A phantom carnival
Black history and Florentine donuts
Amazingly, almost twelve months have passed since Covid-19 started spreading seriously across Northern Italy. I was in Venice at the time, a city I know well, and which, given the early severity of the pandemic there, was one of the first places in Europe to close museums and so on pre-lockdown. I still sometimes find myself flicking through photos I took on that trip, of Piazza San Marco, empty of tourists, and the canals around Cannaregio, where I used to live, populated only with perplexed locals knocking back their spritzes in even larger quantities than usual. February in Venice usually means one thing, the carnival; a festivity the late Jan Morris, once described as “a long gaudy night” where “ostentatious aliens from the jet-set sweep in” to enjoy a “pale reflection” of the baroque tradition. I have to agree. The carnival does pretty-much epitomise all of Venice’s worst characteristics: its superficiality, its unashamed transactionalism and its wastefulness. Having said that, it is rather sad to see how the city is struggling to get by without the support of its usual vampiric clientele. The Guardian published a report this week about the scale of the crisis Venetian businesses are now facing, and, while nobody is going to miss those overpriced trattorie around the Rialto, it still left me with a lump in the throat. I’ve always hoped that one day Venice might find a way to rebuild itself as a sort of pan-Adriatic centre for arts, science and research. That’s probably a romantic pipe dream. Unfortunately it’s now clearer than ever that the city’s main priority in the years ahead will be to prevent the total exodus of its last full-time residents.
For sanity’s sake I want to keep it brief on the electoral politics front. The main news this week is that Mario Draghi, the future PM, has now effectively gained support from almost all of the major parties. Reuters has the details. It’s been funny, and a little depressing, to watch the various leaders construct their post-truth explanations as to what’s going on. Matteo Renzi is presenting himself as some kind of 5D chess god, and is now claiming that getting Draghi in was his plan all along. Beppe Grillo, who founded the Five Star Movement, is also urging his populist supporters to support Draghi on the basis that the ex-Chief of the ECB is in fact, somehow, an anti-establishment figure. Matteo Salvini, meanwhile, who has made his political name by stoking up xenophobia against migrants and slagging off the EU, is now apparently ready to renounce all his extremist beliefs for a seat at the big boys’ table. I’ve got nothing to add here. Though I did come across an incredible stat this week, courtesy of the researcher Paolo Gerbaudo: Italy has apparently had 1390 days of technocratic, unelected government since WWII... that’s four years! The second worst culprit, Greece, trails behind at a comparatively stable 397 days. If you needed any other evidence of Italy’s post-democratic conundrum then this should do the trick. I’ve also discovered, somewhat surprisingly amidst all the nationalist sabre rattling, that Italians are relatively well-disposed towards the idea of a more integrated European Union. Might there be a connection here I wonder?
The other main story this week concerns vaccines. There are, as I’m sure you’ve read, still major delays on the EU rollout. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has taken personal responsibility for this, pointing out, quite reasonably, that the task of administering doses to 27 member states, with a population of 448 million in a fair and equal manner presents a challenge. Still, as Eyck Freymann and Elettra Ardissino have demonstrated in this excellent explainer for Foreign Policy, under-procurement and overzealous regulators have, without doubt, made things worse than they might otherwise have been. As of Wednesday, Italy has administered 2.7 million doses, and, as such, it’s slipped behind Germany and France. This is all set to change, apparently, once Draghi takes over. The health authorities are now making some big claims: the official estimate is that 10 million vaccines will be administered each month by Easter, more than most other member state targets, and this does sound realistic (source). There’s also an interesting note about procedure. In light of concerns that the AstraZeneca vaccine might not be effective against some of the new strains (e.g. the South African variant) Italy’s health authorities have come up with a plan to distribute the Pfizer and Moderna jabs to over 55s, and to reserve the apparently less robust inoculations for the ‘young’. None of this is going to make up for the ongoing delays, of course, but it does, at least, seem like a sensible precaution…
Art and culture: (how) can Italians talk about racism?
Last month I was sent an advance copy of Niven Govinden’s new novel ‘Diary of a film’ which I’ve just got round to reading. The book is set in Italy, in the city of ‘B.’ during a ‘prestigious festival’ and it follows a flaneurish narrator while he wanders around musing about art, architecture, sex and identity. I knew from the blurb this was going to be my kind of book, and 40 pages in it’s already up there with the best I’ve read this year. Govinden narrates in these long almost uninterrupted paragraphs that flow on and on, capturing all the rhythms of an over-caffeinated mind loitering about in conference centres and chain smoking in front of hotel lobbies to escape the anxieties of small talk. The writing reminds me a bit of Sartre in The Roads to Freedom trilogy; or perhaps a French new wave film, in the best way possible. It also happens to be out next week, and you can order it from the UK Hatchette site, or download from your favourite ebook provider.
February - as you may know already - is Black History Month, and while Italians have, in the past, been lamentably disorganised in marking the occasion, I’m pleased to say Florence is one of the few exceptions. For many years now, writers and activists here have been working hard to uncover some important forgotten stories, about the slave labour that built the renaissance city, the struggles of undocumented workers, and the colonial politics of the coffee trade among other things. Despite the pandemic the 2021 programme is filled with interesting-looking Zoom events, which you can check out here, and the English-language newspaper, The Florentine, is offering in-depth coverage. I also want to make a shout out for a new podcast by Nadeesha Uyangoda, Nathasha Fernando and Maria Mancuso called Sulla Razza (Italian only I’m afraid). The show, which will go online twice per month, for a total of twelve episodes, promises to ‘translate’ words that have theoretical relevance in Anglo-American discourse into Italian, as a means of helping all of us who speak the language re-think how we talk about race and racism. The first edition goes live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google tomorrow. In the meantime, though, check out the trailer here.
There’s a small nugget of good news this week for Italy’s cultural sector. According to an article in Variety Netflix still plans to go ahead with opening its local Rome hub this autumn. They’ve made a few announcements too. Releases for 2021 are due to include a new feature by Paolo Sorrentino, called Hand of God, which stars Toni Servillo and is currently being filmed in Naples; a series about “racism, rap, and young black Italians”, written by Antonio Dikele Distefano, which is called Zero; and an adaptation of Marco Missiroli’s novel Fedeltà, which won Italy’s top literary prize, the Premio Strega, in 2019. Italian Netflix is, apparently, looking to expand its full-time staff ahead of the opening, and just FYI for any freelance creatives that are reading, they’re also open to receiving pitches. Frankly, though, speaking for myself, I’m just pleased there’s going to be some better Italian TV on the horizon.
Recipe of the week: Frittelle di riso
I don’t have much of a sweet tooth so I’m afraid there won’t be many dolci in this part of the newsletter. It is carnival time, though, so I feel obliged to make an exception. In Italy, every region (indeed it sometimes seems every tiny village) has its own special treats. Here in Florence we have the schiacciata alla Fiorentina, a kind of spiced orange cake with a massive cacao rendering of the giglio, the city’s flag, on top; then there are conci, ‘flakes’ of crispy dough, with powdered sugar which are pretty tasty with coffee or any kind of mousse. My favourite though, are the frittelle di riso which are basically small, very moist, rice-filled doughnuts. They’re easy to make but - speaking from experience - tricky to perfect. Emiko Davies’s recipe is a good starting point. If you’re going to try this, though, you really ought to make a filling of simple crema pasticcera to go inside. The results, particularly when consumed with a drop of vin santo or other dessert wine, are far more than the sum of the parts, I promise. For more tasty Tuscan treats, Emiko’s book, Florentine, was recently re-issued in a beautiful new edition, with an updated city guide. It’s still, probably, the best English language journey through the city’s authentic, and generally pretty simple cuisine. I highly recommend it.
That’s it for this week. Thanks, as ever, for reading. If you haven’t already please do follow the ‘Week in Italy’ Facebook page, or my twitter, for a few extra links and easy-access to the substack archive. I’m going to try and build-up the audience around this over the next few weeks, so if you do feel like sharing with any friends that would be great. Grazie.
About Me
My name is Jamie Mackay and I’m a writer, editor and translator based in Florence. I’ve been writing about Italy for a decade for international media including The Guardian, The Economist, Frieze, and Art Review. I launched ‘The Week in Italy’ to share a more direct and regular overview of the debates and dilemmas, innovations and crises that sometimes pass under the radar of our overcrowded news feeds.
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