Inking Italy

Italian Students Aren't Giving Thanks Today

 

Italy's students have taken to the streets this week, creating commotion in cities from Bari to Bologna, Palermo to Parma. And, of course, in Rome.

Yesterday, more than 2,000 students marched on Rome's Senate building, throwing tear gas and eggs until they were attacked by the police. Students also blocked the train tracks in Siena, keeping any trains from moving in or out of the city, took over the Leaning Tower of Pisa so tourists couldn't enter, and occupied 16 schools in Palermo... to name just a few of the demonstrations taking place in more than 100 Italian cities this week.

In Rome, at least, the protests today seem to be a little tamer than yesterday* -- when I saw the students march from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum at 2pm, it looked like only about 200. But here's the interesting thing: That still was enough for the police to close off each street the students took over, completely snarling up the already-bad traffic on a rainy Rome day. Carabinieri also blocked off a section of the street to keep anyone from getting even within a literal stone's throw of Berlusconi's Palazzo Grazioli.

And for a city with so many police that on a normal day it already looks like it's preparing for imminent attack, well, today Rome looked like an actual war zone. Police cars and ambulances screamed down the streets, their sirens blaring. Huge trucks silently carried carabinieri and guardia di finanza from mysterious point A to mysterious point B. And everywhere, everywhere were uniformed, gun-toting officers, of some kind or another. Below, a blue-helmeted crew at the Colosseum, where the students stood out front, peacefully chanting and banging away at their drums. Why are students so ticked? Well, because of budget cuts, of course. The Parliament's currently debating a bill that would cut 9 billion euros and 130,000 jobs from the education sector. Ouch.

But it is -- of course -- about more than that. Anger with the Berlusconi government seems to be at a boiling point, and that's not just true for students.

So while all the police around the city right now might just be there to make sure that another government building doesn't get attacked the way the Senate did, I think there's something more to it. Because they must realize that, by putting every street the 200 20-somethings walk down under virtual lock-down, they're just making the protesters seem even more powerful. It's as if they think the handful of students protesting in Rome today are just the frontrunners, or symbols, of something much, much bigger.

And maybe they're right.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, read this for an Italian academic's take on the whole thing.

In Italy, Even the Mafia and Media Work Together

I got a glimpse this morning of the cozy fascinating relationship in Italy between the media... and the mafia. And I hadn't even had coffee yet.

Here's why:

In case you can't tell, and I know it's hard to, this is a long list of published names. They're people who wrote in as part of a petition against Roberto Saviano -- you know, the guy who's currently risking his life to speak out against mafia infiltration in Italy and who authored Gomorrah. Yes, you read that right. They're against him.

Why? Because he made the mistake of saying, on the popular new television show Viene Via Con Me, that the mafia has infiltrated northern Italy. And that high-ranking politicians, including those in the ostensibly anti-mafia Lega Nord, are in on the whole game. These signers* say that he's wrong. (That's despite the fact that there is a ton of evidence to the contrary, including facts and figures gathered by the DIA, Italy's official anti-mafia organization).

*As the article linked to above points out, the petition can be "signed" by e-mail, text or fax -- so who knows who exactly is behind the names.

What's fascinating to me isn't so much that the mafia's (almost) as pervasive in northern Italy as it is in the south, or that politicians are involved. (I'm surprised that surprises anyone, except for the most anti-southern and myopic northern Italians). It's that you would see a major national newspaper in Italy getting up in arms about somebody actually having the guts to say this. And calling for a petition against him.

Then again, it's Il Giornale. And if you flip to the back page , you see why that's important.

If you don't have eagle-eye vision, let me spell it out for you: Il Giornale is published in Milan, which happens to be both the major (mafia?) hub in the north... and the hometown of the Berlusconis. Not only that, but some of the names are pretty interesting. At the top, there is, of course, Vittorio Feltri, the paper's editor and such a longtime loyalist to Berlusconi that when he recently told a rival paper that Berlusconi "didn’t do a lot of things that he should have done," it was seen as such a sign of change that the New York Times used it as an example of how Berlusconi's allies are defecting.

Listed under consiglieri, meanwhile, are personalities like Fedele Confalonieri, chairman of Mediaset and the guy behind the quote "If Berlusconi had not entered politics, today we would all be in jail or under some bridge." And then there are the Berlusconis themselves, three of them: Paolo (Silvio's brother) and his two daughters, Alessia and Luna.

But none of this should surprise you, really. After all, Il Giornale was owned by Silvio Berlusconi until 1994, when he sold it to his brother.

And you know who really doesn't like hearing crap about his hometown of Milan... or bad things about his politician buddies in the Lega Nord or elsewhere... or anything at all about his own enthusiastic involvement in inability to root out corruption in Italy?

Yep. That'd be the prime minister.

See, I told you it would be interesting.

Using Old Rome for New Events...the Debate Continues

Just days after my own ruminations about how Rome tries to incorporate its ancient past into modern events, a spate of stories have highlighted the danger in doing so.

A Reuters story published today writes about how Legambiente, a national environmental group, is protesting Rome's use of the Villa Borghese, the lovely, historic park that's been used for concerts, festivals, and to host viewings of the World Cup. They say the trash and graffiti left behind is destroying the park, never mind the wear and tear of thousands of people -- and the big, heavy setups that such concerts and events usually require -- on the park's delicate gardens and 17th-century statues. I can't imagine they're wrong.

And the Associated Press writes about how vandals are destroying Rome, leaving anti-pope graffiti on the Scala Santa, knocking noses off of statues in the Protestant Cemetery, and dyeing the Trevi Fountain.

These issues are, of course, just the tip of the iceberg in a city where keeping up so many historic structures would be hard and costly enough even without thousands of people trampling through them. And so the question remains: Is it better to open up Rome's sites to modern use, or focus on preservation and conservation? And can they go hand in hand?

Examples of other recent events that stress sensitive sites -- but highlight them, too -- include:

Summer jazz concerts in Villa Celimontana, a 16th-century park strewn with ancient ruins

The swimming pool and resort on the top of the Celian hill, archaeologically sensitive for its ancient ruins and medieval churches

Summer opera in the ancient Baths of Caracalla

And the list goes on...

Vandals Attempt to Dye the Trevi Fountain Red... Again

Picture this, but with just a tinge of red before the police got in there with their scoopers.

It strikes me as just a little odd that the city that once played host to Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, Caravaggio and Fellini -- to name just a few -- has experienced the same exact joke now. Twice.

Seriously. It's not even that good. Where did all the creativity go?

Read the full AFP story here.