Italian Language Blog

Yesterday I was browsing through the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, when I came across this touching little story which exemplifies the spirit of Christmas:

Pensionata sorpresa a rubare, i Carabinieri prima l’arrestano e poi la invitano a pranzo
Pensioner caught stealing, Carabinieri (the Military Police force) first arrest her and then invite her for lunch

I militari di Torgiano (Perugia) sono intervenuti in un supermercato dove i titolari avevano pizzicato una donna a rubare carne per un valore di 20 euro. L’intervento dei militari ha consentito di fermare la donna che stava tentando di allontanarsi e di recuperare l’intera refurtiva. Una volta condotta in caserma, la donna, una pensionata 60enne, ha ammesso con un certo imbarazzo le proprie responsabilità.

The soldiers from Torgiano (near Perugia in Umbria) intervened in a supermarket where the owners had caught a woman stealing meat to the value of 20 Euros. The soldiers’ intervention prevented the woman from trying to get away, and allowed them to recover all the stolen goods. Once taken into the police station, the woman, a 60 years old pensioner, admitted with some embarrassment that she was responsible.

Ma la storia non è finita con la stesura del verbale. Dopo aver raccontato ai Carabinieri la dinamica del furto, ha spiegato i motivi del suo gesto, dettato dal fatto di non avere i soldi per fare la spesa e di non sapere come fare a sbarcare il lunario con la magra pensione. I militari, commossi dalla sincerità della donna, dato anche il periodo di feste, prima hanno fatto una colletta per farle la spesa e poi l’hanno invitata a pranzo.

However, the story did not end with the writing up of the report. After having recounted to the Carabinieri how she carried out the theft, she explained why she did it, provoked by the fact of not having any money to do her shopping and not knowing how to make ends meet with her meagre pension. The soldiers, moved by the woman’s sincerity, especially during the Christmas period, first made a collection in order to do her shopping, and then invited her for lunch.

La pensionata, pur consapevole dell’errore commesso per il quale risponderà di furto davanti alla magistratura di Perugia, non ha mancato di ringraziare i Carabinieri per l’umanità e la gentilezza dimostrati.

The pensioner, despite being conscious of her mistake for which she will have to answer for her crime before the magistrates of Perugia, didn’t fail to thank the Carabinieri for the humanity and kindness which they showed her.

Auguro a tutti i miei lettori un Nuovo Anno sereno, e che il 2012 non veda più poveri pensionati costretti a rubare, e che i giornali riportino più notizie piene di amore e solidarietà!

Best wishes to all my readers for a peaceful New Year, hoping that in 2012 we no longer see poor pensioners forced to steal, and that the newspapers report more stories full of love and solidarity!

Serena

On the 10th of December this year, Angela Casella, best known in Italy as ‘Mamma Coraggio’ (Mother Courage), died at the age of 65.

The story begins on the evening of the 18th of January 1988, when her eighteen year old son Cesare Casella was kidnapped in his hometown of Pavia, in the North of Italy. His kidnappers were a gang linked to the ‘ndrangheta, the Calabrese Mafia in the south of Italy, which in the Seventies and Eighties had created a ‘professional’ kidnapping industry known as Anonima Sequestri (Kidnapping Anonymous).

I sequestratori (the kidnappers) first asked for an eight billion Lira (a huge sum at that time) ransom, which, after a lot of negotiation, was reduced to one billion Lira. Cesare’s family paid the ransom in August 1988, but the kidnappers did not release the boy. After a long silence they demanded another five billion Lira. Cesare’s father wasn’t a rich man, he was a car dealer, and Angela worked as a secretary in the family business. They didn’t have that sort of money, and weren’t allowed to raise the required amount by the Italian State. Their bank account and any other assets had in fact been frozen by the authorities in order to implement the so called ‘linea dura’ (hard line) in an attempt to discourage would-be abductors by removing the profit motive.

In desperation, after long months  of silence with only sporadic contacts,  Angela Casella decided to travel down to Calabria to try and gain the solidarity of the Calabrese women, and thereby rompere il muro dell’omertà (break through the wall of the Mafia’s ‘conspiracy of silence’). In June 1989, seventeen months after her son was kidnapped, Angela toured the towns and villages of Aspromonte, a very wild region of Calabria, chaining herself in the piazze (squares) and sleeping in a tent to demonstrate to the locals the conditions in which her son had been kept for nearly a year and a half.

The images of this desperate mother shown on television and in newspapers shocked the whole country, and Angela eventually became known as Mamma Coraggio (Mother Courage). Her actions also succeeded in putting pressure on the Italian Police and Government, who felt constrained to send the Army to help with the search. The negative outcome of Angela’s campaign was that the Anonima Sequestri declared that they could not release Cesare without some further ransom because it would mean loosing face to a woman!

In December 1989 the Police trapped and arrested one of the kidnappers when he went to collect the new ransom of half a billion Lira. Finally, on the 30th of January 1990, 743 days after he was kidnapped, Cesare was released because his kidnappers felt that the police were now hot on their trail and they could no longer hide him. However, apart from the kidnapper caught at the ransom drop none of the rest of the band were ever found.

Addio, Mamma Coraggio!

Many are calling it La Festa della Liberazione. It’s the 12th November 2011, and our infamous ‘Cavaliere’, Silvio Berlusconi, has finally been forced to resign by the international community. Celebrations of this scale for the departure of a political leader have not been seen here in Italy since Mussolini was deposed in 1943!

This video gives an  insight into the euphoria and huge sense of relief felt by millions of Italians:

Here is a selection of the cori (chants) which you can hear in the video translated into English (Warning, contains offensive language):

Buffone Buffone Buffone (Fool Fool Fool)

Berlusconi pezzo di merda ……… Berlusconi pezzo di merda (Berlusconi piece of shit……… Berlusconi piece of shit)

Bridisi! (Toast! – with Spumante)

Te ne vai o no, te ne vai sì o no? Te ne vai o no, te ne vai sì o no? (Are you going or not, are you going yes or no? Are you going or not, are you going yes or no?)

Facci cenare oh Silvio facci cenare … facci cenare oh Silvio facci cenare (Let us have our dinner, oh Silvio let us have our dinner … Let us have our dinner, oh Silvio let us have our dinner)

In the middle of the video you see an orchestra and choir perform the Hallelujah Chorus in front of Il Palazzo del Quirinale where Berlusconi handed in his resignation.

Our president Giorgio Napolitano has appointed the highly respected apolitical economist Mario Monti as the new Prime Minister and asked him to form an emergency government in order to tackle Italy’s deepening financial crisis.

Above: a member of the crowd at the celebrations in Rome holds a placard that reads ADDIO SILVIO, NON CI MANCHERAI! (FAREWELL SILVIO, WE WON’T MISS YOU)

Speriamo bene!