Zero Tollerance in Italy

Road accidents in Italy lead to more deaths than in any other European country, according to recent reports in Italian newspapers.

Recently released figures from 2006 regarding Great Britain (3,297), France (4,709), Germany (5,091) and Italy (5,669), clearly put Italy at the top of this macabre road accident death table.  Formerly, Germany, which has a much greater population than Italy, was at the top.

Owing to the poor light shed on Italy by such statistics, and in addition to frighteningly high levels of work related deaths, Italy’s government is introducing a ‘zero tolerance’ policy concerning those caught driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. … Continue Reading

Extrovertly Private

Italy boasts, if that is the right word, long and complex privacy laws, which are supposed to protect its extrovert citizens from excessive prying.

Once, back in 2006, and out of perverse curiosity, I tried to read Italy’s long and complex privacy laws.

The other day, the subject came up once more when I found myself reading How Do You Say Privacy in Italian? over at James Martin’s Wandering Italy blog.  The post demonstrated, in part, that Italians are not really the most private people in the world.  Indeed, as mentioned in the article, Italians do their level best to stick as close as possible to one another.

In restaurants, and this is something I have noticed too, when a group of Italians enters, you can just about put money on the fact that they will sit at a table very close by, if not right next to you.

This gregarious behaviour is not really what you would expect from a country with privacy laws that fill texts as thick as Schwarzenegger’s arm.   James’ theory as to why Italy has privacy laws is similar to my own, but what I wanted to examine was the odd conflict which arises from the natural extroversion of Italians and the lust for privacy which exists here. … Continue Reading

Judith’s Judgement

First of all, I’ve been itching to tell you that next Friday I’ll be posting details of Blog from Italy’s first recipe contest.

As a little incentive, there will also be prizes in the form of three one year subscriptions which have been kindly offered by the US version of highly regarded and wonderfully illustrated cookery magazine – La Cucina Italiana.

La Cucina Italiana Magazine

Judith Greenwood, Blog from Italy’s culinary adviser, along with two of her food expert friends, has kindly agreed to act as a judge.  Thanks Judith and her friends!  In addition, several of those who blog about Italy have agreed to be taste testers.  Big thanks to them too.  You’ll discover who the full team is next week.

Now, as you might know from having perused past Food and Wine Friday features, Judith is a professional chef, who loves both her work and Italian food.  I thought it would be interesting to pose a question to this diva of Italian cucina, so I asked her just what her favourite Italian dish was.

Before reading on to find out, why not have a go at guessing what she might go for, and then click away to see if you were right!

… Continue Reading

Who was Marco Fabrizio?

Apparently, Marco Fabrizio was an Italian singer-song writer from Genoa.  Apart from that, not much is known about this mysterious Italian artist.

According to his biggest fan, two of his songs were: ‘Il Mio Cuore d’Argento’ – ‘My Silver Heart’, and ‘Il Mio Palloncino Blu’ – ‘My Blue Balloon’.  Yes, his ballads had a distinctly romantic tone to them.

Fabrizio reached a ripe old age prior to departing from this earth.  It is possible that he was living in Milan at the time of his death, because I have it on authority he is buried in Milan’s Monumental Cemetery, which is not far from where I am in the city.

His wife and child are still around, although it’s not known where exactly they reside. … Continue Reading

Fabulous Featurific

I’ve just installed an innovative new WordPress plugin – Featurific.  You should be able to see it above the right hand columns.

The way Featurific works is wonderful, and it is highly configurable, and free, free, free!  The guy who put this tasty technology together is one Rich Christiansen. … Continue Reading

Free Camping in Italy

The incidents concerning attacks on German and Dutch tourists in Italy are sweeping the world, and these appalling happenings have been handled rather insensitively by the Italian authorities, as a read of the post on Beppe Grillo’s blog will tell you.

However, something else that is perturbing is that the Italian authorities don’t appear to know their own laws. … Continue Reading