A sense of Déjà vu
Plus, a fire at MoltiVolti and Sanremo memes
It’s old news by now but for the sake of those who have lost track I want to take the opportunity here to close the door on the Presidential election. If you are out of the loop, you haven’t missed much. Italian politics has gone full circle. Sergio Matarella, who was due to stand down this month, has now been voted back into power by parliamentarians who were unable to settle on any other route ahead. Put a little less charitably, but probably more accurately: Italy’s MPs, lacking the gumption to agree on a coherent political line, have once-again embraced the path of inertia. The silver lining, if there is one, is the fact that the centre and far-right have emerged from all this in a particular state of disarray. After weeks of bickering in full public view, Matteo Salvini has finally announced plans to cut ties entirely with his closest rival Georgia Meloni, thereby obliterating their half-baked plan for a joint ascension to power. Yes, Italian democracy remains in an undeniably sorry state. But based on the current parliamentary arithmetic the imminent ‘neo-fascist’ takeover that so many have prophesied has once again been held at bay.
Laura Boldrini, a centre-left politician and ex President of the Chamber of Deputies, is well known in Italy as one of the country’s most high-profile feminists; and she’s faced consistent backlash from her more unenlightened colleagues regarding her defiant statements demanding women’s rights. Well, her new book Questo non è normale [This Isn’t Normal], which was released last year, is selling in huge numbers. And while this is of course a mere drop in the patriarchal ocean, it’s an encouraging sign nevertheless. In the book’s introduction Boldrini makes the case that women are currently experiencing a regression in the struggle for rights which, as a result of violent right-wing rhetoric from politicians and hate speech online, is precipitating a new-kind-of-all-too-familiar-emergency. To tackle this, she offers a concrete road map outlining policies which would help women: from better regulation of social media to more rigorous gender quotas at all levels of politics. Her language is clear and unpretentious and interestingly the book is not aimed primarily at women but at male allies; or as she puts it, “men who know how to wish women well, who value and respect them.” If you read Italian, Boldrini’s work should be on your radar. If not, Roberta Scalise and Claire Provost have published a neat English langue summary of the latest offering in openDemocracy.
A few days ago I received a message from a Sicilian friend informing me that Moltivolti – my favourite bar-café in Palermo - has burnt down in a fire. I used to go to Moltivolti a fair bit when I was living in Sicily; to eat, work and just hang out. Because Moltivolti isn’t really just an eatery, it’s probably one of the best examples of how Palermo is pioneering a progressive approach to migrant inclusion. The space is run by a collective of 14 people from eight different countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Gambia, Italy, Senegal, Spain and Zambia. You’ll find Sicilian pastas and cuscuses on the menu alongside plov, brik, jewelled rices, freekeh and more depending on the day. It’s the atmosphere and events programme, though, that make the place so unique. Trust me, you cannot spend any time there at all without learning something profound about the world we are all living in. The ‘good news’ here is that arson has been excluded; but the damage is still very serious indeed. Residents are banding together to raise funds to help rebuild and they’ve apparently cobbled together over 55,000 euros so far. If you know the space and want to donate something to the effort, here are the bank details.
CONTO CORRENTE: Libera Palermo
IBAN: IT27J0501804600000011253176
FILIALE: Banca Popolare Etica Palermo
CAUSALE: Sostegno Moltivolti Palermo
Arts and culture: peculiar motives
The New Republic put out a fascinating long read the other day about Filippo Bernardini, a 29 year old from Umbria, who has been posing for years as an agent, literary scout and editor in order to scam authors into sending him their unpublished books. Bernardini was arrested by the FBI in 2021 during a trip to America and now faces up to 20 years (!) in prison. Leaving aside the hefty sentence, the strange thing about this story is that nobody really understands his motive. Bernardini didn’t make much money from his trickery. In fact, it actually seems he wasn’t especially interested in financial gain (there are, for example, “several Icelandic short story collections” among his stolen manuscripts). American judges are pursuing the notion that he wanted to pilfer other peoples’ work and pass it off as his own. Another theory holds that the whole affair was part of a strange effort to kickstart his own career as a literary agent. The New Republic’s take, meanwhile, seems to be that Bernardini was actually driven by a descriptive personal vengeance and just wanted to get his own-back on the publishing world that had treated him relatively badly. Whatever his motivations, it’s a curious case and worth clueing up on. So here’s the link.
If you were quietly hoping I was going to get through this entire newsletter without mentioning the Sanremo festival, well I’m sorry to disappoint you. I admit it, hands in the air. I’ve spent so much time on my sofa watching Italy’s trashiest annual music event this week that I frankly feel qualified to be fast-tracked to full-citizenship. Sanremo is a bizarre spectacle. In a way it seems to capture so much that is wrong with this country: the appalling conduct of TV presenters, the schmalzy love ballads, the gropey Berlusconian banter that passes for ‘comedy’. Yet at the same time there can be few better barometers though which to gauge the nation’s pop culture. The first two nights have seen bad-taste but somehow cathartic Covid jokes, a cringe worthy interview with a bashful looking Matteo Berrettini and of course the triumphant return of Eurovision winners Måneskin. As for the music itself, the most popular act so far has been Mahmood and Blanco’s duet ‘Brividi’, closely followed by a baffling earworm called ‘Ciao Ciao’ by La Rappresentante di Lista which you listen to at your own peril. Personally, 99% of the reason I’ve been tuning in is to make sense of the hundreds of memes that are now appearing on my timeline [rigorously in Italian only]…
Recipe of the week: Pork belly with radicchio and hazelnut
This is a very simple dish that somehow tastes far more sophisticated and restauranty than the sum of its parts. I found it a few years ago when I was flicking through Russel Norman’s book Polpo but never got round to making it. Well, earlier this week I paid a midweek trip to the local butcher and set out to rectify that. The result did not disappoint. The meat itself was what you’d expect. Which is to say: porky. The real joy of the dish though was the radicchio which is tossed in the hot meat juices until it wilts before being mixed with hazelnut and vinegar to create an intriguing melange of flavors and textures. I would add just one thing: this is a very fatty dish and the portions indicated are far, far too large. So while I personally gorged this in one go, my eating companion was more circumspect. You could use another cut - shoulder perhaps - for a lighter version. Otherwise, I recommend this slighty stripped-down recipe by La Cigale which is along the same lines.
About Me
My name is Jamie Mackay (@JacMackay) and I’m an author, 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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