This isn't the post that I had labored over before TypePad disappeared it. But in my many travels to Italy there are some strange and wonderful things I have noticed about the country and its people.
1. Italians are always feeling chilly. No matter how hot the weather, you will always see someone bundled up in many layers of clothing and, for good measure, a wool scarf wrapped around the neck. Oh and many times with gloves. An Italian acquaintance says it's from "carenze di affetto" (lack of affection from, who else, mamma). I think it's from too damned much affection.
2. Italian grandmothers insist on twirling curls allover the head of their hapless little nipotino. This I have seen in America too, but always among Italian grandmothers.
3. Young men of a certain serious and intellectual disposition walk around slowly, in an almost crouching way, as if they were prematurely old. Often with a heavy coat over their shoulders, which are already burdened with a heavy sports coat or suit jacket, sweater vest and both necktie and scarf. Often in quite mild weather. Are these guys very sick, almost invalids? Are they afraid of drafts? Or are they simply afraid of seeming young and unserious?
This may explain the peculiar demeanor of Italian politicians. Very old-lady-like.
4. You don't notice a lot of fresh fruit on the table. Maybe because it's a pain in the ass to eat it with a knife and fork.
5. Northerners always attribute the worst motives, habits and character traits to people farther south. A foreigner among them doesn't see that many differences, except that the Southerners tend not to wear long expressions implying gravitas or heartburn, or for that matter gloves and scarves when it's 75F (25C).
6. Men on Italian TV tend not to comb their hair. The hair may be quite long, but I guess it's a signal that "even though I'm on the tube, I'm not a bourgeois robot like the rest of you." In the spirit of 1968.
7. Like Augustus, Mussolini built in fine stone. But the style of architecture...
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