Slagging off Italy

OK, I admit it, I do go on rather negatively about the living museum at times, but warts and all, I prefer Italy to my home country the UK. Why?

Well, I thought England was getting too violent, many people who work in the country seem to be on the road to deep depression and I dare not give my opinion about the people purporting to run the country, the language I would use would be offensive. Plus, they might send MI6 after me. Not.

Italy and the UK have quite a lot in common with regard to the standard of their political masters. Enough said. Young Italians don’t generally feel the need to drink themselves into a stupor every Friday night, which means you can walk home from the pub without having any fear of getting beaten up. Italy has real seasons and when everybody says that it is summer, it really is. 90% of Italy is stunningly beautiful, where as only about 50% of the UK is just about beautiful. The mountains are real high things, with white peaks, just like you see in the movies. The UK would need serious plastic surgery to achieve anything resembling mountains. There are not as many ugly looking people here. Even the hardened football hooligans here tend to look quite normal, whereas you can often tell that someone is ‘orrible in the UK just by looking at them. (People here think I look like a football hooligan….don’t even like the game)

Shall I mention food? No, not worth it. Italy beats the UK hands down. Wins on wine too, but fails miserably on the beer front.

It’s fairy easy to be negative, but not quite as easy to be positive I often find. I was a real optimist in my youth, but age and experience seem to be turning me into something of a pessimist. We get older, and wiser, but do we get happier? I, for one, am not so sure. My, that was a pessimistic thought. Bedtime, I feel. Got a meeting to talk to a man about a contract. Well, this is Italy. Wink. Wink.

A quick post

It’s hot and humid. Very hot and humid here. (30+ degrees C, but feels like 40 degrees – hot) I’m sitting here in my undies with the fan blowing towards me and the laptop, which has been giving signs that it too is starting to suffer from the effects of the heat.

The vampire like creatures that go by the common name of mosquitoes are feasting on my blood, as usual.

I’m worried that my pc is going to keel over and die from the heat, come to think of it, it’s not the only thing that may keel over.

Trying to understand how to connect web pages to databases, with some success, but not yet enough to do what I want to do.

Playing with a CMS system which goes by the name of Mambo – open source, free and very powerful. *CMS – Content Management System – a sort of easier way to keep a website up to date.

And finallyish, my poor overworked computer has joined the Apache tribe!

And finally, the vote on introducing test tube babies into the living museum was a flop – most probably because not many could be bothered to stay in the main cities and go and vote on account of the heat. Good tip if you don’t want people to vote: hold your election on a weekend in a hot month of the year – everyone will be out of town and therefore won’t go to any polling stations.

That’s it. Got to attempt to get some sleep – not easy with the little vampires buzzing around in their endless search for blood, I can tell you.

A referendum

This Sunday and Monday Italians will have the opportunity to vote on the issue of ‘assisted fertility’, something which is illegal under current Italian law.

Why is it illegal? Well there seem to be a couple of reasons. Firstly, the Pope and his church are against it, because the Roman Catholics thinks that helping people to have babies is too close to playing God and thus interfering with something which should not be interfered with by mere mortals. However the Pope and his minions were also dead against divorce and abortions, two other issues over which referendums were held. On both of these past occaisons the Italian people largely ignored the preachings of the church and voted to introduce both of them. Italian people two, Roman Catholic church zero.

Another reason why Italy has not been overly keen to help couples have children could possibly be that some people have been making money out of organising fertility treatment abroad. If you can find the money, you can go to Spain for treatment. Cost: around 15,000 Euros initially and more later. This is the sum a person we know was quoted. It seems like a good wedge of cash and someone, quite possibly Italian intermediators have been making quite a lot of money from those who just want to have a child. It is possible that such people are against any change in Italian law on the grounds that it would dent their nice incomes.

A lot of well known personalities and a few well respected members of the medical profession here have come out in support of a change in Italian law permitting fertility treatment. On the basis of this it would seem that the law may well be changed, despite the attempts of the chruch and others who are saying either vote ‘no’ or stay away from the polling booths – which is the same as voting no, seeing as at least 50 percent of the population (plus 1) must vote for the results of this referendum to be considered valid.

It does seem a little strange that in a country which has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, but at the same time dotes upon its children that assisted fertility treatment was not introduced years ago. But then Italians and change do not great bedfellows make.

A game for the kids of all ages

Coming to the living museum this summer? Driving here by any chance? Well, if you are you could try this little game. Let’s call it ‘Spot the different types of eateries.’

How do you play? Easy you look for these different types of eatery:

• Bar – 1 point
• Bar tabaccaio – 2 points
• Bar ristorante – 2 points
• Bar pizzeria – 2 points
• Bar ristorante pizzeria – 3 points
• Bar ristorante pizzeria tabaccaio – 4 points
• Albergho/hotel bar ristorante pizzeria tabaccaio – 5 points (quite rare and you’ll have to be going pretty slowly

A ‘tabaccaio is a place where evil smokers can stock up on ciggies and other smokables (And buy stamps, pay fines, do the pools, pay your TV licence (which not many people do), buy sweets, pens, toys and a host of other things you never knew you didn’t need).

You could reward the highest scoring kid with a free ticket home or something, because they will probably drive you mad with this little activity and sending them back home may seem the only option which will preserve your sanity!!

Have fun!

How to Survive the Summer Heat in Italy

If you’ve read some of the other posts on this blog you may know about the heat which dominates Milan, and just about everywhere in Italy from around June until the end of September.  Here’s what you can try to do to keep yourself from going mad and survive daily life in Italy in the heat of the summer season.

Italy and Italians are generally quite used to the heat, with the possible exception of one or two hardy types who live high up in the northern mountains.

So what do Italians do to try to deal with the absurd heat levels? Well, here in Milan there are several things Italians do, but perhaps the most common, and preferred, method of handling the heat, is that of escape.  Milan does get very hot indeed during summer, but other Italian cities such as Rome and Florence can be stifling too.

Every weekend during the hot season much of Milan’s population runs for the hills at the weekends or charges off for the seaside (the lucky few alternate – having two houses to choose from).

This would seem to be the ideal solution, at least on the face of it.

… Continue Reading

How could it happen?

It’s boiling hot here. Putting on a suit for work is a torture. The simple act of putting up three shelves caused yours truly to break out in sweat. So how the blazes can I have ended up with a sort of summer flu? Aches and pains, snotty and coughy. I’m feeling pretty groggy. I just don’t understand how I can end up with a cold right in the middle a heat wave. Must be old age or something and I’m sure the smoking doesn’t help either. Must give up (How many times have I said this?).