted for a republic history up to the First
and King Umberto II abdicated. The Christian Democrat World War and fascist
political groups were
governments that ruled (in coalition with myriad elements banned. To be labelled
from left and right) for the next four decades were a fascist, particularly in
usually flawed and short-lived, but in the north it didn’t the political arena, was
the ultimate insult. And
seem to matter – industry boomed in the hands of Fiat,
yet the perceived threat
Olivetti and others. Many of their staff were migrants of communism and the
newly arrived from southern Italy, where the post-war reluctance to root out
desperation was slower to shift. This was the period, old offenders meant
that elements of the far
the 1950s and early 60s, when Italian culture found right remained (and still
modernity, when its cinema, fashion and cars became remain) an important
internationally important. political force. On an
emotional level, Italians
have only begun risking a
collective look back in the
last decade. Mussolini’s
old homes are being
restored and opened
as curios, notably the
Villa Torlonia, his state
residence in Rome. As
Walter Veltroni, Mayor of
Rome, said on the Villa’s
unveiling after years of
restoration: “…a true
democracy has no need
to discard a part of its
history”. Silvio Berlusconi,
in particular, seems keen
to address the difficult
recent past. His move to
grant veteran status to
200,000 volunteer soldiers
who fought for Mussolini
during the Republic of
Salo, suggesting parity
with partisans, brought
lively debate.
39
The trouble with The Years of Lead
Italy’s royals In the late 1960s, the factionalism in politics – long held
There’s no enduring at bay by self-interest and double-dealing (compromise
royalism in Italy, no
was easily bought) – bubbled out beyond the corridors
hankering for the
monarchy’s return. The of power. Students and workers began protesting and
vote for a republic in striking for reform, reaching a crescendo in the autunno
1946 reflected public caldo (hot autumn) of 1969. In the same year, neo-
disgust at the royals’ fascists bombed Piazza Fontana in Milan, killing 17 people
support for Mussolini
and further stretching the tension between right and left.
and the way in which
they fled Italy when The ensuing period of violent terrorist activity, lasting
the wartime going got through the 1970s and 80s, was dubbed the anni di
tough in 1943. After the piombo (Years of Lead).
vote, a ban was placed
on any male from the
House of Savoy (the
royal Italian house) from
entering Italy. It was
only lifted in 2002, as
per a Berlusconi election
promise. Vittorio
Emanuele (son of King
Vittorio Emanuele III),
the last crown prince of
Italy and still referred
to as the Prince of
Naples, hasn’t done
the restoration cause
many favours. He’s been
tried (and acquitted) for
murder, investigated for
corruption and hasn’t
been as condemnatory
as he might when asked
about Mussolini’s anti-
Semitic laws. In 2007
he demanded Italy pay
him 250 million euros in
damages for the royals’
loss of assets after
abdication.
40
The left had the most notorious faction, the Marxist- Leaden legacy
Leninist Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades) that kidnapped and Unanswered questions
killed former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978, but the about the Years of
right committed the worst atrocity when they bombed Lead still hang in the
air. Conspiracy theories
Bologna train station in 1980, killing 85. Mass arrests and abound. Did the police
public revulsion helped end the worst of the violence by collude with the CIA
the early 1990s. Mainstream politics remained laughably and Gladio, the covert
corrupt, until finally, in the early 1990s, a series of mani NATO ‘stay-behind’
pulite (clean hands) judicial investigations attempted operation in post-war
Italy, to exaggerate the
to unravel the web of tangentopoli (kickbacks) with left-wing threat in the
exhaustive trials. As the big historic political parties – the Cold War era? Why
Christian Democrats and the Socialists – fell apart and the didn’t the Government
politicians went on trial (although few of the big names do more to save Aldo
actually went to jail; indeed, many were acquitted), a new Moro (i.e. compromise
with his captors)? Groups
crop of characters filled the void. claiming a connection
to the old Red Brigades
Different millennium, same issues still sporadically commit
Rising from the wreckage of the mani pulite investigations murder, helping to keep
came Silvio Berlusconi, a media mogul (and one of the the bad old days fresh
richest men in Italy) with a talent for whipping up popular in the collective psyche,
as does the enthusiasm
support. His and Italy’s story have been intertwined since for pursuing figures like
1994 when he first became prime minister heading a Cesare Battisti, a left-
rightist coalition. In 2008 he became premier for a third wing extremist wanted
time, having overcome numerous corruption scandals. for murders in the 1970s
On Berlusconi’s watch, Italy gave the USA its help in Iraq but living as a ‘refugee’
in Brazil (he’s now a
(despite massive public protest), endured a continuing successful thriller writer).
economic gloom, adopted the Euro and said goodbye to
Pope John Paul II (see section 8.3 for more on Berlusconi
and Italian politics). “I A M TH E J ES U S
CHRIST OF
PO LI TI C S . I A M A
PATI EN T V I C TI M ,
I PU T U P W I TH
EV ER Y O N E, I
S A C R I FI C E M Y S ELF
FO R EV ER Y O N E. ”
Silvio Berlusconi
41
42
1.3 Language and belonging
Nothing speaks of Italy’s
regional variation like language,
even while the creeping national
tongue threatens the dozens of
local dialects still in everyday
use. Similarly, Italian identity,
such as it exists, appears to
resist the call to national unity,
preferring instead the ties of
family and community.
43
1.3.1 Speech patterns: language in Italy
“I LOVE TH E Language, like much else in Italy, is complicated (and

LAN GUA GE, THAT enriched) by regional variation. Virtually everyone in Italy
SOFT BA STA RD
can speak Italiano commune, standard Italian, the sort
LAT IN, W HICH
ME LTS L IKE KISSES used in government, in education and in phrasebooks
FROM A F EMAL E for foreigners. However, most Italians also speak a local
MOUT H, AND dialect – half of them as a mother tongue – of the sort
SOUN DS AS IF IT you’re unlikely to understand unless you were born and
SHOULD BE WRIT
raised in the corresponding region, district or even town.
ON SAT IN, WITH
SYLLABL ES WHICH
BREATHE O F THE Oh, the vulgarity: where does Italian come from?
SWE E T SO UTH .” Of all the languages derived from Latin, Italian retains the
Lord Byron pondered closest ties to its ancient forebear. The basics emerged
the Italian language in in the Middle Ages, born of vulgar (spoken) rather than
Beppo
written Latin. From the 14th century onwards, a ‘standard’
written Italian, based on Florentine Latin (the language
It’s official: Italians speak of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio (see section 2.1.3 for
Italian more)) remained constant, even while most people on the
Italian only acquired peninsula were speaking one of numerous bastardised
official confirmation as local versions of Middle Ages Italian. Florentine won out
the national language in as ‘Italian’ because it was close to old Latin, offered a
2007, when Parliament
added a new statute
rough linguistic bridge between north and south and had
to the constitution. the influential sponsorship of wealthy, culturally aware
Seventy-five MPs merchants. Throughout, the Church plodded on with
actually voted against old school Latin. When Italy unified in the 19th century,
the move, complaining the new nation looked to the Florentine ‘standard’ as a
about ‘cultural
imperialism’. One Lega
national tongue.
Nord MP who spoke up As Italian was assimilated by the regions in the 20th
in Venetian to protest
had his microphone
century (a process helped by industrialisation, migration
turned off – MPs are and the growth of national media (God bless TV) as much
only allowed to speak as centralised education), they nudged it around with their
standard Italian in the own dialects, and so each region today has (aside from a
chamber. dialect) its own version of Italian.
44
Brogue states: Italian dialects Minority report
Italy abounds in regional dialects. They are sister Italian linguist Tullio De
languages to standard Italian, rather than variants, with Mauro has estimated
that only 2.5 per cent of
their origins in the devolved Latin of the Middle Ages.
Italians could actually
Despite the shared ancestry, the differences in grammar speak Italian in 1861.
and vocabulary between, for example, the Ladin dialect Two thirds of them lived
of the Dolomites and the Calabrese of the far south make in Tuscany.
mutual understanding almost impossible. Italian dialects
are preserved orally; when they do find their way into
Turns out he was talking
literature, it’s usually on a limited scale. And most are
about someone called
in decline, or becoming more ‘Italianised’, despite the God all along…
post-war Republic’s assurances of protection after years The Catholic Church
of suppression (the state now takes a relatively relaxed, in Italy finally began
passive stance on the use of local dialects). Today, around conducting Mass in
70 per cent of Italians speak a local dialect alongside Italian (rather than Latin)
after the Second Vatican
standard Italian, and dialect mixing (within a single
Council, held between
sentence as well as a conversation) is frequent. 1962 and 1965.
The dialects are often grouped into three portions (north,
centre and south), within which common phonetic and
grammatical characteristics are found. A line is drawn
from La Spezia on the Ligurian coast to Rimini on the
Adriatic: north of this the dialects are divided broadly
between Gallo-Italic styles, including Piedmontese and
Emilian, and those spoken in the Veneto. In the centre
grouping, Tuscan is usually set apart from neighbouring
tongues like Osco-Umbro and Marchigiano. Another line,
this one from Rome to Ancona, separates centre from
south. To the south, dialects group around a Neapolitan
type (Pugliese, Campano) and a Sicilian type (Calabrese,
Siciliano). Confused? If in doubt, just use Italian.
As you might expect, the more geographically disparate
dialects share fewer common factors. Similarly, the closer
a dialect is to the national border, the further removed it
will be from standard Italian. Three dialects, Sardo (spoken
on Sardinia), Friulian (widely used in the north-east) and
Ladin (Trentino-Alto Adige) are deemed separate languages
by the federal government, such is their deviance from the
Italian standard and the large number of speakers.
45
The perfect delivery Accents speak volumes
The modern usage of Accent or dialect can play an important role in how
dialect in Italy varies Italians judge each other, particularly on a first encounter.
according to certain
Speaking in standard, ‘accentless’ Italian engenders an
socioeconomic factors.
In short, if you want to aura of good education and relative prosperity but also,
hear the local burr at its perhaps, a certain stiff reserve. A regional accent won’t
broadest, seek out an convey the same air of intellect but people are more
old, working-class, rural, likely to warm to you. But it’s a fine line: go overboard on
modestly educated,
the accent and they’ll assume you’re a poorly educated
excitable male (the
language flows better rustic. The origin of your dialect and that of whoever
when emotions are you’re speaking with will, of course, colour any snap
roused) in an informal judgements: a Milanese accent usually commands
setting (i.e. at home). respect, while a Sicilian brogue may elicit condescension
or even mistrust.
Happy hour in dictionary corner

The best efforts of the Accademia della Crusca, the body
charged with safeguarding standard Italian (see section
2.1.4 for some history), don’t stop Italians enthusiastically
adopting English words (babysitter, smog, happy hour
etc). Dropping some Anglo-Saxon in your conversation
is still considered cool. Certain academics are perturbed,
but Italy doesn’t generally display the same hysteria as,
say, France when it comes to protecting the language.
They’ve seen it all before, adopting bits of Greek in the
late Roman Empire and embracing various Germanic
words when the Barbarians arrived soon after. Similarly,
the Italians are keen on slang and neologisms, mashing
old words together to create something new, as in the
case of tagentopoli, or bribesville, coined in the early
1990s to describe a particular brand of political corruption.
46
Making conversation The minority languages
The Italians talk like no one else in Europe. Conversation Aside from the three
is not only constant, but also always accompanied by Italian dialects of Sardo,
Friulian and Ladin,
gesticulation, adding nuance and meaning to the words.
various other languages
Beyond the ubiquitous improvised flailing, certain within Italian borders
gestures have established meaning: the fingers upturned (used collectively by
in a cone to signal impatience, or flicked from the chin to two-and-a-half million
say ‘I don’t care’ (or something ruder). Occasionally the people) enjoy official
minority status. German
gestures don’t even have a verbal accompaniment. Don’t
dialects pepper the
be alarmed if you see a man patting his genitals (unless, Alpine regions, as does
perhaps, they’re exposed) outside a football ground or Provençal, which also
cemetery; it’s supposed to ward off bad luck. As for crops up in the south
protocol, the Italians maintain eye contact throughout thanks to medieval
migrants. Franco-
conversation (looking away implies you have something
Provençal is still spoken
to hide), love discussing their culture (or at least around Turin. Slovene
professing some knowledge of it) and avoid the universal is used by some in the
minefields (religion, Mafia, death etc) unless in very close north-east, and Albanian
company. by a few towns in the
central and southern
highlands. Finally, a
smattering of Greek-
speaking communities
cling on in Puglia and
Calabria. All of the
above are in decline, and
all were brought to Italy
by migrants centuries
ago.
47
1.3.2 Being Italian: identity and psyche
Green, white and red Identity begins at home

The Italian flag, Il Italians don’t expend much energy contemplating a
Tricolore, with its collective, national identity. Unless they’re screaming
vertical line-up of green,
for the national football team, they view life in a much
white and red, was
first waved in 1798 by narrower frame. Italian society is based on individual
Napoleon Bonaparte social cohesiveness – loyalty is to family or at most the
for the Cisalpine local community, not to the nation, democratic ideologies,
Republic of northern a belief in intellectual, logical or rational behaviour, any
Italy. Milanese militia
abstract expectations of justice or, indeed, society at large
uniforms apparently
inspired the colours. (an explanation, perhaps, for why Italians are sometimes
Vittorio Emanuele II, perceived as aloof or rude when dealing with strangers).
the Risorgimento king,
adopted the flag for Just smile and pretend you care: a collective
Sardinia in 1848 and for disobedience
the new Kingdom of Italy The Italians live in spite (not because) of governments,
in 1861. The royal coat
institutions and authority. The distrust of all authority, so
of arms was removed
when Italy became a deeply embedded in the psyche of Italians, governors
Republic. and governed alike, stems from centuries of exploitation
by ruthless, despotic rulers, both native and foreign.
Participatory democracy, the idea of the self-made man
and a sense of civil rights and the common good: Italians
had little truck with such ideas when Unification came
along in the 19th century. Not even a ‘new’, unified Italy
could change man’s ancient human nature and condition:
those in power would keep the rest in ignorance. Mere
survival – putting a good face on the bad game of life –
had been and would remain the Italian struggle.
The ‘struggle’ has ebbed for most in the modern era,
but the Italians still rely on a combination of wits and
gut instinct, using l’arte di improvvisare (the art of
improvisation so refined in Italy).
48
Easy on the eye: the individual outlook “I TA LIA N S C O M E
Italy is reputedly the place where everything looks TO R U I N M O S T
G EN ER A LLY I N
incredible and nothing works. Certainly the Italians’ own
TH R EE WAY S:
love affair with their lifestyle resounds in one Italian W O M EN ,
proverb: l’occhio vuole la sua parte (the eye claims G A M B LI N G A N D
its due). Life is about seizing the day and ensuring its FA R M I N G. ”
memorable moments are clothed in beauty – beauty Pope John XXIII
affording a necessary illusion of control over one’s own
fate. The Italians’ slavish attention to personal appearance
and their talent for posturing, loud performance (even if
it’s only in the queue to buy bread) and even flattery, fall
within this commitment to la bella figura, to maintaining
at least the veneer of beauty.
Most Italians practice tolerance even if, on occasion, it
may only be the tool of opportunity. Furthermore, they
assume that consistency and logic are as superfluous as
they are unachievable, and that it is madness to believe
that anything beautiful should be functional, human nature
consistent or democracy a two-way street.
Regional rhetoric
Most of the elements that define the Italian character –
the flamboyance, preoccupation with beauty, insincere
deference to authority and love of culture – are
nationwide. Similarly, the famous chauvinism towards
their roots, the campanilismo that narrows loyalty to one
village or locale (and encourages rivalry, even hatred
towards neighbouring boroughs), can be described,
paradoxically, as a national characteristic. Place of origin
remains very important in Italy, even while psyche and
character may not be noticeably different from one place
to the next. Each region shouts about its heritage, about
the pre-Unification escapades that, they say, shaped its
modern character, whilst also taking time to disparage the
other regions: Romans are laid back but deluded about
their imperial lineage, the Milanese are hard working but
self-obsessed, Neapolitans are flamboyant but shiftless.
Rhetorical discussions about these and other regional
49
The sound of patriotism identities (often simply stereotypes) account for miles
Goffredo Mameli wrote of newsprint, endless hours around the dinner table and
the words to Fratelli abidingly popular comedy routines.
d’Italia (also known as
Inno di Mameli) in 1847, None of this, of course, denies the wholly genuine
setting it to music by variations in culture – in customs, food, media and wealth
Michele Novaro not long – between the regions, or the desire in some for greater
after. While it served
as a rallying call for the
autonomy. Nor does it dismiss the serious, long-held
Risorgimento, Fratelli identity gulf between north and south. Even second-
d’Italia didn’t replace the generation settlers born in Milan or Turin to parents who
House of Savoy’s tune moved north in the post-war era can suffer the slur of
as the national anthem being dubbed terroni, southern peasants (see section 8.4
until 1946 (a provisional
arrangement that was
for more on the north/south split).
finally made permanent
in 2005). How Italy sees the rest of the world
There is no word in the Italian language for ‘self-
conscious’. Hardly surprising, then, that most Italians are
blissfully unconcerned with outsiders’ opinions of their
lifestyle or persona. If pressed to consider what others
think of them, the Italians seem fleetingly flummoxed,
unable to understand why others devote their lives to
ideals or principles outside themselves, their families
or the local community. And yet, when the question is
reversed, the Italian self-confidence wavers a little; they
seem eternally fascinated by anything foreign. Indeed, the
Italians cast an envious glance at other Western countries
that appear to make things ‘work’ with improved
legislation, speedy justice or public services. With
childlike awe, they consider the balanced budgets and
seemingly widespread wealth of neighbouring modern,
industrialised and democratic nations, and lament their
own systems upon reading media reports of corrupt
bureaucracy, cronyism and nepotism. Italy’s persistent,
popular enthusiasm for the European Community since its
post-war inception reflects the belief in improvement by
association.
50
Finally, though, with every effort and impeccable circular
reasoning, the Italians can dismiss the seeming sanity of
other nations with an equanimity that verges on pity. The
childlike foreigners, poor things, are the naive ones after
all, striving and anguishing, suffering guilt, remorse and
nervous breakdowns. To most Italians, the foreigner can’t
accept life’s limitations or their own fate; they can’t enjoy
what they’ve got.
51
52
2 Literature and philosophy
2.1 Literature p55

2.1.1 A book shy
nation p56
2.1.2 Classically
trained: the Roman
authors p58
2.1.3 The Three
Crowns of the early
Renaissance p61
2.1.4 The anti-
climax of the High
Renaissance p65
2.1.5 Telling it like
it is: literature in the
modern era p68
2.2 Philosophy p79
2.2.1 The greatest
hits of Italian
philosophy p80
53
54
1. Identity: the Literature

2. Literature 3. Art, architecture 4.4.Performing
Music, theatre, 5. Cinema,
5. Cinema 6.6.Media
Mediaand
and 7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
foundations and philosophy
and philosophy and design arts
dance and comedy photography
and fashion communications
communications the state of
of British
Italian culture and fashion modern Britain
Italy
2.1 Literature
In the land governed by aesthetics,
literature slips under the radar
somewhat. It’s a shame, because Italy
has a long and distinguished literary
tradition; one that began with the
authors of Classical Rome, flourished
through the early Renaissance with
Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, and
continues today with a raft of good
modern authors.
55
2.1.1 A book shy nation
There seems to be an innate Italian apathy towards the

written word. Recent stats from the Italian Publishers’
Association reveal that more than half the population
fails to read a single book in the course of a year. Only
3.2 million get through a book each month. Of those that
do read, the majority are females and are far more likely
to live in the north of Italy than the south. According to
Mondadori, Italy’s biggest publisher, an elite six per cent
of the adult population is responsible for half of all book
sales. Throw in the fact that one in every five books sold
is a foreign work in translation and the gloom thickens.
On a more positive note, at least young Italians appear to
be reading more than their parents.
The five Italian classics to read first
La divina commedia (c.1321) by Dante Alighieri. The most famous Italian book
of them all, detailing the poet’s journey from hell to heaven, with a stopover in
purgatory.
Il decamerone (1353) by Giovanni Boccaccio. A hundred, often bawdy, novellas
told by ten different people over a ten-day period in plagued 14th century Florence.
Il canzoniere (c.1368) by Petrarch. A collection of 366 poems to the author’s
beloved Laura. No pressure Laura…
Il principe (1532) by Niccolò Machiavelli. The treatise on statecraft and power that
shaped Machiavelli’s uncompromising posthumous reputation – free velvet glove
with every copy.
I promessi sposi (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni. A classic from the Romantic era: a
novel set in 17th century Milan, a city under Spanish rule.
56
Five foreign classics set in Italy
The Portrait of a Lady (1881) by Henry James. Isabel Archer is rich and unhappy,
mainly in Rome.
A Room with a View (1908) by EM Forster. The room in question is at the
Pensione Bertolini in Florence.
Death in Venice (1912) by Thomas Mann. The story of Gustav von Aschenbach’s
obsessive love for a Polish boy on the Lido island, Venice.
The Enchanted April (1922) by Elizabeth von Arnim. Four women escape the
British weather and talk a lot in Portofino on the Italian Riviera.
A Farewell to Arms (1929) by Ernest Hemingway. Semi-autobiographical tale set
in Milan and on the Italian front line during the First World War.
57
2.1.2 Classically trained: the Roman authors
The Etruscans almost certainly had their own literature.

Maybe they even had bookshops with cafes and ‘3 for
2’ deals. Alas, none of it survives. Instead we look to the
Classical Latin texts of Ancient Rome for the beginnings
of Italian literature. Although much of this too has been
lost, a considerable body of work does survive, the
most significant portions of which were produced in
late Republican and early Imperial Rome during Latin
literature’s so-called Golden (first century BC – mid
first century AD) and, somewhat inferior, Silver (mid
first – mid second century AD) Ages. Disappointingly,
a Bronze Age of Classical literature didn’t follow. Each
era bore its share of poetry and prose (more epistolary
and historical than potboiler in style). Inspired by earlier
Ancient Greek works, the most significant Classical Latin
literature, especially in terms of its influence on later
Italian Renaissance writers, was produced by the poets.
However, both formats, poetry and prose, threw up
names and works that, remarkably, still find a readership
2,000 years on.
Latin prose: the magnificent seven

Cicero. The eloquent, detailed letters (epistulae) and
political writings of the great orator and statesman
established a model for Latin prose. He was put to death
by Mark Antony in the power struggle after Caesar’s
demise.
Julius Caesar. The dictator’s Commentarii de bello
Gallico (c.50BC) gave a good account of nine years spent
fighting the Gallic War.
Livy. The main man of Golden Age history, full name
Titus Livus, came up with Ab urbe condita (c.9BC) –
literally ‘from the founding of the city’ (that city being
Rome) – a work of considerable length (he squeezed the
original into 142 books) and literary merit.
58
Pliny the Younger.
Among his letters he gave
an eyewitness account of
the eruption of Vesuvius
in 79AD, the big bang that
destroyed the towns of
Pompeii and Herculaneum
and also killed his uncle,
Pliny the Elder.
Pliny the Elder. Before choking on Vesuvian ash, the
elder Pliny spent years compiling his massive Naturalis
historia (77AD), a kind of ‘guide to everything’ that found
popular use for centuries afterwards.
Tacitus. Another historian, Tacitus brought a slice of
wit to his writing on the governance of various Roman
Emperors in his Historiae (105AD) and Annales (117AD).
Suetonius. De vita Caesarum (121AD) was a biography
of the ‘Twelve Caesars’ that began with the reign of
Julius Gaius.
Latin poetry: the famous four

Catullus. Known for his 116 carmina (‘songs’), especially
the erotic and obscene ones.
Horace. The writer of many odes and also of Ars poetica
(18BC), a treatise on poetic theory.
Ovid. Best remembered for his love poems and for
Metamorphoses
(c.8AD), an opus
on mythology that
would resonate
throughout Europe
for centuries. Had a
charming way with
an elegiac couplet.
59
“I SIN G O F ARMS Virgil. The greatest Ancient Roman poet followed his
AN D T HE MA N.” early works, the farming-inspired Bucolics (c. 37BC) and
Opening line of Virgil’s
the Georgics (29BC), with a masterpiece, the Aeneid
Aeneid
(19BC). Taking Homer’s epics as a model, the 12-book
Aeneid, written in dactyllic hexameters, told the story
No faith in the future
of Trojan prince Aeneas, whose wanderings led to the
The phrase carpe diem,
founding of Rome. Virgil spent the last ten years of his
still given as advice
today by annoyingly life writing the Aeneid but was never entirely satisfied
decisive people, was with it. Fortunately, his deathbed instruction that it be
coined by the original burned was disregarded on the orders of the Emperor
dead poet, Horace, in Augustus.
the Ode 1.11 (23BC).
The full line, carpe diem,
quam minimum credula
You Lesbia, me frank
postero, translates as
‘seize the day, trusting Catullus has always been the schoolboy’s favourite Latin poet. The erotic poems
the future as little as about his idealised lover, Lesbia, and her metaphorical ‘pet sparrow’ have caused
possible’. many a spotty snigger over the years. He also wrote frankly obscene invective
poems that have never found their way onto any school syllabus, including his
infamous Carmen 16 (c.60BC), censored in both Latin and in translation for many
years. In its opening and final line, “Paedicabo ego vos et irrumabo”, Catullus
graphically invites two male critics of his poetry to come and be sexually demeaned
by him.
60
2.1.3 The Three Crowns of the early Renaissance
The path to Florence

From the fall of the Roman Empire until
the early 13th century, the literature of
Italy continued to be written in Latin.
Much of it comprised unremarkable
hagiographies, chronicles and histories
such as Paul the Deacon’s Historia
gentis Langobardorum (a history of the
Lombards), written in the late eighth
century. Poetry continued to trickle
forth, some of it religious, some of it
chivalric, relaying tales of Charlemagne
in the French dialect of the trovatori, the
Occitan troubadours.
Some of the earliest literature written
in Italian (or something close to it)
came from Saint Francis of Assisi,
whose Laudes creaturarum, a rather
fawning missive to God about the wonders of creation, St. Francis of Assisi talks
was written in the Umbrian dialect in about 1224. The to the birds, probably in
Umbrian
same tradition also produced the sacred songs (laudi) of
Jacopone da Todi later in the century. The earliest secular
literature written in Italian was produced by the Sicilian
School of poets – notably Giacomo da Lentini, who is
credited with having invented the sonnet – at the court of
the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II.
Later in the 13th century the centre of literary activity
moved north to Tuscany, and to Florence in particular,
where, it could be said, the real story of Italian literature
began. In these, the nascent years of the Renaissance,
three big writers stood above the rest: Dante, Petrarch
and Boccaccio. Each has had an immense influence
on Italian and European literature, an influence that still
resonates today. In Italy they’re celebrated as Le Tre
Corone (The Three Crowns) and remain required reading
in schools. Many Italians can still quote whole passages
of their work.
61
“ABAN D ON AL L Dante: three steps to heaven
HO P E , YE WHO Almost 700 years after he
E N T E R H ERE.”
died, possibly from malaria,
Inscription on the gate of
Hell, La divina commedia Dante Alighieri remains the
most important figure of Italian
literature. Indeed, in his use
A very suspended of the Tuscan vernacular, he’s
sentence often regarded the founder
The sentence passed on of the Italian language itself. Born into a fairly noble
Dante in 1302, forcing
Florentine family in 1265, Dante addressed his early
him into exile, stipulated
that he would be poetry to his beloved Beatrice (a woman it seems he
executed if he ever set never actually spoke to) in La vita nuova (1295), written in
foot in Florence again. the dolce stil novo (sweet new style), a mode of writing,
The judgement was pioneered by Guido Guinizzelli, which added a spiritual
only revoked in 2008,
dimension to love poetry, painting the adored woman as
and even then only by
a majority decision – an angel of salvation.
five members of the
As well as being a poet and scholar, Dante was also
Florentine council voted
to keep it in place. deeply involved in the turbulent political life of Florence.
His involvement in the power struggles between the rival
Ghibelline and Guelph factions, and then just between
the Guelphs themselves, led to him spending the last
20 years of his life in exile from the city (most of it in
northern Italy, although he did stray as far north as Paris,
and possibly even England). It was in exile that Dante
produced his masterpiece, the epic narrative poem La
divina commedia (c.1321).
‘The Divine Comedy’ (‘comedy’ meaning it doesn’t have a
tragic ending as opposed to being in any way funny) is a
huge work of over 14,000 hendecasyllabic lines (of eleven
syllables) written in terza rima (a three-line rhyming
pattern of Dante’s own invention: aba, bcb, cdc etc). It
describes Dante’s Easter weekend journey through Hell,
Purgatory and Paradise in search of his and mankind’s
goal – a vision of God. For the first two parts, the Ancient
Roman poet Virgil guides the way before Beatrice takes
over because Virgil, being pagan, isn’t allowed into
Paradise. The work succeeds on many fronts: it’s poetic,
dramatic, allegorical and moral. He wrote in the vernacular
62
language so that more of his contemporaries could Perhaps he just had
understand the story’s connection to their own lives and delicate features…
the medieval society in which they lived. Incidentally, the It’s clear from his poetry
author called it simply La commedia; the divina bit was that Petrarch’s heart
was stolen by a young
only added in an edition of 1555. girl named Laura; what
remains a mystery,
Petrarch: more than just a however, is the identity
sonnet of whoever stole his
Petrarch, full name Francesco head. In 2003 the poet’s
Petrarca, a poet and scholar body was exhumed
from Arezzo but of Florentine from his tomb in Arquà
Petrarca, Veneto,
stock, is a towering figure in in order to create a
the history of Italian literature. computer-aided facial
He’s deemed the father of reconstruction for the
Renaissance Humanism, an 700th anniversary of his
intellectual movement that emphasised the dignity and birth. However, while
the body was certainly
worth of the individual, and encouraged the rediscovery his, the attendant skull
and study of Classical pagan Latin and Greek texts. belonged to an unknown
Not content with launching Renaissance Humanism, woman.
Petrarch added various other firsts to his name: in
1341 he became the first writer since Ancient times
to be crowned Poet Laureate; he was the first poet to
perfect the sonnet form; he’s been called the first Italian
nationalist; and has been credited as the first ever tourist
and the first mountaineer. Beat that.
Inspired by the writings of Virgil and Cicero, Petrarch
produced many scholarly works and letters in Latin such
as De vita solitaria (1346), Epistulae familiares (1325-66)
and Seniles (1361-73), but it’s poetry written in the Italian
vernacular that gives the author his true importance. Il
canzoniere (literally, Song Book) is a collection of 366
poems mainly in sonnet form written between 1327 and
1368 and addressed to Laura, the object of his agonising
and unsatisfied love. Petrarch wrote of the power and
pain of love with an intensity and introspection that would
make Il canzoniere one of the most influential works in
European poetry.
63
Boccaccio: the power of ten
The third great literary figure of the 14th century was
Giovanni Boccaccio. The son of a wealthy Florentine
merchant, Boccaccio was possibly born in Paris, almost
certainly illegitimately, and was an admirer of Dante,
a friend to Petrarch and was another Renaissance
Humanist. His most celebrated works include De
mulieribus claris (1362), a biographical study of 106
mythological and historical women written in Latin;
Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta (c.1343), a novel narrated
by an unfaithful wife; and his masterpiece written in the
vernacular, Il decamerone.
Set in the summer of 1348, Il decamerone is a collection
of 100 novellas narrated by ten young Florentines,
seven female, three not, who take refuge in the hills
to escape the Black Death that ravages the city below.
They amuse themselves by each telling one story a day
for ten days (decamerone means the work of ten days).
Through the novellas, Boccaccio gave a vivid picture
of 14th century society, discarding established literary
models and drawing instead on human experience for
earthy, sometimes bawdy, tales, the themes of which
were often revealed in their
title. An example: Masetto da
Lamporecchio pretends to be
a deaf-mute and becomes
the gardener for a convent
of nuns who all compete
to lie with him.
64
2.1.4 The anti-climax of the High Renaissance
We’re only human How Italian became

Under the patronage of the wealthy Renaissance courts, the peninsula’s written
language
scholars and poets in 15th century Italy further indulged
Two hundred and
the Humanist taste for Classical writing. However, after
twenty years after
Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio there was, perhaps Dante advocated the
inevitably, a dip in the quality of new literature, and much use of the vernacular
of what was written turned away from the vernacular and in literature, Pietro
back to Latin. Only in the later 1400s did writers emerge Bembo, a Venetian
scholar and poet, tried
who, in addition to their scholarly
again in his treatise
offerings in Latin, produced works of Prose della volgar lingua
merit written in Italian. Their growth (1525). Bembo’s effort
was due in part to the influence of was more successful
Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ‘Magnificent’ and by the time the
Accademia della Crusca
Florentine ruler and patron of the
had published their
arts. Aside from Lorenzo’s own, not Vocabolario, the first
undistinguished, vernacular poetry, dictionary of Italian,
a handful of 15th century poems are in 1612, the Italian
worth tracking down: vernacular (derived
largely from the
Morgante (1483) by Luigi Pulci. Irony-infused epic Florentine dialect; a
chivalric poem about a giant. connection that spoke
of the region’s cultural
La giostra di Giuliano de’ Medici (1475) by Angelo prominence) had finally
Poliziano. Weaves mythology into a Medici jousting been established as the
victory. literary language of Italy.
Accademia della Crusca
Orlando innamorato (1495) by Matteo Maria Boiardo. An actually means Academy
unfinished romantic epic charting the exploits of Roland, of Bran, so called
because they cleaned
heroic French knight. up the language in the
same way that grain is
Machiavelli: not really that Machiavellian as it happens cleaned by discarding
By the 16th century, Italian literature had managed the bran (obviously…).
to extricate itself from the Humanist obsession with It’s still going strong,
Classical texts, and the writers of the period displayed dutifully protecting the
purity of the Italian
a greater awareness of the age in which they lived. language.
Among them was one of the most significant writers of
the Italian Renaissance, Niccolò Machiavelli, a Florentine
statesman and scholar who wrote histories, plays and
songs but whose greatest achievements were in the field
of political theory. He famously wrote Il principe (1532),
a posthumously published and much maligned treatise
65
“IT IS MU CH SAF ER concerning the acquisition and maintenance of political
TO BE FEA RED power by whatever means necessary, regardless of all
THAN TO BE LO VED
moral and religious considerations. Although the work
WHE N ONE OF THE
TWO MU ST BE was intended as a clear, scientific study of statecraft, it’s
LACK IN G.” often been regarded as a kind of tyrant’s handbook.
Niccolò Machiavelli Il
principe Aside from Machiavelli’s Il principe, the 16th century
deposited a few other notable works of Italian prose,
including Il Cortegiano (1528), a guide for training the
Dear Sir or Madam perfect Renaissance gentlemen, by diplomat Baldassare
When he wasn’t making Castiglione. It also gave us the ‘father of modern history’,
statues or decorating Francesco Guicciardini, whose Storia d’Italia (1561-1564)
the Sistine Chapel,
was lauded for its objectivity and use of official records as
the Renaissance artist
Michelangelo found source material. Giorgio Vasari’s Le vite dei più eccellenti
time to write 300 or so pittori, scultori e architettori (1550) left more details (some
impassioned homoerotic highly spurious) about the lives of the great Renaissance
sonnets addressed to artists than any other source, while the notorious,
Tommaso dei Cavalieri,
posthumously published autobiography of the sculptor
a young nobleman 34
years his junior. When (and probable murderer, rapist and thief) Benvenuto
they were published Cellini, is an engaging, impressively frank read.
posthumously in 1623,
they were altered by Brace of bards: the two major 16th century poets
his grandnephew, Ludovico Ariosto was known for his majestic and
Michelangelo the
imaginative verse, which, while conforming to classical
Younger, to make them
sound like they were models, reflected the secular spirit of the time.
written to girls. Orlando furioso (1516) was his masterpiece, a lengthy
epic recounting the adventures of the paladins of
Charlemagne, including the one where Astolfo flies to the
moon to find the bottle that contains Orlando’s sanity.
Torquato Tasso is considered both the most influential
and the final poet of the Italian Renaissance. He had to
deal with the constrictive atmosphere of the Counter
Reformation and also with his own deteriorating mental
health, yet he wrote with a flowing grace and melancholic
beauty, as evidenced in the pastoral poem Aminta
(1573) and his greatest work, the verse epic on the First
Crusade, Gerusalemme liberata (completed in 1581).
66
Loss of form
In Italy, the Renaissance had ebbed by the 17th century.
The subsequent 200 years saw the nation’s creative spirit
crushed by Spanish and then Austrian rule, engendering
one of the dullest periods in the history of Italian
literature.
The predominant literary style in the 17th century was
Baroque, characterised by extravagant ornamentation and
very little substance, and typified by the poetry of the
most popular writer of the period, Giambattista Marino.
In his best-known work, L’Adone (1623), a massive poem
of more than 40,000 lines, he tells the story of Venus and
Adonis and countless other mythological characters while
employing every literary device he can think of.
Towards the end of the century, in reaction to the
affectations of Baroque, the Academy of Arcadia (official
title Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi) was founded in
Rome by a group of writers who took the pastoral poetry
of Ancient Greece as their model. However, while the
Academy was well respected, its effective contribution to
the story of literature was negligible.
The creative vacuum remained until the end of the
18th century when the independent spirit of the French
Enlightenment and the French and American Revolutions
rippled out to Italy, stirring a national pride and sense
of identity that would permeate the coming years. Two
writers of particular note emerged. The first, Giuseppe
Parini, famously satirised the aristocracy in his poem Il
giorno (1763), detailing a pointless day in the life of a
pointless gentleman. The second, Vittorio Alfieri, wrote
the influential odes L’America libera (1784) and Parigi
sbastigliata (1789) and a treatise on the overthrow of
tyrannies, Della tirannide (1789).
67
2.1.5 Telling it like it is: literature in the modern era
The fervent nationalism of the Risorgimento movement

that spread throughout Italy in the first half of the 19th
century had a profound effect on the country’s literature,
both for the Classicists, who employed classic stylistic
models, and the Romantics, who concerned themselves
with sentiment and cared little for style.
The Classicists
The key Classical writers in the early part of the century
were the poets Ugo Foscolo and Giacomo Leopardi.
An ardent patriot (who was born in Greece and died in
England) and soldier, Foscolo’s most important work,
Dei sepolcri (1807), urged readers to remember heroes
past, to take inspiration, in particular, from their graves.
Leopardi is one of the greatest and best loved of all Italian
poets. Although his purity of style was technically of the
Classical school, the majestic desolation and nostalgia
of his poetry made him an unintentional Romantic. He’s
best known for his patriotic poems, All’Italia (1818) and
Sopra il monumento di Dante (1818), and for later, deeply
pessimistic poems such as L’infinito (c.1821) which
concludes: ‘And to shipwreck is sweet for me in this sea’.
In the second half of the 19th century, a more vehement
Classicism appeared in the poetry of Giosuè Carducci,
whose zeal for mother Italy was equalled only by his
hatred for the Catholic Church. He achieved great
notoriety with his anti-clerical and blasphemous poem
Inno a Satana (1865) which ends, ‘Great Satan passes
by, oh people, bringing blessing from place to place upon
his unstoppable chariot of fire’. However, his best work
lay within the three volumes of classically themed Odi
Barbare (1877-1889). Carducci won the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1906, the first Italian to do so.
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The Romantics Manzoni’s Requiem
The major figure of the Italian Romantic school, and one Of the many tributes
of the most important names in Italian literature, was the paid to Alessandro
Manzoni, the greatest
poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni. Like most Italian
came from Giuseppe
Romantics of the time, he was both a loyal Catholic and Verdi. In memory of
a fierce nationalist. He achieved great fame with a book Manzoni, Verdi, despite
of religious lyrics, Inni sacri (1810), and an ode written his own atheism,
on the death of Napoleon, Il cinque maggio (1822), but composed one of the
most famous pieces of
is best known for the historical novel I promessi sposi
sacred music, Messa
(1827). The Betrothed, as it translates, was a veiled social da Requiem. It was first
critique set in Milan whilst under Spanish rule. Today it’s performed on 22 May
regarded as a masterpiece and has become one of the 1874, marking the first
most famous and widely studied Italian novels. anniversary of Manzoni’s
death. The piece is also
sometimes referred to as
The Realist and the rebel
the Manzoni Requiem.
The mix of styles and movements infiltrating literature in
the late 19th century threw up two interesting characters.
The first, Giovanni Verga, was a leading figure in the
Verismo (Realist) movement that emerged in reaction to
both Classicism and Romanticism. His best-known novel,
I Malavoglia (1881), depicts the hardship and poverty of a
Sicilian fishing community in a stark, realistic way. Verga
would prove an important influence on the post-war
Neorealist writing of the 20th century. By contrast Gabriele
D’Annunzio, soldier, journalist, all-round agitator and
favourite author of Benito Mussolini, rejected Realism,
alongside Classicism, Romanticism and pretty much
anything on offer in favour of the beauty and irrationality
associated with the Decadent movement. Among his
works are the novels Il piacere (1889) and Il trionfo della
morte (1894), and, considered his best, a collection of
verse, Alcyone (1904), evoking the sensorial delights of a
Tuscan summer.
69
“T HOU P A RA DISE
OF EX ILES, ITA L Y!”
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Oh it’s all too much…

I’m off to Venice
Over the years, perhaps
because of the climate
and the wine, Italy has
served as a cultural
refuge for numerous
foreign writers: poet Turn of the century tumult
Lord Byron left England, The instability of Italian society in the early 20th century,
where he’d been the turmoil of political unrest, of war and dictatorship,
accused of sodomy and seeped into the country’s literature. When the Fascist era
incest, and had sex
all over Italy, breaking
arrived, with its constraints on cultural and intellectual life,
off when necessary to many authors were censored, forced into exile or even
write Don Juan (1823); imprisoned. Of the writers at work in that period, three in
John Keats and Percy particular live on in the popular consciousness:
Bysshe Shelley both
lived and died in Italy, Grazia Deledda. Deledda is remembered for Verismo
the former in a house on novels of love, pain and death among the Sardinian
Rome’s Spanish Steps; peasantry. Elias Portolu (1903), Cenere (1904), and La
the Russian novelists
Nikolai Gogol and Fyodor
madre (1920) are all fine examples. In 1926 she became
Dostoevsky wrote their the first – and so far the only – Italian woman to receive
respective classics Dead the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Souls (1842) and The
Idiot (1869) while in Italo Svevo. Now regarded as among the most important
Italy; James Joyce lived in modern Italian literature, Svevo’s work was almost
and taught English for totally ignored until championed by Irish novelist James
many years in Trieste Joyce. Svevo had a gift for capturing human psychology
where he wrote (most
of) his masterpiece
in print. Titles include Una vita (1893), Senilità (1898),
Ulysses (1922); and and his most famous contribution, La coscienza di
D.H. Lawrence fled Zeno (1923), a thoroughly modernist novel about
England accused of psychoanalysis and cigarettes.
being a German spy,
making his home near Luigi Pirandello. Although he’s known best as a
Florence where he wrote playwright (see section 4.2.1 for more), Pirandello also
Lady Chatterley’s Lover pushed his talent for questioning objective truth and
(1928).
the nature of identity into short stories and the novels Il
fu Mattia Pascal (1904) and Uno, nessuno e centomila
(1926). Nobel rewarded Pirandello in 1934.
70
String him up
Pinocchio (1940), the
Disney cartoon with the
wooden puppet that
had no strings to tie
him down, was based
on the most famous
Italian children’s story Le
avventure di Pinocchio
(1883) by Carlo Collodi.
The tale began life
as a series of stories
published in the Giornale
dei bambini, a children’s
newspaper. However,
Collodi never intended
the story, which
concludes when the
puppet becomes a boy,
to have such a happy
ending: if it hadn’t been
for a public outcry, the
serialised stories would
have concluded with
little Pinocchio hanging
by the neck from the
bough of a tree.
71
Trieste in Bloom Key figures of 20th century poetry
Novelist Italo Svevo Italian poetry in the early 20th century was dominated by
(real name Aron Ettore groups of writers with tremendous collective names:
Schmitz) was Jewish,
had a Hungarian father, Crepuscular Poets. Guided chiefly by Marino Moretti and
and provided the model Guido Gustavo Gozzano, the Crepusculars used subdued,
for one of literature’s commonplace language and subject matter with irregular
most famous characters,
Leopold Bloom, the
metre and rhyme but had little idea of what they were
anti-hero of James trying to achieve and didn’t produce much of great note.
Joyce’s Ulysses (1922).
Joyce had been Svevo’s
Futurist Poets. Led by Filippo Marinetti, the Futurists
English teacher in knew exactly what they wanted – a literature born of
Trieste where the two speed and war that would explode visually and sonically,
had formed a close stripped of anything, verbs and adjectives included,
friendship. When asked that might slow it down. As a result, although Futurism
why he had decided to
make Leopold Bloom
was influential in the visual arts, it was somewhat
Jewish with a Hungarian disappointing in poetry. Marinetti would later cosy up to
father, Joyce replied, the Fascists.
“Because he was.”
Futurist Filippo Marinetti wrote the poem Zang Tumb Tumb (1914); it was the sound of
war, specifically the Battle of Adrianople
72
Hermetic Poets. While the Hermetics often expressed
their pessimism and isolation in illogical and cryptic verse,
they were fortunate to have in their ranks the three great
Italian poets of the 20th century. Giuseppe Ungaretti led
with his vivid imagery and economy of language, finding
worldwide acclaim with Allegria di naufragi (1919) and
Sentimento del tempo (1933). The second star, Eugenio
Montale, was renowned for collections like Ossi di
seppia (1925), typical in its post-war pessimism and
sparing, ‘hermetic’ use of words, funnelled here through
impressions of the Ligurian coast. In 1975 Montale
received the Nobel Prize for Literature, an award given
16 years previously to the third heavyweight Hermetic,
Salvatore Quasimodo, author of Ed è subito sera (1942), a
collection of verse that strove to capture the tragedies of
modern life. Quasimodo later turned to Neorealism.
Realism, new and improved: post-war fiction

Italian literature emerged from the disasters of the
Second World War and the strictures of Mussolini’s
regime with a new spirit of freedom and lots of source
material. The novel was to become the predominant
literary form, characterised initially by the social
awareness and stark language of Neorealism, a genre
that had its roots in the pre-war Verismo but which took
on new impetus after the ordeals of life with the Fascists.
As the century progressed, literature became directed
more by personal and existential concerns.
Post-war fiction: the ten authors to read first

Carlo Levi. Levi’s most famous work, and perhaps the
best known text of Italian Neorealism, Cristo si è fermato
a Eboli (1945), told of the plight of peasant farming
communities in the south of Italy, to where the author had
been internally exiled by the Fascist regime for his political
activism. The title, Christ Stopped at Eboli in English, was
taken from a local saying suggesting that Christianity,
modernisation and money hadn’t made it that far south.
73
“N O ON E EVER Cesare Pavese. Pavese, another Neorealist, is a tragic
LACKS A G OO D figure for whom isolation, disillusionment and betrayal
RE ASON FOR
were central themes in both his writing and his life. The
SUICIDE .”
Cesare Pavese novella Il diavolo sulle colline (1949) looked back to his
youth in Turin, while La luna e i falò (1950), a novel, framed
betrayal, sex and death in a post-war Piedmont town.
Pavese committed suicide in 1950 following a failed love
affair with American actress Constance Dowling. Among
the unpublished poems found in his desk was his now
famous Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi (1951), or in
English, Death Will Come and Will Have Your Eyes.
Alberto Moravia. Moravia, whose early novels (he
published his first aged 23) were banned by the Fascists,
wrote prolifically in unadorned Neorealist prose about
social, moral and emotional dilemmas. His many novels
include Il conformista (1947), a scything, clever appraisal
of repression under Fascist rule, and, most famously, La
ciociara (1957), about a mother and daughter in war torn
Italy. Typically of Moravia, both novels deal frankly (and
often) with the subject of sex.
Giorgio Bassani. Remembered primarily for Il giardino
dei Finzi-Contini (1962). Set in Bassani’s native Ferrara,
it’s an unrequited love story placed amid a Jewish-Italian
family’s struggles under fascism.
Natalia Ginzburg. A poet and novelist who examined
personal relationships, family life and the place of women
in a society in flux. Tutti i nostri ieri (1952) and Le voci della
sera (1961) both feature ordinary folk living through the
Fascist era and the war. Ginzburg’s first husband, an anti-
Fascist, had died after being tortured in Rome in 1944.
“PRIM O L EVI DIED Primo Levi. A unique voice in Italian literature, Levi was a
AT A USCH WITZ 40 chemist and Holocaust survivor who used his learning and
YE ARS EA RL IER.”
experience to produce highly regarded memoirs, poetry
Elie Wiesel, on hearing
of Primo Levi’s death and fiction. Se questo è un uomo (1947) is based on his
(usually assumed a imprisonment in Auschwitz during the war. Novels include
suicide) in 1987 La chiave a stella (1978) and Il sistema periodico (1975) in
which each of 21 stories is linked to a chemical element.
74
Italo Calvino. Among the most widely read and Prose prize
translated of Italian authors, Calvino used imaginary Italy’s most prestigious
worlds and fabulous plots to present his version of literary prize is the
Premio Strega, awarded
modern life. Titles include Fiabe Italiane (1956), the first
each July to the year’s
comprehensive collection of Italian fairytales, Le città best work of prose
invisibili (1972) and Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore fiction. A group of
(1979) which (brace yourself) is about someone reading literary types initiated
the same book you are reading, but which then changes the award in 1947; one
of their number, Guido
into the beginning of a different book by a different
Alberti, owned the
author, and which then does the same thing again and company that produced
again. Strega, the herbal
liqueur from Campania
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. The aristocratic which lends the award
Tomasi (11th Prince of Lampedusa no less) only wrote one its name.
novel, Il gattopardo (1958), centred on a wealthy Sicilian
family in the 1860s, which was published to international
acclaim a year after his death.
Leonardo Sciascia. Sciascia set his crime fiction in his
native Sicily, his major themes being the Mafia, corruption
in high places and the frequently
unfulfilled quest for justice. Il giorno
della civetta (1961), Il consiglio d’Egitto
(1963) and Il Mare Colore del Vino
(1973), a collection of short stories,
were among his best.
Umberto Eco. Philosopher and expert
in medievalism and semiotics (see
2.1.1 for more), and perhaps the most
celebrated Italian novelist of the late 20th
century, Eco made his literary fortune
with a medieval murder mystery, Il
nome della rosa (1980). Il pendolo di
Foucault (1988), usually described as a
‘thinking man’s Da Vinci Code’, enjoyed
similar commercial and critical success.
Eco has stated that his 2004 novel, La
misteriosa fiamma della Regina Loana,
will be his last.
75
Scene of the crime A love of crime
The best-selling If Italians are going to pick up a book, invariably they
Inspector Montalbano reach for crime fiction. The nation’s favourite genre is
crime novels of Andrea
generally held to have begun in 1929 when publisher
Camilleri are set in the
fictitious Sicilian town Mondadori issued mysteries, often translated from
of Vigàta, modelled on English, called Gialli after their garish ‘yellow’ covers. It’s
the author’s hometown, a name that stuck; the genre is still referred to as Gialli
Porto Empedocle. In today. Early on, Italian Gialli writers found their work
2003 Porto Empedocle
banned by the Fascist regime, but after the war the genre
officially changed
its name to Porto flourished, helped along by the eagerness of cinema to
Empedocle Vigàta. adapt new books. Important authors include Leonardo
Sciascia (see previous page); Carlo Emilio Gadda, whose
Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana (1957), set in
the Fascist 1920s, made a considerable impact; Giorgio
Scerbanenco, best known for Venere privata (1966) and
Traditori di tutti (1966); and Carlo
Fruttero and Franco Lucentini,
the crime writing duo par
excellence responsible
for La donna della
domenica (1972),
a ripping yarn
of rape and
murder
among the
Turinese
bourgeoisie.
76
Crime fiction remains as popular as ever in Italy, its Letters to America
traditions maintained by a clutch of very good writers If the stats are to be
including Massimo Carlotto, author of the popular series believed, the best-
featuring Alligator (a private dick), Il maestro di nodi (2002) selling book of post-war
Italy is Va’ dove ti
being one of them; Gianrico Carofiglio, whose Testimone porta il cuore (1994) by
inconsapevole (2002) was a huge seller; Niccolò Susanna Tamaro, with
Ammaniti, author of Io non ho paura (2001), a disturbing global sales of more
tale of child kidnap in the anni di piombo; and the most than 14 million copies.
successful crime writer of them all, Andrea Camilleri, It’s an epistolary affair:
a series of letters from
author of the Inspector (Commissario) Montalbano series. an old, dying woman
Camilleri’s books have been a publishing phenomenon, in Trieste, imploring
achieving that hard to find mix of critical and public her granddaughter in
support. He published the first in the series, La forma America to ‘Follow Your
dell’acqua (1994) at the age of 69. Heart’. Have the tissues
at the ready.
21st century best-sellers
La rabbia e l’orgoglio ( 2001) by Oriana Fallaci. Controversial commentary on Islam

and European Muslims, originally published as a series of articles in the Corriere
della Sera.
Io non ho paura (2001) by Niccolò Ammaniti. A boy finds a kidnap
victim in an old farmhouse, and then discovers his parents are in
on the secret.
Senza sangue (2002) by Alessandro Baricco. A young girl hides
from the murderers of her parents, but grows up to avenge their
deaths.
100 colpi di spazzola prima di andare a dormire (2003) by
Melissa P (Panerello). Blockbuster diary of a schoolgirl’s sexual
odyssey.
La pazienza del ragno (2004) by Andrea Camilleri. The eighth in
the wildly popular Inspector Montalbano series of crime novels.
Gomorra (2006) by Roberto Saviano. A frightening ‘non-fiction
novel’ about the Camorra, the Naples mafia. The author lives in
hiding following death threats.
77
78
2.2 Philosophy
The Italians were pondering the stuff of
life when the rest of us were concerned
simply with animal husbandry. And since
the days of progressive Roman thought,
Italy has produced a consistent roll call
of philosophers, figures who spent much
their time trying to reconcile science,
nature and religion.
79
2.2.1 The greatest hits of Italian philosophy
Mention Aquinas or Machiavelli to most Italians and

they’ll give a nod of recognition. Some may even know
the key tenets of their respective philosophies; others
will pretend they do. However, more generally, if you
find yourself in a bar confessing your ignorance of
Logical Positivism you won’t be alone. Italians don’t pride
themselves on any great knowledge of abstract thought
or its proponents, nor do they strive for intellectual
credibility over the dinner table, in the manner of, say, the
French. Debate usually focuses on more tangible matters.
And yet, Italy does have its list of significant philosophers,
stretching right back to the days of the Roman Republic.
Stealing ideas from the Greeks

The philosophy of Ancient Rome was in fact the
philosophy of Ancient Greece with some of the trickier
theories removed; the Romans simply selected the parts
that suited their more practical approach to life. Little
of any great originality emerged, and the importance of
Roman philosophers lies more in their translation and
preservation of Greek texts. Certain figures stood out:
Cicero picked and chose what he liked from the Sceptics
and the Stoics, using it to try and prop up the principles of
the dying Republic in the first century BC; and Seneca the
Younger (a Roman born in Spain) was firmly in the Stoic
camp a century later, urging people to simplicity, virtue
and reason.
Heavy reading: two Roman works of philosophy
De rerum natura (c.50BC) by Lucretius. An epic philosophical poem ‘on the

nature of things’ deemed the most complete example of Greek Epicurean thought,
advocating a simple, pain-free life in a universe ruled by chance. Lucretius advised
that we should have no fear of death – and then he killed himself.
Meditations (c.170) by Emperor Marcus Aurelius. A monumental work of Greek
Stoic philosophy, which regarded the avoidance of both pain and pleasure as the key
to a happy life.
80
Adding God to the equation “‘ I N C O N S TA N C Y I S
When the Western Roman Empire fell in the fifth century, M Y V ER Y ES S EN C E, ’
S A Y S TH E W H EEL.
Christianity became the defining influence on Italian
‘RISE UP ON MY
thought, and remained so for a thousand years. The major S PO K ES I F Y O U
Middle Ages school of philosophy was Scholasticism, LI K E B U T D O N ’ T
an academic approach to reconciling Christian faith with C O M PLA I N W H EN
Ancient Greek reason (particularly the logic peddled by YOU’RE CAST BACK
D O W N I N TO TH E
Aristotle). Two figures stood above the rest:
D EPTH S . G O O D
Boethius. One of the last great Roman statesmen was TI M ES PA S S A W A Y
B U T TH EN S O D O
a Christian (although not a Scholastic) and an influential
TH E B A D . ’ ”
translator and advocate of Aristotle and Plato. In the From Boethius’
Consolatio Philosophiae (c.524), written in prison while Consolatio Philosophiae
awaiting execution for treason, Boethius trawled through
Ancient reason (rather than Christian belief) for an answer
to his predicament. The work also popularised the Rota Is that a poker in your
hand or are you just
Fortunae, the Wheel of Fortune (sometimes called the displeased to see me?
Boethian Wheel) representing the vicissitudes of life.
Saint Thomas Aquinas’
Saint Thomas Aquinas. The ‘Angelic Doctor’, a family apparently tried
to prevent him from
Dominican priest, was the most important figure of
becoming a Dominican
medieval Scholastic philosophy. He developed the monk by locking him in a
synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian logic that room for two years. They
effectively became the Roman Catholic Church handbook. even hired a prostitute
Aquinas’ best-known work is the Summa Theologica to help change his mind,
but Thomas chased her
(left unfinished on his death in 1274), in which you can
out of the room with a
find, if you wish, his Quinque Viae, five very complicated red-hot poker.
arguments to prove the existence of God.
Renaissance Humanism: what was it?

The dominant philosophical school of the Italian
Renaissance was Humanism. Inspired by the writings
of Petrarch (see section 2.1.3), the Humanists moved
away from the cold logic of Scholasticism, preferring
rediscovered Ancient texts, especially those of Plato, for
exploring the importance of the individual (and individual
expression) and the relationship between the human and
the divine.
81
The major philosophers of the Italian Renaissance
Lorenzo Valla. His treatises on pleasure, De voluptate
(1431), and free choice, De libero arbitrio (1439), pushed
individual happiness, achieved through measured virtue
rather than Stoic abstinence. Valla, something of a
pedant, also spent considerable time criticising the
standard of Latin used by his contemporaries.
Marsilio Ficino. Fifteenth-century Florentine thinker
whose translations of Plato proved highly influential. He
saw the universe in layers (from God downwards), and
in line with Renaissance values, gave humans a starring
role. Ficino coined the phrase ‘platonic love’.
Giovanni Pico della MirandolaA handsome chap
whose study of free will and human perfection, Oratio de
hominis dignitate1486), is considered the manifesto of
Humanist philosophy.
The theological backlash

The Counter Reformation, beefed up
by the muscle of the Roman Inquisition
(see section 1.2.2 for the full story),
sought to expunge the Humanists’
suggestion of balance between man
and God, and to reassert Catholic
authority. Three brilliant ‘heretics’ had a
bit of trouble:
Giordano Bruno. The Dominican monk,
philosopher and astronomer was tried
and executed for his pantheism (the
idea that God, nature and the universe
are essentially the same thing) and the
conviction that our universe is infinite
and filled with numerous worlds moving
about in space. He wrote it all down in
De l’infinito, universo e mondi (1584),
before being burned alive in 1600.
Giordano Bruno stand grim watch over Rome’s
Campo de’ Fiori
82
Galileo Galilei. The ‘father of
modern science’ had a profound
effect on philosophical thought.
Like Bruno, he was tried by
the Inquisition for supporting
the heliocentric cosmology of
Copernicus, in which the sun,
not the earth, forms the centre
of the universe. His Dialogo
sopra i due massimi sistemi del
mondo (1632) was banned until
1835, almost 200 years after
he died, aged 70, under house
arrest.
Tommaso Campanella. He
tried to reconcile Renaissance
Humanism with Catholic
theology and duly spent most of his life either on trial or
in prison. Campanella’s best-known work, Civitas Solis
(1623), is a Utopian affair advocating a universal theocratic
monarchy.
Waiting in vain for Enlightenment

The Counter Reformation proved disastrous for free
thought in Italy. Whilst other parts of Europe spent the
next 200 years deep in debate, most notably during the
Enlightenment, Italy only produced a handful of original,
significant philosophers. Giambattista Vico emerged in
the 18th century, best known for the principle of verum
factum (truth is deed) – mankind creates society and
therefore shapes what it believes to be the ‘true’ world.
Vico also concluded that history is cyclical – it begins with
barbarism, becomes civilised and then eventually returns
to barbarism – as detailed in Principi di una scienza nuova
(1725). Later in the 18th century, Cesare Beccario’s
influential treatise, Dei delitti e delle pene (1764), called
for penal reform, argued against the death penalty and
was perhaps Italy’s closest brush with the Enlightenment.
The 19th century brought minor contributions from
83
Roberto Ardigò, the leader of Italian Positivism
(knowledge is derived from what can be scientifically
observed), and Antonio Rosmini-Serbati with his notion of
the ‘ideal being’, a reflection of God found in every man.
Ideological differences: the early 20th century

philosophers
Like their predecessors, Italian intellectuals in the first half
of the 20th century were both shaped and restricted by
prevailing political and social factors. Three stood out:
Benedetto Croce. The most important Italian philosopher
of the modern era worked in the Idealist tradition but
developed his own theories, notably maintaining that
thought constitutes the only reality and that all history
and artistic activity are forms of thought, as outlined in
Filosofia dello spirito (1902–17). Croce opposed fascism
and was under constant surveillance as a result.
Giovanni Gentile. In Teoria generale dello spirito come
atto puro (1916), Croce’s one-time friend and fellow
Idealist stressed how important the act of thinking is
to articulating experience. Unlike Croce, Gentile was
a fascist; he took a ministerial post in Mussolini’s
government and became known as the Philosopher
of Fascism, tarnishing his academic reputation in the
process.
“FOR T WENTY
Antonio Gramsci. The Sardinian was a Marxist and
YEARS WE
M UST STOP THIS leader of the Communist Party of Italy at almost precisely
BRAIN FR OM the wrong time and in almost exactly the wrong place.
FUN CT IONING.” Whilst imprisoned by Mussolini he wrote his acclaimed
Prosecutor at the trial of Lettere dal carcere (1929-35) in which he developed his
Antonio Gramsci (who
theory of Cultural Hegemony – how the capitalist state
then proceeded to write
his best work in prison) keeps revolution at bay by making bourgeois values the
norm in society.
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Signs and sex appeal: the post-war philosophers
Italian philosophy has continued along its rather
unremarkable path in the years since the Second World
War. The key characters have included Luigi Pareyson
and Nicola Abbagnano, each with his own version
of Existentialism, and Norberto Bobbio, who wrote
extensively on the philosophy of law and politics. Among
the current crop, Umberto Eco is the most popularly
received, a best-selling novelist whose Trattato di
semiotica generale (1975) argues that all intellectual and
cultural activity can be interpreted through the systems
of signs (see section 2.1.5 for more on Eco’s novels).
Another philosopher still at work, Mario Perniola, has
written radical stuff on art and aesthetics, including Il sex
appeal dell’inorganico (1994).
Five sticky philosophical ends
Lucretius. St Jerome tells us that the Roman philosopher killed himself after being
driven mad by a dodgy love potion.
Seneca the Younger. Nero commanded Seneca to commit suicide (or else be
executed) following a failed plot. It proved a lengthy procedure: wrist and leg
slashing, poisoning and suffocation in a steam bath were all involved.
Boethius. He was arrested and imprisoned on charges of treason, suffered days of
excruciating torture and was then clubbed to death.
Giordano Bruno. The Roman Inquisition’s trial of Bruno on charges of heresy lasted
for seven years, after which he was stripped, his tongue was bound and he was
burned at the stake in the Campo de’ Fiori, Rome, where his statue now solemnly
stands.
Giovanni Gentile. After actively supporting both the Italian and German fascists,
Gentile was shot by communist partisans in Florence, in 1944.
85
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3 Art, architecture
and design
3.1 Art and design p89

3.1.1 The eternal
template: Ancient
Italian art p90
3.1.2 Killing time
’til Giotto arrives:
medieval art p93
3.1.3 Master strokes:
the Renaissance in
Italian art p98
3.1.4 Back to reality:
the power of Baroque
p107
3.1.5 To the avant-
garde and back:
modern Italian art p110
3.1.6 Style and
substance: modern
Italian design p113
3.2 Architecture p117
3.2.1 Built to last:
Ancient architecture
p118
3.2.2 Classical
leanings: the medieval
builds p121
3.2.3 Designing
harmony: Renaissance
architecture p124
3.2.4 The high drama
of Baroque p128
3.2.5 In the shadow
of greatness: modern
Italian architecture p131
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3.1 Art and design
Italy has the richest artistic heritage
in the world. Enter a church, palazzo or
museum anywhere in the country and
you trip over the stuff. The heroes of the
Renaissance – Michelangelo, Leonardo,
Raphael – are undimmed, 400 years after
they left the stage, to be followed rapidly
by Titian, Caravaggio, Bernini et al.
Inevitably, modern Italian artists feel the
pressure.
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3.1.1 The eternal template: Ancient Italian art
Copying the Greeks: Etruscan and early Roman art

The Etruscans were inspired by the urbane flair of the
Greeks with whom they shared Italy for long periods
during the first millennium BC (see section 1.2.1 for
more), and duly decorated their walls, floors and tombs
with figurative frescos and mosaics. For a time, early
Republican Rome took this Greek style second hand
from the Etruscans before eventually going direct to the
source, having conquered the Mediterranean and founded
an empire on the ruins of ancient Greek kingdoms in the
second century BC. Many of the artists at work in Rome
were Greek, and the steady trickle of looted Hellenistic
statuary being sent back by victorious generals helped
develop the style. Efficiently and with great ingenuity,
they took the bits they liked; indeed, often we have the
Romans to thank for copying Greek originals that have
long since disappeared.
Three great Ancient works of art from Italy
Apollo of Veio. An expressive, life-sized Etruscan

statue of Apollo in attack mode, created in painted
terracotta in the sixth century BC. On show in the
National Etruscan Museum in Rome.
Roman husband and wife. An early naturalistic
sculpture from the late Republic (c.63AD), depicting a
couple we all know: he, scowling slightly, dying for a
drink, having just arrived at a dinner party; she trying
to ignore him. It’s in the Louvre.
Bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. The
oversized statue from c.173AD survived destruction
in the later Empire after being mistaken for the
Christianising Constantine. The original is in Rome’s
Palazzo Nuovo.
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Warts ’n’ all: sculpting faces the Roman way Caracalla’s airbrush
The flourishing art of the Roman Empire took Greek The painted Severan
models and topped up the naturalism. While the idealised Tondo (c.200AD)
panel (held in the
statuary of the Greeks flattered their Gods, its Roman
Antikensammlung,
descendant happily sculpted the warts on an emperor’s Berlin) depicts Emperor
face – truth took precedence over beauty. The bust Septimius Severus with
of Emperor Vespasian in Naples’ Museo Archeologico his family. The head of
Nazionale, while it carries the somewhat distracted look one of the sons has been
scratched out; he was
of a hung-over accountant at a golf club bar, is a fine
murdered by the chubby,
example. beaming little beast
Sculpture was treated with religious awe (the Christians’ next to him, his brother,
Caracalla. He became a
refusal to burn incense in front of the emperor’s bust fairly disgusting emperor
became the original cause of their persecution), and by all accounts, and it
artists were permitted to make it more lifelike than the was he who ordered
Greeks had ever done. It’s also worth noting that realism the damnatio memoriae
was usually limited to the face; it wasn’t unusual to find (damnation of memory),
taking the Roman
a rather sardonic, unromantic Roman head glued to the airbrush to his brother’s
torso of a beefy Greek god. The best-known statue of portrait. Gratifyingly,
Augustus (the ‘Augustus of Prima Porta’) shows him Emperor Caracalla was
looking youthful on a torso that’s copied from the fifth eventually murdered
century BC Greek sculptor, Polykleitos. while urinating by the
side of the road.
Floor to ceiling: Roman paintings and mosaics
The Romans were prodigious portrait painters. Alas, little
of what they hung on the wall survives, save the odd
encaustic painting (mixing pigment and hot wax), daubed
on wooden panels. Thanks in no small measure to Mount
Vesuvius, Roman frescos (in which paint is applied direct
to wet plaster) survive in far greater number. The wall
paintings of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae were
created as decoration by decorators – practitioners were
seen as tradesmen rather than maestros. Similarly,
commissioning a fresco or a sculpture was an assertion
of wealth and status as much as patronage of the arts.
Subject matter included scenes of daily life (the maiden
gathering flowers on the wall of a house in Stabiae
is achingly lovely), landscapes, mythology, still life (a
wonderful couple of lemons and a glass of water) and
post-watershed naughtiness, usually in a brothel or a
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decadent villa. Mosaics were usually used as
floor art, although there are extant examples
on walls. Military escapades and historical
events were often portrayed, and geometrically
arranged motifs were also popular. Pieced
together with coloured stone, Roman mosaics
never quite achieved the lustre of Byzantine
examples made from glazed stone or glass
fragments.
‘So, yes, this is you Gloating in stone: triumphal art

burning in hell. A good Wealthy Romans used art to announce their social
likeness I think?’
standing and, similarly, politicians and emperors used it
The fresco from the for propaganda. Several accounts of Roman triumphal
Catacomb of Priscilla
in Rome showing three
painting exist (if not the paintings themselves), made
men in a fiery furnace, after military victories. They captured episodes from the
their arms outstretched war and the conquered, devastated landscapes. Similarly,
beseechingly, and the sculpture embellished triumphal arches and columns,
dove – the symbol of often with a documentary frieze carved in stone. Trajan’s
Divine help – hovering
reassuringly above,
Column, dating to 113AD and still standing in central
was typical of early Rome, commemorates the emperor’s victory in the
underground Christian Dacian Wars with a spiralling 30-metre bas-relief of the
art and its undecorative wars’ events.
urgency.
The underground art of the early Christians
The catacomb paintings of ancient Rome, none of which
predate 200AD, are the earliest surviving examples of
Christian art. Families were keen to see their loved ones
(and later themselves) off with an image or two of the
afterlife. When Emperor Constantine converted in 313,
an edict of toleration was issued and, with imperial favour
and protection, Christianity – and in turn Christian art – was
allowed to move above ground and to flourish. While early
Christian art maintained the realistic Classical representation
of figures, the Greek-led idealisation of beauty was rendered
irrelevant. God and death became the main themes of
work that was unheroic and modest. Sculpture was now
utilitarian, crude and typically unfussy, yet had an intensity
and focus that portrayed people who had witnessed, and
finally accepted, the onset of Christianity.
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3.1.2 Killing time ’til Giotto arrives: medieval art
When West met East: Byzantine art in Italy “PA I N TI N G C A N D O

When the Roman Empire split in the fourth century, the F O R TH E I LLI TER A TE
W H A T W R I TI N G
focus of art moved from Rome to the small Greek city
D O ES F O R TH O S E
of Byzantium. Here, the expressive, instructive early W H O C A N R EA D . ”
Christian art of the Roman catacombs clashed with the Or so said Pope Gregory
contemplative icons of the Orthodox Church. The latter
won out, and by the sixth century the prevailing taste
in the Empire was for stylised, impassive figures, for No pictures please
enigmatic reflections of a supernatural world. In the eighth century,
Italy was about
Despite the restrictions, Byzantine art, in the hands of the only portion of
several unknown geniuses, deposited some stunning the now distinctly
un-Roman Roman
work in Italy. Sculpture was largely abandoned (the
Empire to seriously
spirit, not the body, was all important), replaced by resist the Iconoclasts,
wall paintings and mosaics. Ravenna was the centre of a destructive group
activity. Here, in the new capital of the Western Empire, spurred on by Emperor
mid-sixth century Greek craftsmen revived the sumptuous Leo III’s demands that
all human images
decoration of ancient Oriental art. The best mosaics
in religious art be
(perhaps the finest ever laid) were completed in the smashed. Italy’s non-
Church of San Vitale in 547, where stylised nature, biblical compliance ensured the
scenes and the emperor were made kaleidoscopic. survival of Ravenna’s
mosaics.
As Italy felt its way through the Dark Ages in the
following centuries, the best Byzantine art was created
elsewhere. However, the artistic meld of East and West
did periodically return, notably in the mosaics of Monreale
Cathedral, Sicily, created by Byzantine craftsmen some
time around 1190. Byzantine style, particularly Ravenna’s,
also appeared in the art and buildings of early medieval
Venice, notably inside St Mark’s basilica.
What a relief: Romanesque and Gothic art

The Romanesque (a rather misleading term for the art
of the period; the ‘Roman’ element was confined largely
to architecture) and subsequent Gothic styles that took
root in northern and central Europe from the tenth
century struggled in Italy, where the jumble of territories
produced only isolated successes. Ecclesiastical
architecture usually led the way (see section 3.2.2 for
more) and art followed up with the essential
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The family stone
The Cosmati were a
Roman family famed
for geometrically
patterned church
floors, tabernacles
and altarpieces in the
12th and 13th centuries.
Four generations of
Cosmati mixed small
segments of coloured
stone with large stripes
and discs of marble in
the churches of Rome,
although one of their
best patterns turned up
in Westminster Abbey,
London.
accoutrements: carved reliefs, wall paintings, illuminated

manuscripts and mosaics. Gulielmo da Modena’s
simplistic but significant narrative carvings on Modena’s
Romanesque cathedral were a high point.
In the south, the Saracens’ Sicilian adventure turned up
in the island’s geometrically decorated churches and
lived on through the Norman’s tenure to blend with
both Romanesque and Byzantine elements. Puglia was
similarly pleased with Norman design; Otranto cathedral
has the largest Norman mosaic in existence, a 700-
foot ‘tree of life’ design dating to c.1163. The Gothic
style of the 13th and 14th centuries, its figures less stiff
than Romanesque’s, struggled to impact on Italian art,
although it appears in chunks of northern sculpture and
decoration, particularly in the lavish medieval palazzos of
Venice.
94
What’s that up ahead? It’s the past “A FTER TH E
While Gothic design was doing D A R K N ES S H A S
B EEN D I S PELLED ,
its best to penetrate Italy, certain
OUR GRANDSONS
painters and sculptors began looking W I LL B E A B LE TO
back to the animation and naturalism W A LK B A C K I N TO
of Classical art. The seeds of the TH E R A D I A N C E O F
Renaissance were being sown. TH E PA S T. ”
Petrarch urges rebirth
Nicola Pisano, a Puglian sculptor, was
the first key figure to take inspiration
from Roman statuary, basing his
sensuous 1260 nude Fortitude, for
Pisa Cathedral’s new pulpit, on a
Roman model of Hercules. Pisano’s
son, Giovanni, and his pupil, Arnolfo
di Cambio, moved things along,
blending the physicality of Roman
sculpture with Gothic’s growing
interest in drama and expression.
“IN M Y OPINION PAINT E R S O W E T O G IOT T O, T HE F L OR E N TI N E

PA INTER, EXA CTL Y THE S AM E DE B T T HE Y O W E T O NAT U R E, W H I C H
CONSTA NTL Y SERVE S T HE M AS A M ODE L AND W HOS E FI N ES T
AND MO ST BEA UTIF UL AS P E C T S T HE Y AR E AL W A Y S S T R I VI N G TO
IMITATE AND REPRODU C E .”
Giorgio Vasari
95
So he was quite Giotto the proto-Renaissance man
good then? Fifty years after the Pisanos put Classical fluidity back
There are lots of stories into sculpture, a Florentine artist did the same for
about Giotto’s genius.
painting. Giotto di Bondone was the first genuine hero
He was apprenticed
to Cimabue (aka Cenni of a beckoning age, a proto-Renaissance man. He was
di Pepo) – himself applauded in his own lifetime as a radical artist; as a
experimenting with true revolutionary who wrested art away from flat and
greater realism in art formulaic Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic modes and
– and had his master
made it three-dimensional, realistic and dynamic. In truth,
shooing a fly off one
of his paintings, such Byzantine and Gothic art were already moving towards
was Giotto’s realism. greater authenticity in their depiction of the human form,
Later on in his career he but undeniably, Giotto made the big, celebrated leap.
reputedly demonstrated His most acclaimed frescos, a cycle celebrating the lives
his talent to the pope
of the Virgin and Christ, belong to the Scrovegni Chapel
(who’d sent a messenger
to uncover evidence of in Padua. Completed c.1305, the stunning work fills
the painter’s skill) by the chapel. In emphasising the human rather than the
drawing a freehand, but divine (his figures looked more like real people in real
perfect, circle – Giotto’s landscapes than the stylised, over-coloured embodiments
O as it became known.
of virtue), Giotto chalked up one of the most important
achievements in art history.
Damned by Dante’s
praise The Giotto comedown and the Sienese School
Giotto, a man of lively Nobody followed on Giotto’s heels exactly, although
wit, bore a certain a slew of pale imitators known as the Giotteschi did
self-deprecatory charm their best. Taddeo Gaddi, apprentice to Giotto, seemed
where his alleged content to produce good work that was in no danger of
lack of prettiness was
marking out another big change. Even though Giotto was
concerned. When Dante,
who knew Giotto well, revered and his work understood, it would take another
saw him at work in the century before other artists furthered his exploration of
Scrovegni Chapel, he naturalism. It was as if Giotto had done too much, too
remarked on the beauty quickly.
of the frescos just
completed, a quality, he
felt obliged to point out,
the painter’s children,
scattered underfoot,
lacked. After such
devastating, poetic
rudeness, Giotto simply
replied that he shouldn’t
be surprised since he’d
made them in the dark.
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At the same time that Giotto was breaking boundaries in
the Veneto, his best contemporaries were gathering in
Siena to give Italy its most vibrant, colourful encounter
with Gothic. Duccio di Buoninsegna was the leading
figure. His great success was the Maestà (1308-11) in
Siena Cathedral, an exquisite painting often likened to
detailed and opulent Persian miniatures. Movement and
space became more important in the beautiful, though
still somewhat static work of Simone Martini in the early
14th century. This Sienese School also produced the
Lorenzetti brothers, Pietro and Ambrogio, who gave a nod
to Giotto’s naturalism but were more important for their
increasingly secular subject matter.
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3.1.3 Master strokes: the Renaissance in Italian art
What the Renaissance was and why it centred

on Florence
The Renaissance now seems like a nicely rounded
burst of creativity spanning the 14th to 17th centuries,
providing a bridge between the Middle Ages and
the modern era. In some ways it was, but it’s also
worth remembering that ‘Renaissance’ only became a
fashionable term in retrospect. Its suggestion of light
after centuries of darkness shouldn’t be taken as read.
The work of Giotto, the Pisanos and later Byzantine and
Gothic artists all helped feed the key Renaissance theme:
reviving the culture of Antiquity.
In Florence in the 15th century (confusingly called
the quattrocento), fortuitous circumstances collided:
Petrarch’s Humanism (see section 2.1.3 for more) had
initiated a revival of all things Classical; Florentine rulers
were championing the city, a republic (in name at least),
as the protector of Roman values and culture; and the
city’s wealth, accumulated from textiles and banking,
created rich patrons keen to buy the artwork that would
confirm their association with those Classical, Humanist
values. The major players of the Renaissance all worked
in Florence at some time or another. It was home to the
fabled Medici dynasty, and in particular Lorenzo di Medici
(il Magnifico) who, while not commissioning personally,
made life easier for Botticelli, Leonardo and Michelangelo
by recommending their services to private patrons. The
Uffizi, the ‘offices’ designed by Brunelleschi, and the
countless churches, museums and piazzas littered with
the most famous artistic heritage on earth, all attested to
Florence being the centre of the new universe.
98
Five key figures of the early Renaissance in Florence
Filippo Brunelleschi. Not only was Brunelleschi the
extraordinary genius behind the vast dome of Florence
Cathedral (see section 3.2.3 for more), he also codified
the laws of perspective some time around 1415,
providing painters with a foolproof formula.
Donatello (born Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi).
Brunelleschi’s friend, the finest quattrocento sculptor,
went through three phases: from realism, through
Classical idealism and back to realism and the portrayal
of character. The lifelike qualities, particularly the
apprehensive, alert face of concentration, on his statue
of St George, completed early in his career, in 1416, and
stood in a niche outside the church of Or-San-Michele in
Florence, marked a real break with the past.
Perspective, better than

sex
Paolo Uccello’s Rout of
San Romano (c.1450)
is artfully littered with
lances, dead soldiers
and bits of armour, all
expertly foreshortened.
Indeed, it was as if
perspective took over
the Florentine painter’s
life. He loved it. So
much so that his poor
wife, calling him from
bed, would often hear
him answer, glued to his
easel, “What a sweet
thing perspective is”.
99
Painting in the Lorenzo Ghiberti. A contemporary of Donatello, sculptor
background Ghiberti made two sets of bronze baptistery doors for
A clever and industrious Florence cathedral, produced over a 40-year period. The
man, Ghiberti was a first set had the grace of International Gothic, the second,
collector and writer as
well as an artist. His
all the new depth, verve and perspective of the Classical
written Commentarii, Renaissance. Ghiberti’s Baptism Of Christ relief on the
a mix of autobiography font in the Baptistery of Siena Cathedral (also featuring
and observation, spread Donatello’s Herod’s Feast) was another milestone.
ideas on Humanism and
left a revealing account Masaccio (meaning Messy Tom – he was born Tommaso
of the man and his Cassai). The most important (albeit dishevelled) Florentine
times. painter of the quattrocento reacted against medieval
artifice, creating depth and drama with a profound
Messy Tom’s messy end understanding of perspective. His paintings celebrated
If the standard line is
Humanism – their figures existing as solid bodies in
to be believed then space. His Trinità (c.1427), in the church of Santa Maria
Masaccio died by Novella, Florence, is a breathtaking example.
poison, killed by a rival
artist when he was Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro). A Dominican friar
just 27 years old. The from Fiesole, near Florence, Angelico painted natural,
more likely story is that unforced religious pictures of motion and depth, in
he succumbed to the perfect understanding of the new rules introduced by
plague.
Brunelleschi and Masaccio. The wall paintings in the
monastery of San Marco, Florence, completed in the
1430s, are among his best.
The early Renaissance outside Florence

A generation after Donatello, Masaccio and co lit up
Florence, the preoccupation with perspective and Classical
realism seeped out to other regions. Rome, relatively slow
on the uptake, only began searching out the Renaissance
style in the later 15th century. Further north, the Veneto
produced a fine artist in the shape of Andrea Mantegna,
a Paduan painter who achieved a heightened sense of
drama using perspective and Classically solid, anatomically
correct figures. From southern Tuscany came Piero
della Francesca, creating paintings that, like Mantegna’s,
were dramatic and truthful but relied on light as well as
perspective for their potency. His Dream of Constantine
(c.1460) fresco in Arezzo’s church of San
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Francesco, reputedly the first nocturnal scene in Western Vasari gets its all down
art, delivered dazzling illumination and compositional Giorgio Vasari, born in
perfection. Della Francesca also expressed his passion for the midst of the High
geometry in various mathematical treatises. Renaissance, was the
great Florentine critic
and chronicler of the
Venus envy: Botticelli and friends period. The Lives Of The
Back in Florence, artists like Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Artists (1550) is still
painter and sculptor, moved closer to Classical form. Fra considered essential
Filipo Lippi started out painting in the style of his tutor, reading, however biased
Masaccio, before turning to a more informal, decorative and spurious some of
its biographies may
style, expert in its grasp of perspective (apparently after be. His great hero,
he abandoned the clergy to get married). However, Michelangelo, was
the later quattrocento in Florence belonged to Sandro also his friend. Vasari
Botticelli, pupil of Lippi and cohort of Pollaiuolo. He was an accomplished
painted his best work for the Medici family. Botticelli painter in the Mannerist
style himself, although
overcame the problem of presenting a complicated his work was more
knot of people in a tight landscape, employing a kind of admired then than
elongated Classicism to do it. Part of his unique skill lay now. Principally he
in selecting just what he needed to convey a story, as was renowned as an
Fra Angelico had done before him. Much of Botticelli’s architect, constantly
engaged by the Medicis
painting was religious, but his most famous work, The in Florence, Rome and
Birth of Venus (c.1485), rendered a classical myth. As Naples.
Florentines urgently tried to recapture the splendour
of Ancient Rome, such mythology, formerly discarded,
achieved a renewed and potent power.
If you can remember it, you probably weren’t there:

the High Renaissance
As the 16th century (cinquecento) began, the
Renaissance went into overdrive. Artists were becoming
celebrities, although not immediately the sort of people
who would be invited to rich dinner tables. Snobbery
still dictated that intellectuals, writers and poets were
superior to the artists who (ugh, how horrible) worked
with their hands. Even so, for numerous small courts in
need of honour and prestige, commissioning a tomb, a
fresco or a building from a well-known maestro could Giorgio Vasari,
Michelangelo’s biggest
secure a place in posterity. Subject matter broke out,
fan
expressing more than just godliness (although this
101
Da Vinci in code remained the prime theme). Some artists even got a say
Da Vinci made in what they painted.
conceptual notes
(multiple notebooks’ The geography of the Renaissance shifted slightly too,
worth of which survive) moving with the flow of wealth and power. Florence
about double-hulled remained important, but Venice and Rome (with its
ships, tanks, helicopters, strengthening papacy) grew to rival its creative output,
solar power, plate
tectonics and blood
each with its own, subtly regional version of Renaissance
circulation (which he art. In common, the key figures of the brief High
almost figured out). Renaissance (it was over by 1525) combined the Classical
Most of his writing was realism of the early Renaissance with an eye for idealised
completed in mirror grandeur. They made some monumental works of art.
script (i.e. the mirror
opposite of normal
writing); no one’s quite
The big three of the High
sure if he wanted to
Renaissance
keep his thoughts Leonardo da Vinci. The
hidden, was left-handed,
and therefore trying to
Florentine elder of the High
avoid smudging the ink, Renaissance was a quick-
or was just showing off. learning apprentice whose
powerful, enquiring brain
strove to understand the
Mona on the move world and its wondrous
Da Vinci was as workings, both artistic and
impressed with his
scientific. He started much
Mona Lisa as the rest
of us. He carried it but finished little; few of his
around with him for paintings (and none of his
years, taking it on trips sculpture) actually reached
to Rome and France. completion. Da Vinci’s large masterpiece, The Last
Incidentally, in Italy
Supper (1497), painted during a long spell in Milan, broke
they call it La Gioconda
because the sitter was new ground in its composition with a calm Christ flanked
married to Francesco del by agitated, richly characterised apostles. If only he hadn’t
Giocondo. experimented with painting it in oil on dry plaster (it
began to deteriorate within three years of completion). A
later work, Mona Lisa (1504-5), innovated with sfumato,
the gradual, almost imperceptible, blurring from one tone
or colour to another, and also with chiaroscuro, the use
of light and shade for dramatic emphasis. The work is
a deliberate picture-riddle; the eyes and mouth either
betraying a smirk, a slight sneer or a very calm look of
recognition.
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An artist to look up to
Michelangelo was so
used to standing on
scaffolding and looking
up whilst working on
the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel that he would
instinctively read letters
held above his head.
Michelangelo Buonarroti. The poet, painter, sculptor

and architect of unprecedented fame – who came
a generation after Leonardo – was fascinated with
earlier masters, Masaccio in particular, and the Ancient
sculptors who captured the human body in motion. He
was attracted by the challenges that awkward poses and
funny angles threw at him. Michelangelo, who spent
most of his career in Rome in the employ of popes,
grudgingly accepted a commission on Pope Sixtus’ Sistine
Chapel; he considered painting beneath him – sculpture
was his passion. The four years of work (he shut himself
away after getting rid of his assistants) resulted in a
colossal, brilliant painting of the Genesis story complete
with muscular, emotive and complex figures. It was the
apogee of the High Renaissance. Michelangelo finished
the ceiling in 1512, aged 37. A year later his Dying Slave
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(1516), for the tomb of Pope Julius, was a sculpture of
almost supernatural skill. The artist’s later work, which
played an important role in the emergence of Mannerism
(see overleaf), substituted poised grandeur for writhing
distorted shapes, possibly coloured by Charles V’s attack
on Rome and its Renaissance treasures in 1527.
Raphael Sanzio. By all accounts the painter known
simply as Raphael was as sweet natured as Michelangelo
was terse. He sauntered into Florence from Urbino,
Marche, in 1504, to soak up the spirit of Leonardo and
Michelangelo, and completed his Madonna del Granduca
a year later. The graceful work, one of many of the Virgin
and Child by Raphael, displays a stunning control of paint
and use of sfumato. His most important paintings came
later, in Rome. Summoned by Pope Julius II, he was
commissioned to paint frescos in the Vatican offices and
produced The School of Athens (1509-11), a work that
embodies the best Renaissance art with its balanced
composition, perspective, mastery of the human figure
and Classical gravitas. He wasn’t a slave to nature, unlike
his quattrocento predecessors; his beauty was more
idealised and imagined, as seen in the beautiful figures of
another masterpiece, The Nymph Galatea (1512-14).
Three Venetian masters of the Renaissance

Giovanni Bellini initiated the Venetian trend for painting
with far richer colours than those used in Tuscany. He
borrowed a sculptural style of painting from his Paduan
brother-in-law, Mantegna, albeit creating more human,
less idealised figures. Bellini painted his best, Madonna
with Saints (1505), towards the end of his long life,
mastering the harmony of figures and surroundings; it
sits above the altar in the little church of San Zaccaria, in
Venice.
Giorgione, or Giorgio Barbarelli, didn’t live very long,
dying aged around 32 in 1510, and he didn’t leave many
paintings behind (only a handful, all unsigned, are
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assumed to be his), but he did exert a great influence Correggio: how on earth?
on the Venetian style with moody, hazy and imagined Antonio Allegri, better
landscapes supporting the figures, often female nudes, known as Correggio,
in his work. His Sleeping Venus (c.1510) has been called bathed his subjects in
light. His style was well
the first painting to make a female nude the uncontested suited to Italy’s renewed
centre of attention. taste for religious
art in the 1520s. The
Titian, full name Tiziano Assumption of the Virgin
Vecellio, official painter (1530) ceiling fresco
to the Venetian Republic, in Parma cathedral
drew on Bellini’s colour took foreshortening
and Giorgione’s nudes and illumination to
breathtaking new
and smoky landscapes heights, depicting Mary
(some of his work directly ascending to heaven
copied, or perhaps even through a vertical tunnel
finished off, Giorgione’s). of angels perched on
He brought drama to clouds. At first glance
it looks like a huge
religious and mythological celestial sauna. His
scenes and portraits with paintings prefigure both
a faultless sense of colour Mannerism and the
and light; Madonna with Baroque style.
Saints and Members of the
Pesaro Family (1528) was an amazing work that broke
the unwritten rules of symmetrical composition. He
fulfilled every bit of promise in a great, long life before
succumbing to the plague in Venice, rumoured to be
99 years of age, and had a profound influence over the
Baroque painters who followed.
What and who were the Mannerists?

Elongation, compositional strangeness (ignoring the
rules established to lead the eye through the painted
narrative), discordant colours, cryptic subject matter: all
became grist to the mill of the Mannerists towards the
end of the High Renaissance. Sculptors and painters,
most of them in Rome, twisted their figures, some
elegantly, some with a hint of the grotesque, and created
confused, crowded compositions. They grew from the
Classical tradition of realism but moved it on, inspired by
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Colourful character Raphael and Michelangelo. It’s as if the Mannerists were
Jacopo Robusti earned saying, “I can do anything, it doesn’t have to look real,
the nickname Tintoretto, it’s just got to look brilliant.” In truth, some weren’t quite
the little dyer, because good enough; as art historian E.H. Gombrich put it, their
his father worked
colouring fabric. Later in
pictures didn’t so much record a religious experience as
his career the artist was a roomful of squabbling athletes. Mannerism lasted until
referred to as Il Furioso, the end of the 16th century and, in a way, became a
such was the rapid pace template for Modernism. Three Italian artists stood out:
at which he produced
paintings. Jacopo da Pontormo, from Florence, stretched his
figures and crowded the canvas, instilling emotion in
works like Visitation (1528-29), a painting that defies its
time, glowing with charm and eloquence.
Tintoretto, the Venetian-born Jacopo Robusti, studied
briefly with Titian before the pair fell out. The Finding
of St Mark’s Remains (1562), with its strange sanguine
colours, unusual viewpoint and contrasts between gloom
and bright light, typified his style.
Parmigianino, the ‘little one from Parma’ who also
answered to the name of Girolamo Francesco Maria
Mazzola, eschewed ‘natural’ beauty in favour of
something radical and unexpected. The Madonna of the
Long Neck (c.1535), an image of sophisticated distortion,
is true to its title, with the addition of a stretched,
disquieting baby Jesus.
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3.1.4 Back to reality: the power of Baroque
Art of the people for the people When artists attack: the
The expression and flexibility of Mannerism fell from enigma of Caravaggio
favour near the end of the 16th century. Instead, amid Caravaggio’s life was
as famously wilful as
growing ardour for the Counter Reformation, patrons (i.e.
his paintings. Born
the Church) demanded truth, or at least a Catholic version to a Lombardian
of it. The return to naturalism revived a High Renaissance administrator in 1571
spirit, yet often ditched the idealised Classical (or possibly 1573), he
interpretation of reality for something more visceral and arrived in Rome in
1593 after a four-year
tangible, something people could actually relate to and,
apprenticeship in Milan.
the Church hoped, learn from. It was the beginning of He became known
Baroque. Two Early Baroque painters rose above the rest: (perhaps erroneously) as
a thug – albeit one with
Annibale Carracci. The best painter in a famous a God-given (so they
family of Bolognese artists, Carracci was a big fan of said) talent for painting
Raphael’s work and sought to capture its simplicity – and rapidly accrued
and essence. His was the more idealised form of quite an arrest record. In
Early Baroque style, best seen in frescos painted for a 1606 he went too far and
killed a tennis opponent
ceiling at the Palazzo Farnese, Rome, between 1597 in a dispute over the
and 1604. The mythological narrative was placed within score. With a price on
painted, illusory statuary and picture frames, recalling his head, Caravaggio
the High Renaissance but also pre-empting the elaborate fled to Naples, found
decoration of High Baroque. new commissions and
painted increasingly
Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Where Carracci’s art was dark pictures. Moving
pretty, almost sentimental, the painter from Caravaggio in on to Malta he was
made a knight, before
Lombardy (he was born Michelangelo Merisi but became being arrested again.
known by the name of his hometown) produced gutsy, He escaped and fled to
emotional pictures appealing directly to the senses. Sicily where he painted
Famously, he painted biblical figures like they’d been several seminal works,
plucked from the poor back streets of Rome (which his notably David with
the Head of Goliath
models had – he didn’t simply sketch classical statues as (c.1609) in which the
per contemporary fashion). His Doubting Thomas (1602- stricken giant’s face
3) with its workaday-looking Christ and three apostles, is Caravaggio’s own,
dressed in contemporary clothing, was typical. The before, in 1610, he died,
Church often found his work a bit too real – his truth was probably of typhus.
Famed in his own
considered ugly, even disrespectful, at the time – and lifetime, Caravaggio was
he was obliged to repaint a number of commissions. all but forgotten for 300
However, this very intensity, the hyperrealism bolstered years, until his stock rose
by a brilliant use of chiaroscuro, made his work as devout again in the 20th century.
as Carracci’s.
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Caravaggio’s camera High Baroque: Rome recovers its mojo
British artist David A band of lesser, imitative artists followed and worked
Hockney has speculated with Carracci and Caravaggio. The latter’s were called
that Caravaggio
the Caravaggisti, naturalistic painters who featured
achieved his trademark
expressive accuracy by Artemisia Gentileschi in their ranks, the first female
projecting his intended painter to gain any real recognition in Italy. Carracci’s
image onto the canvas corner included Guido Reni, a fellow Bolognese who
using a lens. Before arrived in Rome in 1601 and worked closely with the
the lens, artists used a
master. His Aurora (1614) fresco, painted for the Palazzo
concave mirror to reflect
and project the subject Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome, shows an idealisation of
matter. An Italian nature, but more importantly an evocation of the Classical
researcher has gone past. Rome rapidly became the centre of the Baroque
further, suggesting that world, attracting artists from abroad, notably French
Caravaggio used light
Classicist landscape boys, Nicolas Poussin and Claude
sensitive chemicals to
‘fix’ an image on the Lorrain. Caravaggio’s naturalism slipped from favour in
canvas, and then painted Italy 20 years after his death and Baroque took a turn for
in the lines. the fancy. Grand, illusory painting and sculpture became
fashionable, executed by artists like Pietro da Cortona
who painted vast frescos packed with movement, colour
Superstar sculptor
and illusion. This, with all its florid bombast, was High
When he wasn’t making
Baroque.
sculptures or designing
buildings, Bernini found
time to paint, write plays Bernini: no friend of restraint
(a scribbled text was The high priest of High Baroque was Gian Lorenzo
discovered in the 1970s), Bernini. The Neapolitan son of a Mannerist sculptor,
design stage sets Bernini shot to fame in Rome in the 1620s and remained
and even orchestrate
busy as a sculptor and architect for the rest of his life,
firework displays. On the
few occasions that he working for seven different popes in all. Bernini was
left his beloved Rome all about drama. He had the striking ability to render
he was recognised as emotion and movement faithfully in stone. His figures,
a genius; in Paris they like Caravaggio’s, had a fleshy reality; they weren’t the
mobbed him in the
idealised humans of Michelangelo. Bernini’s sculptures
streets in 1665 (well,
maybe not mobbed are dotted through the public spaces and buildings of
exactly, but perhaps Rome, from St Peter’s to Piazza Navona, but his most
looked at him quite famous work resides in the church of Santa Maria
intently in that knowing della Vittoria: The Ecstasy of St Theresa (1635) is an
Parisian way…).
astonishingly complex, expressive creation. It recreates
Theresa’s mystic vision of an arrow-wielding angel of the
Lord, with the eponymous, swooning saint in a tumble of
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drapery and light (from a hidden skylight). Some modern Italy’s pre-Impressionists
observers question whether Theresa’s rapture comes A small group of
from spiritual enlightenment or more earthly satisfaction, painters from Tuscany
such is the realism. formed the Macchiaioli
school in 1850, with
similar aims to the more
Spluttering embers: Rococo and Neoclassicism famous and enduring
Baroque’s final, 18th century flourish, the French-led French Impressionists.
flamboyance of Rococo, found few significant Italian Macchie means patches
practitioners. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, like other Rococo or spots – areas of light
artists, was akin to a brilliant decorator. The Banquet of and dark – the elements
that gave the group’s
Cleopatra (c.1755), painted in Tiepolo’s native city, Venice, paintings their strength
was typical in its colourful, dramatic, showy and fun style. and radiance. Giovanni
Other Venetians were more concerned with landscape. Fattori and Silvestro
Giovanni Antonio Canale, known better as Canaletto, Lega were two of the
painted colourful, literal scenes of Venetian waterways, prime adherents. Many
of the Macchiaioli
traders and festivities that were snapped up by Grand took part in the 1848
Tourists. Francesco Guardi brought a delicate Rococo uprisings; they were
touch to the Canaletto style, showing a mastery of brush politically engaged
strokes that would interest the Impressionists years later. and sought a return
to the boldness of the
Despite the best efforts of old masters. Alas, the
Tiepolo, Canaletto and Guardi majority died in poverty,
in Venice, the fires of Italian misunderstood and
reviled.
art were becoming spluttering
embers. By the time Rococo’s
gingerbread style provoked
the austerity of Neoclassicism
in the later 18th century,
the best artists at work in
Italy were foreign, drawn
to Rome by its Ancient and
Renaissance art. Only Antonio
Canova won international
fame as the leading sculptor
of Neoclassicism. The Three
Graces (1817), amongst the
most celebrated of Canova’s
delicate nudes, shows how
Bernini’s intense freeze-frame style had been replaced by
the old, considered elegance of Ancient sculpture.
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3.1.5 To the avant-garde and back:
modern Italian art
Out with the old I’ve seen the future and it’s sort of blurred looking
The key artists of The most dynamic force in early 20th century Italian
Futurism, Umberto art was Futurism. Poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Boccioni, Carlo Carrà,
(see section 2.1.5 for more) was the chief founder and
Giacomo Balla, Luigi
Russolo and Gino polemicist of a movement that launched in 1909 intent
Severini, all signed the on celebrating the energy and movement of the modern,
Technical Manifesto technological age at the expense of traditional forms.
of Futurist Painting in Parisian Cubism was an influence, as was the now largely
1910. First up on its list
forgotten late 19th century Italian Divisionist movement
of declarations was: ‘All
forms of imitation must with its social realist style and love of light.
be despised, all forms of Giacomo Balla was an important Futurist painter; his
originality glorified’.
Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912) was typical of the
school’s efforts to render motion, in this case with the
Aerial perspective
frantically blurred legs of its sausage dog star. Umberto
Aeropittura (aero
Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913),
painting) was a
vital component of its figure slurred by speed, was Futurism in sculptural
the second wave of form. Futurism had largely died out by 1918 (they were
Futurism, in the interwar less celebratory about the mechanised age after the big
period. The technology industrial war), although re-emerged briefly under the
and excitement of flight,
Fascists, notably with the state-sponsored art of Mario
directly experienced
by most aero painters, Sironi. Although Futurism was short-lived, its components
offered up aeroplanes – movement, the celebration of youth, speed, technology
and aerial landscapes as and power – emerged not only in Art Deco and the
new subject matter. conceptual work of Marcel Duchamp but also influenced
much of today’s modern culture, from Ridley Scott’s
Bladerunner to the comics of Manga and Anime.
Introspection selection: the Metaphysicals

While the Futurists were busy ripping up the order,
glorifying the external, mechanised world, another
group of artists quietly turned their gaze inwards, to
the subconscious. The Metaphysical school painted
dreamlike scenes that would prove highly influential to
the Dada and Surrealist movements. Giorgio de Chirico,
a Greek born of Italian parents, was the big name, famed
for strange, haunting images of colonnaded piazzas. He
studied philosophy in Germany and loved the “Nietzschean
squares” of Turin. Belgian painter René Magritte described
110
de Chirico’s Song of Love (1914) as a “complete break Devoted companion
with the mental habits of artists…a new vision”. Giorgio Upon hearing of
Morandi and Filippo De Pisis were other important Modigliani’s death in
Metaphysical artists, as was Futurist defector Carlo Carrà. 1920, his 21-year-old
muse and mistress,
Jeanne Hebuterne,
Why the long face? Ask Modigliani eight months pregnant
Although the Expressionism that grew in early 20th century with their second child,
Europe struggled to make a significant impact in Italy, the committed suicide by
nation did produce one of the movement’s most thrilling jumping from a fifth-
exponents, albeit one who spent most of his working life storey window in Paris.
in France. Livorno-born Amedeo Modigliani had a short
and tragically shambolic life, curtailed by ill health (aged It does what it says on
the tin
35) and aggravated by various bohemian addictions. And
In 1961 Piero Manzoni
yet his work, influenced by Romanian sculptor Brancusi,
created an artwork of 90
is instantly recognisable and idiosyncratic: heads were small, sealed tin cans
painted flat and mask-like, with almond eyes and long labelled ‘artist’s shit’.
necks, their form vaguely reminiscent of ancient Egyptian One of the cans sold for
painting, or the African masks, exhibited in Paris, that had $80,000 in 2007.
nudged a thrilled Picasso towards Cubism. Modigliani also
produced sculpture, adopting the same approach as he did
to painting.
Art on a budget
It was the critic Germano Celant who first used the term United nations of art
Arte Povera (impoverished or poor art) in relation to a The Venice Biennale,
small group of Italian artists producing radical work in the the most famous festival
1960s and 70s. The radical, unrestrained manner in which of international art
they expressed a politically charged standpoint (in the era (dance has recently
been added to the
of student protests and anti-war demos) would shape the
menu), is held every
art of the later 20th century with its ephemeral modes two years. It began in
of performance, installation, interaction and assemblage. 1895, and has struggled
They were inspired by Marcel Duchamp and by Piero to maintain a truly
Manzoni, a brilliant, ironic conceptual Italian artist who representative showcase
of world art ever since.
died, aged 29, a year or two before Arte Povera got
Attending countries
started. The ‘poorness’ of the Arte Povera clique related get their own pavilion
to the cheap materials they used, from newspapers to to show in, aided by a
vegetables. By using rudimentary ingredients they hoped central exhibition space
to cross the divide between life and art, to trigger a and numerous fringe
activities and displays.
reaction from the viewer and also subvert the
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commercialisation of art. Arte Povera produced a number
Seven
contemporary of significant figures, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giovanni
Italian artists Anselmo and Alighiero Boetti among them.
Luca Trevisani. Beyond the avant-garde

Conceptual artist
After the Arte Povera storm came the Transavanguardia
creating multimedia
meditations on beauty calm. Meaning, literally, ‘beyond the avant-garde’, the
and energy. movement arose in the late 1970s and survived well into
Vanessa Beecroft. the 80s as part of a wider neo-Expressionist movement.
Arranges (and films) They reacted against conceptual art, adopting a more
tableaux of (mainly) figurative, joyous approach, using traditional methods
nude women. (painting and sculpture) if not traditional styles. The
Luisa Lambri. Film- themes chosen by Transavanguardia artists were always
maker producing simple
eclectic, poaching subject matter from both Antiquity and
light-fixated work in
modern, empty buildings. the modern world. Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente,
Nico Vascellari.
Enzo Cucchi, Nicola de Maria and Mimmo Paladino (all
Punk rocker turned still at work) were among the key figures.
performance artist.
Diego Perrone. Niche work if you can get it: contemporary Italian art
Conceptualist and Although plenty of contemporary artists are providing the
image-maker inspired by modern curatorial scene with challenging, arresting and
Arte Povera. ironical post-modern work, Italian art suffers from a lack
Rosella Biscotti. Film- of cohesion. There is no ‘It Pack’. The Italian public would
maker documenting
be hard-pressed to know what Italian modern art is. Or
‘ordinary’ lives.
who Vanessa Beecroft is, for example – she’s a Genoese
Paola Pivi.
Photographer and
performance artist, working in America in a style that still
film-maker; often puts references Classical art, usually through the grouping of
animals in unexpected static nude bodies.
landscapes.
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3.1.6 Style and substance: modern Italian design
A genetic blueprint: la linea Italiana Taken for a ride by

Italy seems to have an innate sense of design, a natural Giugiaro
affinity with aesthetics. Maybe the origins lie somewhere In 1999 Giorgetto
Giugiaro was named
in the architecture of Ancient Rome, although the modern
Car Designer of the
Italian talent for design only really emerged in the 1930s, Century by a cabal of
led by American ideas and money. Italian architects (all the industry’s great and
the key designers of this formative period trained in good. He’s designed
architecture, and most favoured the simple Rationalist dozens of cars since the
1960s. Many of you will
style (see section 3.2.5 for more)) applied a restrained,
have ridden in the more
unadorned touch to the streamlined, industrially made utilitarian triumphs, the
consumer products of the period. After the war, this VW Mk 1 Golf (1974) or
Italian style became internationally renowned, dubbed the Fiat Panda (1980);
la linea Italiana amid the excitement of the economic some may even claim a
ride in the shark-nosed
miracle.
Maserati Ghibli (1966) or
Because it began in architecture and industry, before the Lotus Esprit (1972).
crossing enthusiastically to interior design, the Italian style
has always come from within the established order; it
hasn’t had to rely on avant-garde outsiders in the same
way that, for example, British design has. As such, Who begat Bugatti?
it’s more ingrained in Italy than it might be elsewhere. Bugatti, perhaps the
most famously elegant
However, it’s also worth noting that while Italy retains
of all Italian motor
manufacturers, was
actually founded in
Alsace (then part of
Germany), France, in
1909. However, the
man behind it all,
Ettore Bugatti, was
Milanese, the son of an
Art Nouveau designer.
A Bugatti car, the Type
35B, won the first
Monaco Grand Prix,
held in 1929. Bugatti
went out of business
in the 1960s, although
the name lives on today
under Volkswagen
ownership.
113
its reputation for design, and Milan continues to be the
Three designers
who shaped centre of the design universe, the majority of Italians
Italian style aren’t hooked on contemporary style. The small scale
of most Italian design manufacturers – such as Cassina
Marco Zanuso.
furniture, Artemide lighting or Alessi utensils – reflects
Zanuso loved a chair:
the Antropus (1949) the wealthy niche market for which they cater.
and Lady (1951) were
designed for the Arflex Design talent on show
company using foam
rubber upholstery. Compasso d’Oro. An internationally recognised prize for excellence in Italian
industrial design since 1954.
Gio Ponti. The founder
of the influential Domus Triennale di Milano. One of the most important (permanent) exhibitions of design
design magazine also and architecture around; first set up in 1923.
designed a certain
Salone Internazionale del Mobile. The most important interior design show in
gleaming La Pavoni
the world has been held annually in Milan for nearly 50 years.
coffee machine
(1948) and the robust
Superleggera chair Pop culture, plastics and the Memphis collective
(1957), so light you could Pop culture collided with new production processes and
lift it with materials (in the age of plastics and fibre glass) in the
one finger. 1960s. Consumerism and a growing affluence spurred
design on (interior design in particular), fostering iconic
items created in Italy and enjoyed the world over. Vico
Magistretti was designing plastic furniture for Cassina,
blending utility with smooth lines. Joe Colombo, with his
stackable polypropylene Universale chair (1965), the first
chair moulded from a single material, followed a similarly
unfussy mantra. Another iconic seat of the Pop era, Blow
(1967) by Jonathan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino and Paolo
Flaminio Bertoni. His Lomazzi, was the first mass-produced inflatable armchair.
best work went into two
iconic French designs: By the late 1960s, the simple Rationalism that had
the Citroën 2 CV (1948) informed so much Italian design fell victim to its own
and the long, sleek success; detractors called it irrelevant and capitalistic.
Citroën DS 19, unveiled
at the 1955 Paris Motor
So-called Anti-Design groups emerged advocating
Show and soon dubbed individual creativity and the use of ornamentation for
‘The Goddess’. its own sake. The most important were the Memphis
collective founded in Milan, in 1980, by Ettore Sottsass, a
key figure in modern Italian design (he produced Olivetti’s
114
bright red plastic Valentine typewriter (1969)). They
replaced the sleek but sensible styling of Rationalism with
lurid colours, kitsch motifs and cheap materials, winning
international acclaim.
Shape shifters: five contemporary Italian designers
Mario Bellini. Architect and designer (from typewriters to taps) since the 1960s;
his Cab chair (1976) (four legs, a back and a seat) is sublimely simple.
Alessandro Mendini. Veteran post-Modernist; you’ll recognise his Anna G
corkscrew (1994), designed for Alessi.
Alberto Meda. Known for his furniture and, among other designs, the Titania lamp
(1989). Won the Compasso d’Oro in 2008 for Mix, an LED table lamp.
Antonio Citterio. Renowned for furniture, notably Spoon (2002), a bar stool that
looks like a bent – yes, that’s right – spoon.
Andrea Branzi. A theorist and designer, acclaimed for his Revers chair (1993), its
beechwood arms curving over a utilitarian frame.
Italian design classics
Vespa scooter. Designed by Corradino

D’Ascanio in 1946 for the Piaggio firm, the
Vespa (Italian for wasp) is the epitome of
Italian design with its simple, functional
elegance. Initially D’Ascanio, an aeronautical
engineer, made the scooter from leftover
fighter plane starter motors and based its
front wheel fork on the design of aircraft
landing gear.
Olivetti Lexicon 80 typewriter. The Olivetti company produced several stylish
typewriters over the course of the 20th century, beginning with Camillo Olivetti’s
robust and elegant M1 (1910), but none became as iconic as the sculptural Lexicon
80 (1948) designed by Marcello Nizzoli.
Arco floor light. You know the one: square marble base with a looping stainless
steel stem and shining upturned bowl. It was designed by Achille Castiglioni with
his older brothers Luigi and Pier Giacomo in 1962.
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116
1. Identity: the 2. Literature Art, architecture

3. Art, architecture 4.4.Performing
5. Cinema 6.6.Media
Mediaand
foundations and philosophy and design
and design dance and comedy
arts and fashion
photography communications
of British
Italy
3.2 Architecture
You can’t help but notice the standout
feats of Italian architecture, from Rome’s
Pantheon to Pisa’s baptistery, but the
staggering physical heritage is more
often woven, unceremoniously, into the
fabric of everyday life, whether the
buildings are Ancient, Baroque,
Rationalist or Fascist.
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3.2.1 Built to last: Ancient architecture
Vitruvius’ DIY manual All in order: the Roman style of building

The oldest surviving The Romans’ most obvious, not to say startling,
book on architectural achievements came in civil engineering and architecture.
theory was written
The world that was once theirs is still littered with
by Marcus Vitruvius
Pollio, a Roman aqueducts, public baths, roads, theatres, temples and
architect and engineer. houses (both grand and humble). Their early architecture
The ten volumes of took its cue from the Etruscans who enjoyed a
De architectura (first rectangular colonnaded temple as much as the Greeks
century BC) reveal how
(although none survive), before that same Greek
extensively the Romans
borrowed from earlier influence, with its Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders (each
Greek models. with its own column), became the overriding style of the
later Roman Republic era. Embellished by Latin ingenuity
and swayed by local tastes throughout Rome’s vast
territories, the Classical Greek style dominated during the
Empire period. Although several cities in Asia Minor and
the Middle East rivalled Rome for the quantity of its large
structures, none could match its complex variety in size
and scale.
Set in concrete
Perhaps, though, we should marvel more
at the Romans’ construction techniques
than their styling (however artfully they
borrowed and absorbed). They were very
big in concrete. The mixture of aggregate,
lime and a volcanic ash called pozzolana
enabled Roman architects to take the
Greeks’ rectilinear buildings and to add
huge arches and domes (the Greeks had
used arches, but the Romans took them to
new heights). Concrete provided the solidity
required for large-scale projects like the
Colosseum or five-storey insulae (apartment
blocks). Bricks, or marble if the client’s
pockets were deep enough, usually covered
the concrete. In some instances, most memorably the
dome of Rome’s Pantheon, the raw material was cast
into a coffered pattern. It all had (and continues to have) a
far-reaching effect on architecture.
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Five structures of Ancient Italy The big circus
The Circus Maximus in
Paestum. The best-preserved city of Magna Graecia, in Campania, contains three Rome, a 600-metre-long
monumental, podgy-columned Doric temples, the oldest dating to 550BC. hippodrome dating back
to the Etruscan era, once
Colosseum. Rome’s amphitheatre has a complex but utilitarian centre and a fine
held 300,000 spectators,
Greek-inspired exterior, its arches telling a mini-story of Greek temple building: the
more than Rio de
ground floor columns in Doric style, the second in Ionic and the third in Corinthian.
Janeiro’s Maracana
Begun by Emperor Vespasian in 75AD, it once held 80,000 spectators, all braying for
(200,000 in its heyday)
blood.
and the current world’s
Pantheon. The most complete extant temple of Ancient Rome (a temple to all the biggest, the Rungrado
Gods), resident in Piazza della Rotonda since 126AD, remains staggering with its May Day Stadium in
vast dome and portico. The architect Palladio would be inspired, like many others, in fun-filled Pyongyang,
the 16th century. North Korea (150,000).
Nearly all of the Circus
Forum baths, Pompeii. Wander through dressing rooms, the cold room, the slightly Maximus’ structures are
less cold room (the tepidarium), building up to the hot room complete with marble long gone, but the open
fountain, all with barrel-vaulted ceilings. space remains a place
Villa Adriana. Hadrian’s second century residence in Tivoli, near Rome, partly of for Roman celebration
his own design, broke through the opulence barrier with porticoed pools, a ‘maritime – in 2006, 700,000
theatre’ and steam baths. squeezed in to celebrate
the football World Cup
victory.
TH E C O LO S S EU M
W A S N A M ED A F TER
TH E ‘ C O LO S S U S ’ O F
N ER O TH A T O N C E
S TO O D N EA R B Y
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Having it large: the birth of the basilica
The first Christian churches built in Rome were
authorised, and mostly financed, by Emperor Constantine.
They were vast colonnaded halls, simply built in spite of
their size. Little use was made of vaulting, except over
the apse, where the main altar stood. Churches weren’t
modelled on pagan temples – there wasn’t room enough
inside for the congregation. Instead, they imitated the
large Roman assembly halls known as basilicas, a word
that meant, roughly, ‘royal halls’. In Rome’s Forum, the
remaining northern aisle of the Basilica of Maxentius and
Constantine (completed in 312), its concrete barrel vaults
intact, hints at the enormous scale these new churches
took. The simple basilica style spread to the Eastern
Roman Empire and bounced back to Italy with lavishly
decorated Byzantine interiors that belied the bare, sombre
(although now multi-sided) exterior. Ravenna’s three
sixth-century Christian basilicas are the best preserved in
the country (see section 3.1.1 for more).
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3.2.2 Classical leanings: the medieval builds
A twist on Romanesque
The Romanesque style of architecture that prevailed in
Western Europe from the tenth to the 13th centuries
was fleetingly important in Italy. Where it did emerge,
the motifs of Romanesque – thick columns, round arches
and small windows – were tweaked by local tastes. The
Lombard style, which actually had its finest hour south
of Lombardy in Modena’s 12th century cathedral, stuck
closest to the solid Romanesque standard. As you might
expect, in Rome the style rubbed up against Classicism,
in monumental basilicas lined with Corinthian columns.
Florence and Siena brought a flourish to their buildings
with layers of coloured marble, but Tuscany’s
Romanesque experience reached its apogee in Pisa
where the cathedral (begun in 1064), baptistery (1153)
and campanile (1173) – with its famous lean – all drew
heavily on Classical pomp. Pisa’s ensemble included the
odd Islamic ingredient (notably the cathedral dome), but
in southern Italy this exotic influence enjoyed greater
leverage, mixed with Byzantine, Classical and Norman
elements (much of southern Italy was in Norman hands)
in a number of fine cathedrals.
Three sublime Romanesque buildings
Pisa’s campanile. Italy’s most famous Romanesque building, bell tower to the
adjacent cathedral, has marble band after marble band of arcading. It was leaning
by the time three of its eight tiers were completed – see what happens when you
build on sand?
Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio, Milan. A humble, brick-built church begun c.1080 that
became the model for the Lombard Romanesque style with its repetitive arches.
Monreale Cathedral, Sicily. Built in the decade after 1174, Sicily’s most stunning
Norman build blends an austere Romanesque exterior (towering bronze doors aside)
with a dazzling, golden Byzantine interior. The builders even threw in pointy Arabic
archways.
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Getting all defensive: castles, hill towns and towers
Petulant medieval rulers built fortresses across
Italy, some featuring the basic elements of the local
architectural brand, be it Lombard, Byzantine or Arabic.
The Normans left the most enduring structures,
depositing castles across southern Italy. They began as
simple stone boxes, but by the reign of Frederick II, King
of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor (who married into the
Norman dynasty), had become increasingly aesthetic.
Frederick’s Castel del Monte, an octagonal, Puglian
wonder of 1240, is perhaps the most impressive fortress
in Italy.
At the other end of the land, notably in the Valle d’Aosta
region, dozens of feudal castles were built to control
alpine valleys in the 13th century. Elsewhere, fortified
towns, most famously on the hills of Tuscany and
Umbria, helped shape civil architecture. Many of the
grand town halls built in this period, such as the Palazzo
Vecchio in Florence, have the look of fortresses. In central
and northern Italy, where local lords felt threatened by
neighbours, they built intimidating stone towers. As
alliances and hierarchies were established, the height of a
tower spoke of wealth and status. One survivor, the Torre
degli Asinelli in Bologna, reaches up 97 metres.
Dabbling in Gothic
In northern Europe, Gothic had superseded Romanesque
by the 13th century. French master builders used flying
buttresses and pointed arches to give buildings soaring
new height. Italy, remaining faithful to its solid Classical
roots, didn’t pay that much attention. The buildings that
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did go up (most of them ecclesiastical), like the fine green
and white layered cathedral in Siena, were selective
with their Gothic features. They didn’t race to reach
the heavens like French churches, so flying buttresses
weren’t required for support. Instead they incorporated
pointed arches and the odd piece of rib vaulting into tried
and trusted Classical shapes. In Venice, where Gothic
met Byzantine and Arab influences, architects added
facades to older structures and bits of Gothic style to
new ones, notably the arches lined up along the Doge’s
Palace in St Mark’s Square. Only Milan did Gothic in its
full, flamboyant northern mode. The city’s huge duomo,
commissioned in 1386 (and only completed 400 years
later), had soaring archways, fine stone tracery and over
100 spires.
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3.2.3 Designing harmony: Renaissance architecture
Brunelleschi’s wet dream Brunelleschi starts something big

Not only did Brunelleschi Unlike art, the architecture of the quattrocento didn’t
come up with Florence’s evolve gradually from Gothic. Rather, its instigators
famous dome, make the
first one-point linear
sought a deliberate change of direction, recalling the
perspective paintings symmetry, proportion and harmony of Classical buildings.
and design theatrical Gothic’s pointed, ill-disciplined shapes were updated
machinery, he also with semi-circular arches, Classical columns and, if at all
devised and built a possible, a whacking great dome. Even so, in his finest
huge ship, Il Badalone
(The Monster), to carry
hour, the Florentine genius who initiated the change,
marble from Pisa to Filippo Brunelleschi (he of the artist’s perspective – see
Florence on the River section 3.1.3), introduced Classicism to an essentially
Arno. It sank on its Gothic building. He designed the dome for Florence
maiden voyage in 1427. Cathedral (1418-36), solving the old problem of how to
Even genius has its
limits.
span the cavernous space between the building’s pillars.
In researching the past (he patented a hoisting machine
for the masonry based on Vitruvius’ texts), and adding his
own 15th century ingenuity, Brunelleschi set the standard
for Renaissance architecture.
“IT’S AS TH OUGH THE SKY IS E NV IOU S, AS IT K E E P S ON S HO O TI N G TH U N D ER B O LTS D O W N

AT IT , BEL IEVING THA T ITS HE IGHT HAS AL M OS T E XC E E DE D T H E H EI G H T O F A I R . ”
Giorgio Vasari on Brunelleschi’s dome for Florence Cathedral
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Another Florentine, Leon Battista Alberti, was Karma by design
Brunelleschi’s most notable immediate successor. He Bramante’s original
was faithful to Classical forms, but like Brunelleschi designs for St Peter’s
modified the principles to suit contemporary swallowed up so
much money that the
requirements. His masterly facade for the Palazzo Rucellai pope was forced to
(1446-51) in Florence mixed Gothic window forms sell indulgences to
and Classical proportion without the slightest hint of maintain cash flow.
awkwardness. It was one of various Renaissance palaces This, apparently, led
built in Florence in the mid 15th century. somebody called Martin
Luther, in Germany, to
his first public protest.
Three key architects of the High Renaissance Whoops.
In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the focus of
Renaissance architecture moved from Florence to Rome,
drawn by the popes’ deep coffers. Three architects
stood out:
Donato Bramante moved on from the pick ’n’ mix of
Brunelleschi and Alberti to unadulterated Classicism,
intent on creating perfect structures to mirror the
ambitions of the age. With its dome and Doric colonnade,
the Tiempetto (first decade of 16th century) of San
Pietro in Montorio Church, Rome, is small but perfectly
formed; the high point of the High Renaissance no less.
Bramante’s most famous designs, commissioned for St
Peter’s Basilica in Rome by Pope Julius II in 1506, were
on a different scale altogether – the eventual build was
actually a scaled down compromise. Bramante’s plan for
a church with a dome resting on gigantic arches was too
expensive, even for the papacy.
Antonio da Sangallo, the youngest in a family of Tuscan
architects, became chief designer on St Peter’s Basilica
after the death of his tutor, Bramante. Like Bramante, da
Sangallo employed a simple, monumental Classicism, as
seen in the church of Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome. His
fanciest build was the Palazzo Farnese in Rome; his most
beguiling, a well, 62 metres deep and surrounded by a
double spiral staircase, cut into the rock of Orvieto, Umbria.
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Michelangelo took over the St Peter’s job in 1547, when
Three great
Renaissance he was 72 years old (12 successive designers, painter
buildings outside Raphael among them, worked on the building in all). He
Rome didn’t dismiss his predecessor’s designs but drew on
them, and the basilica, with its massive, confident sense
Ospedale degli
Innocenti (1419-27), of order (it’s the biggest in the world), became a signal
Florence. Brunelleschi’s precursor of Baroque grandeur.
best secular building
was an orphanage. After Stretching the Classics: Mannerist architecture
the years of Gothic, here Bramante’s honest simplicity was overtaken by the
was an elegant loggia of
manipulation of Mannerism in the 1520s. While
ordered proportion, with
semi-circular arches, Michelangelo stuck closely to the Classical rules for St
round columns and Peter’s (albeit contorting the dome slightly), his earlier
pediments. Unwanted buildings often joyfully disregarded convention in pursuit
children were deposited of capricious invention. The vestibule he designed for
in a basin at the front of
the Biblioteca Laurenziana (c.1524) in Florence messed
the building.
around with the order and spacing of Classical motifs,
Santa Maria della grafting false windows and columns onto the interior.
Consolazione (begun
Giulio Romano did something similar in Mantua, using
1508-1607), Todi,
Umbria. Probably the blind windows and stretched, irregular columns in the
work of Bramante Palazzo del Tè (1524-34). Giorgio Vasari (see section 3.1.3
(although some credit an for more), president of the Michelangelo fan club, also
architect called Cola da used Mannerism’s exaggeration in his design for the
Caprarola), this simple
Uffizi (1560-80) buildings in Florence.
but large-scale church,
a dome atop a serene
and ordered Greek Palladio goes in search of perfection
Cross, may well be how Like other Renaissance masters, Andrea Palladio dallied
St Peter’s in Rome was with Mannerism, lining up the columns for purely
originally supposed to aesthetic affect, but his was a cooler, more assured
look.
approach, one that trusted to knowledge (no one studied
Villa Capra (or La Roman architecture, the temples in particular, so intently)
Rotunda) (1566-71), and built on Bramante’s sense of serene Classical order.
Vicenza. The exemplar
He lived and worked chiefly around Vicenza, near Venice,
Palladio building.
Inspired by Roman where his palaces and villas, symmetrical and perfect,
temples, with a portico soak up the light of northern Italy and the praise of
on each of four facades, generations of architects.
the villa is completely
symmetrical.
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Palladio was the most persuasive architect of the Italian Palladio’s Church of San
Renaissance; some say the most influential Western Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
architect of all time. Although his work is concentrated
on a few Italian acres – including the Venetian island
on which he squeezed the large Church of San Giorgio
Maggiore (1566-1610) – his reputation spread, helped
by the publication of his architectural treatise I Quattro
Libri dell’Architettura (1570). Palladio set the Neoclassical
standard that would
dominate European
architecture for centuries;
his influence can be seen
in London’s St Paul’s
Cathedral and in the
Louvre, Paris.
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3.2.4 The high drama of Baroque
Pearl of wisdom Praise be, it’s Baroque

The term Baroque The decoration that began appearing on buildings in
(barocco in Italian) Michelangelo’s day – the embellished facades, faux
has its origins in the
windows and coloured marble – became the industry
Portuguese word for
a misshapen pearl. standard by the 17th century. In Italy, at least, Palladio-
Like ‘Renaissance’, the derived restraint would have to wait its turn. This was
term was only applied Baroque, a dazzling, unrestrained assault on the senses
years after the period it designed to reinforce the majesty of heavenly pageantry.
describes was over.
Curvy and audacious, Baroque architecture was the
Catholic Church Counter-Reformation PR drive realised
in stone. Rome was the epicentre. Indeed, the Rome of
today is fundamentally a Baroque city. The rest of Italy
struggled to keep up (even while Baroque journeyed
around Europe and the New World with remarkable
success), although certain regions produced their own
version, from the showy style of Naples and Lecce, in
Puglia, to the elegant palaces and hunting lodges of Turin.
The key Baroque architects

Giacomo della Porta. He got the Baroque ball rolling
with an action-packed facade (1584) for Il Gesù, the
first Jesuit church in Rome. It brought a new fluidity to
Classicism with its large volute scrolls on either side, and
was duly copied the world over. As the prime architect in
late 16th century Rome, della Porta also completed the
dome for St Peter’s after Michelangelo’s death.
128
Gianlorenzo Bernini. The theatrical genius of Baroque This town ain’t big
sculpture (see section 3.1.4 for more) was also a fine enough for both of us
architect. He worked extensively on St Peter’s, from Where Bernini was good
the baldacchino (altar canopy) (1624-1633), a twisting looking, charming and
popular with women,
bronze marvel, to the his rival Borromini was
tombs of successive terse, depressive and
popes and the possibly homosexual.
vast, colonnaded Bernini’s growing fame
Piazza San Pietro was a contributory factor
as Borromini slid into
(1667) that still despair in the 1660s.
grabs worshippers He became housebound
approaching the and was advised to give
basilica like a pair up work. Eventually,
of giant forceps. one torrid Roman night
in 1667, it all got too
However, the small much and he fell on his
elliptical church own sword. He did a
of Sant’Andrea al good enough job to kill
Quirinale (begun in himself, but it took some
1658), its facade time; during which he
was able to repent and
bending this way and write a will. He was
that, was Bernini’s buried anonymously, as
personal favourite. Bernini’s church of Sant’Andrea al Qurinale per his wishes.
Francesco Borromini. The prime architect of Italian

Baroque did more to shape the look of Rome than any
other. He didn’t quite share Bernini’s sense of theatre
(nor his personality – they didn’t get on at all), but he did
rival his talent for bending the rules, designing complex,
curving, agitated buildings that smudged the distinction
between sculpture and architecture. Despite the busy
pediments, elliptical domes and tongue-like scrolls, each
Borromini building was underlain with a strict geometrical
plan. His facade for the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone
(1653-66), in Piazza Navona, is quintessential Baroque, but
Borromini’s masterpiece is the petite church of San Carlo
alle Quattro Fontane (1638-67), on the Quirinal Hill.
129
Guarino Guarini. He was born in Modena, but the
priest, mathematician and architect Guarini made his
impression in Turin. He built churches and palaces with
complex domes, windows and arches almost Moorish in
their delicacy. At the Palazzo Carignano (1679) he took
Borromini’s love of a rolling, wavy facade to new levels.
Guarini’s texts on architecture would help push Baroque
out around Europe in the 18th century.
Going down with the
Been there, done that: Italy’s brush with
shop
Neoclassical building
Giuseppe Mengoni Despite a love of both Palladio and good old Roman form
designed the poised
Galleria Vittorio
(Pompeii had been recently discovered), Neoclassical
Emanuele II shopping architecture didn’t make the impression on 18th
arcade in Milan. It was century Italy that it did elsewhere, perhaps because
whilst he was on a the movement’s Republican spirit was a long way
platform at the top of from most Italians’ thoughts. When Neoclassicism did
the building, making
final checks shortly
appear in the 19th century, urged on by the Napoleonic
before the building’s ‘Empire style’, it emerged in oversized trophy buildings.
grand opening in 1877, Giuseppe Mengoni’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (1865-
that he slipped and fell 1877), a polished shopping arcade in Milan, showed how
to his death. modern construction methods (namely glass and steel)
could work with
Classicism. Another
building named
for the king, the
giant colonnaded
marble monument,
Il Vittoriano (1885-
1911), leering over
Rome’s Piazza
Venezia, has
endured decades
of general derision.
A medieval
neighbourhood was
cleared to make
room for it.
130
3.2.5 In the shadow of greatness:
modern Italian architecture
Dipping a toe in Art Nouveau
Industrial age architecture blended with the organic
shapes of Art Nouveau at the turn of the 20th century. In
Italy they called it Stile Floreale or Stile Liberty (after the
London store that stocked Art Nouveau designers). Stile
Floreale was concentrated in Italy’s northern cities. Turin
set the pace with the Prima Esposizione Internazionale
d’Arte Decorativa Moderna of 1902, an exhibition of
modern design resolute on killing off the past. The
pavilions were designed by Raimondo D’Aronco, a key
Italian exponent of Art Nouveau. In truth, Art Nouveau
made only a modest impact in Italy (most of D’Aronco’s
work unfurled in Turkey). The buildings that did appear in
Milan, Genoa and Turin featured stone and wrought iron
decoration (of lithe tendrils and listless women) rather
than great architectural leaps. Giuseppe Sommaruga’s
Palazzo Castiglioni (1903) in Milan is usually cited as
Italy’s finest Stile Floreale building.
Function rooms: Italy does the International Style

The Modernist International Style, with its simple lines,
functionality and craving for reinforced concrete (as
championed by foreign ‘form follows function’ heroes
Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius),
appeared to Italian architecture after the First World War in
the shape of Rationalism. The ‘rationale’ was that design
should be based on the logical requirements of living.
Seven Rationalist architects, led by Giuseppe Terragni,
formed the Gruppo 7 in Milan in 1926 to pursue the aims.
The movement got sucked into the rise of fascism and its
members designed buildings for Mussolini.
131
Terragni left out in Two important Rationalists
the cold
Giuseppe Terragni may
Giuseppe Terragni. The most celebrated of the Gruppo
have been the Fascists’ 7 clique designed Casa del Fascio (1932-36), a study
architect of choice – a in minimalism and the new modern aesthetics of the
number of commissions International Style. Tainted by its Fascist links, the
came from one of building was later renamed Casa del Popolo.
Mussolini’s mistresses
– but it didn’t stop the Adalberto Libera. Another of the Gruppo 7 Fascist gang,
regime packing him off to Libera designed the vast Palazzo del Congressio (1938-54)
the Russian front as an
artillery officer in 1941.
in Rome, but is perhaps known best for Villa Malaparte
He returned to Como (1938), the red box house on a Capri cliff top which
in an ambulance two starred in the Brigitte Bardot film, Le Mépris (1963).
years later, broken in all
senses, and died soon Buildings you’ll love to hate: Fascist architecture
after, aged 39, apparently Widely mocked or ignored in the 50 years after the war,
after renouncing fascism.
Fascist architecture is receiving a more balanced appraisal
Cousin Ernie in Italy these days, amongst some at least. Indeed, say it
The revered British quietly if you’re in company, but the Fascists put up some
architect Richard Rogers rather interesting buildings. Terragni, Libera and co’s
had an elder Italian mixture of International
cousin. Ernesto Rogers
Style and Mussolinian
was also an architect.
He was involved in grandeur (however
the design for Milan’s deluded) generated a
famous Torre Velasca certain harmony between
(1954), a top-heavy Modernist and Classical
Brutalist tower block.
elements. The famous
The Fascist behind E42 suburb of Rome,
Watergate now called EUR (after the
Luigi Morreti, who Esposizione Universale
devised various Roma for which it was built
monumental buildings but which it never staged),
and plans for the Fascists
includes the Palazzo della
(he helped design Rome’s
Foro Italico (1934-40) Civiltà Italiana, or ‘Square
sporting complex, Colosseum’, and also
stocked with athletic proved a highly successful
Classical statuary), out-of-town business
designed the Watergate
district.
complex in Washington
after the war.
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The Pantheon – what a
load of rubbish
When Bruno Zevi
died after a coughing
fit in 2000, Italy
lost its greatest
architectural historian
and theoretician. His
was a passionate
voice of dissent. For
Zevi, the Pantheon,
being symmetrical,
was ‘catastrophic’.
He deplored Classical
architecture as the
language of repression,
but he also hated
post-Modernism.
Fragmentation,
dissonance and rupture
were, he felt, modern
virtues to be upheld. His
1945 book, Towards an
Organic Architecture,
brought worldwide fame.
“I F R O M E C A R R I ES
O N I N TH I S W A Y ,
I T W I LL B EC O M E
A B EA U TI FU L
N EC R O PO LI S ,
B EA U TI FU L F O R TH E
J A PA N ES E W H O
C O M E F O R TH E
S H O PPI N G A N D TH E
A M ER I C A N S W H O
G ET D R U N K I N TH E
C EN TR E. B U T I T
C ER TA I N LY W O N ’ T
B E A M O D ER N
C I TY . ”
Roman architect
Francesco Coppari
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Nervi, the concrete king
One figure outshone all others in the post-war period. Pier
Luigi Nervi wasn’t so much an architect as an ingegnere
edile (building engineer), whose mastery of reinforced
concrete (echoing the Romans) generated memorable and
beautiful buildings. His talent became obvious early on
with the Giovanni Berta Stadium (1932) in Florence, typical
Nervi with its aesthetic solution to a structural conundrum.
Latticed concrete roofs became a Nervi motif, as seen on
the glass and concrete Turin Exhibition Building (1949).
Later in his career, he collaborated with designer Gio Ponti
(see section 3.1.6 for more) on Milan’s Pirelli Building
(1958), the structural embodiment of 50s Italian chic.
Three other interesting post-war architects

Carlo Scarpa was inspired by the historic architecture of
his native Venice, mixing its craftsmanship with modern
functionality for an organic mode of architecture. Not many
of his designs came to fruition; the most celebrated is the
concrete, rectilinear Brion-Vega cemetery near Treviso, in
which Scarpa himself is entombed, standing up.
Aldo Rossi presided over a Neorationalist movement in
the 1960s and 70s. Unlike their inter-war predecessors,
they enjoyed Neoclassical style (mixed with the bare
Rationalist functionalism). The Spartan Gallaratese II
(1969-73) housing development in Milan made flesh
the Rossi philosophy, as described in the influential
L’architettura della città (1966) treatise.
Paolo Portoghesi, still working today, pursues an
organic architecture blending new ideas with the stylistic
achievements of Baroque (he’s a big Borromini fan).
Rome’s luminescent Central Mosque (1974-95) is his
best work.
134
The state of contemporary architecture in Italy
In renown at least, one figure looms above the rest.
Renzo Piano’s international reputation was first built
in collaboration with Richard and Sue Rogers on the
exoskeletal, colour-coded Pompidou Centre in Paris. His
style has matured quietly over the intervening 30 years
and his buildings, commissioned from San Francisco to
Sydney, have highly original structures. The Parco della
Musica (2002) complex of concert halls in Rome reflects
Piano’s idiosyncrasy, shaped, as it is, like a family of giant
armadillos. Another contemporary figure, Massimiliano
Fuksas, grows in stature; the Fiera di Milano exhibition
centre, with a large, flowing
canopy of glass and steel, is one
of a handful of Fuksas works
completed in Italy.
Some of the most exciting
architecture unfurling on Italian
soil is being set down by foreign
designers. The steel and glass
loggia extension to the Uffizi in
Florence, for instance, designed
by Japan’s Arata Isozaki, is due
for completion in 2013. And
the government response to its
imminent arrival says much about
attitudes to modern architecture
in Italy, where there’s a reluctance
to mingle modern with ancient.
Culture Minister Sandro Bondi
questioned how Isozaki’s
structure would “live alongside
the adjacent loggias designed by
Giorgio Vasari without shocking
Florentines and visitors from all
over the world”.
135
136
4 Music, theatre, dance
and comedy
4.1 Music p139 4.1.3 Italian by design: 4.2.2 Italy on the
4.1.1 The sounds of opera p148 dancefloor p169
tradition: Italian folk 4.1.4 Rock, pop, rap, 4.2.3 Laughing matter:
music p140 hip hop, dance and the Italian comedy p173
4.1.2 Life in opera’s rest… p154
shadow: classical 4.2 Theatre, dance and
music p143 comedy p161
4.2.1 Dramatis
personae: the key
figures of Italian theatre
p162
137
138
4.1 Music
‘Opera’ translates from Italian as
‘labour’, and to the outsider it might
seem like Italy labours rather over its
music, particularly the modern stuff. Not
that Italians care what we think of their
efforts – listen to Calabria’s mournful
canto di malavita or the gruff emotion
of Paolo Conte and you’ll hear why they
delight in home-grown sounds.
139
4.1.1 The sounds of tradition: Italian folk music
The assortment of regions, city states, dialects and

cultural traditions that made up pre-Unification Italy (and
which still exert a strong influence today) bequeathed
each portion of the country its own work songs, love
songs, dance tunes and lullabies, passed down through
generations in the oral tradition. There is no common
national character to Italian folk music. However, divide
the country into north and south and there are discernible,
if rather broad, trends to be found. In the north, the
music displays Celtic and Slavic influences. Usually it’s
polyphonic (having two or more lines of melody) and
choral in nature with clear, deep-pitched, harmonised
voices. In the south, the influences are Arabic, Greek
and African. Solo performance predominates, with high-
pitched, often strangulated singing.
Certain regional folk music traditions are more noteworthy
than others. Piedmont’s valleys stand out with the
medieval songs of the trovatori (the Occitan troubadours)
and Sicily has its share of extant styles, notably the
friscaletto (flute music), baride (brass bands), and the
ancient ottava rima (the improvised singing of eight-line
stanzas) of the poeti contadini (peasant poets). Few
traditions have gained much attention beyond the limits
of their own region, although three particular forms are
well recognised in much of the country:
Tenores of Sardinia
Sardinia is home to the ancient tradition of cantu a
tenores (tenores singing), a polyphonic chant for four
male voices. The quartet form an intimate huddle, the lead
voice (boghe) introduces the chant and the other three,
the middle voice (mesa boghe), the counter (contra) and
the bass (bassu), respond aggressively in harmonised
overtones with meaningless words such as ‘ba’, ‘bom’
and ‘bam’. The best-known contemporary performers are
the Tenores di Bitti and the Tenores de Oniferi, both of
whom have attained some international recognition. In
2005, UNESCO designated tenores singing
140
‘A Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of
Humanity’, which means it is a joy to behold but could
soon go the way of the dodo.
Trallaleri of Genoa
The trallalero singers of the Genoese dockyard taverns
were traditionally longshoremen, gathered in groups of
between five and nine. Each group features a tenor, a
baritone, a bass (sometimes as many as five), a voice
that weirdly imitates a guitar (la chitarra) and another
that imitates (even more weirdly) a woman (la donna).
Considered by Alan Lomax, the American song collector
of the 1950s, to be “the most perfect choristers in
western Europe”, the trallaleri sing in intricate and largely
improvised harmony and counterpoint, producing a
haunting and sometimes disturbing result, as heard on
the best-known trallalero song La Partenza. Contemporary
groups include La Squadra (Compagnia del trallalero) and
La Squadra di Canto Popolare Valpolcevera.
Canto di malavita of Calabria
You want folk music with an edge? Go to Calabria. In
recent years, the controversial canto di malavita (songs of
a life of crime) and canto di carcerato (songs of prison life)
have emerged from a century or more of secrecy. They’re
the folk songs of the ‘Ndrangheta, the powerful Calabrian
mafia. The music was released on three albums under
the title La Musica Della Mafia (2000-05) featuring songs
like Sangu chiama sangu (Blood Cries for Blood), Cu
sgarra, paga (Who Fails, Pays) and the terrifying U ballu
da famigghja Muntalbanu (The Dance of the Muntalbanu
Family). The albums are only available in Italy as a German
import, as it seems no Italian record company has quite
got round to releasing them yet…
141
How to play the Hit it with a stick and see what
launeddas happens: instruments of Italian
It’s not easy. There are folk
three differently sized The instruments of Italy’s folk
cane pipes involved. music include all the usual flutes
Hold the longest one,
and guitars, alongside some more
the tumbu (the one with
no holes), in your left offbeat devices including the
hand. Grapple with the organetto (an accordion), of which
second longest, the Riccardo Tesi is the best-known
mancosa manna (five modern exponent, the zampogna
holes), in the same
(a type of bagpipe), which comes
hand, before taking the
third – and shortest – in different shapes and sizes, some
pipe, the mancosedda the size of a grown man, and the
(also five holes), in your ancient launeddas (the Sardinian
right hand. Place all triple pipes), reputedly once made from the legs of the
three in your mouth and
pink flamingo. Italy also boasts numerous percussion
blow, producing a drone
with the long pipe and instruments, notably the friction drum. Called the putipu
playing simultaneous in Naples and the cupa-cupa in Puglia, the friction drum
melodies with your consists of a long stick attached to a membrane stretched
fingers on the pipes with over a terracotta or tin pot. The player rubs the stick with
holes. If you’re doing
wet hands causing vibrations that resonate inside the pot,
it right, the launeddas
should now be making producing a rhythmic, distinctly lavatorial sound.
a sound similar to a
swarm of bees attacking Too niche for its own good: modern folk
a guinea pig. The sound The Sardinian tenores singers occasionally appear on TV,
must be continuous and bands such as Fiamma Fumana and Gai Saber have
and, since there is no
achieved a degree of acclaim on the World Music circuit
air bag, you must use
circular breathing, a by combining tradition folk elements with modern beats.
tricky technique that However, folk music in modern Italy has a rather weak
effectively involves pulse. Ethnomusicologists made field recordings of Italian
breathing in and folk music in the 1950s, and the Instituto De Martino was
breathing out at the
set up to document and preserve the traditions a decade
same time. Oh, and
each tune lasts for over later, but documenting and preserving doesn’t necessarily
an hour. equate to popularity – not many people actually listen to
the music. There are folk festivals, notably the Appennino
Folk Festival held in the north-west each summer, but
most cater for tourists searching for an authentic taste of
a cultural heritage very few Italians care – or even know
– about.
142
4.1.2 Life in opera’s shadow: classical music
Is that classical music? It just sounds like you’re

chanting…
The origins of classical music in Italy lie in the
monophonic (containing a single line of melody) liturgical
plainchant of the Roman Catholic Church. You know the
stuff: the haunting, unaccompanied male voices found
in Gregorian chant (named after Pope Gregory, although
he had little actual involvement) and Ambrosian chant
(a similar but separate tradition), typical of music before
the 11th century, before the simple polyphonic organum
and motet (plainchants with more than one melodic line)
forms stormed the charts. In the 14th century, the French
ars nova (new style) began to influence Italian polyphonic
music, as evidenced in the richer harmonies of surviving
secular ballate and madrigals (both are types of song) by
the blind Italian composer Francesco Landini.
The Do Re Mi man
Guido of Arezzo was a Benedictine monk from, not
coincidentally, Arezzo in Tuscany. He was also a music
teacher, theorist and, as detailed in his Aliae regulae
(c.1030), the inventor of modern musical notation. An
earlier system used a series of unhelpful squiggles and
blobs known as neumes, but Guido’s had a staff with
lines and spaces – and that made all the difference. Guido
was also responsible for the words Do Re Mi etc being
used in the teaching of music, a practice still common
in classrooms and Julie Andrews movies. He taught his
students using Ut queant laxis (c.774), a plainchant hymn
to John the Baptist written by Paul the Deacon (another
Benedictine monk), giving the first syllable of each line a
successively higher note in the scale:
UT queant laxis
REsonare fibris
MIra gestorum
FAmuli tuorum
SOLve polluti
LAbii reatum, Sancte Ioannes
143
The Albinoni Adagio (In translation: ‘In order that your servants might, with
mystery loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds,
Albinoni’s Adagio, as it’s wash the guilt from our stained lips, Saint John’.)
commonly called, is one
of the most popular and A Ti was added later and then the Ut was changed to a Do.
oft recorded pieces of
Italian Baroque music. Setting Renaissance trends
Famously, it was used
As the Renaissance found its stride in the 16th
in the closing sequence
of the Peter Weir film century, Italy became the centre of European music.
Gallipoli (1981), while Polyphonic sacred and secular music had continued
American rock band their development, aided by the appearance of new
The Doors released a musical instruments like the clavichord and the viol, and
version on the album An
patronage from the Church and the wealthy courts in the
American Prayer (1978).
Tomaso Albinoni, the north colluded with the development of printed music
18th century Venetian using movable type – as invented by Ottaviano Petrucci
composer, is also known in Venice – to give Italy its primacy. Three particular
today for his oboe composers emerged:
concertos, notably the
Concerto in D minor Giovanni Gabrieli of the Venetian School of music
(1722), but primarily pioneered advances in instrumentation and is often
he’s celebrated for that labelled ‘the father of orchestration’.
famous Adagio in G
minor. All of which is Claudio Monteverdi published revolutionary collections
fine, except that the of madrigals and would become an influential figure in
piece was actually
written in 1958 by an
Italian opera (see section 4.1.3 for more).
Italian musicologist Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina of the Roman School
named Remo Giazotto.
was the leading composer of Renaissance music, and
A large number of
Albinoni’s manuscripts is sometimes credited with saving polyphony in the mid
were destroyed in the 16th century. When the Church was considering banning
bombing of Dresden polyphony in favour of Gregorian chant, in the belief
State Library during that the increasingly elaborate music was becoming a
the Second World War,
distraction from the sacred words, Palestrina came up
but Giazotto claimed to
have reconstructed the with his masterpiece of simple, restrained beauty, Missa
Adagio from a surviving Papae Marcelli (c.1562), a mass for six voices, and the
fragment. However, Church changed its mind.
expert opinion has since
deemed the work to be
Giazotto’s alone.
144
It was all going so well… damn that new fangled opera
By the 17th century, when music entered the flamboyant
and ornate Baroque era, Italian ears and eyes were being
drawn away to opera, as they would be for the next 300
years (see section 4.1.3). Those that remained faithful
to the instrumentation of classical music were rewarded
with the work of Gregorio Allegri, whose masterpiece,
the Miserere mei, Deus (c.1630), was so well regarded it
was forbidden to perform it anywhere other than in the
Sistine Chapel. Arcangelo Corelli was another important
Baroque composer; his posthumously published 12
Concerti Grossi (1714) would prove a strong influence
on the most famous Italian Baroque composer of the lot,
Antonio Vivaldi.
A man for all seasons: Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi, the son of a Venetian barber, was a gifted violinist
and composer, imaginatively known as il Prete Rosso (the
Red Priest) on account of his red hair and the fact that
he was a priest. He turned his back on the priesthood
early in his career (apparently for health reasons), opting
instead to school hundreds of young orphan girls in
music at the Ospedale della Pietà, where, as part of his
duties, he had to compose two concertos a month for his
students to play. Although Vivaldi also wrote many operas
and sonatas, his importance lies in these concertos. He
took the concerto (a three-part musical
work for one solo instrument accompanied
by other instruments – and later by an
orchestra) to a level near perfection,
employing a simple clarity and imaginative
melodic themes stripped of all unnecessary
pomposity. The finest were Il cimento
dell’armonia e dell’inventione, a set of 12
concertos, the first four of which are known
as Le quattro stagioni (1725).
145
For a while Vivaldi drew widespread fame and no small
fortune from his music. But it didn’t last, and, with
his popularity declining and his profligate spending
rendering him flat broke, the composer left Venice for
Vienna in search of new patronage. The plan failed, and
he was buried in Vienna in a pauper’s grave. After his
death Vivaldi was largely forgotten, but in 1926 over
300 unknown works by the composer were discovered
in a monastery and his legacy was reassessed. It
transpired that Vivaldi had composed a staggering 500
concertos. The critical re-evaluation has been almost
universally complimentary, although a rather ungracious
Igor Stravinsky concluded that Vivaldi didn’t write 500
concertos, he just wrote one, 500 times. Today, Vivaldi is
more popular than he’s ever been. His music is in almost
constant performance in Italy, especially in Venice, and
violinist Nigel Kennedy’s recording of The Four Seasons
(1989) has become one of the best-selling classical music
albums of all time.
The Niccolò Paganini experience

Classical music in the first half of the 19th century (when
it was ingesting the Romantic tastes of the age) was
illuminated by a strange young man from Genoa called
Niccolò Paganini. Paganini was the original rock ’n’ roll
star: a compulsive gambler, drinker and womaniser
by the age of 16, he was also the most charismatic of
performers and reputedly the greatest violinist the world
has ever seen. Playing his own compositions, written
to show off his talent, he embarked on lengthy tours on
which he would astonish his audiences with his ability
“I A M N OT and showmanship. A favourite trick was to play with
HAN DSOME, three deliberately distressed strings that would break one
BUT WHEN WOMEN by one, leaving Paganini to complete the piece using just
HE AR ME PL AY,
the one remaining string. His importance lies not only in
THEY COME
C RAWLING TO his considerable contribution to violin technique, but also
M Y FE E T.” in creating the cult of the solo performer and the notion
Niccolò Paganini of the instrumental virtuoso. Franz Liszt would later state
146
his desire to The Devil has all the
become “the best tunes
Paganini of the Niccolò Paganini’s
piano”, while virtuosity was so
astounding that some
Liszt, Schumann, believed he had sold his
Brahms and soul to the devil in return
Rachmaninov for musical prowess, and
would all write in some quarters they
variations on called him Hexensohn,
the ‘son of a witch’.
Paganini themes. Paganini cultivated his
He’s remembered Faustian image with
best for his 24 his long black hair
Capriccio per and black cloak, and
violino solo (1801- on occasion he would
arrive at concerts in a
7), of which black carriage pulled
Capriccio No. 24 in by four black horses.
A minor, an almost His diabolic credentials
impossible piece were further enhanced
to play, is the by refusing the last rites
on his deathbed and by
most famous. the fact that his body
was denied burial in
Struggling to be consecrated ground. In
heard: modern truth, the circumstances
classical of Paganini’s interment
In the 20th century, Italy’s classical music made several were rather mundane:
attempts to crawl out from beneath opera’s shadow. the Archbishop of Nice
Works such as Giuseppe Martucci’s Symphony No.2 in denied him a Christian
burial because he had
F major (1904) and Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Trilogy refused the last rites,
(1915-28) were critically acclaimed, as were the atonal and Paganini had only
compositions of Luigi Dallapiccola, and the experimental refused the last rites
music of Luciano Berio, notably his Sinfonia (1967-69), because he thought he
but they only ever achieved limited popular appeal. Today, was going to get better.
most Italians who like instrumental classical music will
always prefer the more traditional works, which usually
means Vivaldi.
147
4.1.3 Italian by design: opera
An accident waiting to happen

Opera as we know it today, with its striking stage decor
and dramatic text set to music, was conceived largely
by accident in late 16th century Florence. A group of
musicians and intellectuals known as the Florentine
Camerata used to meet up and discuss the burning
issues of the day, the main one apparently being how
best to recreate Ancient Greek drama. There was
evidence that the Greek tragedies had been staged with
some musical accompaniment, but the Camerata had
no idea what it sounded like. All they knew for certain
was that it didn’t sound like the overblown polyphony
that characterised Italian music in their own era. So,
they came up with monody, a single vocal part with an
instrumental accompaniment that follows the rhythms
and inflections of the words.
The development of this new style culminated in a
performance of Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, the first opera ever
produced, at the palace of Jacopo Corsi in Florence in
1597 (maybe 1598). The success of Dafne, the score
of which has been almost entirely lost, was followed
in 1600 by Peri’s Euridice, written for the marriage of
French King Henry IV and Maria de Medici. Euridice is the
earliest opera for which a score survives. The new form
of entertainment, with singers enacting the entire drama
to musical accompaniment, delighted its aristocratic
audiences. Opera’s popularity duly began to spread
among the noble courts of Italy and Europe.
Monteverdi takes over

The first genuine genius to try his hand at opera was
Claudio Monteverdi, a composer who’d already found
fame with the madrigal. Being a genius, his first attempt
at opera was, of course, a masterpiece. La favola d’Orfeo
was composed for the court of Mantua in 1607 and is
the earliest opera still in regular performance. With its
lavish staging, sophisticated orchestration and coinciding
musical and dramatic climaxes, La favola d’Orfeo was a
coherent whole that demonstrated the true potential of
148
the form. Monteverdi’s second opera, Arianna (1608), The first first night
was similarly well received, although only the famously The first public opera
sad Lamento d’Arianna survives from it. In 1612 house anywhere, the
Teatro San Cassiano,
Monteverdi moved to Venice, the city that soon became
opened in Venice in
the centre of opera in Italy. Although Monteverdi wrote at 1637. The building was
least 18 operas other than La favola d’Orfeo, only his final demolished in 1812, five
two survive and they, of course, are both masterpieces years after holding its
as well: Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (1641) and perhaps his last performance.
finest work, L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642), delving
into the ancient love story of Nero and his wife Poppea.
Quantity over quality: opera in the 18th century

Many followed in Monteverdi’s footsteps, notably Stefano
Landi, Francesco Cavalli and Alessandro Scarlatti, further
developing Baroque opera. They established a clearer
differentiation between the arias and the recitative, made
greater use of the chorus and introduced comic elements
into the plot. By the mid 18th century, opera had become
hugely popular across Italy, but, unfortunately, most agree
that the quality had nosedived. There was too much
choice, and composers had yet to become the dominant
figures they soon would. Instead it was all about the
performers: opera had been reduced to a showcase for
the vocal abilities of the castrati (grown men with little
boys’ voices and no testicles) and the prima donnas
(grown women with the same), who attracted large
audiences and were paid a fortune in return.
The predominant form of opera in the 18th century was
opera seria (serious opera). Historical or mythological
plots extolling the virtues of friendship and loyalty, and
relieved of all comic elements, were the norm. Although
hundreds of operas were being written, almost all of
them with a libretto by the poet Metastasio, hardly any
are worthy of mention. In the latter 18th century, opera
buffa (comic opera), which used comic plots involving
everyday characters sung by tenor and bass parts, began
to rival the popularity of its ‘serious’ counterpart. The
great composers of the next century would write in
both forms.
149
Play it Again Dom Return to form: Romantic opera
The première of Il The good times returned in the 19th century. Most of the
matrimonio segreto great Italian operas that make up the modern repertory
(1792) by Domenico
emerged in this period. The early part of the century has
Cimarosa witnessed the
longest encore in the been called the bel canto era, named after a smooth style
history of opera. It was of singing (literally ‘beautiful singing’). Three composers
performed for Emperor dominated:
Leopold II, who enjoyed
it so much that he called Gioachino Rossini. Born into a musical family (although
for a rerun of the whole his father also inspected slaughterhouses to bring in
damn thing. some extra cash), Rossini composed his first opera at
the age of 14. He achieved great fame, writing 40 operas
“GIVE ME A in all, the best remembered of which are Il barbiere
LAUN DR Y L IST di Siviglia (1816), a comic opera, and his last effort,
AND I’LL SET IT Guillaume Tell (1829), with that famous overture. Rossini
T O MUSIC.” composed his final opera at the age of 37, and spent
Gioachino Rossini
most of the remaining 39 years of his life in Paris,
mainly eating.
Vincenzo Bellini. Born in Sicily in 1801, and apparently
able to sing arias at the age of 18 months, Bellini died
aged just 34 but was the undisputed master of the
bel canto style. His best known operas include La
sonnambula (1831), Norma (1831) – featuring the famous
aria Casta diva – and I puritani (1835).
Gaetano Donizetti. Donizetti’s was a veritable rags to
riches story. Born in a windowless cellar in Bergamo,
Lombardy, in 1797, he became a prolific bel canto
composer, writing 75 operas in all, achieving great
success with Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), with its
famous ‘mad scene’, La fille du régiment (1840),
featuring the aria Ah! Mes amis, quel jour de fête! with
the dreaded nine high Cs in quick succession, and Don
Pasquale (1843). Alas, the rags to riches story didn’t
have a happy ending: his wife died of cholera, he caught
syphilis and then he went insane.
150
The personification of Italian opera: Giuseppe Verdi Verdi goes up the wall
As bel canto gradually gave way to a more robust and Nationalist activists
forceful style in the second half of the 19th century, Italian in pre-unified Italy
apparently used to
opera became dominated by one figure, Giuseppe Verdi.
scrawl Viva Verdi! on
A staunch nationalist, Verdi came to prominence with walls in a coded show
his third opera, Nabucco (1842). The work demonstrated of defiance, the letters
his growing musical prowess but also caught the mood of Verdi’s surname being
of many Italians with its perceived political statement – an acronym for Vittorio
Emanuele Re d’Italia
the famous chorus of the Hebrew slaves in Babylon, Va,
(Vittorio Emanuele King
pensiero, became an anthem for those demanding self- of Italy), under whom
governance for Italy. Four years on, at the première of the nation would be
Verdi’s Attila, when the Roman general refused an alliance (relatively) unified in
with the invading Hun – “You may have the universe, but 1861 (see section 1.2.3
for more on Italian
leave Italy to me” – the nationalist sentiment brought the
Unification).
house down.
By the early 1850s, Verdi
was at the height of his
powers, producing a hat trick
of masterpieces – Rigoletto
(1851), Il trovatore (1853) and
La traviata (1853) – each of
which showed off his dramatic
mastery and melodic gift to
the full. In all he wrote over
30 operas, including the later
works Aida (1871), Otello
(1887) and, his last, the comic
opera Falstaff (1893). Despite
being an atheist, he also
composed an important piece
of instrumental sacred music,
Messa da Requiem (1874). At
the time of his death in 1901,
Verdi was regarded as the
personification of Italian opera.
151
“I A M A MIG HTY The other personification of Italian opera:
H UN TER OF WIL D Giacomo Puccini
FOWL, OPERA TIC Verdi’s final opera premiered in February 1893. Eight days
LIBRE T T OS AND
later, Giacomo Puccini, the only composer to rival Verdi’s
ATT RAC TIVE
WOMEN.” place in history, premiered his first truly great work,
Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. Born into a musical family in Lucca,
success brought him Tuscany, in 1858, Puccini was a talented but lazy student;
great wealth. At the only on seeing a production of Verdi’s Aida in 1875 was
time of his death he
he inspired to take his studies more seriously. He formed
was worth, by today’s
standards, about 175 a lasting relationship with the librettists Luigi Illica and
million euros. His almost Giuseppe Giacosa and, following the success of Manon
constant adultery has Lescaut, went on to write some of the most popular and
led several people over widely performed operas ever produced.
the years to try and get
their hands on the family In a relatively short period, Puccini wrote three
fortune: Nadia Manfredi masterpieces: La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900) and
is the latest claimant,
Madama Butterfly (1904). The operas fed on the late 19th
convinced that she’s an
illegitimate grandchild. century taste for verismo (realism) in the arts; in contrast
to the historical and mythological themes of opera seria,
Puccini’s verismo opera depicted the crime and violence
of real life. His final opera, Turandot (1926), was left
unfinished on his death, and the final two scenes were
later completed by Franco Alfano. Although some critics
have dismissed Puccini’s work as overly melodramatic
and sentimental, his indelible, luxuriant melodies are
unsurpassed – any list of ‘The Five Best Italian Arias Of
All Time’ could easily be stocked purely by the work of
Puccini.
If you only ever hear five Italian arias…make sure it’s these
Nessun dormafrom Turandot (1926) by Giacomo Puccini.

La donna è mobile from Rigoletto (1851) by Giuseppe Verdi.
Che gelida manina from La Bohème (1896) by Giacomo Puccini.
Largo al factotumfrom Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816) by Gioachino Rossini.
Una furtiva lagrima from L’elisir d’amore (1832) by Gaetano Donizetti.
152
Living on past glories: opera in the modern era Italian opera
Puccini was the last great composer of Italian opera and singers: five
Turandot (1926) was the last opera to enter the main legends
repertory. The work of composers in the 20th century,
Farinelli. The most
notably Luigi Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero (1949) and Luigi
famous 18th century
Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 (1961) and Prometeo (1984), castrato. For obvious
found critical acclaim but little popular appeal. Gian Carlo reasons, usually only
Menotti wrote some of the finest opera of the 20th poor families had their
century but did so largely in America, having left Italy sons castrated, but
strangely Farinelli’s
aged 16. Despite the contemporary drought in creativity,
family were loaded.
opera remains an enduring symbol of Italy and continues
to play a large part in national culture. The opera houses Faustina Bordoni.
A renowned 18th century
are full (albeit often with tourists), and even the Italians mezzo-soprano whose
who don’t like opera are happy to declaim its international great rivalry with soprano
status and to hum you an aria or two. Francesca Cuzzoni
apparently led to a fist
fight on stage during a
production of Bononcini’s
Astianatte (1727).
Enrico Caruso.
Legendary tenor and
defendant in the Monkey
House Case. In 1906 he
was fined $10 for pinching
a lady’s bottom in Central
Park Zoo, New York. His
claim that a monkey did it
was rejected.
Luciano Pavarotti.
The great tenor was born
in Modena in 1935. His
career high came 37 years
later, in a performance
of Donizetti’s La fille du
regiment in New York.
Andrea Bocelli. The
Tuscan tenor is blind,
suffers from stage fright
and has sold over 65
million records.
153
4.1.4 Rock, pop, rap, hip hop, dance and the rest…
Yesterday once more Naples: cradle of pop

At least one famous pop If we’re looking for the beginnings of ‘popular’ music in
hit from the 1960s was Italy, perhaps we should start with La Canzone Napoletana,
based on a 19th century
the songs that first echoed round Naples in the mid 19th
Neapolitan song. It’s
Now or Never (1960), a century. The songs were melodic, sentimental ballads
song that sold over 25 written and performed in the Neapolitan dialect for an
million copies for Elvis, annual songwriting contest at the Festival of Piedigrotta.
was simply ‘O sole mio Composer Gaetano Donizetti won the first competition.
with a new lyric. Some
By the early 20th century, the songs’ popularity had spread
have also commented
that The Beatles’ across Italy, and went on to reach the rest of Europe and
Yesterday (1965), a America thanks to the Italian diaspora and, in particular,
song covered by over to the performances of Enrico Caruso, the famous tenor.
3,000 different artists, A number of Neapolitan songs entered the standard
bears a resemblance
repertoire of popular music, including ‘O sole mio (1898),
to another Neapolitan
effort, Piccere’ che vene Torna a Surriento (c 1903) and Funiculì, funiculà (1880).
a dicere’ (1895). Alas, when rock ‘n’ roll arrived in Italy in the 1950s, the
Neopolitan song became passé.
A love for jazz

Despite placing an effective ban on the ‘foreign rhythms’
of jazz in the 1930s, Mussolini’s Fascist regime couldn’t
dent Italy’s enthusiasm for the music. Even today, jazz
clubs can be found in every Italian city, and there are
several festivals dedicated to the genre, the annual
Umbria Jazz Festival held in Perugia being the most
famous. Post-war jazz guitarist Franco Cerri was an
influential figure, while it seems a sweet irony that
Romano, Mussolini’s son, went on to become a well-
respected jazz pianist; in particular, the album Jazz allo
Studio 7 (1963) by The Romano Mussolini All Stars
received widespread acclaim. Of the current jazzers,
trumpet player Enrico Rava, drummer Aldo Romano and
pianist Stefano Bollani are perhaps the most prominent
characters.
154
The Sanremo sing-off The Mussolini menagerie
The Festival della Canzone Italiana (Sanremo Music Jazz pianist Romano
Festival) is a very, very popular popular song contest Mussolini was 17 when
his father, Benito the
that has been held on the Italian Riviera every February
dictator, was hung
since 1951. For decades, success at the festival – usually upside down and dead
awarded to a syrupy balladeer – meant credibility and a from a meat hook. The
week or two at the top of the Italian charts. Italian singers musician always refused
and songwriters always took the contest very seriously, to criticise his father,
preferring instead to
throughout the rock ’n’ roll 1960s and on into the era of
recall a playful figure.
the singer-songwriter a decade later. Luigi Tenco took it a He spoke of the
little too seriously: he apparently (although not definitely) childhood home in
committed suicide after Ciao amore ciao, his entry for the Rome, the Villa Torlonia,
1967 contest, was eliminated from the competition. Alas, with its pet jaguar,
gazelles, lions, monkey
Sanremo isn’t the force it was; indeed, the fact that it
and tortoises. These
inspired the Eurovision Song Contest says much about its days, the grounds of the
contemporary quality. villa host a memorial to
the Holocaust.
Italy does the 60s
Like most European countries, in the late 1950s and 60s
Italy eagerly embraced American and British rock ’n’ roll
music, and, also like most European countries, produced
predominantly pale imitations of the anglicised original.
Male and female solo stars took centre stage, known in
Italy as the urlatori, the screamers, although a handful of
beat bands heavily influenced by The Beatles and The
Rolling Stones also became popular. Certain Italian acts
defined the era:
Domenico Modugno. The original Italian crooner won
Sanremo in 1958 with Volare, nel blu dipinto di blu and
changed the course of Italian music. He later became an MP.
Mina. The ‘Queen of the Screamers’ was more than a
mini-skirted starlet; hits like Il cielo in una stanza (1960)
revealed a voice ranging over eight octaves. In 1963
she was briefly banned from the airwaves after falling
pregnant by a married man.
155
Success out of the blue Adriano Celentano. Italy’s most famous rock ’n’ roller
Domenico Modugno sold a million copies of 24,000 baci (1961).
began his career
in film but became Gianni Morandi. The parentally acceptable face of
better known for rock ’n’ roll mixed the new sound with traditional Italian
music. His first big balladry, selling 25 million records along the way.
(and subsequently
unsurpassed) success Equipe 84. As close as you’ll get to the ‘Italian Beatles’,
came with Volare, the Modena four-piece launched in the mid 60s, enjoying
nel blu dipinto di blu, chart success with songs like Ho in mente te (1966).
written in 1958 with
Franco Migliacci. Initially Rita Pavone. A balladeer and actress who, despite being
Modugno suggested the distinctly Italian, found success overseas too. Cuore
song was inspired by a
(1963) was among the biggest of her hits.
Marc Chagall painting,
but later claimed the
words came to him in Words and music: the cantautori
a dream. Whatever the The Italian cantautori, or singer-songwriters, emerged in
case, Volare won two the 1960s and 70s. The catch-all term is generally used to
Grammy Awards and refer to the socially and politically aware artists influenced
sold 800,000 copies
by the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Luigi
in Italy and 22 million
worldwide. Everyone Tenco, he of the Sanremo suicide (see previous page),
from Ella Fitzgerald to was a founding father. Prominent among the cantautori
David Bowie recorded were Francesco De Gregori, known as Il Principe Poeta
their own version. (The Poet Prince); the reclusive Lucio Battisti, whose
Screaming success Il Paradiso became an international hit for Welsh band
Adriano Celentano and Amen Corner in the guise of If Paradise is (Half as Nice) in
Mina have sold 200 1969; and Fabrizio De André, whose 1968 album was the
million records between marvellously titled Tutti morimmo a stento, All of us Died
them.
in Hardship, and whose most celebrated work is the 1984
release Creuza de mä, sung in his native Genoese dialect.
Lucio Dalla was another popular cantautori, at work
for many years before finding popular success with an
eponymous album in 1978; his best-known song, Caruso
(1986), sold millions of copies when Luciano Pavarotti
offered to do the vocals. Another noteworthy Italian
singer-songwriter, although not always considered one of
the cantautori, is the timeless Paolo Conte, an artist who
delivers his melancholic songs with dry wit and a gritty off-
key voice. Conte, in his 70s, is considered something of a
national treasure; his 2008 album Psiche was a top five hit.
156
Love affair built on solid rock “TH EY W E RE TH E
In the 1970s, Italy took a particular shine to progressive R E A L PR I S O N ER S ,
NOT I.”
(prog) rock. A number of the bands involved were actually
Singer-songwriter
1960s beat combos who shed the jingle jangle in favour Fabrizio de André shows
of something moodier, inspired by the likes of British his hippy solidarity with
band Pink Floyd. Among the prog rockers, Le Orme the Sardinian bandits
produced concept albums including Felona e Sorona who kidnapped and
held him captive in their
(1973), all about two contradictory planets, and achieved
mountain hideout in
some success outside Italy, as did PFM (or Premiata 1979.
Forneria Marconi in full). Pooh, another 1960s outfit that
went progressive in the 70s, are still going in one form or
another; the success of Ancora una notte insieme in 2009 A flavour of
modern Italian
proved their enduring popularity. Punk was also popular in
music: ten albums
the 70s, most of it made in Emilia-Romagna, a connection
that suited the region’s subversive left-wing leanings. The Per Un amico
best-known punk band, Skiantos (still going strong), have (1972) PFM.
never taken themselves too seriously; indeed they’re Felona e Sorona (1973)
more like a parody of punk rock. By contrast CCCP, Le Orme.
formed in 1981, were a militant bunch, using punk to Rimmel (1975)
push a socialist agenda. Francesco De Gregori.
Mainstream rock has Paris milonga (1981)

maintained an enduring Paolo Conte.
Italian popularity for the Creuza de mä(1984)
past three decades. Home- Fabrizio De André.
grown artists such as Profumo (1986) Gianna
Vasco Rossi, Ligabue and Nannini.
Eros Ramazzotti pack out Oro incenso e birra
stadiums and shift albums (1989) Zucchero.
by the truckload. On the
Tutte storie (1993) Eros
softer side, Al Bano paired Ramazzotti.
up with his one-time
Gli spari sopra(1993)
wife Romina Power for
Vasco Rossi.
much of his career, selling
millions of albums and Buon compleanno
Elvis! (1995) Ligabue.
winning at Sanremo in
1984. Zucchero has been a
rarity in Italian rock, selling
157
He ain’t heavy well in English-speaking countries as well as his own.
Fratello Metallo are In 1990 he released an album of his previous hits sung
an Italian heavy metal in English (to avoid any confusion it was titled Zucchero
band whose name Sings His Hits in English), which featured his best-known
translates as ‘Metal
Brother’. They’re named
song, Senza una donna, a duet with British singer Paul
so because Cesare Young. Another collaborative Zucchero album, Zu & Co
Bonizzi, the lead singer, (2004), reads like a who’s who of world music, featuring
is a Capuchin monk. Sting, Miles Davis, Pavarotti and, oh, Ronan Keating. More
Watching the 62-year- alternative rock comes from bands like Marlene Kuntz,
old Bonizzi strut his
heavy metal stuff on
influenced by the American grunge scene, and Massimo
the stage with his long Volume.
white beard and wearing
his monk’s robes is Big noises in contemporary music
enough to test your
faith in…well, Hip hop and rap
everything really. Italy took to rap and hip hop with enthusiasm in the late
1990s, using it as an expression of national (or often
regional) identity that was rare in modern Italian music.
Even while the stylistic influences were clearly American,
the language and themes were homespun. Articolo 31
and 99 Posse got the genre moving, and Gemelli Diversi
and Fabri Fibra, the Italian answer to Eminem whose
2006 album Tradimento was an acclaimed hit, have
maintained the momentum. On the lighter side of rap,
Jovanotti is a versatile singer-songwriter who has added
rock and ethnic elements to his music to great effect;
the albums Buon sangue (2005) and Safari (2008) both
reached number one in the Italian charts.
Electronic
Italy doesn’t shy away from electro music, and the
national charts usually feature a lightweight techno track
or two with vocoded lyrics and an irritatingly catchy
chorus (for a while the genre was labelled Italo Dance).
The prominent DJs behind Italian dance music in the last
decade include Gigi D’Agostino, Benny Benassi and Alex
Gaudino. Dance ‘bands’ like Livin’ Joy and Eiffel 65 have
found it harder to get past the ‘one-hit wonder’ phase.
158
Pop
The Italian music chart
divides its time fairly
evenly between native
and foreign (usually
American) artists. Most
of the Italian stuff falls
within the bounds of
pop, usually made by
solo artists. Modern
Italians, it seems, still
have a weakness for
the romantic ballad.
Old rockers like Eros
Ramazzotti and Vasco
Rossi continue to loom large, supported by younger
solo artists like Tiziano Ferro, a man who’s sold seven
million albums of inoffensive pop, and Grammy-winning
Laura Pausini. Solo singer-songwriter Elisa, R&B (in the
modern sense) duo Zero Assoluto and Giusy Ferreri, an
Italian X-Factor finalist, all fall roughly within the bounds of
contemporary Italian pop. For something more alternative,
seek out indie bands like Settlefish or Disco Drive, both of
them singing in English.
Five 21st century Italian albums you should hear
Fuego (2002) Gemelli Diversi.

Buon sangue (2005) Jovanotti.
Tradimento (2006) Fabri Fibra.
Things to Do Today (2008) Disco Drive.
Sotto una pioggia di parole (2009) Zero Assoluto.
159
160
1. Identity: the 2. Literature 3. Art, architecture Music, theatre,

4. Performing 5. Cinema,
5. Cinema 6.6.Media
Mediaand
foundations and philosophy and design dance and comedy
arts and fashion
of British
Italy
4.2 Theatre, dance and comedy
After the success of Roman theatre, Italy
waited roughly 1,800 years for a second
coming. When it arrived, the work of
Pirandello and those who followed
in the 20th century brought a distinctly
Italian brand of drama: innovative,
uncompromising and subversive.
161
4.2.1 Dramatis personae: the key figures
of Italian theatre
Italy doesn’t have a Shakespeare or a Molière, and the
country’s theatre tradition hasn’t left a bountiful (or even
average) legacy of notable dramatic works. There’s no
golden age, no era of great playwrights, but rather a
scattering of isolated hits. Why? Various theories have
been offered: the suffocating popularity of opera, pushing
theatre to the margins; the pre-Unification absence of
a common language or cultural identity; and the Italian
primacy of actor over playwright. However, while Italian
theatre can’t call on a rich back catalogue of work,
there are numerous theatres in towns and cities all
over the country, and the plays of their few theatrical
heroes, Goldoni and Pirandello in particular, are regularly
performed.
Greek lessons: Ancient theatre

The story of Italian theatre begins in Ancient Rome, where
drama was heavily influenced by Classical Greek models.
All of the surviving Roman plays, tragic or comic, are
translations or adaptations of earlier Greek works. If there
was a golden age of Roman theatre it came in the later
years of the Republic and early stages of the Empire, when
theatres were built throughout Europe. They had a wooden
platform at the front, usually a ‘street’ in which the action
unfurled, backed by a building which, decorated with
columns, porticos and doorways, served as houses lining
the fictional street. By the first century BC theatres were
being built in stone. Many remain remarkably intact today,
arrayed from Orange in southern France to Bosra in Syria.
While drama played its part in Roman life it was only
one of the many public entertainments on offer during
the ludi (festival games) held each September, and the
average Ancient Roman preferred the wordless theatre
of pantomime artists or the blood and guts of gladiatorial
combat. As the Empire grew, theatre became increasingly
bawdy and bloody, moving away from thespian niceties
to something more like ‘extreme’ circus.
162
The Roman playwrights Oh yes he did
Ancient historians recorded the Don’t confuse the c-list
importance of theatre in Roman life and stars of the formulaic
Christmas entertainment
also the names of various playwrights,
served up in some
even if few of the actual plays have parts of the modern
survived. We know that they did tragedy and comedy (like world with the Ancient
the Greeks), usually employing a cast of stock, sometimes Roman pantomimus
masked, characters, from the eloquent slave to the cocky (pantomime artist), who
was a highly skilled and
legionnaire and randy old man. The work of three writers,
respected performer.
two comedians and one tragedian, has survived: They didn’t speak;
Plautus instead, wearing masks,
they used movement
An Umbrian who wrote comedies in the early second
and gesture to act out
century BC, Plautus based all 21 of his extant plays (he scenes of love and
actually wrote over 100) on Greek works, but added song, hate, and sometimes
dance and ‘in jokes’ for his Roman audience. Outlandish to mock the gods, all
stock characters, fantasy and farce took precedence to the accompaniment
of flutes and a chorus.
over reality. Plautus’ plays would inspire the likes of
The pantomimus could
Shakespeare, who took inspiration from Menaechmi achieve great fame and
(perhaps Plautus’ best) for The Comedy of Errors. move in the highest
circles of society. The
Terence
revered Paris was one
Terence, a freed slave, pre-empted the modern comedy such figure; or he was
of manners, satirising Rome’s ruling elite with a subtlety until Emperor Domitian
and realism of wordplay, plot and character that moved had him killed in 83AD
theatre on from the farce and slapstick of Plautus. Six of for having an affair with
his wife.
his plays survive, written between 166 and 160BC, all
of them based on Greek originals. Eunuchus (161BC),
complex in its portrayal of the titular Eunuch, was typical
of the Terence style.
Seneca
Ancient Rome’s great tragedian, the Stoic philosopher
Seneca (the Younger), was at work in the first century
AD. His nine surviving plays were written in verse (they
may not have been intended for performance); their
titles, Oedipus and Agamemnon among them, give the
Greek origins away. Seneca’s use of soliloquies and the
division of plays into acts would have a big influence on
Renaissance drama in France and England, on writers like
Corneille and Shakespeare.
163
What Renaissance?
After the fall of the Roman Empire, drama fell largely
into the hands of the Church and, from the Middle
Ages through to the Renaissance, a variety of morality,
miracle and mystery plays formed the main course of
the theatrical diet. By the 16th century, the intellectual
elite of the Renaissance courts were busy rediscovering
the dramatic works of the Ancient Greeks and Romans
with the result that very little new material of note
was produced, apart from the vernacular commedia
erudita (learned comedy) of Ludovico Ariosto, such as I
Suppositi (1509), and Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s La
Mandragola (1518), a bitter critique on Florentine politics
in the early 16th century played out in the story of a cocky
young man and a virtuous married woman, is considered
the finest comedy of the Italian Renaissance (see section
2.1.3 for more on both Ariosto and Machiavelli).
Played for laughs: the commedia dell’arte

From obscure beginnings, the commedia dell’arte
(comedy of artists) became wildly popular in Italy in the
16th century. Performances were given in public squares
and later in theatres by professional touring companies
of ten to 15 actors who improvised within a set scenario
– stage directions were along the lines of ‘Someone
enters and does something funny’. Each performer wore
a mask and played one of the genre’s stock characters,
typically an old man, a doctor, the lovers, a soldier and so
on. The comic elements were provided by a collection of
zanni (foolish servants), some of whom we still recognise
today: Arlecchino (Harlequin), Pedrolino (Pierrot), Pulcinella
(Punch) and Scaramuccia (Scaramouche). By the late 18th
century, the popularity of commedia dell’arte was waning,
but its influence had spread far and wide (well beyond
Italy), to be felt, in particular, in the development of opera
buffa (see section 4.1.3 for more on opera buffa).
164
What a fantastic stage… if only we had some
decent plays
Although little drama of note was produced in 17th century
Italy, important advances were made in theatre and stage
design, innovations that would be adopted across Europe.
Sophisticated scenery painting techniques brought a
greater sense of perspective to the stage, while Giovanni
Battista Aleotti’s new Teatro Farnese, opened in Parma
in 1618, enhanced the illusion of distance and depth with
the first permanent proscenium arch. Scene changes
improved in the 1640s with Giacomo Torelli’s invention of
the ‘chariot and pole’ system, featuring sliding flat wings
that slotted through the stage and moved on wheels
along a rail. Other new stage machinery allowed for the
illusion of clouds and for flying; an influential text, Nicola
Sabbattini’s Pratica di fabricar scene e macchine ne’ teatri
(1638) (Manual for Constructing Theatrical Scenes and
Machines), explained the mechanics behind the magic.
Goldoni goes it alone in the 18th century

Opera was all the rage in the 18th century, to the extent
that it obscured any great development in theatre.
Almost anyone who could spell was writing librettos,
not least Carlo Goldoni, who also wrote several plays of
importance. Goldoni had already devised a few scenarios
for the most popular dramatic fare of the age, the
improvised comedy in the commedia dell’arte tradition,
before he presented Antonio Sacco, a leading improv
actor, with Arlecchino, servitore di due padroni (1745),
a partly scripted, partly improvised comedy. It led to
Goldoni’s attempted reform of the crude, self-obsessed
improvised comedy he’d long detested, with a series of
completely scripted, realistic comedies that featured a
previously unseen depth of character. La vedova scaltra
(1748) and La famiglia dell’antiquario (1749) were two
of the best. Goldoni’s comedies were a great success
with audiences but his peers and the actors weren’t so
enthusiastic and, unfortunately for Italian theatre, no other
writer followed his lead.
165
“I HAVE TRIED TO Italian theatre’s lead act: Luigi
TE LL SOMETH ING Pirandello
T O OTHER MEN, Italian theatre’s dry spell wasn’t
WITHOU T ANY
really sated in any way until the
AM BIT ION, EXCEPT
PE RHAP S THA T OF 20th century, when a handful of
AVE N GING MYSE L F playwrights stirred interest both at home and abroad. The
FOR HAV ING BEEN first – and best (indeed, without doubt the most important
BORN.” and influential dramatist in the history of Italian theatre) –
Luigi Pirandello on a
was Luigi Pirandello. Pirandello was a novelist and short
good day
story writer before he turned to the plays that lifted Italian
theatre from centuries of stagnation. The themes of
isolation and illusion explored in his work (often with grim
The two Pirandello humour) were born of tragic personal experience. In 1904,
plays to see first his wife, Antonietta, suffered a mental breakdown from
Sei personaggi in which she was never to recover. Despite her increasingly
cerca d’autore. Widely violent paranoid episodes, Pirandello cared for her himself
acknowledged as for more than 15 years before finally handing her over
Pirandello’s masterpiece, to an asylum. He was a prolific writer: his two best
it features a collection of
half-finished characters
plays, Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore (1921) and Enrico
who, without a story of IV (1922) were written within a five-week period, and
their own, interrupt the many of his earlier plays were completed within a week.
rehearsal of another Pirandello was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in
play hoping to find their 1934 for “his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and
destiny. The play was
revolutionary for the
scenic art”.The two Pirandello plays to see first
intimacy and immediacy
it brought to theatrical State-sponsored mediocrity: modern Italian theatre
production. Hecklers at Theatre had a tough time in post-war Italy, starting as it
the premiere shouted did from a very low ebb – the Fascist approach to culture
‘madhouse’ but the play hadn’t left room for creativity. Good intentions abounded
quickly found a more
sympathetic audience.
in the 1950s and 60s, the key aim being to create socially,
politically aware ‘theatre for the people’, but the small
Enrico IV. An actor theatres that took up the task, the stabili (the first, the
concussed on stage
playing Henry IV awakes
Piccolo Teatro, was opened in Milan in 1947 by Giorgio
believing himself to be Strehler), tended to undermine their own progressive
the character. As his intent by being reliant on state funding. However, they
madness grows, so do did help enlarge the role of directors like Strehler (perhaps
the questions about at the writers’ expense) in Italian theatre.
whether it’s better
to reside in reality or
fantasy.
166
Led by foreign influences, experimentation dominated A Nobel cause?
theatre in the 1960s and 70s. It left the masses cold, Luigi Pirandello was a
despite the efforts of writers like Carmelo Bene, the well-known Fascist and
enfant terrible who produced a troubling version of supporter of Mussolini.
He even donated his
Pinocchio (1961). Throughout, the most popular theatre Nobel Prize medal to the
portrayed everyday people who spoke in local dialects, Italian Government to
which, understandably, didn’t progress much beyond a be melted down for the
regional stage. Small collettivi, left-wing theatre groups, campaign in Abyssinia.
emerged in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s,
fostering talent like Dario Fo (see below) and pushing
decentralisation. Their social themes touched a nerve
and finally Italian theatre, led by alternative ideas yet still
heavily subsidised by the state, began attracting a wider
audience, a slow trend that continued through to the 21st
century. However, any progress hasn’t assuaged the
feeling that Italian theatre continues to underperform.
The post-Pirandello scene: three playwrights

Eduardo De Filippo was a singular talent, a playwright
and actor who often wrote in the Neapolitan dialect of
his home city. Typically, his plays shed light (some of it
comedic) on the daily concerns of the poor and middle
class in mid 20th century Italy. Filumena Marturano (1946)
was a fine example.
Ugo Betti produced theatre of some importance in the
same period as de Filippo. He was a qualified judge
and often set plays in the law courts, confronting the
psychology of justice, guilt and atonement; Corruzione al
palazzo di giustizia (1944) provides a fine introduction.
Diego Fabbri, another important mid-century playwright
(although somewhat forgotten now), created existential
theatre in the likes of Processo a Gesù (1955).
167
First Lady of Italian The Fo show
theatre The most significant contribution to theatre in the last
Dario Fo’s wife, Franca 50 years has been made by Dario Fo, a playwright from
Rame, was an important
Lombardy. Fo gained national recognition in the 1960s
playwright and stage
actress in her own for left-wing political satire, notably L’operaio conosce
right. She and Fo set up 300 parole, il padrone 1000: per questo lui é il padrone
Nuova Scena, a left-wing (1969) (or, in English, The Worker Knows 300 Words,
theatre company, in 1968; the Boss 1000: That’s Why He’s the Boss), before more
often she co-wrote with
openly revolutionary plays in the following decade brought
her husband, writing
monologues with a him international success. The best known among
feminist, occasionally these are Non si paga! Non si paga! (1974), the tale of
blackly comic approach. an everyday man’s victory against bureaucracy, and his
Stupro (1983) took rape as most famous work, Morte accidentale di un anarchico
a theme, while Una madre
(1970), about the mysterious death of a political activist
(1980) told of drugs and
violence. Rame herself in police custody (a play based on events that followed
was abducted and raped the notorious Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan in 1969).
by a neo-fascist gang Fo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997 for
in 1973. “emulating the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging
“IT’S TRUE - authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden”.
WE’R E IN THE He’s still an active force in
SHIT RIG HT UP TO Italian life; in 2006, aged 80,
OUR N E C KS, AND
he ran a failed campaign in the
THAT ’S PRECISELY
THE RE A SON WH Y Milanese mayoral elections, not
WE WAL K WITH long after he raised eyebrows
OUR HE AD S HEL D with L’anomalo bicefalo (2003),
HIGH!” a play in which Vladimir Putin’s
From Morte accidentale
brain is transplanted into Silvio
di un anarchico by
Dario Fo Berlusconi’s body.
Ticket trends
In 2007 almost 36 Two contemporary Italian playwrights
million theatre tickets
were sold in Italy, Alessandro Baricco. Cultural polymath Baricco has authored novels, directed films
up nearly nine and, when time allows, written for theatre, most famously creating Novecento (1994), a
million from 2001. monologue that begins with an abandoned baby discovered on board a ship.
One in five Italians go Marco Paolini. Another one who directs, writes and acts, Paolini’s politicised theatre first
to the theatre at least came to prominence in 1995 when he was lauded for Il racconto del Vajont – 9 Ottobre
once a year. 1963, about an Alpine dam disaster.
168
4.2.2 Italy on the dancefloor
Forgotten but not gone: folk dancing

The varied, regional traditions of Italy’s folk dances echo
the diversity inherent in the nation’s folk music (see
section 4.1.1 for more). And, similarly in tune with folk
music, folk dancing has little popularity in modern Italy,
although the tarantella (see below) is often enacted at
wedding celebrations or on less formal occasions, usually
after a certain quantity of alcohol has been ingested.
Many of Italy’s folk dances, usually performed to a tune
of the same name, have fuzzy pagan roots. Some are
more famous than others: the furlana is a courtship
dance from the north of Italy; the saltarello, a lively
dance featuring a fair share of leaping, is found in many
areas; and the tammurriata is a southern erotic dance for
couples who simulate having sex and being exorcised at
the same time, while playing castanets to the improvised
accompaniment of the tammorra (a large drum).
Bitten with the dance bug

One Italian folk dance is more famous than the rest.
There are many versions of the tarantella, but essentially
it’s an up-tempo affair, danced by a group moving round
in a circle, clapping or playing tambourines and taking
turns to dance in the middle, either in a couple or alone.
The origins of the tarantella are unclear, although a
popular myth ties it to Taranto, a port in Puglia. Legend
declares that in the 16th century the city witnessed an
outbreak of tarantism, a fatal malaise brought on by
the bite of the tarantula spider (named after the city).
The victim, known as a tarantata, was almost always a
woman and could only be cured by dancing in a frenzied
manner for days on end. The dance was known as the
tarantella. Of course it’s all nonsense – the bite of the
local tarantula is no worse than a bee sting. It seems
more likely that these ‘victims’ were merely looking for a
way to get round a Church ban on pagan ritual dancing.
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A brief affair with ballet
The early footsteps of classical ballet can be found in the
Italian Renaissance courts of the late 15th century, where
dance formed a part of the lavish entertainment on offer.
In fact, Italy can claim credit for what is considered to be
the first ballet. Le Ballet Comique de la Reine, a five-and-
a-half hour spectacle, was staged by the Italian Baltazarini
di Belgioioso (Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx to the French) in
Paris in 1581. Catherine de Medici had taken Baltazarini
with her as chief musician when she left Florence to
become queen of France in 1547. However, having begun
with a flourish, Italy’s input into the development of ballet
soon dwindled to minimal, until the 19th century when it
rose to being marginal.
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Those who can’t do, teach…ballet A right performance in
Opera took centre stage in 19th century Italy, and although Umbria
ballets were performed and produced, notably Luigi In June and July, the
small Umbrian town of
Manzotti’s Excelsior (1881), the nation’s contribution
Spoleto comes alive for
to the form lay chiefly in providing ballet teachers Italy’s chief performing
and dancers. Italians played an important role in the arts festival. The Festival
development of ballet technique, beginning with the dei Due Mondi (or the
publication, in French, of Traité élémentaire, théorique, Spoleto Festival more
commonly) has been
et pratique de l’art de la danse (1820) by choreographer
mixing dance, opera,
and teacher Carlo Blasis. Later on, Enrico Cecchetti, music, cinema and
formerly a famous dancer, became a highly sought after theatre since composer
teacher, instructing the legendary Anna Pavlova. His Gian Carlo Menotti
ballet instruction, which involved a strict but apparently launched the inaugural
event in 1958.
inspirational training regime, known as the Cecchetti
Method, is still in use today.
The dancers
Over the years, Italy has cultivated some of the world’s
finest ballerinas, including Carlotta Grisi (19th century),
Carla Fracci (20th century), Alessandra Ferri (retired in
2007) and Mara Galeazzi (still dancing with the Royal
Ballet in London). It’s a shame that they’ve spent most of
their time abroad, dancing foreign ballets for foreign ballet
companies. In the pantheon of Italian ballerinas, two
stand above the rest:
Pierina Legnani
Born and instructed in Milan, Legnani was the first
dancer awarded the rank of prima ballerina assoluta, an
extremely rare ‘best of the best’ title given for lifetime
achievement. In 1892 she became the first ballerina to
perform the famous series of 32 fouettés en tournant (a
dizzying spin), a sequence she perfected to great acclaim
in Cinderella (1893).
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“WILL T H AT L ITTL E Marie Taglioni
HUN CHBACK EVER Taglioni never let her looks get in the way of a dancing
LEARN T O DA NCE?”
career; despite (or perhaps because of) her unusually
Ballet teacher instructing
Marie Taglioni, aged six long arms and legs, she became one of the most famous
ballerinas of the 19th century. Her role in La Sylphide
(1832), created by her father Filippo, is regarded as a
Parmesan? Black defining moment in Romantic ballet. It was in La Sylphide
pepper? that Taglioni popularised the now iconic tutu, although
Marie Taglioni was so they weren’t quite so short in her day.
revered as a dancer
that a group of Russian
The modern dance scene
fans bought a pair of
her ballet shoes for 200 Ballet has never enjoyed the same status as opera in
roubles in 1842. The Italy and its popularity remains limited. However, there
shoes were then cooked are regular performances throughout the country, and
in a sauce, garnished, the major opera houses all have their own resident
and eaten.
ballet companies, the Corpo di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala
in Milan being the best known. Modern dance is in a
similarly stable condition, with a handful of companies
performing contemporary work, notably the Balletto di
Toscana, Movimento Danza and Aterballetto, which gives
acclaimed performances around the world under artistic
director and choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti. Performers
such as Fabio Grossi and Simona Lisi have helped extend
the scope of Italian modern dance in recent years.
Festivals devoted to modern dance include Di Seconda
Mano, held annually at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples.
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4.2.3 Laughing matter: Italian comedy
Comedy plays a significant role in Italian culture. The Cut out for comedy
tradition of staged humour reaches back to the comedies There’s nothing
of Ancient Rome and the improvised commedia dell’arte funnier than a man
of the 16th century (see section 4.2.1 for more). Much in a cardboard outfit
imitating Tina Turner.
of that was about buffoonery, and the Italian taste for a Agreed? It certainly
fool remains (they often laugh loudest at the bloke in a worked in the 1980s
dress tripping over a dog). However, there has always for Ennio Marchetto,
been a healthily satirical element to Italian comedy too, a Venetian comedian
a cynicism that blended with the clowning around in who drew on the
masked entertainment
the early 20th century in the satirical cabaret sketches of of the Ancient Roman
avanspettacolo, or ‘curtain raiser’, the stuff that often pantomimus and the
warmed the audience up before a film or a play. commedia dell’arte
of the Renaissance.
The most famous avanspettacolo performers were solo Known as the ‘One Man
caricaturists like Ettore Petrolini and Totò, the mimic with Living Cartoon Factory’,
a dextrous face and funny turn of phrase who became the Marchetto enjoyed
nation’s favourite comic actor in a stream of movies in the acclaim at home and
abroad for mime shows
1940s and 50s, most of which had his name in their title, involving quick changes
and most of which are still making regular appearances of the aforementioned
on Italian TV. Film was the prime vehicle for comedy from cardboard costumes
the 1950s, found largely in the genre known as commedia whilst aping everything
all’Italiana. From the 1970s, the emphasis switched to from a Benedictine
monk to Eminem to the
television, where Roberto Benigni was the prime star. He Titanic…and, of course,
came to prominence in the 70s show Onda Libera before Tina Turner.
going on to make the Oscar-winning film La vita è bella
(1997) (see section 5.1.5 for more).
A little bit of politics

The Italians have always had a hearty appetite for political
satire, a reflection, no doubt, of the governments they’ve
had to suffer over the years. In the press, there is the
comic tradition of the vignetta (political cartoon), like
those found on the front page of Italy’s leading national
daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera. Similarly, television
has hosted many, often short-lived, satirical shows.
Frequently, they provide a launch pad for the new, edgy
stars of Italian comedy. In recent years, three figures in
particular have emerged to raise a laugh, stirring up the
establishment along the way:
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Beppe Grillo. A comedian and political activist who came
to prominence in the 1980s attacking the Government’s
foreign policy on the television show Fantastico 7. Grillo’s
Internet blog is the most visited in the country (see section
6.1.4 for more) and among the top ten blogs in the world.
In September 2007 he staged his own V Day (Vaffanculo
(Fuck Off) Day) calling for MPs with criminal convictions
to be removed from office, a demand that found support
across the country.
Rosario Fiorello. A Sicilian showman who sings, mimics
and acts, Fiorello first entered the public consciousness on
Karaoke, a TV show. More recently Fiorello has built a loyal
following hosting a daily radio show, Viva Radio 2, on which
he impersonates everyone from Carla Bruni to Kim Jong-
il. He even popped up singing in The Talented Mr Ripley
alongside Jude Law.
Sabina Guzzanti. A comedienne who also upset Berlusconi
on TV, but is more famous for winding up the pope and
nearly landing in jail. At a political rally held in Rome’s Piazza
Navona in July 2008, she proclaimed that, because of the
Church’s treatment of homosexuals, the pope would soon
be going to Hell where he would be “tormented by great
big poofter devils – and very active ones”.
Keep on smiling
Comedy in contemporary Italy is in rude health. Television
is the main outlet, hosting satire and straight comedy
shows in large numbers; the country also has its own
cable cousin to the American Comedy Central channel,
dedicated solely to mirth. For the live stuff, every city in
the country has its own (usually small) club hosting cabaret
and comedy evenings, while the more famous comedians
like Beppe Grillo, Antonio Albanese, Paolo Rossi and Paola
Cortellesi all regularly tour larger venues. Comedy festivals
are also popular, including the annual Faccia Da Comico at
the Teatro Ambra Jovinelli in Rome, as are competitions
for new talent like La Zanzara d’Oro (The Golden Mosquito)
at the Teatro delle Celebrazioni in Bologna.
174
175
176
5 Cinema and fashion
5.1 Cinema p179 5.1.4 The golden age

5.1.1 The importance of Italian cinema p188
of Italian cinema p180 5.1.5 The era of false
5.1.2 Epic tastes: from dawns: modern Italian
silent classics to noisy cinema p195
propaganda p182 5.2 Fashion p201
5.1.3 Grit and 5.2.1 Made in Italy
determination: p202
Neorealist cinema p186
177
178
5.1 Cinema
Some of Italy’s most rewarding
encounters with modern culture have
come in the movie theatre, from the
silent epics to the Neorealists and the
golden age of Fellini and co.
179
5.1.1 The importance of Italian cinema
Three Italian film Italy has a distinct cinematic tradition. Guilty pleasures
festivals aside (there’s a weakness for pulp horror and sex
Mostra comedy), the best moments of Italian cinema have
Internazionale d’Arte often been characterised by naturalism, by an honest
Cinematografica di
Venezia. That’s the
(and regularly cynical) appraisal of contemporary Italian
Venice Film Festival, life. Even in the silent era, when effusive flailing was
second only to Cannes in considered imperative in American cinema, Italian actors
the roll call of European were giving nuanced, intelligent performances. In the
fests. Held on Venice short but influential post-war Neorealist period, directors
Lido in late summer
every year since 1932, it
shaped a new genre of candid film-making, before subtly
claims to be the oldest adapting a decade later to pass comment on society
film festival in the world. and money when the good times arrived. Even today,
The main prize is the the best Italian cinema pokes around in murky truths,
Leone d’Oro, descendant unflinching in its dramatisation of corruption and crime.
of what used to be the
Coppa Mussolini.
Taking on Hollywood
Strappami le Lacrime. Cinema-going remains a popular Italian pastime. The
Festival dedicated to the
figures for attendance have remained relatively steady
tearjerker; held in Rome
in late February and through the first decade of the 21st century (around
early March. 115 million tickets sold each year). However, most
filmgoers (around two thirds) are paying to watch dubbed
Le Giornate del
Cinema Muto The Hollywood blockbusters. Around a hundred native films
largest festival in the get made every year, and there’s an almost annual
world dedicated solely discussion about the ‘resurgence of Italian cinema’, but
to film from the silent the heady days of the 1950s and 60s are a long way past
era. Held in Pordenone,
(a regularly made comparison that itself probably holds
Friuli-Venezia Giulia,
every October. modern Italian cinema back). The best-sellers tend to
be lightweight comedies rather than auteur affairs. For
example, in 2008, the year of Gomorra, Matteo Garrone’s
acclaimed film about the Neapolitan Mafia, the Italian box
office charts were topped by Natale a Rio, the latest in a
series of screwball comedies, this one about a Christmas
holiday in Brazil (Gomorra was tenth on the list).
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Italian film-makers apply to the Ministry for Cultural Celebrate with a Dave
Heritage and Activities for funding (repaid if box office The Premi David di
receipts reach a certain level), and many are successful, Donatello are Italy’s
as long as the project’s staff and content are sufficiently equivalent of the Oscars.
Handed out each spring
‘Italian’. However, additional cash is usually required from since 1955 by the
a TV company to get a film made. In recent years many Accademia del Cinema
films have secured funding by working as co-productions Italiano, the gongs, as
with other European countries, although this process the name suggests,
appears to be in decline. The growth of multiplex cinemas are miniature copies
of Donatello’s David
and their preference for ‘reliable’ American blockbusters statue.
isn’t helping the situation.
On location: three films shot in Italy
The Talented Mr Ripley (1999). The adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s thriller

used various Italian backdrops, from the Caffè Florian in Venice to the beach of
Bagno Antonio on the island of Ischia.
The Italian Job (1969). The crime caper starring Michael Caine unfurled in the
narrow streets of Turin (although the famous tunnel drive was actually filmed in a
Coventry sewer) and ended teetering on the edge of a cliff at Ceresole Reale in the
Alps.
The Godfather (1972). The real
Sicilian town of Corleone, ancestral
home of Mario Puzo’s fictional crime
dynasty, was too developed to use for
filming; the village of Savoca stood in.
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5.1.2 Epic tastes: from silent classics
to noisy propaganda
Romantic hero to die for So that’s what the Romans looked like
The most famous Italian Italy took to cinema like a natural. After getting over the
figure of early cinema simple wonder of creating moving images – a smiling
didn’t actually make any
Pope Leo XIII, blessing anything in sight, was filmed
Italian movies. Rodolfo
Guglielmi di Valentina in 1896 shortly after the Lumière Brothers reported
d’Antonguolla (Rudolph making the first film in Paris – early film-makers turned
Valentino) moved from to narrative, seemingly inspired by the grand spectacle
Italy to New York aged of Italy’s operatic tradition. Historical epics prevailed in
18, in 1913, unable to
the nascent industry, hugely popular in Italy and similarly
find work in his native
Puglia. He lived rough successful when exported to the USA where they set the
before getting a job standard for early cinema. Ancient Rome was plundered
as a ballroom dancer, for storylines: grand sets, swarms of sandaled extras and
which led to acting and muscled torsos did much to shape the ‘epic’ cinematic
romantic leads in some
tradition. The first Italian movie (or film with a plot at
memorable films, The
Sheikh (1921) and Blood least), La Presa di Roma (1905), actually celebrated more
and Sand (1922) among recent history – the capture of Rome by the new Italian
them. When Valentino army in 1870. When they weren’t cutting historical epics,
lost out to peritonitis, early film-makers made melodrama.
aged 31, some female
fans apparently Giovanni Pastrone was a leading figure early on; a director
committed suicide. and producer who wrote screenplays, set up cinemas and
invented new equipment, not least the carrello, a camera
that could move with the action. Italy’s silent films also
IT ALY’S F IRST produced the first real stars of international cinema,
CIN EMA IS STIL L
reared as such by the industry’s budding film companies
IN BUSINESS; TH E
C IN EMA L UMIÈRE and directors. It was the divisimo culture, built around
IN PISA OPENED IN well-paid actresses who became known as dive – divas.
19 0 5 . Francesca Bertini and Lydia Borelli were among the
early female stars. Bertini’s fame was transatlantic (she
apparently earned $175,000 in 1915) and long-lived – her
final screen appearance came in Bernardo Bertolucci’s
1976 epic, Novecento.
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Three Italian classics from the silent era
Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (Mario Caserini 1913). The last days of Pompeii,
caught with impressive flair and unexpected subtlety. It’s silent, of course, so
remember to go ‘boom’ at the appropriate moment.
Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone 1914). The best of Italy’s silent epics was written by
nationalist poet and all-round show-off Gabriele D’Annunzio. Bartolemeo Pagano,
a Genoese docker, found stardom playing Maciste, a muscular Roman slave, in the
story of a damsel’s distress in the Second Punic War. Cabiria was a hit well beyond
Italy; the American premiere was held in the White House.
Francesca Bertini
Assunta Spina(Gustavo Serena 1915). The finest
of the early Italian melodramas starred Francesca
Bertini (who also helped out with the writing). She
brought an impressive realism to the titular role,
a Neapolitan washerwoman with a murderously
jealous fiancé.
Letting the Americans in

The Futurist movement (see 3.1.5
for the details), with its taste for
modernity and movement, was
impressed with the new medium
of film. However, whilst the
collective published a manifesto
on Futurist cinema in 1916 (they
were big on manifestos), they
didn’t make many films. Thais
(1917), directed by Anton Giulio Bragaglia, author of the
aforementioned manifesto, probably got most attention.
The Futurists’ contribution to cinema lay more in
championing new technology. Unfortunately, Italy’s post
First World War governments didn’t pay much attention:
they didn’t regulate the flow of foreign films into Italy
and the formerly vibrant Italian industry was swamped
by cheap American movies, a situation made worse by
Italy’s post-war economic discomfort.
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“CIN EMA IS THE Film with the Fascists
M OST PO WERF UL The Italian film industry recovered somewhat in the
WEAPON.”
1930s. The arrival of ‘talkies’ helped (audiences had a
Cinecittà slogan, 1937
new reason for choosing Italian over American) and so did
the Fascist government: financing studios, encouraging
directors and limiting the influx of foreign films. Like
Hitler, Mussolini used newsreel for propaganda, but
the regime’s cinema wasn’t as blatant as it was in
Nazi Germany; in Italy, they used historical parallels to
glorify the Fascist party. For instance, the Fascists paid
accomplished director Carmine Gallone to make Scipione
l’Africano (1937), set in Ancient Rome but commissioned
to bolster public support for the shameful campaign in
Abyssinia.
Figures like Alessandro Blasetti, whose 1860 (1934)
anticipated Neorealist cinema with its commonplace
hero, showed how directors could make very good
films and still satisfy the regime (in this case with
stirring stuff about the Risorgimento). Other films were
inevitably more plodding, diluted by the restrictions on
subject matter. Many fell into the telefoni bianchi genre:
moralising, derivative (of American) movies made in the
late 1930s and named for the white telephones found
in the living rooms of their affluent characters. Il Signor
Max (1937), a comedy about a newspaper salesman done
good, was typical.
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Europe’s biggest film set
Mussolini spent a considerable sum building Cinecittà, the
sprawling film studios on Rome’s south-eastern fringe.
Unveiled in 1937, it became the hub of the Italian film
industry after the war (but not before briefly serving as a
refugee camp). Cinecittà’s cheap post-war rates enticed
American film-makers over in the 1950s: Charlton Heston
went hell for leather sandals here in Ben Hur (1959) and
Liz Taylor met Richard Burton for the first time on the
set of Cleopatra (1961). Italian director Federico Fellini
made all his films at Cinecittà. After some lean years in
the late 20th century, Cinecittà (now privatised), still the
largest film studios in Europe, is back on the filmic map,
attracting directors like Martin Scorsese, who shot Gangs
of New York (2002) there.
Gangs of New York set at Cinecittà
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5.1.3 Grit and determination: Neorealist cinema
“I’VE LOST AL L MY Shooting from the ruins

M ON E Y ON THESE A new strain of Italian film-making took shape in the
FILMS… BU T I ’M
Second World War. Neorealism was born in part of
GLAD T O L OSE IT
T HIS WAY.” necessity: the wartime sacking of Cinecittà compelled
Vittorio De Sica new directors to shoot on location, amid the rubble, in a
documentary style, whilst a lack of funding often gave the
lead roles to non-professional actors, with mixed results.
Is that the postman at There was also an urge to purge the artificiality of telefoni
the door? No dear, it’s
Neorealism
bianchi (the genre in which many Neorealist directors and
actors got their first break), to capture instead the real
Critics rarely agree
on what the first film social (usually-working class) concerns of the times, often
of Italian Neorealist in real language. All these factors gave Neorealist cinema
cinema was. Some cite a rawness that articulated Italy’s post-war pain.
Rossellini’s Roma, città
aperta (1945); others Who were the important Neorealist directors?
point to Ossessione
Neorealist cinema was largely confined to Rome, where
(1942), Visconti’s
unglamorous adaptation three key directors were at work. Roberto Rossellini took
of The Postman Always the most documentary, guerrilla approach, invariably
Rings Twice, which using wartime as a theme. Vittorio De Sica, a matinee
moved James M. Cain’s idol in the Fascist era, was a more conventional directorial
story of murderous
talent. He took Cesare Zavattini’s scripts and made
passion from California
to northern Italy. emotive, engaging films that used the personal stories of
Mussolini allowed the betrayal and love to comment on social themes ranging
film’s release, even from crime to the elderly. The third great director, Luchino
though his son Vittorio Visconti, an aristocrat, made more overtly political films
famously walked out
on the plight of the poor – most memorably of Sicilian
of a screening shouting
“This is not Italy”. fishermen.
However, the Fascists
All three directors made significant films in later
would later sentence
Visconti to death for decades, reinventing their style, but each remains closely
hiding Partisans in associated with Neorealism. It was a short-lived genre
his villa. He escaped (and never a formal ‘school’), essentially over by the early
prison, and the capital 1950s. Its end was speeded by poor box office receipts
sentence, with the help
(most post-war Italians wanted escapism not grim
of his jailors.
reality), and by the easing of the socioeconomic strife
it portrayed. Despite the abrupt end, Neorealism would
prove hugely influential on subsequent Italian cinema.
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What a Cary on
The five Neorealist films to watch first
Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri
Roma, città aperta (Roberto Rossellini 1945). An early milestone in Neorealist di biciclette has become
cinema, shot on Roman streets six months after the Nazis left. It told the tense story the most acclaimed of
of partisans fighting Germans. Anna Magnani emerged as Neorealism’s leading lady. the Neorealist films,
combining, as it did,
Sciuscià(Vittorio De Sica 1946). Two shoeshine boys, played with impressive critical and commercial
subtlety by a couple of untrained actors, come unstuck in unsympathetic post-war success. The plausibility
Rome. of its central father and
La terra trema (Luchino Visconti 1948). Another cast of non-professionals, here son characters, played
using Sicilian dialect, rendered the lives of poor, exploited fishing folk in a film by amateur actors, is
commissioned by the Italian Communist Party. key to its authenticity.
However, it could all
Ladri di biciclette have been very different.
(Vittorio De Sica 1948). Iconic American
A destitute man and his producer David O.
son (non-actors) scour Selznick offered to fund
Rome for the stolen bike the film so long as De
on which his job hanging Sica placed Cary Grant
posters depends. Bleak in the role of the father.
but utterly compelling: De Sica suggested Henry
the best film you’ll ever Fonda instead, before
see about a stolen bike deciding on his cast
(probably). of amateurs and other
Riso Amaro (Giuseppe sources of funding.
De Santis 1949). Two
jewel thieves hide out
amid tough migrant
workers in the paddy
fields of the Po Valley.
Silvana Mangano’s feisty,
busty character helped
sell the film.
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5.1.4 The golden age of Italian cinema
In the pink
As Neorealism waned in the early 1950s, a new golden
age of Italian cinema developed in tandem with the
nation’s ‘economic miracle’ (see 8.4 for more). One genre
was dubbed neorealismo rosa (Pink Neorealism), which
kept the location shoots and working-class characters of
Neorealism but swapped edgy social critique for matters
of the heart, usually tinged with comedy. Pink Neorealism
rapidly withered, being superseded by the popular
commedia all’italiana genre in the late 1950s. It wasn’t as
lightweight as it might sound: the films were bittersweet,
finding humour in mocking the posturing of Italy’s new-
found prosperity. Commedia all’italiana made repeated
use of the same actors, notably Vittorio Gassman, star
of the genre’s first big hit, I soliti ignoti (1958), a Mario
Monicelli-directed effort about a gang of bungling crooks.
The age of the auteurs

While commedia all’italiana was the commercial success
story of the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s,
critically the period is better remembered for its auteur
directors, figures who drew on different genres and
themes to produce distinctive, highly personal cinema.
Some used the cynicism of commedia all’italiana, pointing
the finger at Italy’s new consumerist society; others used
sex or the ideological clash of the era as themes.
Five legends: the auteurs and their films

Federico Fellini. Recognised by many as the greatest
of all Italian directors, Fellini began writing scripts in the
Neorealist era (he worked on Rossellini’s Roma, città
aperta) before turning to direction. In 1956 he won an
Oscar for La strada (1954), in which Anthony Quinn
played a callous circus strongman, before producing La
dolce vita (1960), a satire on celebrity that broke new
ground with its unusual structure (a series of set-piece
episodes) and themes. Fellini stretched reality. His
188
characters were extreme, used to parody the excess
and superficiality of modern life – La dolce vita was
typical with Anita Ekberg’s voluptuous actress and
Mario Mastroianni’s shiftless journalist trailing rather
pointlessly around decadent, modern Rome. Another
Fellini masterpiece, 8½ (1963), came soon after, before
his allegorical style became increasingly surreal and the
narrative looser, spoiling the legend somewhat.
Michelangelo Antonioni. A clutch of stylish early
1960s films cemented the Antonioni brand. He shunned
traditional structure: plotlines fizzled out or didn’t exist at
all; the editing was intentionally abrupt and jarring; and
the characters were cool and undemonstrative, revealing
little of themselves as they struggled with psychological
angst. Why explain when you can stare moodily out of
the window making vague existential comments? It was
demanding stuff, but audiences and critics responded
positively. The first big hit was L’avventura (1960); a
missing young woman, frustratingly, is never found but
the disappearance sheds light on her friends.
189
Pasolini, the movie Antonioni’s first colour film, Il deserto rosso (1964),
The furore generated is often considered his masterpiece. Later films were
by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s made in English, notably Blow Up (1966), set in swinging
films, cited for
London.
blasphemy and obscenity
but also greatly admired, Francesco Rosi. Like Fellini and Antonioni, Rosi cut his
mirrored the director’s teeth on Neorealism, helping out Visconti on La terra
own turbulent life. His
brother was murdered
trema, but unlike his contemporaries kept the focus on
by Yugoslav communist social and political misdeeds in the 1960s. In the golden
partisans in the war, age, he made movies about the corruption of power,
and yet Pasolini became laying out the evidence in documentary style, waiting for
a staunch leftist. He the public to draw its own conclusions. Il caso Mattei
took a teaching job
after the war but lost
(1972), perhaps his best work, explored the demise of an
it after being convicted oil tycoon in a plane crash.
of obscene acts and
corrupting minors. By the
Pier Paolo Pasolini. The Catholic Marxist homosexual
time the conviction was Pasolini threw his religious, ideological and sexual
reversed and Pasolini concerns into his films. His directing career began with
cleared of all charges, Accattone (1961), a realist slice of the rough lowlife
he’d spent two years Rome he knew well, and his talent was confirmed
living in the slums of
Rome. He was arrested
with Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964), a rendering
again in 1963, this time of the Gospel according to Matthew. Pasolini is best
charged with blasphemy remembered, however, for the scandalising trilogy of
over La ricotta, a short Decameron (1971), I racconti di Canterbury (1972) (in
film starring Orson which Pasolini himself played Chaucer) and Il fiore delle
Welles as a director
making his own film
mille e una notte (1974), sexed-up classics that voiced a
about the Crucifixion. disdain for modern life.
Pasolini’s death in 1975,
Bernardo Bertolucci. His first job in film was working for
aged 53, was suitably
nonconformist; he was Pasolini, and he shared some of the older director’s taste
found dead on the beach for allegorical commentary even while developing more
at Ostia, near Rome, psychological themes and a much slicker cinematic style.
after being run over In La strategia del ragno (1970), his first major success,
several times by his own
a young man searches for answers about the murder
car. A 17-year-old male
prostitute pleaded guilty of his father by Fascists. Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972),
and was convicted of starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider as the
murder, but has since intimate strangers, brought worldwide renown as well as
retracted his confession. notoriety. Bertolucci’s subsequent films grew more epic
Conspiracy theories
and visually impressive.
abound.
190
Classics on a plate: the spaghetti westerns “I T W A S I W H O
It’s a derogatory title, but one that has stuck and which M A D E F ELLI N I
FA M O U S , N O T
lacks an alternative. The Italian westerns made in the
TH E O TH ER W A Y
1960s eschewed the clean-cut cowboys of Hollywood for AROUND.”
mean, dirty gunslingers. Around 400 were made, many Anita Ekberg
of them co-productions between European and American
companies, as reflected by the mixed line-up of Italian and
American actors, among whom the memorably reticent Princely performer
and ponchoed Clint Eastwood stood out. Sergio Leone Antonio de Curtis, stage
name Totò, was the
was the key director, shooting five westerns in all; the
Italian film comic of the
music of Ennio Morricone did much to sharpen Leone’s 20th century. He made
long, sparsely dialogued sequences. Try Per un pugno di over a hundred movies
dollari (1964) for starters (better known to millions as A between the 1930s
Fistful of Dollars). Damiano Damiani and Sergio Corbucci and 60s, starring in
both original work and
also made thoroughly watchable spaghetti westerns.
parodies of other films.
He brought his talents
Water with your vodka, Marcello? to a wide range of roles
The famous Trevi fountain scene of Fellini’s La dolce vita was shot one March but was at his best as
evening in 1959. Anita Ekberg apparently had no problem with wading through the a commedia dell’arte
chill waters for hours on end; Marcello Mastroianni, so Fellini said, wore a wetsuit style character: the
under his clothes and was only tempted into the fountain after warming up with a Neapolitan underdog
bottle of vodka. who sticks it to the
Establishment with
his devious wit. He
always claimed to be
the illegitimate son
of a marquis, and
apparently liked to be
addressed as Principe
(Prince). Towards the
end of Totò’s career,
Pasolini gave him a
role in Uccellacci e
uccellini (1966), bringing
the actor the serious
appraisal he’d always
craved. Watch Guardie
e ladri (1950), a cops
and robbers caper, for a
taste of the Totò magic.
191
Sorry, no, espadrilles won’t do…
Peplum movies (or ‘sword and sandal’ if you prefer; the
peplum was a loose Greek tunic) had been around in
one form or another since the days of silent Italian film,
but found new life in the early 1960s. They took Ancient
mythology as a (very rough) base, placed a muscle-
bound (often American) actor in the midst and then
proceeded morally towards a happy ending. Le fatiche
di Ercole (1958), starring American actor Steve Reeves
as Hercules, was the first big box office hit. There were
no standout film-makers, although spaghetti western
auteur Sergio Leone did make his directorial debut with Il
colosso di Rodi (1961), a better peplum film than most.
192
Five golden age actors
Sophia Loren. A sex symbol with considerable talent, Loren won an Oscar for La
ciociara (1960), one of five films she made with Neorealist director De Sica.
Vittorio Gassman. Theatre actor who got his film break playing the criminal in De
Santis’ Riso Amaro, and became a golden age legend in the likes of Il Sorpasso.
Monica Vitti. Vitti’s alluring, understated style contrasted with the demonstrative
Loren and Lollobrigida. Antonioni got the best from Vitti in L’avventura, La notte
(1961) and L’eclisse (1962).
Marcello Mastroianni. The leading man of the golden age is forever tied to
Fellini. Excellent in 8½ but at his best as the shallow, manipulated journalist in La
dolce vita.
Alberto Sordi. The comic star of numerous commedia all’Italiana films played the
puerile male with aplomb, but also worked for the auteurs, notably in Fellini’s Lo
sceicco bianco (1952).
Directors’ cuts: the giallo films

The low-budget giallo (yellow) films of the 1960s and
70s took their lead from a literary genre of the same
name (see section 2.1.5), bringing crime fiction to the
big screen. However, the style soon bled out towards
horror and, eventually, full-on gore. Flesh became a key
theme in the 1970s, either for slashing or titillation (giallo
directors were unashamedly misogynistic), and in some
instances for both. Mario Bava was the accomplished
directorial force: his La ragazza che sapeva troppo (1963)
helped launch the genre, whilst Ecologia del delitto (1971)
brought inventive new types of death to film (in one
scene a couple in the throes of passion are skewered
with a single spear) and proved highly influential on the
American slasher movies of the 1980s and 90s. Dario
Argento, one-time scriptwriter to Bertolucci and Leone,
was another important giallo director; Profondo rosso
(1975) was amongst his best films.
193
“THERE WERE
The ten golden age films to watch first
T HREE MEN IN HER
LIFE. ONE TO TAKE La dolce vita (Federico Fellini 1960). Seven episodes in the week of Mastroianni’s
HER...ONE TO L OVE bored, fickle journalist, used to comment on the shallowness of Rome’s post-war
HER...AND O NE TO party set.
K ILL HER.”
Tag line for C’era una Le mani sulla città (Francesco Rosi 1963). Damning portrayal of corrupt
volta il west construction practices during the economic boom; Rod Steiger plays the lead. Better
than it sounds.
Il gattopardo(Luchino Visconti 1963). Sweeping Risorgimento drama adapted from
Lampedusa’s novel (see section 2.1.5), starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and
Claudia Cardinale.
Il sorpasso (Dino Risi 1963). A fine commedia all’Italiana film (in which Risi
8
specialised) about a road trip, expertly satirising Italy’s new economic success.
8½(Federico Fellini 1963). Mastroianni stars for
Fellini again, this time in a dreamy, disorientating
and critical stab at the art of directing and its 1
attendant distractions.
Il deserto rosso(Michelangelo Antonioni 1964).
Ravenna’s foggy industrial backdrop fits perfectly
2
with Monica Vitti’s depressed housewife. A lip-
synched Richard Harris is her husband.
C’era una volta il west (Sergio Leone 1968). The best of Leone’s westerns pitched
Charles Bronson (and his incessant harmonica) against Henry Fonda’s ruthless killer.
Better known outside Italy as Once Upon a Time in the West.
Il conformista(Bernardo Bertolucci 1970). Sex and violence (and the links between)
in a psychological drama; a closet homosexual gets drawn into killing for the
Fascists.
Il decamerone (Pier Paolo Pasolini 1971). The first of Pasolini’s ‘trilogy of life’
caused a stir with its sex, but offered an entertaining run through Boccaccio’s bawdy
original (see 2.1.3 for more).
Mimì metallurgico ferito nell’onore (Lina Wertmüller 1972). Tragicomedy set in
the 1968 student uprisings, with a Mafia twist. From a rare female Italian director.
194
5.1.5 The era of false dawns:
modern Italian cinema
Screen angst
The word ‘crisis’ crops up a lot in analyses of Italian
cinema in the 1970s and 80s. They were lean years.
Italian films struggled against the country’s new-found
obsession with TV and the dominance of Hollywood. The
auteurs of the 1960s continued working but produced
little of great merit. Antonioni’s Identificazione di una
donna (1982), about a film director searching for a leading
lady, was typical – it was good, but not as good as it
used to be. The successful films that did appear were
unconnected by any consistent theme or style. Some
directors, notably Bertolucci, made English-language
films.
Of the new directors to emerge, the Taviani brothers,
Paolo and Vittorio, were well received. Padre Padrone
(1977), the (true) story of a Sardinian shepherd boy and
his barbaric father, was their breakthrough film. Other
cinema was less erudite. This was the era when giallo
films reached their height, and also the period when
director Tinto Brass found success (and heavy censorship)
with a series of ‘sexploitation’ films.
Padre Padrone
195
Scenes of crime
A taste of the 1970s and 80s: five films
From the late 1960s
through to the 80s, Salon Kitty (Tinto Brass 1976). Ever wondered how you make a box office smash
Italy had its own about Nazis and sex? Here you go. (The Salon Kitty brothel did actually exist in
pulpy version of the 1930s Berlin, filled with hidden microphones and used by the Nazis to gather
American crime film. secrets.)
The poliziotteschi,
often categorised as an L’albero degli zoccoli (Ermanno Olmi 1978). Three-hour Grapes of Wrath-style
offshoot of giallo films epic about Bergamo peasants at the turn of the 20th century, inspired by stories Olmi
(see previous section), heard from his grandmother.
were heavy on car Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Francesco Rosi 1979). Rosi made a good fist of filming
chases, shoot-outs and Carlo Levi’s book about southern destitution (see section 2.1.5 for more).
moustachioed cops.
The Italian problems Otello (Franco Zeffirelli 1986). Zeffirelli’s fast-moving take on Shakespeare,
with political corruption channelled through Verdi. Placido Domingo blacked up for the lead role.
and the Mafia, which L’ultimo imperatore(Bernardo Bertolucci 1987). The most successful of
wasn’t glamorised on Bertolucci’s English-language productions, depicting the last days of China’s Manchu
film here like it was in dynasty, won nine Oscars.
America, provided an
endless fount of subject
matter. Fernando di Leo
New Italian Cinema
was the key director; A resurgence of sorts occurred in the late 1980s. New
Il boss (1973) and I Italian Cinema, as the flowering was called, began with
padroni della città (1976) Giuseppe Tornatore’s Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988),
amongst his best films.
196
an internationally acclaimed (and undeniably mawkish) Lip service
period piece about a fatherless boy who finds succour Virtually every foreign
at the local cinema. Similar sentimentality flowed film shown in Italy is
from Il postino, directed by Michael Radford, a Brit, dubbed. The demand
is such that the people
characterising the New Italian Cinema as one pining doing the dubbing
for the values of a bygone Italy. Other films tackled become stars in their
this sense of disappointment about modern Italy more own right. The king
directly. Gianni Amelio was an important director, of dubbing, Oreste
reigniting the social conscience of Neorealist cinema with Lionello, died in 2009
after a long career
Il Ladro di bambini (1992), a depressing but engrossing lip-synching everyone
child’s eye view of modern Italy. Marco Risi did from Bugs Bunny to Dr
something similar with Mery per sempre (1989), set in a Strangelove. He was
Palermo reform school. A third director, Daniele Luchetti, known best as the
turned the spotlight on corruption with Il portaborse Italian voice of Woody
Allen. In one Fellini film,
(1991), a satire on the kickbacks and favours endemic in Prova d’orchestra (1978),
the Italian establishment. Lionello dubbed the
parts of eight separate
New Italian Cinema did produce some interesting, highly actors.
individual work. Nanni Moretti’s eccentric, amusing films
covered a range of themes, the most diverse appearing Troisi’s last post
in Caro diario (1993), a documentary-style film in three Massimo Troisi, the
writer and star of Il
sections, in which Moretti (kind of) plays himself, first on
Postino (he plays the
a Vespa in Rome, then journeying through the Aeolian postman whose one
Islands and, finally, seeking treatment for a strange, itchy daily delivery is to Pablo
illness. Like Moretti, Roberto Benigni has often starred in Neruda, the Chilean
his own films, although his comedy is more direct, largely poet exiled on a Sicilian
island), postponed
reliant on a rather surreal slapstick. Johnny Stecchino
heart surgery in order
(1991), about a school bus driver who gets entangled with to complete the film.
a Mafia boss, did well at the box office. However, Benigni The day after filming
has become best remembered for a later work, La vita è finished, he suffered a
bella (1997), the most acclaimed Italian film of the last 30 fatal cardiac arrest.
years.
197
“THE I TA L IAN
Five films of New Italian Cinema
FILMS I’ VE SEEN
OVE R T H E PA ST Mediterraneo(Gabriele Salvatores 1991). A group of Italian soldiers posted to a
FE W YEARS A L L remote Greek island in 1941 get forgotten about and become slowly absorbed into
SEE M THE SA ME. local life.
A LL THEY TAL K
ABOUT IS BOYS Un’anima divisa in due(Silvio Soldini 1993). A shop security guard falls head
GROWING U P, over heels for a gypsy girl who steals on his watch. Once they marry, the cultural
GIRLS GR OWING differences begin to grate.
UP , COU PL ES
Il grande cocomero (Francesca Archibugi 1992). Arturo, a psychiatrist, establishes
IN CRISIS AND
an intense and revealing relationship with a young female patient whose epilepsy
HOLIDAY S F OR
may be psychosomatic. Archibugi’s restraint sidesteps sentimentality.
T HE ME NTAL L Y
DISABLED.” La scorta (Riccardo Tognazzi 1993). A new judge in Sicily, filling a dead man’s
Quentin Tarantino shoes, tries taking on the local Mafia; a film very much of its time, coming in the era
of the mani pulite investigations (see section 1.2.3)
La vita è bella (Roberto Benigni 1999). Shot, admittedly, after New Italian Cinema’s
prime-time, but essential viewing nevertheless. Benigni won a best actor Oscar,
rising above critics who questioned using humour in a story set in the Holocaust.
The modern movie scene

The promise of New Italian Cinema, such as it was,
receded in the later 1990s. Today, Italian film is in
reasonable health, helped by moderate public funding
(although 2009 cuts have hit hard). Good movies are
released every year, even if the rest of the world rarely
sees them. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to success is
that not enough Italians see them either; the top-selling
films in Italy are nearly always American productions, a
fact not helped by cinemas’ reluctance to show home-
grown work. Directors like Moretti, Amelio and Olmi
continue to make good personal films, and Benigni had a
crack at an Italian blockbuster in the shape of Pinocchio
in 2002. Other directors make films about politics (the
political biopic in particular), or tackle Italy’s ongoing
relationship with organised crime. Some, like Vincenzo
Marra with his story of Neapolitan fishermen, Tornando a
casa (2001), attempt a return to the tenets of Neorealism,
shooting in regional dialect.
198
The ten 21st century films to watch first
La stanza del figlio (Nanni Moretti 2001). Moretti’s Baaria (Guiseppe Tornatore 2009) A lush epic
film (in which he stars) about a family coping with the following the 20th century life of a Sicilian village.
death of their son won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Communists, Fascists, Mafioso, priests – they’re all
in there.
L’ultimo bacio (Gabriele Muccino 2001). Superior
rom-com in which the prospect of being a first-time Vincere (Marco Bellocchio 2009). Tells the little-
father brings the lead man out in a cold sweat. heard story of Mussolini’s first wife, and the child that
he refused to acknowledge.
La finestra di fronte(Fezan Özpetek 2003). A married
woman falls in love with a stranger in a nearby
apartment; delicate film from an acclaimed Turkish-
Italian director.
Io non ho paura (Gabriele Salvatores 2003). A boy’s
disappearance in the anno di piombo (see section
1.2.3), takes a sinister turn; but who exactly wants
him dead?
La bestia nel cuore (Cristina Comencini 2005). A
disturbing nightmare awakens memories of sexual
abuse for a young woman, who goes in search of
answers.
Il caimano (Nanni Moretti 2006). The left-wing
director launches his assault on Silvio Berlusconi,
albeit with a light, witty touch.
Il divo(Paolo Sorrentino 2008). A dark, intricate look
at the career of former prime minister Giulio Andreotti
(see section 8.3 for more on Andreotti).
Gomorra (Matteo Garrone 2008). Naples’ Mafia 21st
century style, stripped of any possible glamour, as
adapted from Roberto Saviano’s book.
199
200
1. Identity: the 2. Literature 3. Art, architecture 4.4.Performing

Music, theatre, Cinema
5. Cinema, 6.6.Media
Mediaand
foundations and philosophy and design arts
dance and comedy and fashion
of British
Italy
5.2 Fashion
Fashion has become ingrained
in modern Italian life – few nations
are as committed to looking good.
However, fashion here is more about
style than invention. It’s rarely
ephemeral – they don’t throw
perfection out on a whim, scrabbling
for the next big thing.
201
5.2.1 Made in Italy
“T HE DIF F ERENCE For goodness sake, don’t go to the shops in your

BET WE E N STYL E tracksuit…
AN D FASHIO N IS The Italian sense of style is well documented; to fare
QU ALIT Y.”
bella figura (make a beautiful figure) is important to the
Giorgio Armani
daily ritual for most. The volume of Italian names in the
fashion industry and the enduring quality of Italian clothes
Getting high on shoes and accessories speak of this omnipresent concern for
Practicality rarely directs appearance. But there’s more at work here than simple
an Italian woman’s shoe aesthetics. The understated elegance that has defined
collection. However Italian fashion since the economic boom of the 1960s
cobbled the street,
is as much about exuding prosperity, confidence and
however big the puddles,
a stiletto will be worn control (all of which may be only cloth deep) as slavishly
(in Italian the word following the latest trends. The label is often as important
means ‘little dagger’) as the garment, which is why so many Italians are happy
and tottering or wincing to buy counterfeit clothes – making the right impression
will not be allowed.
is more important than authenticity.
The high heel was
apparently popularised There is, of course, the simple pleasure of looking good
by the diminutive Italian
too, and the Italians have indeed mastered sleek, timeless
Catherine de Medici
who, aged 14, wore fashion, aware that trends come and go but that style,
two-inch heels on the born of good tailoring and wearing the right clothes for
occasion of her marriage your frame and age (the Italians have a ‘uniform’ for each
to the future King Henry age bracket), will never fade. New Italian trends tend to
II of France in 1533.
maintain this reserved, industry-led approach; fashion
doesn’t come up from the streets, or if it does, it comes
from an American or British street and appears in Italy
with a designer label attached.
How Italy became a world leader in fashion

Milan’s function as a hub of not only Italian but also
international fashion is a relatively recent phenomenon.
The city has long been renowned for its textiles industry
and luxury accessories, and its inhabitants for cutting
a certain, jaunty figure (the term ‘milliner’ derives from
Milan’s talent with hats), but the fashion industry as
we know it, with its mass market and ready-to-wear
collections, only set up shop in Milan in the 1970s.
Before, the industry, such as it was, centred on Florence,
and had done since the 12th century when the city grew
wealthy on its fine textiles. There, in 1951, Giovan
202
Battista Giorgini, an entrepreneur, gathered Italy’s
disparate designers together to show Italian haute
couture to foreign buyers and journalists, recalling the
sartorial opulence of the city’s Renaissance heyday and,
hindsight now suggests, launching Italian fashion on the
international stage. A second event, held by Giorgini the
following year, was equally revolutionary in introducing
separate shows for ‘boutique’ (ready-to-wear) and ‘haute
couture’ clothing.
The Roman bikini
In the 1960s and 70s the focus of Italian fashion moved Whilst Frenchmen
to Milan, nudged by various factors: the country’s new- Jacques Heim and Louis
found love of consumerism, the economic boom of the Reard introduced modern
culture to the bikini,
northern cities (where the textile mills grew in size) and
named in 1946 after
the emergence of designers willing to lower themselves the nuclear weapon
to prêt-à-porter clothing, Armani, Versace and Prada test site in the South
amongst them. And there it remains, with the biannual Pacific (Jacques and
Milan Fashion Show (held in spring and autumn) helping Louis claimed similar
explosive properties for
to maintain the city’s primacy. Italy has become globally
their new outfit), the
renowned for the elegance of its ready-to-wear fashion, frescos of gymnasts in
while the flamboyance of haute couture has dwindled, bandeau tops and bikini-
reduced to a handful of exclusive designers producing like bottoms unearthed
more accessories than clothes. Various levels exist within in the Villa Romana del
Casale, Sicily, would
the Italian ready-to-wear market, from Benetton, Miss
suggest the two-piece
Sixty and Max Mara, accessible to most, up to Missoni has its origins in the
and co, producing small lines for big budgets. Ancient Roman world.
203
Knock-off Gucci Label conscious: ten mighty
By the time Maurizio Italian fashion houses
Gucci got his hands on
his grandfather’s famous
Gucci. Former dishwasher
fashion house it was a Guccio Gucci started selling
bloated empire made luxury distressed leather bags
weak by family feuds stamped with a double G logo
and greed. He reined in Florence in 1906. From the
the business in, closing
shops and re-orientating
1930s, his son, Aldo, made
Gucci back to its Gucci a global brand, defrauding
accessory-led roots, the US tax office of $7 million
but profits suffered and along the way; one of various
he ended up selling family scandals that plagued the
the family stake in the
firm in 1993. Two years
Gucci brand. Creative director
later he was shot dead. Tom Ford saved Gucci from the abyss in the 1990s.
Various suspects were
rounded up but no one
Prada. Founded to sell leather goods in 1913 in Milan by
was charged until 1997, Mario Prada and revitalised in 1978 by his granddaughter
when the investigation Miuccia. Miu Miu, a lower-priced Prada line, launched
turned its sights on with garish colours in 1992 earning the nickname Prada
Maurizio’s ex-wife, the Ugly.
notoriously grasping
Patrizia Reggiani. When Max Mara. The first Italian company to design good but
her former husband affordable ready-to-wear women’s clothes, founded in
stopped making a profit
from Gucci so did she,
Reggio Emilia by Achille Maramotti in 1951. The business
and so she decided remains in family hands, although none design for the
to have him killed. brand. Instead, they get well-known designers like Karl
Convicted of Maurizio’s Lagerfeld and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac to moonlight
murder, Patrizia received for them, only revealing their identity after they’ve left the
a 26-year prison
sentence.
company.
Valentino. After learning the tricks of the trade at
Guy Laroche in Paris, Valentino Garavani dressed the
Hollywood greats of the 1960s from his shop in Rome.
Jackie K became Jackie O in a Valentino gown in 1968.
Like his designs, Valentino’s life has been grand, colourful
and luxurious. The perma-tanned designer (he spends
a lot of time in St Tropez) staged his last show before
retirement in 2007.
204
Giorgio Armani. Giorgio began his
career dressing windows in Milan’s La
Rinascente department store before
founding the Armani Company in
1975. He gave men’s jackets narrow
lapels and large pockets while the
traditional padding and stiffness of
suit tailoring was ripped out. Today
you can dress in Armani, smell of
Armani, sleep in Armani sheets, carry
an Armani bag, kick back in Armani
sunglasses and stay in an Armani
hotel.
Bottega Veneta. The purveyors
of hand-woven leather accessories
coveted throughout the world. British
designer Giles Deacon initiated
something of a renaissance for the
brand in recent years. Not one for splashing the logo,
Bottega Veneta usually only labels its bags on the inside.
These days the company is owned by Gucci.
Roberto Cavalli. On the wilder side of Italian fashion,
Cavalli began designing one-off pieces in the 1970s,
claiming a love of “dangerous dressing”. His collections
have always been heavily influenced by animal prints and
exotic fabrics.
Dolce & Gabbana. Partners in business (and love until a
recent break-up), Domenico Dolce (Sicilian) and Stefano
Gabbana (Milanese) met working as assistants in a Milan
tailor’s shop in the early 1980s. Their primary aim has
always been to design flattering clothes, closely followed
by the desire to shake up fashion trends. D&G trademarks
have included underwear as outerwear, pinstripe gangster
suits and fending off frequent accusations of tax evasion.
205
“DON ’T BE INTO Versace. Tailor’s son Gianni Versace sold his own
T RE N DS. D ON’T designs in the family store in Reggio di Calabria before
MAKE FASHIO N
setting up on his own in Milan in the 1970s. His sexy,
OWN YOU , BUT YOU
DECIDE WH AT YO U colourful style contrasted with the androgyny of Armani
ARE , WHA T YOU in the 1980s. Gianni was gunned down outside his Miami
WAN T TO EXPRESS home in 1997, after which his sister, Donatella, upheld
BY T HE WAY YOU the firm’s reputation for bright colours and feminine
DRESS AND THE
dresses.
WAY TO L IVE.”
Gianni Versace Diesel. A younger, moderately more affordable face of
Italian off-the-peg fashion, Diesel was founded 30 years
ago in Molvena, Veneto, by Renzo Rosso. The scruffy-
chic style is perhaps as close as Italy gets to original
‘street fashion’; the core business is based on jeans, but
has branched out to include apparel of all sorts and the
inevitable range of fragrances.
The naughty boy of fashion photography

Oliviero Toscani was the photographer behind the infamous United Colours of
Benetton marketing campaign of the 1990s. He began shooting for the likes of
Vogue and Elle in the 1960s and went on to work in Andy Warhol’s Factory in New
York. However, it was the Benetton campaign that won Toscani, son of a Corriere
della Sera photojournalist, his enfant terrible tag. Shots for the campaign included
a nun kissing a priest (eyes closed in rapture), a family sitting bedside with a dying
AIDS patient and a newborn baby with umbilical cord still attached. More recently
Toscani’s advert for Nolita clothes, featuring a naked anorexic model, was banned
by Italy’s advertising watchdog. Some say it’s social commentary, others that it’s a
cheap trick for selling clothes – “All I’ve done is put a news photo in the ad pages,”
says Toscani.
206
If you have to ask, you
Five Italian style icons can’t afford it
Sophia Loren. Elegant, glamorous and genuinely curved, actress Loren embodied Bulgari, a jewellery
Italian femininity in the 1960s. manufacturer, was
founded in Rome in 1884
Carla Bruni. Supermodel, singer and First Lady of France who keeps it simple with by Sotirios Voulgaris,
understated elegance, as per the Italian uniform. apparently descended
Marcello Mastroianni. The unfussy archetype of an Italian in a suit, Mastroianni, from a line of Greek
star of more than 170 films, helped shape the slim-cut Italian look. silversmiths. It took
nearly a century for
Anna Piaggi. The antithesis of cool Italian reserve, fond of outrageous colour, the first Bulgari shop
multiple layers and blue hair, and yet the fashion writer is an undoubted style icon. to open overseas, in
New York, by which
Monica Bellucci. The most guiding of Italian cinema’s contemporary lights when it
time the company’s
comes to fashion adheres to the shaped elegance of classic Italian style. A modern-
chunky jewellery had
day Loren.
become highly prized.
Today, the exclusive
brand also incorporates
perfumes, hotels and
accessories. Sotirios’
son, Constantino,
distinguished himself
by hiding Roman Jews
in his house during the
Second World War.
207
208
6 Media and communications
6.1 Media p211
6.1.1 Best of the
press: newspapers and
magazines p212
6.1.2 Thinking inside
the box: Italian television
p217
6.1.3 Radio: an Italian
passion p220
6.1.4 New media: Italy
online p222
6.2 Communications
p225
6.2.1 Staying in touch:
sending letters and
making calls p226
6.2.2 Italy on the move:
transport types and
habits p228
209
210
6.1 Media
The Italian media isn’t renowned
for balance: it has an eminent
press that few people read and a
distinctly un-eminent TV diet that
almost everyone devours. Behind
it all, as in other countries,
powerful moguls, rich and
politicised, add to the sense that
things aren’t as even-handed as
they might be.
211
6.1.1 Best of the press: newspapers and magazines
Lines of enquiry The bad news

The tradition of It seems strange that a people as politically savvy,
investigative in-depth passionate and opinionated as the Italians can be so
reporting in Italy is
blasé about their national press. Only ten per cent read
commonly referred
to as the inchiesta a national daily paper; compare that to almost 40 per
giornalistica. cent of UK residents and 50 per cent of Scandinavians.
Instead, four out of five Italians get their news from
television and the Internet. Some see the low readership
as a blow for democracy. Perhaps the problems lie
with content: while some applaud the Italian taste for
broadsheets (they don’t really have sensationalising
tabloids), the rather dry intellectual tone of Italy’s
main papers excludes many. A tradition of intricate
commentary, of long and complex analysis by big
name journalists, means that comment and opinion can
obscure (or become confused with) the actual ‘news’.
Increasingly, anyone in search of a ‘straight’ story goes
to the burgeoning number of free dailies, such as Leggo,
Metro or City, handed out in the major cities.
…and the good news

The country’s regional press, especially newspapers in
the major cities, does better, no doubt thanks in part
to the Italians’ staunch regional pride. Most regional
papers carry the major national and international news
stories alongside the important local stuff. Papers such
as Il Mattino in Naples and Bologna’s Il Resto del Carlino
outsell many national titles. Milan in particular is home
to a large number of dailies, including Italia Oggi and La
Padania. Southern Italy is covered by various editions of
the historic La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. In common
with the regional press, the big sports papers in Italy
remain enduringly popular, particularly on a Monday when
the nation catches up with its football reports.
212
The best of the national press Hack attack: the
journalists who wound
On the left up the Mafia
Corriere della Sera. First published in 1876, the Mauro de Mauro. A
celebrated investigative
venerable ‘Evening Courier’ is the most widely read
journalist (so good they
broadsheet in Italy. Over the years, the intelligent content named him twice) who
has drawn some of Italy’s greatest intellectuals and disappeared suddenly in
novelists to its reporting ranks. Publishing one national Palermo in 1970 whilst
and four regional editions, Corriere della Sera currently investigating the Mafia.
He was never found.
sells about 600,000 a day.
In 2007 a supergrass
La Repubblica. A relative newcomer which first hit news- claimed de Mauro had
been dissolved in acid.
stands in 1976, the Rome-based paper blends general
interest content with centre-left politics, and battles it out Roberto Saviano.
with Corriere for the highest sales. Like Corriere it prints L’Espresso reporter
who developed his
regional editions. Total sales amount to around 580,000 a
undercover horror stories
day. about Naples’ Mafia
into a best-selling book,
La Stampa. A centrist, mildly left-leaning daily first
Gomorra. These days
published in Turin in 1867 (and originally titled Gazzetta he lives under 24-hour
Piemontese). Circulation hovers around 330,000. guard in a secret
location.
On the right
Lirio Abbate. News
Il Giornale. Launched in 1974 in reaction to the left-wing editor for the ANSA
press agency in Sicily
parties of the era, the Milan-based paper (with regional
who’s published books
editions) sells around 200,000 copies a day. on the Mafia. He
Il Messaggero. Essentially a Roman newspaper but with steadfastly remains in
Palermo, protected by
sister publications in other regions, Il Messaggero sells a the police, who found an
conservative line to more than 200,000 readers daily. undetonated bomb under
his car not so long ago.
Il Foglio. The low-circulation ‘Sheet’ is best described as
a neo-conservative, pro-Vatican newspaper.
213
Who controls the press?
Many Italian
newspapers trace their
origins back to the 19th
century when political
parties and businessmen
used print to extend
their influence across
the nascent state. Not
much has changed since: Sports bulletins
negotiate your way into The Italian passion for sport, football in particular, is fed
the boardroom of a large
by various well-thumbed sports dailies. Two stand out:
Italian newspaper today
and you’ll invariably La Gazzetta dello Sport. It’s big, pink, sensationalist and
end up at the desk of
ingrained in Italian culture. With a circulation that dwarfs
a wealthy industrialist.
The Fiat group has a many regular dailies (sometimes three million a day read
controlling interest it), the Milan-based Gazzetta was launched in 1896 to
in the biggest daily, cover the first modern Olympics but devotes the majority
Corriere della Sera, of its pages today to football. The paper did much to
and owns the third
expose the corruption scandal that shook Italian football
biggest, La Stampa.
Sandwiched between in 2006 (see section 8.8 for more). A limited English-
the two, La Repubblica language edition of the newspaper is available online.
is controlled by Carlo de
Benedetti, founder of the
Il Corriere dello Sport. The second biggest selling sports
CIR Group (Compagnie daily does something similar for Rome and the south to
Industriali Riunite). As what the Gazzetta does for the north.
for Silvio Berlusconi,
his interference is more The other papers
vocal than financial,
although his brother, Financial
Paolo, does own Il
Giornale, the largest
Il Sole 24 Ore. Italy’s biggest selling daily business
centre-right daily. paper with a circulation of just under 400,000. First
published in 1965, the liberally minded Milan-based paper
focuses on all matters financial, but also carries weekend
supplements.
Milano Finanza. Provides a similar daily business digest.
214
Rabble-rousing No, no… I think you’ll
find it happened like this
Il Manifesto. Thoroughly left-wing but still independent Historians have
Roman daily that has outlived communism’s role in described fascist Italy
modern Italian life. Scathing headlines and wicked as “the reign of the
cartoons are the norm, as is the paper’s proximity to journalists”, and it’s
true that Mussolini did
financial collapse.
everything he could to
Umanità Nova. An anarchist newspaper that traces it control the press. His
roots back to the early 20th century. Closed down by sizeable press office
sent out the “correct”
Mussolini in 1922, it regrouped after the Second World version of daily events.
War and still continues its weekly assault on capitalism, Any mention of the
the state and much more. dictator had to reference
his masculine presence
Godly or his ability to work
through the night. By the
L’Osservatore Romano. The semi-official Vatican late 1920s, newspapers
mouthpiece, first sold daily in 1861, is widely read across were forbidden to report
Italy and is published in nine different languages, including crime and disorder to the
extent that many Italians
an English edition distributed to 129 countries. Today, it believed Mussolini really
claims more objectivity than of old in its role of reporting had brought order to
on the pontiff’s daily comings and goings. the nation. Newspapers
that opposed the
Avvenire. Another daily Catholic affair, one of the few regime were forced
newspapers in Italy with a growing circulation – it recently underground.
topped 100,000.
Backward steps on freedom

In a recent study on the freedom of the press around the world, the Freedom
House organisation downgraded Italy’s media from “free” to “partly free” (on a
par with Albania and Mongolia), blaming the courts’ restriction on free speech, the
intimidation of journalists by criminals and the constraints on pluralism brought by
the dominance of certain media moguls.
215
Film script Sex, religion and politics: Italian magazines
The term ‘paparazzi’ Italian magazines more than compensate for the
derives from the newspapers’ reluctance to print celebrity gossip. Many
name of a character,
of the best-selling titles – Oggi, Novella 2000 and Chi
a photographer, in
Federico Fellini’s La (which famously printed photographs of Princess Diana
dolce vita. in her final moments) – build their copy around paparazzi
photographs. And yet, Italy also has some of the best
current affairs magazines in the world. Two are legendary:
Panorama, a right-of-centre mix of thorough journalism
and scantily clad women, which has the highest
circulation at 300,000 copies a week; and L’Espresso,
which has similar content but takes its stance on the left,
and numbers Umberto Eco (see section 2.1.5) among its
former contributors.
A raft of women’s titles (from native efforts like Grazia to
international giants Vogue) are also on sale, but none sell
more than Famiglia Cristiana, the Catholic mag founded
in 1931 and owned by the Paulist Fathers, which still
circulates around a million copies a week (and regularly
falls out with Silvio Berlusconi). Only television listings
magazines generate similarly massive sales, most of
them for the weekly TV Sorrisi e Canzoni.
216
6.1.2 Thinking inside the box: Italian television
The drug of the nation “I N TH E B U I LD I N G

The Italians are gripped by television. On average they TR A D E Y O U PLA N
S O M E TH I N G
watch four hours a day (only the Americans turn on the
T O D A Y A N D S EE I T
tube more). You could argue that it’s the prime cultural R EA LI S ED I N T E N
force in many Italian lives. But that raises a troubling Y EA R S . I N T V Y O U
question: how can Italian culture be led by something TH I N K O F I T I N TH E
so consistently banal? Game shows, dubbed American MORNING AND IN
TH E EV E N I N G I T’ S
soaps, chat shows with male compères fringed by semi-
A LR E A D Y O N TH E
dressed dancing girls – these are the tried and tested S C R EEN . ”
constants of Italian TV. In fairness, the news coverage Silvio Berlusconi
can be OK, even whilst subject to accusations of bias. Paying for Rai
Italian television has been like this since the 1970s, Each Italian household
when the system was deregulated. Before 1976 the pays a licence fee to the
state broadcaster, which
nation had one state-owned black and white channel,
still shows adverts to
its content heavily influenced by Catholic mores. The make up its funding. The
free-for-all that followed deregulation created a thousand current licence fee is
(largely unwatched) regional channels virtually overnight. slightly over 100 euros.
At a national level, Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai), the
state broadcaster (it isn’t an independent trust like,
for example, the UK’s BBC), found itself up against an
emergent mogul, Silvio Berlusconi, and his company,
Mediaset. Today, the Rai/Mediaset duopoly, with its
audience share of 85 per cent, remains in place. Rai
(public) and Mediaset (commercial) control three channels
each. Another channel, La7, a relatively recent creation, is
independent. Italians can also buy into satellite TV, with
Rupert Murdoch’s Sky the only large scale provider.
217
Terrestrial TV: the main stations
Public stations
Rai Uno. The most popular channel in Italy provides
general programming, with news, films, football, soaps,
game shows, dubbed American drama and the occasional
lightweight documentary.
Rai Due. Predominantly broadcasts dubbed American
shows.
Rai Tre. The most highbrow channel on Italian TV
(although the competition isn’t fierce) broadcasts news,
current affairs and history programmes, alongside films
and children’s TV.
Commercial stations
Canale 5. The Mediaset channel that brought Grande
Fratello (Big Brother) to the land of Botticelli sets its sight
on family audiences with a mix of entertainment and
news.
Italia 1. Mediaset’s second offering captures a younger
audience with a somewhat chaotic mix of dubbed
American drama, cartoons, reality shows, music and
sport.
Rete 4. A bit of everything from Mediaset’s third
significant channel – North American imports, news and
soaps.
La7. The lone terrestrial channel free of state or Mediaset
control, owned by Telecom Italia, dubs American comedy
and also carries news programmes, sport and bits of
MTV.
218
Crowd pleasers: five Italian TV shows The dubbed generation
Italian TV doesn’t do
Incantesimo (Rai Uno). A soap opera set in a Rome hospital that has been subtitles; the public
broadcasting since 1998 and currently airs five times a week. MPs on all sides of the don’t want to be busied
Italian parliament spoke up for the show when it faced the axe in 2007. with reading whilst
trying to watch foreign
Che tempo che fa(Rai Tre). From George Clooney to Carla Bruni, if a big star is
soap operas or films.
going to do an Italian talk show, it’s usually this one. Fabio Fazio asks the questions.
The daily diet of foreign
Ti lascio una canzone (Rai Uno). A variety show in which amateur contestants telly proceeds with
sing Italian classics aided by a special guest singer with a modicum of genuine what sounds like (but
talent. surely can’t be) the
same set of voices; men
Grande Fratello (Canale 5). The Italian version of Big Brother is the most popular are commanding and
version of the worldwide franchise. resonant, women are
Striscia la notizia (Canale 5). Perhaps the best indicator of recent Italian TV, fixed with a silky, sexy,
this satirical show ‘strips the news’, investigating corruption and playing amusing slightly vulnerable tone.
outtakes. Includes a couple of veline, attractive young women, in shot whenever Some commentators
possible. have suggested TV
dubbing is changing
the way Italians talk,
cultivating a hammy,
clipped speaking style.
219
6.1.3 Radio: an Italian passion
Nice invention, shame We’re all ears

about the black shirt Almost 40 million Italians tune in to the radio every day,
It was an Italian (born a higher proportion of the population than in virtually
in Bologna to an Irish
any other country. Many are there for the music, for the
mother), Guglielmo
Marconi, who sent background noise, but a significant proportion rely on the
and received the first news services regarded as more impartial than their TV
radio signal in 1895. equivalent.
He travelled to England
to secure backing for Radio was deregulated here in the same year as
further development, and television, 1976, and grew in an equally unrestrained,
the first transatlantic organic way. As a consequence, more than 2,500 stations
radio telegraph message now clutter the airwaves. The overwhelming majority are
was sent from Cornwall
to Newfoundland in
commercial, listened to by a handful of devoted followers
1901. Marconi was (most are specific to region; some are specific to just a
awarded the Nobel Prize street or two). Rai operates as the state broadcaster on
for Physics in 1909, radio (as it does on TV), and its three prime stations still
sharing it with fellow regularly clock up the highest listener figures. Indeed,
wireless boffin, Karl
Braun. He later joined
Rai captures more than 50 per cent of the total radio
the Fascist party and audience. A dozen or so additional stations – some of
was made president of them public, like Rai GR Parlamento (a live feed from
Mussolini’s Accademia Parliament); others commercial – have a national reach.
d’Italia in 1930,
receiving membership
of the Fascist Grand
Council as a fringe
benefit. Mussolini even
performed best man
duties at Marconi’s
wedding to Maria
Cristina Bezzi-Scali in
1927.
220
Six national radio BBC’s Bari story
stations The BBC in the UK
launched its first foreign
Rai Uno. Italy’s language radio service,
first radio station, broadcast in Arabic, in
launched in 1924, 1938, in a bid to counter
mixes pop with chat, Italy’s Radio Bari, which
news and a regular was broadcasting anti-
British propaganda to the
dose of football Middle East.
commentary.
Rai Due. The second state station has a light Frequency jungle
entertainment base with music, news, talk and comedy A standard receiver in
shows. a major city like Milan
can pick up more than a
Rai Tre. Italy’s most ‘cultural’ station, with classical hundred radio stations.
music, plays and weighty discussion. The glut is such that
stations will operate on
Radio Deejay. The nation’s most listened-to station plays the same channel from
pop to more than five million people a day. It’s owned by locations just a few
the same group controlling L’Espresso magazine and La miles apart.
Repubblica newspaper.
Radio 24. A radio station linked to the financial
newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore (see section 6.1.1), focussing
solely on news and discussion.
Radio Vaticana. DJ Pope in da house. It’s news, music
and reportage from the Holy See. Correspondents are
located the world over and broadcasts can be heard in 40
different languages.
Three popular radio shows
Lo zoo di 105 (Radio 105 Network). A comedy show with impersonations and prank
phone calls, led by Marco Mazzoli. Subtlety isn’t a strong point, but the show is
wildly popular with younger audiences.
Tutto il calcio minuto per minuto (Rai Uno). A venerable football show (on air
since 1959) with commentary, analysis and opinions from pundits, players and fans.
Viva Radio 2 (Rai Due). Light-hearted programme hosted by Rosario Fiorello and
Marco Baldini. Amusing chat, satire and impersonations fill most of the airtime.
221
6.1.4 New media: Italy online
Slow starters
Italians took their time going online. The factors that got
most of us on the Net early in the 21st century, most
significantly ‘buying stuff’, didn’t control behaviour here
in quite the same way. Italians are less inclined to buy
on credit cards and still prefer the old face-to-face mode
of shopping; factors that both hindered the growth of
e-commerce. However, ten years on, they’re catching
up; almost half of all Italians are now regularly online,
broadband usage is spreading and Internet cafes are
dotted throughout towns and cities.
Recent polls suggest that Italians now spend more of
their leisure time (around a third) surfing the Internet
than other Europeans. A high number use it for reading
the news: some hundred newspapers and countless
magazines have full or partial online versions. Surprisingly,
the enthusiasm for social networking isn’t that strong,
and a wariness about online shopping still remains.
Italians are more inclined to use the Internet for blogging
or chatting in a forum. Downloading TV programmes
is also popular. In line with modern Italy’s wider
development, Internet usage is significantly higher in the
north of the country than in the south.
222
Three popular Italian websites
Beppe Grillo (beppegrillo.it). One of the world’s most visited blogs no less, from
crusading comedian Beppe Grillo, the man who calls Silvio Berlusconi ‘Psychodwarf’
(see section 4.2.3 for more on Grillo).
Panorama (panorama.it). Italians can now go online for all the gossip (and a fair
stab at the news) from the leading magazine.
Corriere della Sera (corriere.it). Italy’s biggest newspaper has made the online
transition successfully. An English version is also available.
223
224
6.2 Communications
Whenthe Italians connect with each
other on the roads or the rails,
through the post or down the
telephone line, they don’t stray far
from the old stereotypes. At times it’s
all very slick, elegant and precise;
but more often than not it’s slow,
chaotic and emotional.
225
6.2.1 Staying in touch: sending letters
and making calls
Heaven sent Waking the beast: the Italian postal service
Nothing draws attention In 1998 the Italian postal service, a giant slumbering beast
to the failings of the of inefficiency, was poked with the stick of liberalisation.
national postal service
More than a decade later it’s still waking up. Today, the
quite like the smooth
efficiency of the service, managed by Poste Italiane S.p.A (the government
Vatican’s (admittedly still owns the majority), remains amongst the slowest and
much smaller) operation. most expensive in Europe, although, remarkably, it has
The Holy See’s delivery already advanced significantly since partial privatisation
service is famously
occurred. Modernisation is underway: the service has
competent, and Romans
apparently go out of finally been computerised and the chances of spending
their way to use it. an entire morning queuing in the post office have been
Tourists are similarly reduced. Poste Italiane’s infamous torpor stems partly
keen to use the service, from the range of services it deals with; Italians can pay
hoping to impress the
utility bills, buy life insurance and do their banking at the
folks back home with
a postcard franked local post office. In its favour, the service appears eager
by the Vatican. As a to retain its vast network of branches, an important
result, proportionally feature of community life in small villages.
more mail is sent from
the Vatican’s 00120
Post stats
postcode than from
anywhere else in the Each Italian send 120 pieces of mail a
world. year (on average) (Americans send more
than 700).
It all started so well Poste Italiane employs 150,000 people in

14,000 offices.
The Romans had the
most developed postal The national postal service delivers
system of the Ancient around four billion items of mail a year.
world, the Cursus
Publicus, delivering
mail across the
Empire via relay. The
service continued for
a time after the fall
of Rome, adopted by
the Ostrogoths, before
slowly fizzling out. Italy
wouldn’t see its like
again for a thousand
years, when the national
postal system was
established in 1862.
226
Blah, blah, blah: Italians and their phones Addressing a letter
The age of the mobile phone indulges an Italian House numbers come
enthusiasm for both chat and performance. Cell phones after the street name;
postcodes are written
– they seem to prefer the flip variety – have become as
before the town name,
essential to the Italian look as sunglasses or the satchel and the double letter
(most children under the age of ten have a mobile, province code is placed
apparently in case mamma calls). There are more mobile at the end of the line in
phones in use in Italy than there are people; around 70 parentheses.
million at last count – more than anywhere else in Europe. Press one for
If they’re not talking on them they’re texting, revealing deliverance, two for
a love for the electronic written word that’s spilling over damnation…
into email – a 2009 survey by TNS Global suggested that In 2008 Father Paolo
Italians are as likely to converse with friends via email as Padrini launched the
Vatican-approved
they are face to face. Mobile phone network coverage, iBreviary, a free
dominated by Vodafone and Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) application for the Apple
but with other operators doing their best to muscle in, is iPhone that provides
extensive. By contrast, the old landline network is heavy daily prayer updates.
footed. It was The iRosary was
launched soon after.
privatised in
the late 1990s
but the old
state monolith,
Telecom Italia,
still owns most of
the infrastructure,
keeping costs
high and ensuring
the multitude
of new service
providers
struggle to get
a foothold in the
market.
227
6.2.2 Italy on the move: transport types and habits
Scooter culture He who hesitates is lost: life on the roads

Italy’s passion for the Few cultural experiences in Italy are as intense as driving.
scooter is undimmed, It’s a vibrant, nerve-jangling manifestation of the Italian
60 years after Enrico
approach to life. Timidity is punished and rules are
Piaggio designed the
Vespa. Anyone over flouted. Drivers pull out unexpectedly, push in, crowd
the age of 14 can ride the road around you (white lines are there to be ignored)
a 50cc scooter, and and regularly jump red lights. Because nearly everybody
usually does; no licence drives like this (dangerous as it might sound), the Italians
or test is required. They
are primed for trouble and duly have the reflexes to avoid
have their own speed
limit – 40km/h – and it (in town centres at least – the motorways are more
aren’t allowed on the prone to carnage). The battle scars on Italian cars are
autostrade. At 16, more often incurred in the scrimmage of urban parking;
Italians can move up to the reluctance of offenders to own up and the stress of
a 125cc engine, which
filing an insurance claim leave damage unrepaired. As
requires a licence. Unlike
other nationalities, the for road rage, it’s rare: hand gestures and shouting are
Italians don’t really buy common but rapidly forgotten – it’s all part of the show.
old scooters to restore, Pedestrians are expected to be as pushy as drivers: step
they don’t worship them firmly (although not suicidally) into the road if you want
as the motorised deities
to cross – waiting patiently at the crossing is a fruitless
of Mod culture; they do
what they’ve always experience.
done – they use them
for getting around town.
228
If you make it out of town alive, you’ll find Italy has a Road to redemption
good network of autostrade connecting the main cities. The death toll on Italy’s
Most have tolls (only Calabria and Sicily escape), and are open roads is high. In
Europe, only France
well maintained as a result, with good lighting and service
loses more people in
stations at regular intervals. Congestion is a regular, traffic accidents. An
accepted feature of life (car ownership here is amongst apparent indifference
the highest in the world) on motorways, strade statali to seatbelts doesn’t
(the toll-free A roads) and in and around towns and cities, help. In 2007 Pope
Benedict XVI issued ten
but on strade provinciali (B roads), although the tarmac
new commandments
deteriorates, there’s usually ample space to be had. to motorists in a bid to
change behaviour on the
Speed limits roads; rude gestures and
the use of cars for sinful
Motorway 130km/80mph purposes were both off
limits. The Vatican also
Dual carriageway 110km/68mph
suggested making the
Provincial roads 90km/55mph sign of the Cross before
setting off on a journey
Built-up areas 50km/31mph and having a passenger
recite the rosary to calm
On the rails everyone’s nerves.
Italy’s rail network is pleasingly comprehensive
(particularly in the north), punctual and cheap to use, even
while most Italians would sooner brave the congested
roads. The only grumbles involve overcrowding, which
may occur at peak times but can be avoided by reserving
a seat (mandatory on some services). As you might
expect, the further you get from urban areas, the older,
slower and emptier the trains become. The Ferrovie dello
Stato (FS), a state-owned body, run the railways. Within
FS, the main duties are split between Rete Ferroviaria
Italiana, which manages the track and infrastructure, and
Trenitalia, responsible for trains. A handful of other lines
are run by private operators.
229
Italian railways: an express history
1839. Italy’s first railway, from the royal palace in Naples to the sea at Portici,
ensured royalty could take to the waters without the riffraff getting in their way.
1871. After Unification began the laborious process of marrying the private regional
railway networks, with their varying track sizes and stock.
1905. The messy slew of rail companies were bought out by the state and the FS
took control of the nation’s 13,000km of track. (In the same year, railwaymen staged
Italy’s first national strike).
1920s and 30s. Mussolini invested heavily in the rail network. The disputed notion
that ‘Mussolini made the trains run on time’ may not actually be so far from the
truth – by 1939 the ETR 200 was travelling from Milan to Florence at over 200km/h.
However, much of the new infrastructure was destroyed in the Second World War.
1960s. The rebuilt Italian railways improved greatly; the network was reorientated
on a north to south axis, lines were electrified and trains got quicker.
1980s. Despite post-war mainline improvements, the neglect of regional and goods
services and an oversized, inefficient workforce dogged the Italian railways.
Modern era. Streamlining and partial privatisation helped the network into the 21st
century. Showpiece lines and trains, like the ETR 500 AV that reached 355 km/h on
the Milan to Bologna line in 2008, help distract from the archaic state of other bits
of the system.
Slow, medium and quick: train types
Regionale, Interregionale and Diretto. Essentially commuter trains. Slow and

local, they stop at every platform along the line but give some great views of scenic
Italy.
Intercity. A decent service running the length of Italy, stopping at all major towns
and cities.
Eurostar. The high-speed pride of the fleet, unconnected to the inter-Europe trains
of the same name (Italy’s came first), connect Italy’s main cities (Milan to Naples in
six and a half hours, for example).
230
Get it stamped
Going underground: three Italian subways
Tickets for travel on
Rome. The Metropolitana di Roma has just two lines, running, cruciform, over Italian public transport
38km of track. The city’s glut of archaeology has long proved an obstacle to further generally need stamping.
expansion, although a third line is in construction. The subway here has always You have to do it
been more about getting in from the suburbs than getting around the city. A vast bus yourself; on the platform
and tram network fills in the gaps. before you board a train,
or onboard if it’s a tram,
Milan. The three lines (red, green and yellow) of Milan’s slick metro cover 76km bus or subway car.
between 86 stations. The first two lines opened in the 1960s; the third began
operating in 1990. Further lines are in the offing.
Naples. One original (rather scruffy) line is about to be complemented by the
addition of another. Elsewhere in the city there are three funicular railway lines.
Italy in the sky

Italy’s length, its two large islands and the relative
cheapness of tickets have made internal flights a popular
means of travel. Two airports, Malpensa in Milan and
Fiumicino in Rome, are international hubs, but dozens
of smaller airports also take passengers abroad. Not
that Italians fly long haul very often, preferring to stay
on home soil or to travel overland in Europe. Italy’s
national carrier, Alitalia, established in 1946, finally applied
for bankruptcy protection in 2008 after years of poor
performance. The Alitalia brand was kept in the skies
after being bought from the state in the following year by
a consortium that includes Air France-KLM.
231
232
7 Food and drink
7.1. Food p235
7.1.1. Home
advantage: the culture
of Italian food p236
7.1.2 Regional tastes:

the flavours of Italy
p238
7.1.3. Food rituals:

eating and buying p246
7.2. Drink p253
7.2.1. The culture of

Italian wine p254
7.2.2. The Italian wine

regions p257
7.2.3. Thirst for

knowledge: beyond
wine p264
7.2.4. Drinking habits:

when and where to
indulge p268
233
234
7.1 Food
Italians don’t love food; they love
their food.And ‘their food’ doesn’t
mean the nationalcuisine; it’s the
food specific to their home region,
their home town even.
235
7.1.1 Home advantage: the culture of Italian food
“IT WILL BE Gradually, the uniformity of modern life is making Italian

M ACCHERONI, I regional foods more ‘national’, but the subtle, creeping
SWEAR TO YOU,
homogenisation defies the usual trend in Italian society
THAT WIL L UNITE
ITALY.” – the south is outstripping the north. Southern ‘peasant’
Giuseppe Garibaldi food, as easy on your wallet as it is on your health with its
multiple vegetables and cheap cuts of slowly cooked meat,
has become fashionable. Insalata caprese and Mozzarella
di bufala are, for example, both simple Campanian efforts
that can now be had anywhere, while the perfumes and
tastes of Sicilian food pervade Italy’s top restaurants.
Similarly, the regional notion of pasta shape (there are
dozens), and increasingly of pasta sauce, is less defined
than of old. Tagliatelle alla Bolognese isn’t eaten solely in
Bologna anymore and trenette pasta drenched in pesto alla
Genovese is found well beyond Genoa.
Ingredients and dishes vary with location, but Italians
share a common love of simple, nourishing and colourful
cuisine. While the food is sometimes deceptively simple
– dishes may require time and effort to prepare – it is
rarely, if ever, complex in the French sense. Anything
more radical – nouvelle cuisine or molecular cooking – has
made little impact in a nation content with its centuries-
old recipes. Indeed, over-elaboration is frowned upon.
Key moments in Italian food
Ninth century. Muslims introduce almonds, rice, spinach, ice cream (made with
snow from Mount Etna), aubergines, spaghetti, oranges, lemons, apricots, nutmeg,
cloves, cinnamon, rice, raisins, couscous and saffron to Sicily.
1492. Genoese merchant Christopher Columbus brings the tomato, potato, capsicum
and chilli pepper (peperoncino), cocoa, squash (whence zucchini), corn and maize
(whence durum wheat and polenta), vanilla (for ice cream) and turkey back from the
New World.
1570. Publication of Opera by Bartolomeo Scappi, chef to Pope Pius V, listing over a
thousand recipes.
1891. Pellegrino Artusi makes the first record of a recipe for pasta with tomato
sauce in La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene.
Late 19th century. Mass emigration, particularly from Campania and Sicily,
introduces pasta and pizza to the Americas.
1989. Slow Food movement launched in protest at the opening of a McDonald’s
burger restaurant in Rome.
236
Standard bearers: DOP, IGP and STG Worshipping the Red
DOP, the Denominazione di origine protetta, or Prawn
Designation of Protected Origin, is the EU-sponsored When reaching for a
restaurant bible, Italians
label assigned to protect the authenticity of Italian
are more likely to choose
foodstuffs. It’s the food equivalent of Italian wine’s the Gambero Rosso than
DOC mark (see section 7.2.1). Italy also has the similar, the Michelin.
slightly looser denomination called IGP, the Indicazione
geografica protetta, or Indication of Protected Origin. Italy
has 164 DOP/IGP food products, about 20 per cent of the The last supper
European total (France has 152 and Spain 105). A third Historian John Varriano
recently asserted that
denomination, the Specialità tradizionale garantita (STG),
the meal in Leonardo
or Guaranteed Traditional Speciality, has been introduced da Vinci’s epic, flaking
recently. At present, only Mozzarella cheese is covered by portrayal of the Last
the STG, although Naples’ pizza is up before the selection Supper is grilled eel
committee. garnished with slices
of orange, not, as
previously assumed,
Bringing it all back home
bread and lamb. Oranges
Whatever regionalism may be at work on home soil, and eel were eaten by
internationally ‘Italian’ food has become widely known the wealthy in da Vinci’s
and lauded. The global appreciation went unnoticed era.
in Italy itself for many years. A lot of exported ‘Italian’
food was made purely for overseas markets and wasn’t
available at home. An Italian would have given you a
blank stare if you asked for pesto rosso ten years ago
(‘there’s nothing red in pesto’), a foodstuff on sale
overseas. However, today the exports are coming home
to roost. Pesto is sold in Italy in all its forms: red, yellow,
with parsley, rocket or even coriander, with all forms of
nut and all forms of cheese. Similarly, ciabatta (meaning
slipper) bread was hardly known beyond
Naples 25 years ago, but it became popular
abroad and has returned to Italy, embraced
across the land as panciabatta.
237
7.1.2 Regional tastes: the flavours of Italy
Pig spittle: the elixir i. Northern Italy

of love
The smell of Piedmont’s Valle d’Aosta’s hearty meat broths fit its alpine setting,
Alba truffle – a musky, but the region is better known for fontina DOP, a
gamey fragrance characterful cheese akin to a rich, creamy Gruyère.
reminiscent of the great Ripened in the local caves, the cheese is used in
local red wine Barolo –
fonduta, similar to neighbouring Switzerland’s fondue but
attracts certain animals,
especially boars, which incorporating egg yolk (rather than wine) and mopped up
eat the tuber and then with crostini. A luxury, seasonal Piedmontese version of
spread its spores in their fonduta incorporates white truffles.
droppings. Sows are
often used to hunt out In Piedmont, the quest for gastronomic excellence, for
truffles, chosen because refinement and for the official categorisation and control
the fungus apparently of its finest products reflects a close affinity with French
emits a pheromone traditions. The greatest prize in the Piedmontese larder
similar to that found in
the saliva of a male pig.
is the tartufo bianco, the most expensive truffle in the
Human sweat contains world. Unlike black truffles (worth ten times less), the
the same pheromone, white Alba truffle (named for the Piedmontese town) is
lending credibility used raw; grated over fresh pasta, fried eggs or risotto.
to claims about the Piedmontese beef is also renowned, often served up in
aphrodisiac properties of
the truffle.
stews like bollito misto, a dish common to much of north-
eastern Italy and featuring multiple types of meat and
veg.
“T HE TRUF F L E IS
NOT EXACTLY AN The Ligurians’ preference for coastal living prioritises fish
AP HRODISIAC BUT over meat (when they’re not eating vegetarian). Pesto
IT TE N DS TO MAKE is the iconic dish, a crush of basil, olive oil, garlic, grated
WOMEN MORE pecorino or parmesan cheese and pinenuts, apparently
T E N DE R A ND MEN
invented to keep scurvy at bay on long sea voyages. It’s
MORE LI KEABL E.”
Jean Anthelme added to Liguria’s long flat pasta, trenette, stirred into
Brillat-Savarin, French vegetable soup, minestrone alla Genovese, and can also
gastronome appear on the local focaccia bread. Other staples
born of the region’s seafaring traditions are
baccalà (salted cod) and stoccafisso (dried cod),
still popular today but often imported due to over-
fishing locally.
238
Lombardy’s professional spirit often precludes the Bashing the basil
long leisurely lunches found elsewhere in Italy, and yet Pesto takes its name
from the action used in
Milan has many of the country’s most feted restaurants.
its preparation: pestare
The region’s famous dish is risotto alla Milanese (see means to pound or
overleaf). Mostarda di frutta from Cremona is similar crush.
to British piccalilli but uses fruit rather than vegetables;
it often accompanies bresaola, a thinly sliced air-dried
beef with Swiss origins. Lombardy is spoilt for cheese, Polenta, making stodge
interesting since Roman
producing Gorgonzola (blue-veined crumbler), Mascarpone
times
(soft, mild and creamy), Taleggio (semi-soft and stinky)
Polenta, an old peasant
and Grana Padano (hard, milder relative of parmesan). staple in the north,
Cross-border influences sway the diet in Trentino-Alto is corn or maize flour
boiled up into a kind of
Adige where many dishes have an Austro-Hungarian porridge. It can be as
flavour. Potatoes, dumplings (canderli) and pickled bad as it sounds, but
cabbage (crauti) are regular staples and even goulash if made with care and
makes it on to the menu on Sundays. The speck hams combined with other
work well with local beers (Italy’s brewing industry is ingredients (which it
usually is) polenta can
based here), while apfel strudel or sachertorte are popular be a great catalyst for
desserts. other flavours. Venetian
merchants brought the
Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s most famous foodstuff is dish home from Mexico
prosciutto di San Daniele, a ham to rival Parma’s. Matured in the 17th century,
in barns around the eponymous town, the ham’s notable although the Romans
sweetness benefits from a combination of cold Alpine air had an undoubtedly
and warm Adriatic sea breezes. Fresh figs often partner mouth-watering pearl
barley mush that they
prosciutto di San Daniele when in season. Polenta here called polenta. A later
comes in three colours, white, yellow and black, the latter recipe made with
made from buckwheat and served with sardines. The chestnut flour also
sea and coastal lagoons provide ample varieties of fish to took the name, and on
accompany the region’s fresh and fruity dry white wines. Corsica (now French but
once Italian) they still
make their polenta, or
Love for the cold stuff
pulenda, with chestnut
The Italians are the doyens of ice cream. Gelato, as they call it, has origins in flour. A type of crostini
Antiquity, when northerners used snow from the Dolomites to produce a refreshing is made from cooled,
flavoured foodstuff. Emperor Nero apparently sent slaves to collect snow from the solidified polenta cut
Apennines so that he might dine on fruit flavoured ice, although it was the Arabs into wedges and fried.
who later brought something resembling sorbet to Italy. In the medieval period, with
the addition of cream or milk, gelato evolved. Some credit the Neapolitans with the
first true Italian ice cream, produced in the 18th century. Today you’ll find gelato all
over Italy, sold in small parlours (gelateria) in a range of fruit and sweet flavours.
239
Going against the grain Venice, star of the Veneto, consumes a tremendous
Southern Italians amount of fish, often in a risotto coloured black with
sometimes still squid ink. Inland the emphasis is on vegetables (again,
pejoratively label often eaten in a risotto); the region is famous for
northerners as polentoni,
polenta eaters.
asparagus from Bassano, radicchio salads from Treviso
and peas, eaten in risi e bisi (literally, rice and peas).
Beans are mixed with pasta for pasta e fagioli, a dish that
Love, you’re flaking into has its equivalent in most Italian regions. Most Veneto
my gruel households have a copper polenta pot and a long wooden
Polenta’s lack of spoon for stirring (in a clockwise direction only please);
nutrition used to the dish is a traditional accompaniment to small birds
contribute to pellagra
(from pelle agra, or
such as quail and to baccalà. Tiramisù, Veneto’s famous
chapped skin), a vitamin pudding (it translates as ‘pick me up’), may be a relatively
deficiency disease once recent invention, apparently first conceived in a Treviso
endemic among Italy’s restaurant in 1969. The region’s fine pastries have older
northern peasantry. roots.
Raw talent The four grades of Italian rice

Carpaccio, thinly sliced
Superfino. Includes arborio, carnaroli, baldo and roma; all used for risotto.
raw beef dressed
with a mustard and Fino. Also used for risotto.
Worcestershire sauce
flavoured mayonnaise, Semifino. For stuffing vegetables.
was named after Commune. For soups and puddings.
Vittore Carpaccio, a 15th
century Venetian painter
with a gift for using Cream of the crop: Italy’s favourite risottos
red pigment. Various
Risotto alla Milanese. Italy’s iconic risotto is bright yellow with saffron and
sources have claimed
flavoured with beef marrow. Often made to accompany osso bucco (veal shin stew).
the invention of the dish,
notably Harry’s Bar in Risotto al nero di seppia. A deep black dish from Veneto, coloured and flavoured
Venice. with cuttlefish ink.
Risotto al Barolo. A bright red risotto from the eponymous wine region in
“ RICE IS BO RN IN Piedmont.
WATE R B UT DIES IN
WINE.” Risotto al funghi Another Piedmont variety, this one made with wild mushrooms.
Italian proverb
240
Emilia- The northern debt to
Romagna China: Italian rice
and its cities, Before all Italy became
Bologna (or La smitten with pasta,
the northern regions,
Grassa, the fat particularly Lombardy,
one), Modena Veneto and Piedmont,
and Parma, were more likely to
comprise Italy’s eat rice. Brought back
gastronomic from China by Genoese
and Venetian traders
heartland. in the 15th century, the
Ingredients here grass flourished in the
resonate around fertile soils of the Po
the world: parmigiano reggiano, prosciutto di Parma, Valley. Even today, the
aceto balsamico di Modena and pasta fresca. Famous region produces and
consumes more rice
dishes include pasta with ragù, the superior parent of the than anywhere else
spaghetti bolognese that the rest of the world enjoys but in Europe. The short,
Bologna doesn’t recognise; zampone, a Modena sausage stubby, hard-centred
encased in a boned pig’s trotter; and various stuffed grain typical of the
pasta including tortellini filled with cheese or mortadella Po – absorbent of large
quantities of flavoured
sausage. broth yet still al dente
– lends itself to risotto,
Five certified foods from the north of Italy often served as a first
course in its northern
Basilico Genovese DOP. Ligurian basil used to make pesto sauce. homeland. Leftover
risotto is sometimes
Bresaola della Valtellina DOP. Seasoned and cured lean beef from Lombardy.
rolled into balls, dipped
Asparago bianco di Bassano DOP. White asparagus of Veneto. in breadcrumbs and fried
to produce arancini,
Mortadella di Bologna IGP. Pink, fatty Emilia-Romagnan sausage popular at
(meat, tomato and peas)
Christmas.
and suppli (tomato
Laghi Lombardi DOP. Extra virgin olive oil from the lakes in Lombardy. and mozzarella), both
delicious snacks.
Vinegar so good you can drink it

After 25 years of aging, aceto balsamico di Modena DOP, the finest vinegar in the
world, is actually sweet and smooth enough to drink or add to puddings. This DOP
version (extravecchio) is traditionally aged in the cellars and attics of Modena;
an industrial, un-aged version (graded as a condimento) of the sort used in salad
dressings, doesn’t have DOP status.
241
Epicurean delight ii. Central Italy
Food festivals are
an important part of The diet in Tuscany is simpler than elsewhere.
culinary life across Italy Vegetables, spelt and pulses are commonplace, often
but in Umbria they’re an turned into thick soups like ribollita or zuppa di farro.
obsession. Every village Bread features more than pasta; the stale leftovers made
in the region makes
into bruschetta, rubbed with garlic and drizzled with
some form of annual
paean to food, from ice Tuscany’s aromatic olive oil. Beef is simply grilled, as in
cream to gnocchi. bistecca alla Fiorentina. While Tuscany fights Sicily for
the provenance of ice cream, it claims sole ownership of
cantucci, the almond-flavoured biscuits taken with coffee
and a glass of vin santo after a meal.
Landlocked Umbria likes its meat, particularly game,
although the lakes and rivers teem with fish, including
the fattest carp south of the Alps. The pork butchers
of Norcia are famed throughout Italy for their hams and
salami; the same town is also Umbria’s black truffle
capital. Tighter budgets can feast on the lentils of
Castelluccio.
Like Umbria, Marche is big on sagre – the food festivals
that celebrate specialities like porchetta (whole, boned,
roast suckling pig), brodetto (fish broth), and campofilone
or vincisgrassi (both egg pasta). Meat, fish and vegetables
stuffed with various fillings are also popular in the region;
even the olives in Ascoli are painstakingly filled with
forcemeat before being breaded and fried.
Lazio has traditionally dined on frugal peasant food.
Little is wasted in the preparation, and offal is still widely
eaten in dishes like coda alla vaccinara (oxtail stew) and
trippa alla romana (tripe). Rome is enamoured with pasta,
variations of which include spaghetti alla carbonara (with
eggs and bacon) and penne all’ arrabbiata (with tomatoes
and chillies).
242
Dishes in Abruzzo and Molise are often spiced with the Little devils
locally grown chilli peppers, peperoncini. Crocuses are Peperoncini or hot chilli
cultivated around L’Aquila and the saffron produced finds peppers are called
its way into both savoury and sweet dishes. The diavoletti, little devils, in
Abruzzo.
iconic dish is maccheroni alla chitarra, in which
the pasta is made by being flattened and then rolled
against metal strings stretched over a wooden
board rather like the fingerboard of a guitar.
Five certified foods from central Italy
Lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia IGP. Italian equivalent to puy lentils, from

Umbria and Marche.
Marrone del Mugello IGP. Chestnuts grown to the north-east of Florence.
Chianti classico DOP. A single estate Tuscan olive oil (and also a wine), produced
between Siena and Florence.
Lardo di Colonnata IGP. Strips of cured pork fat aged in Carrara marble tubs,
Tuscany.
Vitellone bianco dell’Appennino Centrale IGP. Meat from young cows reared in
the central Apennines.
iii. Southern Italy

Campania, Naples in particular, cherishes its food like
nowhere else. The mantra of refined simplicity inhabits
dishes like spaghetti alle vongole (with clams), spaghetti
alla putanesca (with anchovies and capers – the name
means ‘whore’s pasta’) and pizza (native to Naples). The
marinara is the most authentic pizza; made with a slightly
puffed crust, baked in a very hot wood-fired oven and
simply topped with tomato, garlic and oregano – there’s
no cheese topping, even while the countryside around
Naples produces Italy’s finest mozzarella di bufala. Pizza,
often sold here as street food, also comes fried (pizette)
and folded (calzone). Campania also enjoys prodigious
seafood and its taralli, sweet or savoury bread snacks.
243
Gluttons for gluten: Puglia is Italy’s breadbasket, producing 80 per cent of
Italians and their pasta the durum wheat used in the nation’s bread and pasta. It
There are more than also makes more olive oil than all the other regions put
350 varieties of Italian together, and vegetables grow easily in the fertile, sun-
pasta and yet the basic
ingredients number
baked soils. Pasta combined with vegetables, drizzled
just two or three: flour with olive oil, is a mainstay of Puglian cooking. Fish,
and water plus the mussels and oysters (both farmed) from the long Adriatic
occasional egg. Eaten coastline bring variety to the diet.
as a first course, before
the meat or fish, pasta in Basilicata’s famous sausage, the lucanica (after the
Italy isn’t heavily sauced region’s ancient name, Lucania), is now produced
(the sauce should nationwide. It’s one of many products here and in
stick to the pasta, not
submerge it). By law,
neighbouring Calabria drawn from the pig, an animal
dried pasta can only well suited to the inventive local cooking that stems from
be made from durum generations of poverty – they’ve always extracted the
wheat, the hardest most from land and animal. Simple vegetable (typically
wheat containing the broccoli or aubergine) and pasta dishes, often spiced with
most gluten (durum
means ‘hard’ in Latin),
fresh peperoncino or dried black pepper, are the norm.
ideal for producing The seas surrounding Sicily dominate the island’s diet
firm, al dente (to the
tooth) pasta. Fresh
with abundant tuna, swordfish, anchovies, octopus and
pasta, made with eggs sardines (a quarter of Italy’s fish comes from Sicily), while
for extra richness, the long history of foreign rule can be seen in fennel and
is still considered orange salads, couscous and sticky sweets featuring
a luxury foodstuff. marzipan, pistachios, lemons and figs.
Emilia-Romagna claims
ownership of the original As in Sicily, fish looms large in Sardinia’s diet, here
(and best) version of adding rock lobster to the mix. They have their own
pasta all’uovo (pasta
version of bottarga, a pressed grey mullet roe with roots
made with egg).
in ancient Tunisia (Sicilians eat a tuna variety). However,
Sardinians have always been more at home shepherding
than fishing; a third of Italy’s sheep graze here. Lamb
is popular grilled over open fires, while the ewe’s milk
cheese, pecorino sardo DOP, is ubiquitous.
244
Calabrian cake
Five certified foods from southern Italy
The use of the word
Soppressata di Calabria DOP. A slightly flattened, seasoned Calabrian salami. gatò for cake, from the
French gateau, reflects
Pomodoro di San Marzano DOP. The finest sauce tomato in the world; produced the legacy of Napoleonic
near Naples. rule in Calabria.
Fagiolo di Sarconi IGP. Basilicata’s fine canellino-type bean; used fresh or dried.
Agnello di Sardegna IGP. Sardinian lamb grazed on wild mountain herbs.
Arancia rossa di Sicilia IGP. Seedless blood oranges at their best in the Sicilian
climate and soil.
The bloody business

of tuna
For generations, Sicily’s
tuna were caught using
the mattanza, a practice
with long-lived cultural
resonance. Huge nets
corralled the fish, which
were then dragged to
the surface and grappled
with spears. It was a
bloody business. The
word mattanza has
since found use as a
description for Mafia
kills. Today, as tuna
stocks dwindle, the
mattanza only occurs in
a few places off Sicily’s
western coast.
245
7.1.3 Food rituals: eating and buying
Slowing food down Italian food may be pleasingly bound to regional tradition,
The Slow Food but it’s not immune to the pressures of 21st century
movement launched in life. The lengthy evening meal isn’t quite the universal
Bra, Piedmont, in 1989, certainty it once was, a consequence of more women
reacting to a decreasing
awareness of food
working, greater constraints on time and, perhaps, the
provenance and the rising popularity of American-style fast food (no doubt
spread of burger bars connected to a growth in obesity). However, most
and supermarkets. It families still sit together to eat and talk. Any change in
promotes ‘good, clean eating habits is a predominantly urban phenomenon; rural
and fair’ food and has
spawned the world’s
diners take more time over their food. Most of the food
first University of consumed in Italy is still very Italian (they won’t attempt a
Gastronomic Sciences stir-fry or a curry) and still very seasonal. For example, an
(with campuses in Italian will only eat fresh tomatoes in the summer, turning
Piedmont and Emilia- instead to the tinned or bottled variety at other times.
Romagna) and the
biennial Terra Madre
Most meals at home are freshly prepared, although
gathering of food the absence of a nonna (grandma) in the kitchen might
experts in Turin. Slow mean some food will be bought ready prepared from a
Food also helps to set rosticceria or salumeria (again, this is more likely in the
up farmers’ markets and north than the south).
to educate children (and
teachers) on nutrition.
The Italian mealtimes
Prima colazione (taken between 7am and 10am)

Breakfast is a sweet affair, usually taken standing in a bar on the way to work.
Coffee, often cappuccino, might accompany a cornetto (croissant) or brioche filled
with jam (marmellata), confectioner’s custard (crema) or chocolate (cioccolato). The
old habit of taking a caffè corretto as a sharpener (‘corrected’ with a shot of liquor)
is on the wane.
Pranzo (taken anytime from 12.30pm to 2.30pm in urban areas; at midday
in the countryside)
In towns and cities, lunch, traditionally eaten at home, is increasingly taken in
the workplace, restaurant or snack bar, where a panino (sandwich) or tramezzino
(triangular, crustless sandwich) is common. Rural Italians still rush home for lunch.
When time allows, the typical Italian lunch has at least four instalments:
Antipasto – appetiser or hors d’oeuvre, typically of olives, cheese, veg or cold meat.
Primo piatto – minestra (soup), pasta asciutta (pasta, usually with a sauce)
or risotto.
Secondo piatto – meat and/or fish served with contorni (side dish) of vegetables.
Formaggio o dolce – cheese or pudding (often simply fruit).
Cena (taken between 8pm and 10pm)

Dinner, usually taken at home, follows a similar pattern of courses to lunch.
246
Give us this day…
Table manners: three tips on etiquette
Bread, the universal
It’s customary to take a gift – wine, a cake or flowers – when invited to dinner. staple, has always been
more than a simple
Using a hunk of bread to mop the juices on a plate is fine when dining with the foodstuff in Italy. The
family but frowned upon in front of strangers. significance of the
Don’t cut your spaghetti with a knife; instead roll it around the prongs of a fork (but daily pane to Catholic
not against a spoon). doctrine, with its starring
role in the Eucharist,
Feast foods has borne superstitions
that outlive Italy’s
Christmas. The main meal, taken on Christmas Eve, is peasanty past: bread
usually fish. Regional variations find the Romans favouring shouldn’t be placed
upside down nor thrown
spaghetti with clams or tuna and the Modenese eating away (breadcrumbs and
tortellini followed by bollito misto. Dessert is panettone or bruschetta are both
pandoro cake. culled from stale bread).
Bread is still taken
Carnevale (the week before Lent). Sweet food, much of (usually unbuttered) with
it deep-fried, is the norm. Sit down for fritters and cakes, virtually every Italian
including chiacchiere, sweetened pastry fried and then meal, breakfast included.
dusted with icing sugar. Each area of Italy has its
own shapes and tastes,
Easter. Tortellini in broth or lasagne are followed by lamb from Liguria’s oil-soaked
(often kid goat in the south) with artichokes or potatoes. focaccia to Piedmont’s
grissini bread sticks,
The traditional pudding is shaped like a dove; the colomba
some of which are now
cake symbolises peace and the Holy Spirit. eaten nationwide.
New Year. After an
evening of dancing
(and drinking), on
New Year’s Day
Italians eat zampone
sausage with lentils;
the more lentils you
eat the happier and
more successful you’ll
be in the coming
year (lentils being
representative of
money).
247
Five Italian breads
Pane carasau. Sardinia’s best-known bread (sometimes referred to as carta da

musica) looks more like a tortilla; it’s thin and crisp and lasts for weeks – ideal for
the itinerant shepherd.
Pane di Altamura. A large, heavy, brown-crusted, slow-cooked bread with straw-
coloured flesh and DOP status. Comes from the Puglian town of the same name.
Panettone. The rich, dome-shaped sweetbread (it’s actually more cake than bread)
native to Milan is prepared with eggs, fruit and butter, and traditionally given as a
gift to workers by employers at Christmas.
Pane Toscano. Tuscany’s flat, white loaf has been cooked without salt since the
13th century when local rulers imposed a salt tax.
Coppia Ferrarese. Made from soft wheat flour, pork lard, olive oil and sourdough,
rolled into two twisted lengths knotted together to form an X-shape, as per medieval
statute. Native to Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna.
Going out for an Italian

Restaurants in Italy are popular and affordable but rarely
prescribed the same reverence as in France, Spain or the
UK. There are Michelin-starred restaurants, especially in
Piedmont and Lombardy, but many of the patrons are
foreign tourists and the food they serve isn’t typically
Italian. Some chefs do buck the trend. Gualtiero Marchesi
imported nouvelle cuisine techniques from France to his
Lombardy restaurant in the 1980s and lightened some
of Italy’s heavier classics while also championing quality
ingredients and regional identity. Marchesi’s disciples,
Carlo Cracco in Milan, Enrico Crippa in Alba and Paolo
Lopriore in Siena, have introduced some elements of
‘fusion’ into their cooking. However, ‘fusion’ in the Italian
sense tends to mean marrying ingredients and cooking
styles from different Italian regions, say Lombardy and
Sicily, rather than mixing Italian and foreign cuisines.
Similarly, molecular cooking, eulogised in Spain and the
UK, hasn’t caught on in Italy.
248
As the number of migrants to Italy has grown, the Where to eat
quantity of ethnic food takeaways and restaurants has
multiplied. Most are kebab shops. However, the majority Ristorante.
of customers are immigrants themselves; the Italians Sophisticated eatery
likely to be serving
remain quite parochial about food. And while burger bars national or international
can be found easily in Italian towns and cities, they don’t cuisine.
enjoy the same patronage as in other European countries. Trattoria. Serving local
dishes for a full meal of
multiple courses.
Osteria. A simple,
informal restaurant
serving local dishes
that can be ordered
individually.
Enoteca. Wine shop or
bar serving snacks like
salumi (charcuterie) and
cheese.
Pizzeria. Pizza
restaurant that will often
serve pasta too.
Spaghetteria. Simple
bar-cum-restaurant
serving pasta.
Paninoteca. Sandwich
bar.
Rosticceria. Snack bar.
Pizzerie al Taglio. The
original fast food joint;
pizza is made by the
metre and cut to order.
Prison food Gelateria. Ice-cream
parlour.
Don’t be tempted to ask your waiter about ‘al fresco’ dining when in Italy. English-
speaking nations might have adopted the phrase to describe eating outside, but in Bar/caffè. For breakfast
Italy the term is slang for being in prison (the ‘cooler’). or to grab a sandwich
with a drink.
Tavola calda. Bar
serving ready-prepared
food often displayed in a
cabinet.
249
Small is beautiful: food-buying habits
Italians haven’t been seduced by hangar-sized
supermarkets in quite the same way as other Europeans.
They do have them, used predominantly for buying long-
life foodstuffs, quick meals like pre-cooked risotto or
prepared ingredients such as frozen grilled vegetables or
tinned roast peppers. For finer ingredients – fresh pasta,
cheese, charcuterie, fish or fresh meat – Italians still
prefer small, specialist shops or street markets. Growing-
your-own remains an important element of Italian culture,
so grocers’ shops, although still essential, aren’t as
prevalent as might be expected, particularly in the south.
250
251
252
1. Identity: the 2. Literature 3. Art, architecture 4.4.Performing

5. Cinema 6.6.Media
Mediaand
and Foodand
7. Food anddrink
drink 8. Living culture:
foundations and philosophy and design arts
dance and comedy photography
and fashion communications
of British
Italy
7.2 Drink
Italy is mature with its drinking.
Wine, produced in almost every
region, is appreciated with food,
and, like food, retains an umbilical
attachment to its home province.
Excess is reserved instead for
coffee (and the odd digestivo):
innumerable varieties and rituals
reflect its role in the daily routine.
253
7.2.1 The culture of Italian wine
Italy is the most complex, diverse and potentially

confusing wine-producing nation in the world. Almost
every region has its vines and has made wine since
Roman times (some since the Etruscan era) and in
most years Italy makes more wine than anywhere else,
only occasionally being outperformed by France. But
where the French, with their innate sense of order, have
imposed a classification system (Appellation d’origine
contrôlée, AOC) that makes sense of the myriad styles
and qualities of wine, controlling origin and production,
the Italian approach (Denominazione di origine controllata,
DOC) is intrinsically flawed. Many of Italy’s best wines
have fallen foul of a system routinely abused, ignored or
bypassed; labelled as table wine because they couldn’t
match strict DOC criteria.
Efforts have been made to refine the system, but
choosing an Italian wine, particularly outside Italy, can still
be a struggle. The Italians, of course, are less confused
than foreigners, not least because they’ve always taken
a regional approach to wine; local was (and often still is)
considered best, whatever its classification. Most Italians
will know something of the wines in their region but little
about those beyond. Similarly, whilst wine is ingrained in
the culture, taken as nourishment (rather than stimulant)
with almost every meal, there’s a gratifying absence of
wine snobbery in either home or restaurant (they’re as
likely to order a quarto or mezzo litre carafe as anything
from the wine list).
254
Understanding the wine classifications Words you might
Vino da tavola (VDT). Table wine, the humblest find on an Italian
wine bottle
classification, had a reputation for rule-flouting,
international-style wines made using forbidden, often Spumante. Sparkling.
French, grape varieties, but has now been largely
Frizzante. Semi-
superseded by IGT (see below). The label won’t mention sparkling.
geographic origin, vintage or grape variety. Many old
Classico. Wine from
VDTs have been reclassified as IGT or absorbed into the
a limited, historic core
DOC system. within a DOC zone.
Indicazione geografica tipica (IGT). Introduced in 1992 Riserva. Wine aged for
because so many good wines could only get VDT status, longer in the cask before
IGT wines, functioning rather like French vin de pays, bottling.
usually disclose geographic origin and grape variety. Superiore. Aged longer
Some IGT wines (there are about 120) can fetch a higher and/or with a higher
price than their DOCG cousins. alcohol content than the
DOC standard.
Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC).
Introduced nationally in 1963, the DOC standard controls
geographic origin, production methods, grape varieties
(not mentioned on the label), yields and maturation
techniques. A DOC wine should only come from the
region, town or vineyard on the label. Progressive
growers ignoring DOC rules in the 1970s and 80s created
the Super Tuscan VDT boom (see page 259).
Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita
(DOCG). DOC with bells on, DOCG
is subject to more stringent testing,
is usually produced from lower
yields and comes ‘sealed’ around
the neck with the government’s tag
of authenticity. The classification,
introduced in the 1980s, has
successfully improved the image
and quality of some old DOC wines,
notably Chianti.
255
PG tips The main grape varieties
Pinot Grigio has stepped Italy has more indigenous grape varieties than anywhere
into Chardonnay’s shoes else, most of them used in blends. Few are mentioned on
as the fashionable white
the labels of DOC and DOCG wines. Red varieties have
grape. The dry wine it
produces is often bland historically been more interesting, although the quality
and innocuous (partially and character of the whites has improved of late. The
explaining its popularity) late 20th century fashion for using international (mainly
but can, in the best French) varieties in Italian wine has waned. In spite of
hands, be full and
their rich diversity, few Italian varieties are exported, with
velvety. White wines
made from Vermentino the increasingly notable exception of Nebbiolo.
in Liguria (Riviera Ligure Red
di Ponente DOC), Arneis Grape Region Characteristics
(Roero Arneis or Langhe
DOC) and Cortese (Gavi Barbera Throughout Italy Almost black, berry fruit, acidic
DOCG) in Piedmont Dolcetto Piedmont Fruity and fresh, similar to Beaujolais
and Greco in Campania
(Greco di Tufo DOCG) Lambrusco Emilia-Romagna Fizzy red, at its best dry though much is sweet
may well have more
Montepulciano Abruzzo Dark, savoury, zesty, spicy
character.
Nebbiolo Piedmont Dry, tannic, perfumed, very long-lived
A grape by any other
name Primitivo The south Alcoholic, coarse, related to Zinfandel
An Italian grape Sangiovese Tuscany Pale, savoury, fresh, variable, can age
variety may have
multiple names.
White
Barolo’s Nebbiolo, for
Grape Region Characteristics
example, becomes
Spanna at Gattinara Arneis Piedmont Dry, grapefruit, fragrant
and Chiavennasca
Cortese Piedmont Dry, lemon, mineral
at Valtellina, and
Chianti’s Sangiovese Garganega Veneto Mineral, Chablis-like, but often bland
becomes Morellino at
Scansano and Brunello Greco Campania Dry, full-bodied
at Montalcino. Primitivo, Moscato Throughout Italy Always sweet and grapey, sometimes fizzy
from the south, is
thought to be Zinfandel Pinot Bianco North-east Dry, mineral
in disguise, a grape that
Pinot Grigio Throughout Italy Variable, usually dry, crowd-pleaser
thrives in hot and sunny
California, while Pinot Prosecco Veneto Usually dry, frizzante or spumante
Bianco, Pinot Grigio and
Trebbiano Throughout Italy Usually very bland
Trebbiano all have their
French equivalents (Pinot Verdicchio Marche Variable, can be lemony or almondy
Blanc, Pinot Gris and
Ugni Blanc). Vermentino Liguria, Sardinia Rich, full, but dry
256
7.2.2 The Italian wine regions
i. Northern Italy Butch Barolo

At 13 per cent, Barolo
Piedmont has the highest
Italy’s finest wines are produced in Piedmont. They’re stipulated minimum
alcohol level for an
big, ‘chewy’, black reds, aged for years in Slovenian oak
Italian wine. Its style is
casks and left on their skins for maximum extraction. sometimes described as
Piedmont’s best vineyards surround Alba, where Barolo majestic, or ‘masculine’,
and Barbaresco, both DOCG wines, face each other on and contrasted with
the Langhe hills. An autumn mist, the nebbia, gives its Barbaresco’s more
‘feminine’ charms.
name to the local grape, the Nebbiolo, which ripens late
for dark, tannic and acidic wines that demand 20 years in
the bottle. White, sparkling Asti Spumante DOCG, made
from Moscato grapes, is another Piedmontese legend.
Lombardy
Wealthy investment in Lombardy’s vineyards has bred
some fine wines inspired by leading French appellations,
not least Champagne. Franciacorta, one of the latest
Italian zones to win DOCG status, makes outstanding
Champagne-style wines (bottle-fermented using the
metodo classico) from Pinot Bianco, Pinot Nero and
Chardonnay grapes. Bellavista (Gran Cuvée Brut) and Ca’
del Bosco (Cuvée Annamaria Clementi) are the leading
firms.
Trentino-Alto Adige
Italy’s northernmost wine region grows grape varieties
by the dozen, many used in varietals (wines pressed
from a single grape type). The relatively cool climate is
apt for aromatic whites – Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and
Pinot Bianco are all ubiquitous – but the star here is
Teroldego Rotaliano DOC, an abundantly fruity, low tannin
red with a bitter edge. Alto Adige is the original home
of Gewürztraminer, while another indigenous grape, the
Nosiola, has been dried and pressed into strong sweet
Vino Santo for centuries.
257
Serve chilled Friuli-Venezia Giulia
So-called vino da Friuli has been making modern style whites for 40 years
meditazione, wine to (other regions are only just catching up). It’s a region
‘meditate’ over, is made
of varietals rather than blends, a place where modern
for sipping without
food. It’s a sweet affair, techniques like cold fermentation allow the grapes’
usually produced from ‘primary’ flavours to sing. The wines are fruity and
dried grapes; sweet aromatic, often made from the Friulano grape (aka Tocai),
white Picolit from Colli although a plethora of other French grapes, notably
Orientali del Friuli DOC
Pinot Grigio, are grown (if you’re looking for an Italian
in Italy’s north-eastern
corner is one of the best. Sauvignon this is where to find it). The best catch-all DOC
whites are Colli Orientali del Friuli and Collio.
Rush job Veneto

The Veneto has a talent Italy’s most prolific wine-producing region grows vast
for drying grapes on rush tracts of DOC vines. Soave, made principally from
mats to concentrate the Garganega grapes, is the big white name, but the
sugars, making intense,
permitted yields are very high. For quality you have to
alcoholic, dry and bitter
(amarone) or sweet head to the hills. The best Soave comes from Soave
(recioto) red and white Classico and Soave Superiore DOCG where the permitted
wines. yields are lower and the land less fertile: two producers
shine – Pieropan and Anselmi. Similarly, the best
Valpolicella DOC (not necessarily classico or superiore)
Ruminating with a
originates on pebbly slopes with low yields. Nearer
Ripasso
Venice the big wine is Prosecco DOC, the dry or off-dry
When red Amarone
della Valpolicella wine white with a tang, produced either frizzante or spumante.
is re-fermented on The best Prosecco has prolonged lees (sediment) contact
its skins it becomes (labelled charmat lungo) to add the kind of complexity
fuller (over 15 per cent found in Champagne. Masi and Dal Forno are notable
alcohol), more complex
among Veneto’s reds, producing cherryish, appetizing
and longer lived, gaining
the name Ripasso along wines.
the way. Perfect for
post-meal rumination,
Ripasso doesn’t have
spirit alcohol added and
is therefore less likely to
give you a hangover than
port. Top up?
258
ii. Central Italy “ LO A M O B R U S C O . ”
Or, ‘I like it sharp’,
Emilia-Romagna the possible origin of
Lambrusco’s name
The land here is too fertile for quality wine on any
grand scale: only 15 per cent of the region’s output has
DOC status. Lambrusco is the big name; traditionally a What are the Super
frothing zesty red, dry or off dry, but now also produced Tuscans?
in white, pink, sweet and low alcohol versions made on Super Tuscan wines
an industrial scale. The best dry Lambruscos (DOC di emerged in the 1970s,
marketed as such by
Sorbara, Grasparossa di Castelvetro or Salamino di Santa progressive growers
Croce) sometimes receive secondary bottle fermentation fed up with the
as per Champagne. The leading quality producer is credence given to poor
Cavicchioli, near Modena, whose best cuvée, Lambrusco Sangiovese clones and
di Sorbara, is modestly subtitled Vigna del Cristo. the use of inferior white
grapes in blends whilst
foreign ‘improving’
Tuscany grapes like Cabernet
The main vine is Sangiovese, a fickle character with Sauvignon were banned.
several clones producing numerous styles of red wine, A great wine like
not all of them terribly attractive. At their best, they’re Tignanello, selling for
strong, full-bodied (if pale) and expert at aging. Chianti ten times the price of a
Chianti, was classified
DOCG, clustered around Siena, is the most famous; as mere vino da tavola
others include Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, which because it contained
contends with Barolo as Italy’s best wine, and Vino Nobile too much Cabernet and
di Montepulciano DOCG. Sangiovese also contributes to not enough Sangiovese
several highly prized but unclassified Super Tuscan wines. (today it’s an IGT wine).
The rules have been
revised to officially
recognise some of the
Super Tuscans. For
example, Sassicaia,
perhaps the most super
of Super Tuscans, now
has a DOC all of its own.
Pass the passito
Passito is wine made
from dried grapes.
The most famous
is Tuscany’s honey
coloured Vinsanto, or
‘holy wine’.
259
Umbrian rotter Umbria
Orvieto in Umbria is White wine predominates in Umbria, where Tuscan
one of the few places makers like Antinori have moved in, invested, and begun
in Italy where muffa
producing top wines, not least Cervaro at Castello della
nobile (noble rot) occurs
naturally. The mould Sala, potentially Italy’s greatest white wine. The region’s
attacks ripe grapes most famous white is Orvieto, traditionally sweet but
in humid autumnal increasingly produced secco to suit modern tastes.
conditions, shrivels Umbria’s most characterful whites have increased
the skins, evaporates
Grechetto and reduced Trebbiano in the blend. Super
the water content and
concentrates the sugars Umbrian reds are produced from Sangiovese grapes at
to produce sweet, Torgiano, near Perugia.
luscious (but not cloying)
white wines. Castello Marche
della Sala produces the As Tuscan and Umbrian wines grow in price, the
most notable Umbrian
improving Verdicchio whites of Marche offer an
variety.
interesting alternative: Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi and
Verdicchio di Matelica, both with DOC status, stand out.
The shape of things past
Verdicchio is Abruzzo and Lazio
traditionally bottled in Abruzzo produces mostly red wine and Lazio mostly
an amphora-shaped
container, introduced
white, but in common their wines share a certain
to boost sales half a mediocrity, the odd exception noted. Abruzzo’s Adriatic
century ago by the red, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, is spicy, low in tannin
area’s biggest producer, and fresh in acidity, while the hills around Rome produce
Fazi-Battaglia. Today, Frascati, the white whose fame can belie a paucity of
the Grecian touch
makes the wine look
taste and character. Frascati uses Malvasia and dreary
frivolous; more serious Trebbiano grapes; only wines eschewing the latter can
producers have ditched claim any real taste, although the DOC limits Malvasia
the nostalgic amphora content to 30 per cent, a requisite frequently ignored by
shape. more conscientious growers. Lazio also produces Est
Est Est!, another white, apparently named after a 12th
century German bishop awarded it the vinum est bonum
(‘Est’) standard not once but three times.
260
iii. Southern Italy Late developer
Late to ripen,
Campania Campania’s excellent
The sleeping giant of Italian wine, producing relatively Aglianico vines are often
planted at altitude to
little of DOC standard but possessing all the right physical
mitigate the southern
and climatic qualities to do so. The local grape pool is heat. Harvesting in the
varied and interesting: the best red grape (and DOC), snow isn’t unknown.
Aglianico, of Greek origin, is best in Taurasi DOCG; the
white Greco di Tufo grape (also of Greek origin) produces
crisp, long-lived, appley whites; and Fiano, regarded as
southern Italy’s best white grape, goes into Fiano di
Avellino DOCG. The leading growers for all the above are
Mastroberardino and Feudi di San Gregorio.
Puglia
Grape yields in Puglia are
high but the quality is
often poor; most grapes
are destined for vermouth
production, distillation,
blending (sometimes with
thin French wines) or grape
concentrate. Quality can
be found in Salento, where
cooling sea breezes give the
vines some relief from the
torrid climate. The local grapes
are Negroamaro, thought to
have originated in Greece, and
Primitivo, which is identical
to California’s Zinfandel
but originates in Croatia.
Both produce dark, rich and
powerful reds.
261
The clue’s in the name Basilicata
The town of Barile, Italy’s central southern region uses altitude to defy grape-
in the lee of Monte withering heat, planting its better vineyards between
Vulture, an extinct
400 and 600 metres up. It has one DOC, Aglianico del
volcano in northern
Basilicata, is famed Vulture, a red from the vineyards of Monte Vulture. The
for wine barrels hewn high acidity and tannin of the Aglianico grape make for
from oak and chestnut excellent, long-lived wines in the right hands; some
felled in the surrounding have called it the Nebbiolo of the south. D’Angelo and
forests.
Paternoster are the best producers.
The land that wine forgot
Calabria lags behind in Calabria
the production of quality Even while good fresh wines can be made on Calabria’s
wine, and yet it was mountainous terrain, the region still produces an ocean
the region’s proficiency of plonk, apparently untroubled by recent advances in
at viticulture in ancient
times that led Greek
oenology. One beacon of hope exists: the DOC of Cirò
colonisers to call Italy where strong reds are made from Gaglioppo grapes, and
Enotria, the land of fresh, fruity whites from varied Greco vines. Dried Greco
wine. grapes are used to make a good dessert wine around the
village of Bianco. The region’s one outstanding producer
is Librandi.
Sicily
The island’s climate, topography and volcanic soils lend
themselves to a multitude of wine styles, and until
recently Sicily produced more wine than anywhere else
in Italy (indeed, it made more wine than Australia). Most
quality-conscious producers work outside the DOC
system, which accounts for just two per cent of Sicilian
wine. Having flirted with foreign grapes in the 1990s,
enjoying some global success, today the emphasis is
back on indigenous varieties. Sicily’s best-known wine,
sweet golden or brown Marsala, has slipped from fashion;
these days Nero d’Avola is the grape of choice, producing
strong ripe reds.
262
Sardinia
Sardinia’s subjugation to Aragón in the Middle Ages
explains the Spanish origins of some of its grape
varieties. Cannonau (Garnacha in Spain and Grenache
in France) accounts for 20 per cent of the island’s
production, used in a variety of styles including sweet
and fortified (as in France). Carignano (Cariñena in Spain
and Carignan in France) is particularly good in the Sulcis
DOC. The island’s best dry white, and its only DOCG, is
Vermentino di Gallura.
263
7.2.3 Thirst for knowledge: beyond wine
Good measure Beer

Italians usually serve Although beer is consumed throughout the country,
their draught beer in Italy isn’t a great brewing nation. The historic hub of any
20cl (piccola) or 40cl
production is Alto Adige, where the brewing traditions
(media) glasses. The
pitchers and pints of of Austro-Hungarian and German neighbours spilled over
other nations don’t make the Alps. Germanic-sounding brewers (Forst, Dreher,
an appearance. Splügen, Theresianer, and Wührer) still operate, but
the biggest fish today are Moretti and Peroni (neither
of them Italian owned). When the Italians do reach for
Beer blues
a beer it’s usually of the lager variety, although darker
Peroni’s Nastro Azzurro
beers, variously described as birra nera or birra rossa, are
beer was launched in
1963. The name means produced in small quantities, often by microbrewers. Beer
‘blue ribbon’, chosen in consumption in Italy is gradually increasing (although wine
honour of the SS Rex, an is still the norm at home), especially amongst younger
Italian ocean liner that drinkers who will often order foreign brands.
held the ‘blue ribbon’
record for the fastest
Aperitivos
transatlantic crossing
in the 1930s. Today it’s Many Italians still drink an aperitif to stimulate the
consumed worldwide. appetite and enhance conversation before a meal. There
are two old favourites (see below), although sparkling
spumante wines like Prosecco are gaining in popularity:
their lower alcohol content may reduce the need for an
after-lunch siesta.
Vermouth. A Piedmontese legend made from white or
red plonk, with added herbs, spices and bitter flavourings.
One of the additions is wormword, the digestive aid
from which the drink takes its name via the High
German, werimouta. Unlike French versions, white Italian
vermouth is off-dry and red is sweet, although they all
have a balancing savoury tang. Famous brands include
Martini & Rossi, Cinzano and Carpano, who make Punt
e Mes, a classic red. Vermouth-based cocktails like the
Dry Martini, Americano, Negroni and Manhattan attract
American tourists but few locals.
264
Campari. A refreshing Milanese pick-me-up also drunk as
an aperitivo; usually taken neat on the rocks, with soda or
with orange. The recipe is secret but we know that much
of the tang and flavour derives from cinchona bark. The
bright red colour comes from cochineal.
Digestivos
If the appetite has been over-stimulated and then over-
indulged, the Italians believe in the restorative properties
of a digestivo, taken after the meal or even the following
morning.
Amaro. Meaning ‘bitter’, amari come in many forms, all
of them wine or spirit based. Most are flavoured with
herbs and roots that can include cinchona, angelica, anise,
wormwood, and gentian. The most bitter of all are called
fernet, of which Fernet Branca, invented by 19th century
spice trader Bernadino Branco and containing 27 herbs
and spices, is the most famous. Fernet is drunk neat
or added to coffee. In the 18th century, it was thought
to combat cholera and tapeworms. Other amari include
nocino, a bitter liqueur made from unripe walnuts in
Emilia-Romagna, carciofo, made from artichokes and
taken before or after dinner (the biggest brand is Cynar),
and tartufo, produced from black Umbrian truffles.
Amaretto. A sweet liqueur usually made from almond
kernels. The biggest brand name, Disaronno, actually
uses apricot kernels along with a secret mix of 17 herbs
and spices.
Sambuca. A sweet aniseed-flavoured digestivo often
served with coffee as an ammazzacaffè (coffee killer).
Restaurateurs sometimes serve it con mosca (with
flies), meaning they float three coffee beans in the glass:
one to represent health, another happiness and a third
prosperity. Excitable tourists inevitably opt for a flaming
sambuca, in which the neat liqueur is set alight. The
leading brand is Molinari.
265
Rags to riches: the Limoncello.
grappa story Another sweet
Grappa used to be made ammazzacaffè,
in travelling distilleries especially popular
towed from village to
village by horse, and
in the south,
could duly be quite limoncello is made
rough stuff. Today the by macerating
drink is taken more lemon peel in
seriously, with gourmet alcohol. The best
restaurants serving a
range of versions in fine
comes from the
tulip glasses. Some of Sorrento lemon, a
the pricier grappas are fruit with its own
made from individual, IGP label no less
perfumed grape varieties (see section 7.1.1
such as Moscato or
Traminer or, in Veneto,
for more on food
Picolit. labels).
Grappa. The superstar of digestivos is made by distilling
pomace (the residual grape skins, pips and stalks of
wine making). It’s usually a clear liquid, although some
grappas, labelled riserva, take on a golden hue from a
year’s cask aging. Grappa is often drunk with or in coffee
(caffè corretto) or swirled around an empty coffee cup
(rasentin). Nardini is the leading brand.
The soft options

Italians are the biggest consumers of mineral water in
Europe – drunk fizzy (frizzante) or still (naturale) – even
though their tap water is wholly palatable. Around 600
regional brands fight to compete with the big producers
like San Pellegrino and Ferrarelle. A glass of tap water is
normally served with coffee. Sicily is the prime source of
Italy’s citrus fruit, which is freshly squeezed (spremuta)
and served in bars across the country. Chinotto, a small,
bitter orange-coloured citrus fruit grown all over Italy, is
used in various soft drinks of the same name. The fruit is
thought to hail from China – hence the name.
266
Coffee for one
Hot dark matter: coffee types in Italy
The origins of the
Caffè. Ask for a caffè and you’ll get an espresso in a small, heated cup. The word espresso are
caffeine content isn’t dramatic, and Italians will often drink espresso coffee after somewhat murky. It
dinner. Don’t be fooled by the size, the Italians are reverential about espresso. doesn’t mean ‘express’,
or ‘fast’, but rather
Caffè doppio. A double espresso. ‘pressed out’ (as in hot
Caffè lungo. Espresso diluted but with a higher caffeine content. Also called an water through ground
Americano, after the American servicemen who found a standard espresso too beans) or an individual
strong. cup made expressly
(espressamente) for you.
Caffèlatte. A lungo mixed with plenty of hot milk. Asking simply for a latte, as you
might in the UK or the USA, will get you a glass of milk.
Cappuccino. Caffè lungo
mixed with frothy hot milk
and powdered with chocolate.
Traditionally taken as an
accompaniment to breakfast
pastries in a café, where the
espresso machine has a special
nozzle for frothing the milk.
Usually only a morning drink,
and never taken after a full
meal (the milk would hinder
digestion).
Caffè ristretto. Gulp-sized
espresso and consequently
stronger in flavour. Drunk in a
single draught, often by people
rushing to work.
Caffè corretto. An espresso
with added grappa.
Caffè macchiato. Espresso
with a mere dash of milk;
macchiato means flecked.
Caffè freddo. Chilled espresso
served with ice in a tall glass.
Granita di Caffè. A coffee
fuelled dessert sometimes taken
instead of coffee after a meal.
267
7.2.4 Drinking habits: when and where to indulge
One for the road? Something to wash that down with?

Digestivos remain Italians don’t often drink alcohol without food. They don’t
popular but the share the northern European enthusiasm for bouts of
authorities’ clampdown
heavy drinking; for whiling away evening hours in a pub
on drink driving has
pushed more to imbibe or a bar. Italian bars are actually quite utilitarian neon-lit
a limoncello than a places where drinks are cheaper taken standing at the bar
powerful grappa. Even and where visits are usually brief; why hang around when
so, alcohol consumption dinner is waiting at home? Women are far less likely to
remains a contributory
venture into a bar for alcohol than men, especially in rural
cause in 30 to 40 per
cent of road accidents areas. Drunkenness, or to fare una brutta figura, is still
in Italy. frowned upon and rarely public. The best thing you can do
if drunk is to try and conceal it. Alcohol is usually mopped
up with food – an aperitivo may well be accompanied by
olives, nuts or mini pizzas, and wine still forms a familiar
part of the evening meal. Wine is also often drunk at
lunchtimes, although in smaller quantities than used to be
the case.
Changing drinking habits

Most Italian children taste their first alcoholic drink aged
11 or 12, a couple of years younger than the European
average. Usually they’re given watered down wine with
a meal by a parent, inculcating a responsible attitude
to drinking by the association with food. However, a
recent rise in binge drinking, a malaise from which Italy
was previously considered immune, has been recorded
amongst a minority of youngsters. Girls are the worst
offenders in the mid-teen age bracket, but are overtaken
by boys in their late teens. The binging seems to tail
off at around 25, and appears to be a largely urban
phenomenon. A recent government move to raise the
public drinking age from 16 to 18 failed; although they did
succeed in making the sale of alcohol after 2am illegal.
268
Still going to the café for a coffee Viva il vino
When merchants from Venice and Trieste traded with the In the 1990s, Italy
Yemeni port of Moka in the Middle Ages they brought replaced France as
the world’s biggest
coffee back to Europe. Today, the average Italian drinks
consumer and producer
more coffee (usually seriously sweetened) than anyone of wine in terms of
else in Europe, preferring a heavily roasted bean for actual volume. However,
that characteristically strong, bitter flavour. Attempts at as wine consumption
domesticating the espresso machine (the snorting silver gradually falls in both
countries, the USA looks
Gaggia that brought steam pressure and a crema froth
on course to overtake.
to the espresso in the 1930s, balancing the inherent In terms of consumption
bitterness of the coffee) haven’t succeeded in Italy per capita, Italy (28 litres
like they have elsewhere; Italians, particularly sociable per person per year)
southerners, still prefer coffee from the café. As for tea, takes third place behind
Switzerland (29 litres)
it’s always come a distant second to coffee. However,
and Portugal (33 litres).
there is a growing trend for tea supping among young,
middle-class northern Italians, either at home or in
tearooms. Tea automatically arrives with lemon (con Hitting the bottle
limone) unless you ask for milk (con latte). Herbal teas In 1996, 19,000 Italians
(infusioni) are growing in popularity. were receiving regular
treatment for alcoholism.
A decade later that
figure had grown to
more than 50,000.
269
270
8 Living culture:
the state of modern Italy
8.1 Upsetting the 8.6 Class struggles: the
old order: class, race, education system p297
family and women p274 8.7 Time out: holidays,
8.2 Issues of faith: festivals and free time
religion in Italy p278 p300
8.3 Rule benders: 8.8 Passion plays:
politics, the Italian state Italian sport p303
and green issues p282
8.4 Money matters: the
economy, wealth and
social security p288
8.5 Law and order: the
police, the Mafia and the
legal system p292
272
Enjoyment appears to come easily to Italy.
Sport, festivals, family, food – the finer
thing in life are celebrated with an
undisguised passion. However, turn to
the sober stuff of 21st century life, to
politics, religion, immigration and
economics, and the nation wrestles with
the big issues of the day.
273
8.1 Italian society: class,
race, family and women
650,000 PEOPLE The Italian class structure
FROM EUROPE, Rigid stratification was the hallmark of Italian society
N ORT H A MERICA
for centuries. Italians were born, lived and died in
AN D AUSTRALAS IA
LIVE IN IT AL Y. the peasantry, bourgeoisie or (for the fortunate few)
aristocracy. Today, social mobility, so slow to arrive, is
a key facet of life. The stereotypes that define class in
other countries don’t really exist in Italy any more; social
status is dictated almost solely by wealth. Accents speak
only of regional origin, not class, and Italians are as likely
to be judged by their clothes as by which school they
attended or what job they’re in.
The inequality of wealth distribution in modern Italy is
stark. Around ten per cent of the population still lives in
poverty, the south (as usual) faring far worse than the
north. The majority of Italians now belong to the growing
middle class, the borghesi, rising above the traditional
lower class of poor farmers, the contadini.
Struggling with multiculturalism

As a nation that knew only emigration for decades, Italy
wasn’t prepared for the mass immigration of the 21st
century. Immigrant numbers have risen rapidly to four
million, seven per cent of the total population (still one
of the lowest proportions in the EU), in a short space
of time. The majority, over a million, have come from
Albania and Romania. Another half million have arrived
from North Africa, often illegally via the small Italian-
owned Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. In 2009, a
temporary centre for migrants on the island, built for 850
people, was found to have more than 2,000 boat people
crammed inside.
The unprecedented scale and pace of immigration has
created various tensions within Italian society. In summer
2008, a state of emergency was declared and troops
deployed on the streets of Rome, Milan and Naples
274
as part of a crackdown on illegal immigrants. A year
later, amid fervent media headlines about immigrants
committing rape, the Government gave official backing to
the formation of citizens’ street patrols. Certain political
parties, not least the Lega Nord, have drawn clear,
inflammatory connections between economic problems
and the new arrivals.
Becoming an Italian has never been an easy business.
Until 2006 it took ten years of uninterrupted residence
before first-generation migrants could apply for
citizenship. Their Italian-born descendants had to wait
18 years. The 2006 Bill of Naturalisation improved the
migrants’ lot. The children of migrants now automatically
become Italian citizens as long as their parents can prove
long-term residence and an adequate income. Even so,
the bill received criticism for introducing language and
integration assessments.
275
People leakage Keep it in the family
Many see immigration Family remains the solid foundation of Italian life but the
as the only way to pressures of modernity are taking their toll. The numbers
reverse the country’s
of divorcees, single parent families and people living alone
negative population
growth and the prospect are all increasing. Falling birth rates (at about 1.3 children
of there being six million per female it’s well below the EU average) have further
fewer Italians by 2017. eroded the traditional image of the large Italian family.
By 2033, a third of the Italian population will be over 65.
What is unusual (in the context of western Europe) about
“(IT WOU L D BE) A
Italy, however, is that these older generations are cared
SERI OUS MISTAKE
TO OBFU SCATE for within the family, remaining in the familial residence
THE VA L UE AND with their adult children rather than put out to pasture
FUN CTIONS OF in a retirement home. The value and sense of identity
THE LE GITIMATE attached to ‘family’ in Italy therefore remains central to
FAM ILY BASED
everyday life, maintaining a centuries-old commitment
ON M ARRIAGE BY
AT T RIBU TING L EGAL to immediate kin that overshadows any loyalty to
RECOGN ITION TO community, region or state.
OT HER FO RMS OF
LE GAL U NION FOR
WHICH THERE IS
N O RE AL SOCIAL
DEMAN D.”
Pope Benedict XVI
explains why same-sex
marriages should remain
illegal in Italy
276
TH E A G E O F
Mamma’s boys
C O N S EN T I N IT A L Y
Some blame the current lack of innovation and economic growth in Italy on blokes. I S 14 ( B ETW EEN
An astonishing number of Italian men, the Mammoni (mummy’s boys), stay at home MINORS).
until well into their thirties. Indeed, the average Italian doesn’t fly the nest until
aged 36. They don’t just stay for the cooking and home comforts; the average wage Contrasts of care
for Italians aged between 25 and 30 is very low – their peers in the UK, for example, Italian women spent
earn double. To help cut the apron strings, the Government plans to offer up to £700 more time caring for
in tax relief for Italians under 30 earning less than £10,500. The state will also pay children and aged
19 per cent towards rent costs for university students who study at least 65 miles parents than women
away from home. from any other EU
country in 2004 – three
How Italy treats women hours 53 minutes a
day according to the
It would be wrong to say that feminism missed Italy,
National Institute
but it was slow to gain momentum. While a rush of for Statistics. Not
feminist activity brought legislative changes in the 1970s surprisingly, their
(legalising abortion, divorce and adultery), personal beliefs husbands were at the
and attitudes have been harder to refine. Italian women bottom of the EU list
when it came to helping
are still a long way from achieving parity of pay with their
out.
male colleagues; they have the lowest representation
in parliament of any EU country; only received the vote
Women on the march
in 1946; and the laws on sexual violence were slow to
move forward. Today, Italian women are marrying later Fears about changes
in abortion legislation
than ever before, while low birth rates are no doubt brought more than
indicative of changing roles. Young Italians have accepted 250,000 women out onto
equality between the sexes, even if Italy lags some way the streets of Milan in
behind other EU countries. However, progress is regional: 2006 to defend Law 194,
the greatest advances have come in the north and centre which decriminalised
abortion in 1978.
– the old stereotypes are taking longer to shift in the
south. In common, though, men all over Italy still present
women with yellow mimosa flowers on International
Women’s Day, 8 March (perhaps hoping to compensate
for the other 364 days in the year).
277
8.2 Issues of faith: religion in Italy
The angels’ share There in spirit, if not in body

Italians can opt to give At first glance, Catholicism appears to drip from every
0.8 per cent of their facet of Italian life, from the almighty physical presence
income tax, the so-called
of St Peters in Rome to the statues of the Virgin Mary
otto per mille, to the
Catholic Church or one staring down from alcoves and balconies across the
of six other religions country. And with around 90 per cent of Italians claiming
(including Waldensians, to be Catholic, the religious make-up of the country
Jews and Seventh-Day seems clear-cut. However, the reverence is somewhat
Adventists but not
part-time. Only a quarter of Catholics still regularly attend
Muslims).
church, and a high proportion of those are getting on in
years. In a country where abortion and divorce are legal
What is the Vatican? and where contraception is widely used, the pope isn’t
The Vatican, the as powerful as he once was; religion is no longer a ritual
Catholic Church State, to live by. And yet, while Italy secularises, Catholicism
was shaped in the
retains a vital cultural role. The majority may avoid church
Risorgimento when
troops from northern on a Sunday, but will still embrace the major rites of
Italy gobbled up the passage, from baptism to Holy Communion, wedding
Papal States and day to funeral. Like most aspects of Italian life, religion is
then occupied Rome. subject to regional variation. Broadly, devotion is stronger
Pope Pius IX declared
in the south than the north. The ‘Red Belt’ of Emilia-
himself a prisoner in
the Vatican and the Romagna, traditional stomping ground for communists,
idea of a separate state has long had a reputation for irreverence.
within the city took
hold. This city-state Original man of the papal
status was formalised There have been 265 popes since St Peter, pontiff from
by the Lateran Pacts of
AD30 to 67. He (maybe one day she?) doesn’t have the
1929. The word Vatican
derives from the Latin same hold over the Italian people he once did. In the
Vaticanus, a hill in privacy of the home or the local bar, the pope is no longer
Rome. out of bounds for satire. The bond hasn’t been quite
the same since 1978 when the charismatic and popular
Albino Luciani, John Paul I, died just one month into his
reign and the job went to a foreigner, John Paul II, for
the first time in 455 years. Pope John Paul’s legacy is
still warm, recalled not least for surviving a shooting and
for canonising more people than any predecessor. The
current pope, Benedict XVI, is German-born Joseph Alois
Ratzinger.
278
Doing a deal with il Duce
Mussolini started
his tenure in power
describing Catholic
priests as ‘black germs’,
but had a change of
heart when he spied
the opportunity to tap
Catholicism’s 400 million
strong (a billion today)
worldwide audience. The
resultant Lateran Treaty
of 1929 gave Pope Pius
XI 109 acres in Rome
to form the Vatican
state with its own small
army, police force, post
office, train station
and weekend retreat
in the country. Perhaps
most significantly, the
concordat in the treaty
cemented Catholicism
as the state religion
(this relationship was
eventually broken by a
revised agreement in
1984). The next pope,
Pius XII, incumbent from
1939 to 1958, is still the
subject of fierce debate:
did he do enough to
protect Jews in the
Second World War?
Recruitment drive
The number of Italian men signing up to the cloth
has been plummeting for years, and so the Catholic
Church has been quick to mine Italy’s new migrant
communities for staff. More and more priests are
being recruited from Eastern Europe and Africa.
279
Better late than never Italy’s other religious communities
Buddhists and Jehovah’s
Witnesses finally had
Jews
their faiths recognised Italy harbours one of the oldest, most integrated Jewish
as formal religions by communities in Europe (the Romanim Jews identify
the Italian government themselves with Jews from Rome before the great
in 1990. Diaspora); indeed, there were Jews in Italy as far back as
161BC. The term ‘ghetto’ is an Italian/Jewish word dating
Power over life and back to early Jewish populations living in Venice, where
death? the foundries were casting metal in a process known as
Piergiorgio Welby gettare.
hit the headlines in
2006 when he refused
Waldensians
medical treatment for A core of European Protestantism tucked away for
the muscular dystrophy centuries in the Waldensian valleys of northern Italy. In
that had paralysed him, the Second World War they helped hide Jews fleeing the
instead declaring his Nazis.
wish to die. Liberals
aligned behind Welby, in Muslims
opposition to the Vatican There’s been an Islamic presence in Italy since the Arab
which, backed by right-
occupation of Sicily in the Middle Ages, although it was
wing politicians, tried
to prevent doctors from barely visible when the country unified in 1861. Since
withdrawing treatment. immigrants began arriving in Italy from Islamic countries
During the three months in the 1970s, the population has steadily grown. The
it took for the patient biggest mosque in Europe opened two miles from the
to die, the issues
Vatican in 1995.
surrounding euthanasia,
illegal in Italy, were Greek Orthodox
hotly debated. The
Communities are scattered along the Adriatic coast
Vatican denied Welby
a church burial on his with bigger populations in Sicily. Recent migrants
death, asserting that from southern central Europe have helped boost
he’d gone against congregations.
Catholic teaching by
choosing to die.
280
Have you heard the one
The key religious dates
about the pope, the rabbi
Epifania On 6 January, Befana, a warty old witch (but in a good way), visits children and the…
and leaves gifts if they’ve been good and a lump of coal if they’ve misbehaved If you feel the urge to
(although these days solid fuel has been replaced by sweets). recite a joke about the
pope, be careful where
Carnevale Italy bids ‘goodbye to meat’ on Martedì Grasso, or Shrove Tuesday. you do it. Under the
In Venice they go overboard in the lead up with an intense ten-day festival of Lateran Treaty, insulting
costumed events. Elsewhere folks just sit down to a nice plate of lasagne. the pope, even for a
Pasqua On Easter Sunday, Italians eat lamb and colomba, a dove-shaped cake, joke, can, in theory,
while the pope blesses us from his balcony. Around the country, the Virgin Mary result in five years
is carried down the local high street in procession. On Easter Monday, Pasquetta, behind bars.
families hit the road for a day in the country and a picnic.
Ferragosto The Assumption of the Blessed Mary is celebrated on 15 August with
a day off. It’s one of various Catholic feast days borrowed from the Romans. Their
version marked high summer and honoured the Gods, in particular Diana, goddess of
the moon and hunting.
Ognissanti/Giorno dei Morti All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, on 1 and 2
November respectively, are reserved for commemorating dead relatives. Flowers
are placed graveside before everyone settles down to a meal, traditionally featuring
fava beans. Mysterious ways
Natale It’s Christmas, so marvel at the presepe (the nativity crib usually laid out More than ten
on 8 December, L’Immacolata Concezione), open your presents and write a letter to million Italians pay
your parents apologising for being naughty (usually left under their dinner plates). for fortune telling,
Tuck into fish on Christmas Eve (traditional day of abstinence) and all manner occult consultations
of dishes (tortellini in broth is about the most consistent) during the lengthy or a session with a
Christmas lunch. soothsayer every year.
281
8.3 Rule benders: politics, the Italian
state and green issues
Get out the vote Modern Italy has a fraught relationship with politics.
Article 48 of the How can a Western democracy – a country with G8
constitution reminds membership and a founder member of NATO – have
Italians that to vote is a been through 60 governments since the Second World
“civic duty”. The country
has one of the highest
War? Corruption, factionalism, violence, mud slinging,
turnout rates (often up stagnation – these have been the ceaseless themes of
to 90 per cent) in the Italian political life. As a bipolar system of government
democratic world. Even evolves, so the political landscape begins to stablise.
expats join in via post,
and have their own
representatives in the The key dates of post-war Italian politics
Italian parliament.
1946. Italy becomes a republic, chosen by referendum. A pattern of government
rapidly develops: the centre-right Democrazia Cristiana (DC) party rule in coalition
with various centrist factions, essentially operating as a buffer to the Partito
Communista Italiano (PCI), a much stronger force in post-war politics in Italy than in
other Western nations.
1969. A neo-Fascist bomb in Milan begins the Years of Lead, in which extreme
elements from left and right bypass the usual (sleaze-clogged) channels of
democracy using violence. Events reach a grim climax with the murder of former DC
prime minister, the moderate Aldo Moro, in 1978.
1983. Bettino Craxi becomes the first prime minister from the Partito Socialista
Italiano (PSI) in the post-war era, finally (and briefly) wresting government from the
DC.
1992. The post-war status quo implodes amid arrests and trials for corruption. The
DC and PSI dissolve (the conjunction with communism’s international demise wasn’t
coincidental). Italians declare an unofficial ‘second republic’, hoping for a new start.
1994. The Freedom Alliance, a rightist coalition that includes Silvio Berlusconi’s
Forza Italia (FI) party, the separatist Lega Nord (LN) and the neo-Fascist Aleanza
Nazionale (AN), wins power. These – and the former Communists – are the new
players in Italian politics.
2001. Italians vote for greater autonomy for the country’s 20 regions in a referendum
on the constitution, increasing regional control over taxation, education and the
environment.
2008. Silvio Berlusconi returns for his third term as prime minister, his popularity
with voters apparently unaffected by ongoing media criticism about public and
private affairs.
282
The structure of power M O R E T HA N 1 5 0
Italy is a democratic republic comprising 20 regions (each PA R TI E S W E R E ON
T H E BAL L O T F O R
with its own, popularly elected council), which divide
T H E 2 0 0 8 I TA L I A N
further into 109 provinces and 8,101 municipalities. The E L E C TI O N .
Presidente della Repubblica is the head of state, elected
by a two-thirds majority of parliament for a seven-year
term. While the president heads the armed forces and Defection imperfection
can disband parliament, the real power lays with the The multiple
governments that
Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri (prime minister) and
characterised the
his cabinet. Usually (but not always), the PM is drawn early years of Italian
from the political party with the most seats in parliament. unification led many
politicos to switch sides,
Italy has a bicameral parliament. The lower chamber, the to change their stance
Camera dei Deputati, serves a five-year term (although and set up new parties
full-term governments are virtually unknown), elected to ensure their own
by all adult Italians. The chamber’s 630 MPs are voted survival. Transformismo,
in using a complicated combination of proportional as it became known,
continues to blight
representation and ‘prizes’ for the coalition securing most Italian politics;
votes; a system, introduced in 2005, which appears to discredited figures from
have exacerbated the difficulties of fragmentation, placing the left or right regularly
increased, disruptive control in the hands of smaller reappear in government
parties. The upper chamber, the Senato della Repubblica, with a new outlook.
contains 315 senators. Most are elected by citizens aged
25 and over, but some are there for life (old presidents
and the like).
283
The main political forces
While the political scene in the ‘second republic’ has
always been a splintered affair, the factions have also
always been defined along clear left/right lines. The
last coalition government of the left, led by Romano
Prodi, contained nine political parties; the last from the
right, Silvio Berlusconi’s, embraced eight, although
ultimately slimmed down to two. Both sides seem keen
to initiate a more workable, two-party system, steadily
gobbling up factions to create large, broader parties less
reliant on coalition allies and therefore better braced for
government. The emergent Partito Democratico (PD) and
Popolo della Libertà (PDL), on the centre-left and centre-
right respectively, work towards the aim. However, a
centrist coalition, the Unione di Centro (UDC) born of old
Christian Democrats, hopes to offer voters a third way. Of
the myriad political forces in Italy, these are the ones to
watch:
Right
Popolo della Libertà (PDL). Created in 2009
when Forza Italia, Italy’s largest centre-right
party (launched by Silvio Berlusconi in 1994 as
a shiny centre-right replacement for the crippled
DC), merged with the Alleanza Nazionale (AN).
The AN’s old leader, Gianfranco Fini, a former
neo-fascist, had been seen by many as the
natural successor to Berlusconi, until the pair fell
out in 2009.
Franco Frattini, Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Popolo della Libertà
government elected to power in 2008, is among the key figures of
contemporary Italian politics.
284
Lega Nord (LN). Under the leadership of Umberto Bossi,
the LN has won votes with an anti-central government,
anti-immigrant ticket. In the 2008 election, the party
won eight per cent of the vote. Political commentators
suggest the Lega Nord have capitalised on the left’s
failure to represent the working class, although the party
also receives significant white-collar support.
Left
Partito Democratico (PD). Born in 2007 from various
centre-left factions, the main ones being the Democratici
di Sinistra (DS) (heirs to Italy’s communist heritage) and
La Margherita (DL) (a more centrist strand), the PD covers
social democrat ground, pushing a pro-European, socially
progressive and green agenda.
Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (PdCI). Created in 1998
when it split from Italy’s other surviving communist
faction of note (there are many on a smaller scale), the
Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC). In common,
they advocate a more even distribution of wealth and
oppose any military support for the USA.
Federazione dei Verdi. The Italian Green party first
entered parliament in 1987, becoming one of the few
dissenting voices against the treatment of Roma people
and immigrants in general. The party has fared badly in
recent elections; coalitions with the communists haven’t
really helped their popular appeal.
285
“P OWER I S A Five memorable Italian prime ministers
DISEA SE I HAVE
N O DE SI RE TO BE Alcide De Gasperi. DC leader who signed the peace
CURED OF.” treaty with the Allies, secured Italy’s place in NATO and
Giulio Andreotti generally hauled Italy from post-war devastation. Died
within a year of losing the 1953 election.
Aldo Moro. Another two-times DC prime minister, Moro
worked hard to broker agreement with the left. His
attempt at a ‘historic compromise’ got him kidnapped and
killed by the Red Brigades in 1978.
Giulio Andreotti. Italian PM seven times between the
1970s and 90s, the wily Andreotti is emblematic of post-
war Italian politics. All attempts to convict him on alleged
Mafia connections (including implication in the murder of
journalist Mino Pecorelli) have failed. He still sits in the
upper chamber of parliament, despite being in his 90s.
The media once dubbed him the Prince of Darkness.
Bettino Craxi. As leader of the socialist PSI in the 1970s
and 80s, Craxi impressed with his moderation, intitiating
social and economic reform during two periods as PM,
and foreshadowing the wider European movement of
the left toward the centre. However, he’s become better
remembered as the biggest scalp of the early 1990s
bribery investigations. Sentenced in absentia to 10 years
in prison, Craxi died in Tunisia in 2000. Craxi’s political
legacy is still being assessed.
Silvio Berlusconi. The key figure of Italian politics
since the early 1990s meltdown has established
an enviable reputation for longevity in office after
three periods as PM. He’s a self-made man, a
bank worker’s son who began selling vacuum
cleaners, moved on to property and then built a
media empire. Critics say he controls too much of
Italian life, but his popular support is undeniable.
286
How green is Italy?
The volatile political landscape in Italy has held back a
consistent environmental policy and the country, despite
recent investment in onshore wind farms, is unlikely to
hit its green targets. The ineffectiveness of Italy’s Green
party hasn’t helped. Green issues have taken longer to
concern the Italian public than other Europeans, although
they appear to be catching up – 65 per cent of Italians
described themselves as ‘green’ in a recent survey,
second only to Germany at 70 per cent.
Municipal and regional administrations are pushing green The smell of corruption
building initiatives, while central government used the in Naples
2008 budget to approve plans to protect bio-diversity, In 2008, landfill sites in
clean up contaminated industrial sites, reduce waste Naples reached capacity
and the city became
and finally comply with EU rules on pollution control. By
strewn with uncollected
2013, Milan should have completed a two million square rubbish; around 250,000
metre ‘green village’, complete with apartments, schools, tonnes of waste was left
shopping centres and sports facilities all powered by festering on the streets.
sustainable energy sources. Private industry is getting The ensuing health
hazard, not least rat
involved too, not least Fiat with their hydrogen-powered
infestations, caused riots
Panda (the car not the large mammal). Meanwhile, across the region. Water
supermarkets have been charging for plastic bags for sources were poisoned
years. In the home, waste is increasingly bagged into and air pollution soared
separate bins while recycling points for paper, plastic and when people began
setting fire to the waste.
glass are appearing in apartment blocks.
The crisis was blamed
on decades of weak
political leadership in
the region, leadership
that allowed the
Mafia’s control of waste
disposal. After activity
from Silvio Berlusconi’s
administration, sites
were reopened, although
thousands of tonnes of
rubbish were shipped to
Sardinia and set ablaze
while other parts of the
country were forced to
receive Naples’ garbage.
287
8.4 Money matters: the economy, wealth and
social security
Foreign power The Italian economy underwent a miraculous
Italy imports more than transformation in the second half of the 20th century.
80 per cent of its energy. It needed to. Flattened by war, stripped of its colonies
in North Africa and forced to pay huge reparations
Where Italy makes its after backing the wrong side, by 1945 Italy was
money economically shattered. The Marshall Plan (American
Agriculture: 2 per cent aid) initiated dramatic recovery in the post-war period,
Industry: 27 per cent
fuelling the switch from a largely agrarian economy
Services: 71 per cent
to a manufacturing one, and helping to secure Italian
membership of the fledgling European Community
Small is beautiful
just 12 years later. The so-called miracolo economico
Major companies like
Fiat might grab the
between 1958 and 1963 placed Italy in the top ten of
economic headlines, but world economic powers and, despite some bleak years in
small and medium-sized the 1970s and 80s, there it remains, currently in seventh
enterprises (SMEs), place (it duly has membership of the G8).
many of them family run,
comprise the backbone The miracle was fed by the large-scale migration of
of the Italian economy. workers from rural regions to cities, and in particular from
The backstreets of the impoverished south to the dynamic north. Famous
Italian cities and towns
are packed with people
Italian companies, from Fiat to Olivetti, Vespa to Zanussi,
making things – from grew in strength and began to export their products.
fine foods to bespoke Today, behind the stylish brands, the metallurgical,
suits, glassware and engineering and textile industries give modern Italy its
decorative tiles – and economic clout. Tourism also plays an important role:
the stats on employee
numbers reflect this:
nearly 40 million visitors come each year, making Italy the
fifth most popular tourist destination in the world. While
99 per cent of Italy was far from immune to the recent global recession
companies employ fewer
than 250 people.
(GDP began shrinking fast in 2008 and into 2009), it has
the potential to emerge less bruised than other nations –
The average company
the country already had one of the lowest annual growth
employs between three
and eight people (the rates in the EU (about one per cent), individuals don’t
European average is 15 adhere to the culture of credit found in other Western
people). nations (they don’t borrow to the hilt) and Italian banks
23 per cent of workers aren’t as entrenched in the international marketplace and
are employed by a are thus less likely to feel the global pinch.
company with fewer
than ten staff (in
England and the USA it’s
seven and three per cent
respectively).
288
The north/south split Home economics
The economic divide between north and south in Italy has Between 1997 and
been stark for generations. The industrial, urbane north 2007, Italian house
prices shot up by 100
can seem like a different country to the predominantly
per cent. Despite a
agricultural south, which, despite Italy’s economic 15 per cent annual
standing, is one of the poorest regions in Europe. Even growth in mortgages
the ‘agricultural’ label is misleading: poor soil and baking during the same period,
temperatures make farming the Mezzogiorno a frequently outstanding mortgage
debt was just 19 per
subsistence affair, barely sufficient to sustain a family.
cent of GDP, compared
Only wine, olive oil and a few other products really to the EU average of 50
push Italian agriculture forward in the export market. per cent. The low level
No wonder five million southerners emigrated to North of borrowing stems
America in the early 20th century. The history of poverty from the Italian banks’
reluctance to overextend
and neglect in the south colludes with its physical
loans, an approach
isolation and a reputation for corruption and organised that doesn’t seem to
crime to dissuade industry from moving in. hinder home ownership
– almost 85 per cent
The economic disparity has left a bitter taste on both of Italian households
sides of the divide: the Lega Nord’s growing popularity own the properties they
as a political party is stirred by its calls for secession for live in.
the north and a tougher anti-immigration policy, while
southerners believe the northern industrial base was
built with their blood, sweat and tears after the great
migrations north in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
289
The submerged economy
Some estimates claim that 15 per cent of Italian GDP is
produced by the economia sommersa, the ‘submerged
economy’ (or black market), much of it centred on
construction, agriculture and the service sectors. More
worrying is the success of Italy’s crime syndicates, jovially
referred to as ‘Mafia Inc’, whose economic muscle grows
as the world economy withers (they don’t have the same
reluctance to loan as the banks). Government think tank
Eurispes estimates that, in 2008, Mafia Inc earned 126
billion euros, almost eight per cent of Italy’s GDP, half of
it from drug trafficking.
The health of health

The longevity and general good health of most Italians
probably has more to do with a balanced diet and
strong family support than with its health service.
When the national health service, the Servizio Sanitario
Nazionale (SSN), was introduced in 1978, the aim
was an all-encompassing health system covering the
entire population. Essentially, that’s what it does today.
However, the system seems dogged by excessive
bureaucracy, funding shortfalls and mismanagement.
Italy comes about halfway down the table of European
healthcare, but within the country itself there is significant
regional disparity; generally, you’re better advised falling
ill in the north of the country than in the south. The SSN
is funded by central government through the IRAP tax
(Imposta Regionale Sulle Attivita Produttive). Everyone,
including all EU residents, is entitled to free or subsidised
healthcare in Italy.
290
Feeling the benefits: pensions and unemployment Tax matters
The unemployment rate in Italy hovers around seven per Income tax in Italy
cent, although a far greater proportion of people are out operates on a sliding
scale, kicking in at 23
of work in the south than the north. Any Italian losing
per cent and rising
their job must have worked for at least a year to claim to 43 per cent for
indennità di disoccupazione (the basic unemployment the top earners. In
benefit), and can only then claim for six months. If they addition, each region
resigned from their job or haven’t worked before, there’s (up to 1.4. per cent) and
municipality (up to 0.8
no support on offer. The high proportion of young adults
per cent) levies a tax on
living at home with their parents undoubtedly reflects the income. Tax evasion is
expectation that families, rather than the state, will look seen something as of a
after the unemployed. national hobby in Italy,
and those that avoid
Until recently, Italy’s ever expanding legion of retirees paying tax are even
had it good, able as they were to give up work aged 57, admired.
assuming they’d worked for 35 years and paid the right
contributions (in some sectors workers could retire after
less than 20 years of service). However, the good times
are coming to an end. High life expectancy levels, an
aging population and a growing national budget deficit
have raised the retirement age. In 2009, the Italian
Government brought in a draft law to ensure the new
retirement age of 60 is introduced in 2010. By 2018, the
goal is a retirement age of 65 for both men and women.
Today just 19 per cent of Italians aged 60-64 are still
working compared to 45 per cent in the UK and 60 per
cent in Sweden.
291
8.5 Law and order: the police, the
Mafia and the legal system
Shutting out the draft Italy is a relatively safe place. Murder and assault rates
Mandatory National are lower here than in much of the EU and cases of
Service for men ended in rape and sexual assault are well below average. Crimes
Italy in 2005. against the person are more likely to involve stealing,
and the worst felony rates are tied to car theft. As you
Short arms of the law might expect, crime is worse in urban areas; indeed, rural
The Carabinieri, Italy’s
Italy can feel like a crime-free zone. There is, of course, a
oldest (1814) and most conspicuous antidote to the good news about individual
visible police force, are crime, and that’s the ongoing role of the Mafia in Italian
named for the carbines life. Organised crime still sucks billions of euros from the
(short rifles) they once economy through racketeering, intimidation and extortion.
carried.
The police
Italy has one of the largest police forces in Europe,
employing twice the manpower of the UK, France or
Spain. Italian police have traditionally been perceived as
more militaristic than civilian – seemingly better trained
and equipped for combating civil unrest than chasing
down bag-snatchers – perhaps because the ministry of
Defence oversees certain sectors of policing. There are
three main national police corps, whose jurisdiction and
activities sometimes overlap:
Polizia di Stato. The standard Italian state police, a civil
(rather than military) force, responsible for dealing with
theft and patrolling the autostrade. Look out for navy blue
shirts, grey trousers,
a white belt and
powder blue cars.
292
Carabinieri. Answerable Leave it to the amateurs
to the Ministry of Defence, In 2009, a law was
but dealing with everything passed allowing Italian
from drug busts to towns to maintain
private night time
international terrorism vigilante patrols. It came
(sometimes on foreign amid a flurry of new
soil), they’re a familiar sight in Italian cities, seen on street legislation targeting
corners, gun in pocket, enjoying the slick uniform of red- illegal immigrants. The
striped dark blue trousers patrols are allowed to
wear uniforms but don’t
and white leather chest carry weapons or have
strap. the power of arrest.
Guardia di Finanza.
Another wing of the armed 0 to 60 in a heartbeat
forces but controlled by Road patrols by the
the Ministry of Finance, Polizia di Stato were
given a boost in 2004
the grey-uniformed Guardia
when Lamborghini
di Finanza deal primarily donated two of its
with tax evasion and money laundering but also help Gallardo cars. Today the
maintain public order and patrol Italy’s coastal waters. top speed of 310kmph is
used to deliver plasma
Aside from the big three, Italy has a series of other and vital organs for
policing outfits working at municipal or provincial levels. transplant operations.
The Polizia Provinciale operate in some (but not all
– they’re optional) of the country’s provinces, whist
Italy’s five autonomous regions have their own Polizia
Regionale forces. Traffic cops, the Polizia Municipale,
hand out tickets and direct the chaos in their dark blue
uniforms and pristine white gloves. Other groups are
responsible for national parks (Corpo Forestale dello
Stato), the prison system (Polizia Penitenziaria) and the
coastline (Guardia Costiera).
293
Femmes fatale Sicilian syndicate: the
With many of the old Mafia story
guard locked up, women The Mafia materialised in
are beginning to exert the 19th century (although
their authority as gang
they probably have
leaders in the Mafia. In
2002, in the valleys near medieval roots), initially
Naples, three women intent on protecting Sicilians
were killed and dozens from foreign invaders and
seriously injured in one corruption. The noble aims
of numerous power
were soon replaced by the
struggles springing up
across the south. organised crime staples of
racketeering and protection,
and by the time Mussolini
came to power the Mafia had infiltrated every layer of
Sicilian life. He tried to wipe them out, cutting off towns
to flush out the gang members and throwing thousands
of suspects in jail. He had some success, but the Mafia
disappeared underground, into the fabric of society, setting
a now well-known trend: attempts to purge the Mafia find
them shrinking away, disappearing into the towns and
villages of rural Italy. A concerted effort to smash the Mafia
in the 1980s made headway when a team of magistrates
handed guilty verdicts to 344 defendants, but the clans
struck back in 1992, killing two of the prosecutors,
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in a brutal show of
strength.
The Mafia today

‘Mafia’ has become a catch-all label for Italy’s organised
crime clans. The Cosa Nostra is the prime outfit on Sicily,
while the mainland is dogged by the Camorra of Campania,
the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Sacra Corona Unita
in Puglia. Each has an influence well beyond its region.
They’ve moved into lucrative new markets, dealing on the
stock exchange, trafficking drugs and trading arms with the
Middle East, but for many Italians, particularly in the south,
the Mafia is still about protection and intimidation.
294
Government figures suggest that up to 80 per cent of Lucky break for the Mafia
businesses in Palermo, Sicily, are paying protection money Lucky Luciano (everyone
to the Mafia. Every year brings new arrests and ‘landmark’ forgot his real name,
court cases. In 2006, Italy’s most wanted man, Bernardo Charlie, after he
survived having his
Provenzano, presumed head of the Sicilian Mafia, was throat cut), the pre-war
captured; a year later, his replacement, Salvatore Lo New York Mafia boss,
Piccolo, was brought in; and in 2009, 49 members of Lo has been credited with
Piccolo’s ‘family’ were jailed for running protection rackets. establishing the Cosa
And yet the Mafia continues to function, even grow (see Nostra’s stranglehold in
Italy after the Second
section 8.4 for details of Italy’s ‘submerged economy’). World War. When Allied
troops prepared for the
Slowly does it: the legal system invasion of Sicily, the
Italy’s judiciary is independent of the government, as Americans reportedly
set out by the Italian constitution. The Italian code of sent Lucky in to favour
law can be traced all the way back to Roman law, which good relationships with
the locals and smooth
informed the Napoleonic Code adopted across Italy after the imminent assault.
Unification. Revision and reshaping have occurred in the Lucky did a good job
years since, notably in 1990 when an accusatorial system and set up close ties
replaced the old inquisitorial approach. The highest with the influential
court in Italy is the Supreme Court of Cassation, the underground gangs in
Sicily. The help offered
court of appeal, below which are the criminal, civil and up by certain Mafioso
administrative courts. found them installed
in positions of power
The Italian legal system is renowned for being (allegedly by the
complicated, expensive and slow, and most agree that American authorities)
urgent reform is needed. Technicalities and the length of after the war.
time between indictment and trial have saved many from
prison under the statute of limitations – in 2009, Italian
Justice Minister, Angelino Alfano, revealed that it took an
average of 31 months to bring a case to court.
The boundaries between politics and the judiciary have
become increasingly blurred in recent years, as judges
pursue politicans, notably Silvio Berlusconi, on charges of
corruption. In return, Berlusconi regularly attacks certain
judges, branding them as left-wing extremists.
295
Ripping yarns: three killing sprees
The Monster of Florence. He (or maybe she?) preyed
on courting Florentine couples in cars between 1968
and 1985, shooting 16 lovers with a Beretta pistol
before hacking off the women’s vaginas. No one has
been found guilty for the murders but theories abound,
some featuring satanic gangs. The killings inspired
Thomas Harris’ chilling novel, Hannibal. A bungled police
investigation led to an innocent man (the first female
victim’s husband) being imprisoned until, after six years,
another murder took place.
Olindo Romano and Rosa Bazzi. In 2006, the husband
and wife were convicted of slaughtering their neighbours
over a noise dispute in Rome. The unremarkable couple
stabbed and slit the throats of a two-year old boy, his
mother, grandmother and a female friend. During the
investigation it emerged that the murders were planned
over many months, carried out because Bazzi couldn’t
stand the sound of the boy crying or the noise of his
parents.
Roberto Succo. He began in 1981 by stabbing his
mother and strangling his father in the family home in
Mestre, Veneto, when they refused to loan him the car.
Captured, he was then adjudged insane and was out on
parole after five years. He fled to France and went on
a two-year spree of murder, rape and burglary. Finally
apprehended, he committed suicide in 1988. His life has
inspired a book, play and film.
296
8.6 Class struggles: the education system
The Italian education system isn’t without its problems. Slow progress to literacy
Schools have the highest teacher-to-pupil ratio in The Legge Casati
Europe but those same teachers are often forced to (Casati education act),
take a second job to make ends meet. Free education implemented in Italy
in 1859, was heralded
is guaranteed from the age of three but state school as the new education
children spend their formative years in crumbling system for a progressive
institutions in desperate need of repair and redecoration. nation on the eve of
The nation’s falling birth rate has brought additional Unification. The priority
issues, sounding the death knell for many rural schools. of reducing illiteracy
rates and making
Typically, all of the problems surrounding Italian education primary education
are worst in the south of the country. compulsory was slow
to take effect, but 70
Finally, under initiatives introduced by Silvio Berlusconi’s years later, when the
government, the ailing system is undergoing major act was finally reformed,
reform. However, the restructuring, unveiled in 2008, is nine out of ten Italian
highly controversial. Like its buildings, education’s policy- children were in school.
makers appear stuck in the 20th century. Schools are The 80 per cent illiteracy
rate that prevailed on
being offered greater autonomy from the traditionally Unification in 1861
rigid, centralised system, but the education budget is was only halved 50
falling. Jobs are being cut (by not filling vacancies) and years later. By 1951 it
conduct marks are being reintroduced, as is the old was down to around
system of one teacher/one class in primary schools, 13 per cent and today,
officially, it sits at 1.5
whereby the tutor must teach across all subjects. per cent, although some
Teachers and students responded to the reforms claim it’s much higher,
with strikes and street protests; some 2.5 million particularly in the south.
people blocked the streets of Rome during the unrest. The most significant
Berlusconi’s sweetener of promising the best teachers law in Italian education
was enacted in 1923
performance-related bonuses of up to 7,000 euros failed with the Legge Gentile
to soften the anger. Reform Act. Under
Mussolini’s instruction,
his education minister,
Doing the maths the neo-idealist Giovanni
Gentile, brought in
Education expenditure in Italy is around 4.5 per cent of GDP (lower than in France,
compulsory education
Germany and the UK, but higher than in Spain).
to the age of 14 in an
effort to raise standards
and to demonstrate the
academic prowess of
fascism.
297
Oh Mum, do I have to? How the schooling system breaks down
Grembiuli, the traditional
smocks worn by Italian
Scuola materna(pre-school)
schoolchildren, are With a growing number of Italian mums entering the
making a comeback. workplace, the optional scuola materna is filling up with
Government backed three to five-year-olds. A free place is guaranteed to all,
the reintroduction of although a fee-paying private sector version does exist.
the outdated school
outfit in 2008, hoping Scuola primaria(primary)
it would bolster levels Compulsory education begins for children in their sixth
of discipline. Many
headteachers, who get
year. For the next five years, infants follow a broad range
the final say on uniform of subjects including English and social studies. Primary is
in their schools, feel the best performing sector in Italian education.
the move will create a
more egalitarian school Scuola media (lower secondary school)
environment. Between the ages of 11 and 14, students have 30 hours
of weekly classes, rising to 40 if they opt in for extra
lessons. Exams are taken in the third year – if successful,
students are awarded the diploma di licenza media. The
secondary school system in Italy performs well below the
European average.
Scuola superiore(upper secondary school)
When children reach 14 they’re faced with a wide range
of further education options. Academic students will
choose a liceo, a college that specialises in one area of
study, be it classics, science, arts, teacher training or
another field. Other students enrol in an instituto tecnico,
which again divide themselves along certain lines of
study, from agriculture to engineering or IT. In common
with liceo students, those at technical institutes spend
two years following a standard school curriculum before
moving on to three years of study in their specialist
subject. A third group of 14-year-olds head for the
instituto professionale, vocational colleges that teach
a trade, from car mechanics to carpentry, over a three-
year-course. They can top up their qualifications with two
years at a liceo or instituto tecnico, should they want to
go on to university.
298
Female in-tuition
Women dominate the
teaching profession in
Italy at primary level.
There are more male
teachers in lower
secondary schools but
Free vs fee women still account
Italy doesn’t have the wealth or class-driven division for nearly 80 per cent
of the teaching staff.
between state and private education that affects some Despite that dominance,
other nations. Indeed, the state set-up is usually regarded fewer than half of
as having a comparable (perhaps even better) standard lower secondary school
of education to the private system. Parents tend to send principals are female.
their children to an independent school because they’re
struggling academically, for reasons of faith (many private
schools are Catholic) or for the single sex environment (all
state schools are co-educational). Whilst state education
is free to all, parents are expected to buy exercise books
and to provide cash for schools’ equipment.
Drop out nation: higher education

If they pass their diploma di maturità at scuola superiore,
Italian 19-year-olds can apply for any course at university,
irrespective of their specialist subject at secondary school.
Universities in Italy have a long and proud tradition – the
University of Bologna is the oldest in the Western world,
having taken its first students in 1088; Salerno (1173) and
Padua (1222) weren’t far behind. University education
is free to all, and most institutions are filled to bursting
point. More young adults go to university in Italy than
almost anywhere else in Europe, and yet far less than half
of them graduate. The prohibitive cost of accommodation
dictates that the majority of Italian students attend
university near or in their hometown or city, ensuring
they can remain living with parents. Investment in Italian
higher education is among the lowest in the EU. The poor
pay dished out to lecturers is blamed for the ‘brain drain’
of qualified staff heading overseas to work, particularly to
America.
Days in the sun

299
8.7 Time out: holidays, festivals
and free time
Making the bridge In a country where
Italian workers often pleasure is one of life’s
save up saints’ days defining themes, time
and bank holidays in off is given its due. Italy
pursuit of the three-
day weekend, leaving
observes more bank
businesses running a holidays and saints’ days
slimmed down staff on than any other country
Fridays. If the holiday in Europe, and, to the
falls on a Tuesday or consternation of northern
Thursday, some will
fare il ponte, taking a
Europeans, still manages
day either side of the the month-long shutdown in summer. During la vacanza,
weekend to ‘make the Italians load up the car, abandon their homes and head
bridge’. for the seaside or the mountains. The unfortunate family
member who still has to work may even commute from
the holiday home or campsite. Rather than move up the
housing chain, many Italians will persist with a city flat or
modest house and spend any surplus money on a coastal
or countryside property to escape to. Of the Italians that
venture abroad (most prefer to stay on home soil), one in
five makes the short trip to France; outside Europe the
most popular destination is Egypt.
Four state holidays
Capodanno (New Year’s Day) 1 January. A day to recover from the previous
evening, during which Prosecco will have been drunk, red underwear worn (for luck)
and, in a few places, furniture thrown out of the window in preparation for a new
start (as per an old tradition).
Anniversario della Liberazione (Liberation Day) 25 April. Commemorating the day
in 1945 when Nazi Germany surrendered its claim to Italy. Finds a balance between
celebration and sombre reflection.
Festa del Lavoro (Labour Day) 1 May. The trade unions get their banners out and
go marching, not least to a huge free concert in Rome’s Piazza di San Giovanni.
Most people simply enjoy a day off with a picnic in the park.
Festa della Repubblica (Festival of the Republic) 2 June. The military and the
police force go out on parade to celebrate the republic, as chosen by public vote in
1946. The biggest display marches down Rome’s Via dei Fori Imperiali.
300
Any excuse for a festival
Wherever you are in Italy, at whatever time of year,
you won’t be far from a festival. Any event will usually
be loud, colourful, occasionally dangerous and will last
late into the night. Aside from state and religious dates
(see section 8.2 for the main religious holidays), each
commune in Italy celebrates the day of their particular
saint (some towns even have more than one). Venice,
for example, takes a day off to commemorate St Mark
on 25 April, while Turin, Genoa and Florence pay homage
to St John the Baptist on 24 June. In Rome everything
stops for Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June. Not all local
festivals have this religious base; some observe the
changing of the seasons – and the attendant foodstuffs
– or a long-held rivalry with the next commune, either of
which may involve a protracted historical re-enactment.
Local colour: five Italian fests

Scoppio del Carro in Florence. Reaches a climax on
Easter Sunday when a mechanical dove plummets
through the cathedral and out of the front doors, igniting
a golden carriage packed with fireworks. The resulting
explosion of colour symbolises the Resurrection.
Festa del Redentore in Venice. On the third Saturday of
July, boats form a bridge to Palladio’s Redentore Church,
while Venetians row out into the Giudecca Canal to picnic
and watch a vast firework display. The fest began in the
16th century, held in thanks that the plague had receded.
Carnevale d’Ivrea. The streets of Ivrea, north of Turin,
run with juice in February when nine teams of 3,000
braying fighters fling oranges at each other. Every one
gets a free meal of beans to help build strength before
the battle. The food fight may originate from a revolt of
1194 when locals expelled the Marquis of Monferrato.
Masochists take note: in particularly cold years the
oranges can freeze.
301
Festival drama Guardia Sanframondi’s Riti Settennali di Penitenza.
The Macerata opera Mercifully, the August penitential festival held in Guardia
festival was even more Sanframondi, Campania, only occurs once every seven
exciting than usual in years. It commemorates the discovery of a Madonna and
1995. A faulty bullet
from the Tosca firing
Child statue in a nearby field with pious processions and
squad left the tenor self-flagellation, in which penitents beat their chests with
playing Cavaradossi with a cork containing spikes to draw blood.
a bloody hole in his leg
(for more on opera see Marostica Scacchi. A biennial game of ‘living chess’
section 4.1.3). that takes place in Marostica, north-west of Venice, in
September. It commemorates the day in 1454 when
two noblemen fought for the love of beautiful Lionora
It’s not how often, it’s
by having a chess-off. Today, a large cast in medieval
how well…
costume acts the game out on a giant board at the foot of
Maybe Italians had more
time for love in the days
the town’s 14th century castle.
of Giacomo Casanova,
the 18th century Venetian Italians and their hobbies
adventurer said to have Italians don’t pursue hobbies with quite the intent of
slept with more than other Westerners. Spare time is often simply spent
120 women. In a blow to with other people: chatting, eating and maintaining the
national pride, a recent
Durex Sex Survey placed
bonds of friendship and family. When Italians do partake
Italy 20th in terms of in more orchestrated pastimes, they do the things you
frequency, at 106 times might imagine of a country with such fine food and
a year – way behind the produce (garden and cook), rich heritage (visit galleries
winners Greece at 138 and museums – Italy has more UNESCO World Heritage
times.
sites than anywhere else) and culture (go to the opera
or, more often, watch TV). Another Italian faithful, la bella
figura, ensures they spend a significant amount of time
in clothes shops. And then there’s the passeggiata, the
still popular evening stroll through town; a chance to chat,
flirt, gossip or simply parade around looking good.
Cultural stimulation
During April’s settimana della cultura, culture week, all state-run sights and
museums in Italy are free to enter. In Rome the authorities have also initiated an
annual notte dei musei, a day in May when museums open until 2am.
302
8.8 Passion plays: Italian sport
It’s not life and death… it’s more important than that Bend it like Totti
Sport is as important to modern Italian culture as art, One in five Italians
music or literature. For spectators it can generate a regularly partake in
sport and 60 per cent
passion bordering on hysteria, an expectation of success
of the population will
that inevitably brings despair in defeat. With its animation, get involved on an
temperament, corruption and weakness for the aesthetic intermittent basis. Men
(why head the ball when an overhead kick is on?), sport are more likely to play
reveals much about Italian life. than women.
Participation is popular, although rarely invested with the

aggressive passion of spectating. Towns and villages
across the country have gyms, stadiums, tennis courts
and swimming pools, often thanks to Mussolini. The
dictator ploughed vast amounts of cash into sport in
the 1930s in his quest to prove the athletic prowess of
fascism. Winter sports are also popular with participants,
taking full advantage of ski resorts in the Alps and the
Apennines.
The clamour for success in Italian sport, fanatical when
it comes to football, brings its problems. In Italy, the
beautiful game (and they do it more beautifully than most)
has often been dogged by corruption, an affliction that
reached new depths with the match-fixing scandals of
the 2005/06 season, when the web of deceit between
club owners, managers and referees saw champions
Juventus, the Vecchia Signora (Old Lady) of Italian
football, relegated from Serie A and deducted nine
points while Milan, Reggina, Lazio and
Fiorentina all received lesser penalties.
And it isn’t just football that suffers
from the win-at-all-costs mentality
– numerous Italian cyclists have
been banned for drug taking in the
Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy) bike race.
303
Football scandals are The key sports in Italy
nothing new in Italy
Mussolini was Football
passionate about Football is a religion
football, especially in Italy and everyone
the fortunes of his worships their particular
own team Bologna.
club, although the fervent
Numerous titles came
their way during his time partisanship (at its most
in power, accompanied extreme with the Ultras,
by bizarre score the diehard, flare-lighting
lines and refereeing and sometimes violent
decisions. However,
‘firms’ of supporters) is
Mussolini’s investment
in the national game briefly put aside when the
paid off when Italy won national team play. Only Brazil have won more World
World Cups in 1934 Cups than the Azzurri, named for their azure blue shirts;
and 1938 – even Il the most recent win of four came in 2006. At club level,
Duce couldn’t influence
professional Italian football comprises a national league,
that competition. The
Fascists’ wider funding the Lega Calcio, of two divisions, Serie A and Serie B,
for sport also achieved with 20 and 22 teams respectively. Below this, the Lega
second and third place Pro has two regional Prima Divisiones and three Seconda
respectively in the Divisiones. Italian teams, the old guard of Juventus, Inter
medals table at the 1932
Milan, AC Milan, Roma and Lazio at their heart, have won
and 1936 Olympics.
more European titles than any others on the continent.
Cycling
The Giro d’Italia is second only to the Tour de France in
world cycling, and the Italians watch it in their millions.
You can spot the leader by his pink jersey. Some of Italy’s
most iconic sportsmen have been cyclists. The vitriolic
duels between Gino Bartelli and Fausto Coppi in the
1940s and 50s are still discussed with passion by cycling
fans, no doubt inspiring the millions of amateur cyclists
304
who power over the hills and mountains of Italy each Thanks to the English
weekend. Even the frequent doping scandals in the Giro The cross of St George
don’t seem to dent the sport’s popularity. features in the badges
of two Italian Serie
Motorsport A teams thanks to
The love affair began with the Mille Miglia (Thousand English workers who
Miles), an open-road endurance car race held in the years brought football to Italy
in the 1890s. James
between 1927 and 1957. Drivers died by the dozen (often Richardson Spensley
taking spectators with them), but legends like Clemente established Genoa
Biondetti were born behind the wheel of the two most in 1896 and Alfred
successful teams, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari. In the years Edwards founded AC
since, Italian cars have been a major force in motor sport, Milan three years later.
from Lancia and Fiat in the World
Rally Championships to Ferrari in
Formula One. On two wheels, the
brilliant, controversial Valentino Rossi
has dominated modern MotoGP.
Rossi hasn’t let pit lane punch-ups or
allegations of tax evasion hold him
back, achieving 153 podium finishes
– just a handful behind Giacomo
Agostini who won 15 world titles back
in the 1960s and 70s. Perhaps the
greatest Italian racer of all was Tazio
Nuvolari or Il Mantovano Volante (The
Flying Mantuan), a legend of both car
and bike.
Rugby
A sport growing in popularity (both
for participants and spectators),
boosted by the nation’s entry to the
Six Nations Championship in 2000
and, more recently, with the proposed
acceptance of two Italian club sides
into the prestigious Celtic League of
Irish, Welsh and Scots teams.
305
The crash that ended a The tragedy of Marco Pantani
dream Bald, diminutive Marco Pantani was revered
When the Fiat G-212 as a cyclist who could ride every other
aeroplane carrying the competitor off the road. In 1998, he won both
all-conquering Torino the French and Italian tours – an incredible
football team crashed achievement. When his face was on a
into a Turin hill in newspaper, sales soared; streets were named
1949, Italian football after him; monuments built in his honour; and
was torn apart. All his sponsors saw turnover triple. Loved for
18 players perished. his intellect as much as his athleticism, he
At the time, Torino once explained what drove him to be king of
were the best team in the mountains: “I love the mountains, but in the moment of exertion, I’m filled with
Europe and had won a deep hatred. So I try to shorten the suffering.” And then, in 2004, he was found
the Serie A title for five dead in a cheap Rimini hotel room surrounded by empty booze and medicine bottles
consecutive seasons. and evidence of the cocaine addiction that, it transpired, had plagued his life. The
The national team was nation was plunged into despair.
made up almost entirely
of Il Grande Torino Three Italian sporting legends
players. A year later,
still traumatised, the Pietro Mennea was one of the great track athletes of the
surviving Azzurri refused 20th century. In 1979 he ran the 200m in 19.72 seconds,
to travel to the 1950 a record that stood until 1996. He won gold in the same
World Cup in Brazil by
plane and so embarked
event at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Mennea later
on a long Atlantic sea became an MEP and vociferous anti-doping advocate.
voyage. Without their
best players, the return
Roberto Baggio, Il Divin Codino (The Divine Ponytail),
trip came swiftly. As scored more than 300 goals in his football career. When
for Torino, they’ve only Fiorentina sold him to
won the Scudetto (Serie Juventus for a record fee
A title) once since, in in 1990, there were riots
1976, and have to live
with the agony of seeing
in Florence. A committed
city rivals Juventus take Buddhist, Baggio shunned
all the glory. the trappings of football
stardom preferring to
meditate after a game. He’s
the only Italian to score in
three World Cups: if only
he hadn’t missed a penalty
in the 1994 final against
Brazil…
306
Alberto Tomba or Tomba la Bomba (Tomba the “H I S LEG EN D H A S
Bomb) to his fans, was a slalom skier. Perhaps best B EEN B U I LT N O T
O N T ITLES B U T O N
described as ‘hulking’, he was a policeman in a suburb
M O M E N TS . ”
of Bologna before skiing to three Olympic golds, two Sports Illustrated on
World Championships and nine World Cup season titles. Roberto Baggio
He described himself as the ‘Messiah of Skiing’, had a
reputation for partying and once crossed the finish line
screaming “Sono una bestia” (I am a beast).
Two traditional Italian sports

Calcio Fiorentino)ORUHQWLQH)RRWEDOO
Originally played by aristocrats in the 1600s, teams of
27 proved their physical supremacy by getting the ball
from one end of a huge sand pit to the other. It made
a comeback in the 1930s and still draws huge crowds
in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence each June. These
days, head butting, elbowing, mild choking and the odd
punch all seem allowed, although convicted criminals
aren’t permitted to play. The winning side gets a cow.
Bocce
Every country seems to have its version of bowls or
pétanque; in Italy, competitors traditionally play on a
court of crushed oyster shells (although gravel will do),
throwing their metal balls underarm to gain prime place
next to the jack. In the 20th century, the sport had its
own legend – Umberto Granaglia, world champion on 13
occasions.
307
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Speak the Culture Italy

Neil Thomas Andrew Whittaker Phylip Harries Special thanks to:

Rome, as seen from

3.1 Art and design p89

This series of books and this book are designed to look at

The world is shrinking – made smaller by commerce,

By increasing your cultural knowledge and appreciation

We’re talking about culture in all its guises: the creative

Speak the Culture books sit alongside guidebooks and

1.1 Geography p5 1.2.3 United in name

The Italian landscape can be as varied

and stirring as any; it has peaks, plains

and more volcanoes than the rest of

mainland Europe combined. However,

it’s the breadth and diversity of culture

– the traditions and the sense of

campanilismo – that shape the real

identity of each region.

The 20 regions of modern Italy may have been formally

Five cultural icons from the south

Salvatore Quasimodo (Sicily). The Modica-born poet moved to Messina, aged

Italy is spoiled for history of the kind

you can walk amongst, the sort relived

through architecture, paintings or even

old sewerage systems. More recent

history, from the years of Fascism to the

Years of Lead, can be harder to unearth

yet equally relevant to Italian culture.

Republican Rome: let the good times roll… for some

Key dates The rise of the popes

In the red corner, the pope…

Spain moves in, and brings the Inquisition

1871 Unification is completed, with Vittorio Emanuele II as king.

Nearly Italy but not quite

Black days with the Black Shirts

Beware the lies of march

Nothing speaks of Italy’s

regional variation like language,

even while the creeping national

tongue threatens the dozens of

local dialects still in everyday

use. Similarly, Italian identity,

such as it exists, appears to

resist the call to national unity,

preferring instead the ties of

family and community.

“I LOVE TH E Language, like much else in Italy, is complicated (and

Happy hour in dictionary corner

Green, white and red Identity begins at home

2.1 Literature p55

1. Identity: the Literature

In the land governed by aesthetics,

literature slips under the radar

somewhat. It’s a shame, because Italy

has a long and distinguished literary

tradition; one that began with the

authors of Classical Rome, flourished

through the early Renaissance with

Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, and

continues today with a raft of good

There seems to be an innate Italian apathy towards the

The five Italian classics to read first

The Etruscans almost certainly had their own literature.