{"id":10894,"date":"2016-01-28T11:32:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T10:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=10894"},"modified":"2016-01-28T21:05:23","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T20:05:23","slug":"proud-to-be-italian-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/proud-to-be-italian-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Proud To Be Italian? Part – 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last post Proud To Be Italian? Part – 1<\/a><\/span> mi sono sfogata abbastanza<\/strong> (I vented my frustration quite a bit), but I make no excuses, I’d be lying if I maintained the stereotypical fantasy of la bella Italia<\/strong>. There are, however, many aspects of Italian culture that I am proud of, and today I’d like to tell you about a few of them.<\/p>\n

Serena’s list of things that make living in Italy worthwhile:<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Campanilismo (Provincialism)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mountjoy\/9656430195\"<\/a>

Venezia, Regata Storica. Photo: Jon MountJoy, Flickr Photo Sharing<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Really, campanilismo! This is a concept that has many negative connotations in Italian such as narrow mindedness, lack of cooperation and so on, but strangely it also has its positive side: variety. Travelling around Italy one is amazed by the sheer variety of everything, from local recipes to strange and wonderful festivals. Campanilismo nurtures traditions that have become amorphic or lost altogether in many other cultures. See for example A Huge Italian Bonfire – Part 1<\/a><\/span><\/strong> and\u00a0 Part 2<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

La Gente (The People)<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nIn Italy, due to the terrible bureaucracy and lack of infrastructure it’s very important to know the right people if you want to get anything done. Fortunately there are many good people to be found. Many public employees are themselves incredibly frustrated by the inefficiency of, well, everything! This means that they are often well disposed to helping the normal citizen to aggirare le regole stracomplicate<\/strong> (find ways around the overcomplicated rules).<\/p>\n

Il Cibo (The Food)<\/span> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"veg-in-capo-market-palermo-001\"<\/a>

Oh, che bei carciofi!<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

I’m not referring to Italy’s famous cuisine, but to the Italian passion for ingredienti nostrani<\/strong> (local ingredients). Most of the best known Italian dishes are simple, but require the best ingredients in order to live up to their name. I know, I’ve tried making Italian recipes in Northern European countries, but without my fresh sun kissed local pomodori<\/strong>, basilico<\/strong> or aglio<\/strong> (tomatoes, basil, or garlic) … it just isn’t the same. Fresh local produce is readily available in Italy, and is, in fact, what Italians search for in the shops, avoiding if they can imported ‘rubbish’!<\/p>\n

Il Bar (The Bar)<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nIn Italy you’ll always find a bar (or twenty) open! The ubiquitous unpretentious local bar caters for everyone, from infants to their great grandparents. And perhaps because there’s so much competition, and because we Italians are great connoisseurs, the quality is nearly always good, even in the motorways service areas! Which leads me onto …<\/p>\n

Caff\u00e8 (Coffee)<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nOh, how I missed it when I lived in England. Well, what can I tell you about Italian coffee that you don’t already know? Not much, except that variety, once again, is the key. There’s a type of caff\u00e8 to suit just about everyone, unless, of course, you don’t like it!<\/p>\n

Musei e Gallerie (Museums and Galleries)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Lascapigliata-001\"<\/a>

Parma, Galleria Nazionale: Leonardo, La Scapigliata (Photo: CC)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In many countries the great works of art and important historical treasures are stored in big important national museums in the main cities. But due once again to the fragmented nature of our peninsula, important art and monuments can be found in many relatively small out of the way places. Here’s just one example: La Scapigliata<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Teatri (Theatres)<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nThe same holds true for theatres as it does for works of art. Here in Italy we have a tradition of high quality travelling companies which include some very famous actors. It’s not necessary to travel to Rome or Milan to see a great show because superb theatre can also be found in tiny provincial theatres, such as Il Teatro Della Rosa<\/strong><\/a><\/span> here in Pontremoli.<\/p>\n

Paesaggio e Clima (Landscape and Climate)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"251894_10151009547237639_1274442585_n\"<\/a>

La Costa Ligure. Photo by Geoff<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

If you enjoy the landscape we have just about everything to offer here in Italy: beautiful coastlines and the highest mountains in Europe, green plains and rocky hills, lakes nestled amongst amazing peaks, huge rivers, dramatic torrents and waterfalls, active volcanoes and myriads of large and small islands. All of this within a relatively small land mass. Plus, due to Italy’s long narrow profile, the climate varies dramatically from north to south, and from east to west. If you were feeling ambitious, you could even go skiing in the Alps in Trentino Alto Adige in the morning and snorkelling in the blue Sicilian sea in the afternoon … although it might be a bit of a rush!<\/p>\n

There, I feel much better now, I think I’ll go and unpack my suitcase again …<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

In my last post Proud To Be Italian? Part – 1 mi sono sfogata abbastanza (I vented my frustration quite a bit), but I make no excuses, I’d be lying if I maintained the stereotypical fantasy of la bella Italia. There are, however, many aspects of Italian culture that I am proud of, and today…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":10927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[385956,351099,8626],"class_list":["post-10894","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-italian-museums-and-art-galleries","tag-italian-traditions","tag-leonardo-da-vinci"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10894"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10930,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894\/revisions\/10930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}