All eyes on Umbria
Plus, Florence mayor’s ‘plan’ to tackle overtourism and a Marino exhibition at Rome's Villa Borghese
Two more regional elections took place last week, both of which, I’m pleased to report, offer encouraging signs for Italy’s ailing centre left opposition. In Emilia Romagna, citizens backed the PD candidate Michele de Pascale with a resounding 57% of the vote; an increase of +6% points for the left since 2020. The result is probably unsurprising in the one-time communist heartland, but I have to admit I was relieved to see the “red wall” holding strong despite considerable external pressures. Umbria, meanwhile, provides a more interesting case. The far-right has been governing the region since 2019, during which time abortion rights have been curtailed, the public health system has virtually collapsed and illegal construction has exploded. Despite this mismanagement, Meloni was convinced her coalition could hold on to power. She was wrong. As it transpired, the PD candidate Stefania Proietti organized a brilliant campaign focused on public services and civil rights and she deservedly won the region’s Presidency with 51% support. This is a huge deal. Not only does it prove that today’s left is perfectly capable of winning over rural ‘conservative’ areas, it will also, just as importantly, bolster the PD at national level. For years now, the party has relied on collaborating with the Five Star Movement (M5S) to keep the opposition on the road. This strategy has thusfar failed, as was confirmed in Liguria just last month. This time, in both Emilia and Umbria, the PD convinced the M5S to take a backseat while the party officials lead a largely autonomous campaign. The results speak for themselves. Personally, I’ve long worried about any single party dominating the opposition. Looking at the data, however, there’s no denying it: whatever one’s (reasonable) misgivings, the PD is still best placed to offer a credible alternative to Meloni’s government.
An update on Italy’s refugee crisis, this time from Trieste, the north eastern port city, located on the border with Slovenia and Croatia. While most journalists have, with good reason, focused their attention on the boat crossings in the Central Mediterranean between Libya and Sicily, Trieste is, increasingly, the centre of its own crisis. Most migrants arriving to the city have made their journey along the so-called Balkan route, i.e. they’ve entered Europe via Turkey and proceeded through Serbia, Hungary and Austria to reach Italy. Since 2016, associations have been running informal accommodation points in the city’s ‘silos’ to welcome the new arrivals and offer food, medicine and legal support. In June, however, the local government closed down these spaces, claiming they were unsafe. Taken in isolation, this was not an unreasonable move. The problem is, they’ve offered no replacement. As things stand, then, the situation is dire: hundreds of ‘regular’ registered asylum seekers, awaiting decision on their status, are currently stranded, living in the streets and shipping containers by the old city centre port. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Reports are coming in by the day of rising rates of illness and criminal exploitation among the migrants. As the winter draws in, and the freezing bora wind sweeps the city, I’m afraid the conditions are in place for a truly brutal humanitarian emergency. Check out this piece, in Internazionale, for more information [ITA only]
Florentine readers will no doubt be up to date about the local administration’s somewhat lacklustre plans to tackle overtourism in the city. For those of you outside of the Tuscan capital, however, here’s the gist: last week, the city’s PD mayor Sara Funaro unveiled ten measures which she plans to introduce to address the hot topics of Airbnb, gentrification, overcrowding and the depopulating of the centro storico. On paper this all sounds good. In fact, it’s sorely needed. Looking at the specifics, though, this ‘plan’ leaves much to be desired. Funaro proposes bans on key safes, golf carts and tourist megaphones. She also wants to better regulate rental ID numbers and increase checks on short term lets. With the exception of a few quasi-democratic proposals - a commitment to regular town hall style meetings with residents - that’s basically it. While the administration’s PR people are making a big noise about all this, and the media has covered the proposals with fanfare, this is too little too late. Funaro’s plan is, quite frankly, a damp squib. An insult to residents and a major disappointment for all those who voted for her earlier this year. Che vergogna.
Arts and Culture: Fabricated Headlines
On a cheerier note, a new exhibition has just opened at Rome’s Villa Borghese which looks like a must visit for anyone interested in Baroque art and literature. “Painting and Poetry in the 17th Century: Giovan Battista Marino and the Wonderful Passion” is, as the title suggests, an ambitious attempt to educate the wider public about the close links between verse and pictorial innovation in the years following the Renaissance. Most of us are familiar to some degree with the works of Caravaggio, Bernini, Rubens et al. Far fewer, however, are aware that a Neapolitan poet named Giovan Battista Marino was a major inspiration on all of these figures, and, in parallel, played a vital role in ‘translating’ visual art tropes ‘back’ into the sphere of literature. This show, which opened on Tuesday and runs until February, uses Marino’s work as a frame for interpreting paintings by a series of well known artists including Tintoretto, Frans Pourbus and Nicolas Poussin. According to the curators, Emilio Russo, Patrizia Tosini and Andrea Zezza, this is an opportunity to revitalize the idea of a “mythological encyclopaedia” among contemporary audiences, and, not only that, to use the works to transform the Villa Borghese itself into the kind of “ideal museum” that Renaissance thinkers once dreamed about. Check out this piece by The Art Newspaper for more info and get your tickets here.
I stumbled across an interesting film this week about the fashion industry in Prato, and the migration stories that have so transformed the city’s textile industry. DJ Clark and Mingjie Wang’s Asvoff award winning feature “Made in Italy by the Chinese” tells the story of how this small Tuscan community has been transformed over decades from a centre of artisanal production to a modern industrial town and now, more recently, into a “global factory” for fast fashion which exploits cheap labour and manipulates luxury branding to sell poor quality tat around the world. There have been several documentaries about this issue over the years, and plenty of mediocre books. This effort distinguishes itself by giving an active voice to Chinese protagonists, and to diverse stakeholders that profit from — and have been exploited by — this rapid economic transformation. The film-makers make an admirable effort to avoid simple judgements. This is primarily a factual account which lays out the local reality in clear, understandable terms and which gives ample space to diverse perspectives. The whole feature is 30 minutes long, and it’s available on YouTube for free, so check it out below if you’re interested.
Recipe of the week: Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli
There are a million ways of making broccoli pasta. In Italy, as abroad, some elect to make a pesto with almonds or pine nuts, some prefer flash frying the vegetable with anchovies, leaving the stems crunchy, while others boil the vegetable until it becomes a kind of aromatic soupy mush. Personally, I favour the latter approach, though I’m yet to find a recipe that really does the trick. This week, in an effort to remedy that, I thought I’d give Letitia Clark’s version a go. Clark is generally reliable for these kinds of simple midweek meals, and her suggestion in her latest blog is characteristically enticing. She insists on using orecchiette, a classic choice of pasta shape for vegetable sauces and a good start. What I find particularly appealing, however is her use of herbs. There are no half measures here. Clark chucks in chili, rosemary, garlic and fennel seeds, and she also glugs in a copious quantity of white wine to offer some much-needed sourness. The author describes the result as “a little bitter and iron-tasting and just a whiff cabbagey, a little sweet, a little salty; properly humble and hearty.” The perfect thing, to my mind, for a rainy November eve. Here’s the link.
I’m Jamie Mackay, a UK-born, Italy-based writer, working at the interfaces of journalism, criticism, poetry, fiction, philosophy, travelogue and cultural-history. I set up ‘The Week in Italy’ to make a space to share a regular overview of the debates and dilemmas, innovations and crises that sometimes pass under the radar of our overcrowded news feeds, to explore politics, current affairs, books, arts and food. If you’re a regular reader, and you enjoy these updates, I hope you’ll consider becoming a supporter for EUR 5.00 per month. I like to think of it as a weekly catch-up chat over an espresso. Alternatively, if you’d like to send a one-off something, you can do so via PayPal using this link. Grazie!