Yesterday, as I was walking home from the bus stop I noticed a leaflet on a lamp post announcing that Elly Schlein current leader of the centre-left opposition party the Partito Democratico would be giving an impromptu meeting that very evening at Fiesole’s old socialist folk festival, the Festa de l’Unita’. Frankly, the Festa de l’Unita’ deserves a post in its own right. It’s my favourite local event of the year: communal tables, volunteer staff, five euro pasta dishes, live music, the whole village out, good vibes… it’s the best - the only? - thing the old left has going for it these days. Naturally I was pleased to see Schlein touring the old heartlands, so I went to listen with open ears. The atmosphere was buzzing. There were about 200 people of all ages; kids on swings, adults sipping spritzes in the afternoon sun, students flicking through textbooks. At 19.30, an hour later than scheduled, the leader turned up in a van. There was minimal security. Two half-asleep looking carabinieri. A small pocket of chain-smoking journalists. But when Schlein took to the stage the crowd was ecstatic. A young woman next to me started the chant - “Elly, Elly, Elly!” - and before long a chorus had joined in. “Non sei sola Elly!,” chimed in the MC, the party’s provincial coordinator, “siamo in tanti!” [you’re not alone Elly, there are lots of us here!”]
Schlein took the mic and began by announcing the launch of what she and her comms team are calling a “militant summer”; a label which, obviously, makes more sense in the context of a local party meeting than as a public soundbite. In practical terms her team wants to communicate that the PD now has seven new policy priorities: health, work, housing, environment, feminism, migration and LGBTQI+ rights. These general themes, in theory, will shape the party’s concrete actions. Right now, she told those assembled, the PD is building a cross-party alliance to push for a minimum wage; it’s also pressuring the current administration to reinstate rent support, which was introduced and promptly cut at the end of the Covid-19 emergency. These are both welcome measures to my mind, but I was most impressed by Schlein’s rhetoric. She spoke about future generations, about investing in nurseries and preschools, about community values. This was a clear, effective and broadly-appealing alternative to Meloni’s narrower focus on the nuclear family. She made a neat point too, that Meloni’s controversial failure to spend the EU recovery funds is a direct, ideological consequence of her party’s outdated worldview. The crowd particularly enjoyed that one. She evoked planetary politics, citing the latest climate science. She doubled down on her commitment to working with society’s most vulnerable. She repeated the phrase “common good” about a dozen times. Overall, the speech was confident, progressive and outward looking; and while I am by no means a PD supporter I am - on this performance, at least - pleased to share Schlein’s personal vision of the future.
But time for a reality check. Yes, Schlein may have convinced me and a handful of voters in this little corner of Tuscany, but the picture in the rest of the region - not to mention the country - is somewhat bleaker. In Tuscany alone, Lucca, Siena, Pisa and Massa have all swung to the right in recent months. And Schlein is struggling to turn the tide. The Guardian, interestingly, is particularly sceptical about her credentials. This week, in a perfect demonstration of this, Angela Giuffrida published an unreasonably pessimistic feature titled “‘Our worst predictions are coming true’: Italy’s left faces identity crisis as the right sweeps to power.” The report professes to offer an objective view of the PD’s current electoral challenges. In reality, the author provides a free platform for several neoliberal career politicians to badmouth the young leader without offering any serious critical consideration of their own agendas. This is not the time or place to go into more depth about The Guardian’s hit-and-miss editorial standards, but I’d encourage you to read the article if only to understand how belligerent and self-defeating Schlein’s internal critics really are.
Arts and culture: numbers etched in stone
Jhumpa Lahiri, the writer, translator, and author of the great novelWhereabouts among others has got a new story out in this week’s edition of The New Yorker. Granted, ‘P’s parties’ isn’t the most inspired of titles but I strongly recommend giving this one a read. Without giving too much away: the plot follows a small group of Roman bourgeois dinner-party chums; a mix of locals but also some transient and generic “foreigners… who came from different countries, for work or for love, for a change of scenery, or for some other mysterious reason.” Much of the action is set in a mysterious suburban house, just outside the capital; a villa immersed in a “residential labyrinth, with narrow, shaded, unpaved streets […] just tall gates and the house numbers etched in stone.” These images alone should give some indicator of the quality of the writing here. Indeed, I’ve long considered Lahiri one of the best ambient prose writers out there - and this is further proof of it. Bookmark this and read it with a coffee or two to get your weekend off to the best possible start. Here’s the link.
Speaking of old mansions: the late Silvio Berlusconi’s primary residence, the Villa San Martino, is set to open as a museum later this year. According to ArtTribune plans are in place to open the villa to the public as a shrine to Italy’s longest serving Prime Minister; initially on an apportionment only basis and then, if demand is sufficient, with regular tickets and opening hours. It’s a funny story this one. It all sounds so pompous. As if “Il Cavaliere” himself had planned this before his death as a final narcissistic stunt. The details are also oddly specific. Visitors will, apparently, begin their tour by listening to some of Silvio’s most iconic speeches. They will then be free to browse through the memorabilia of decades of campaigns (props from TV appearances, AC Milan merchandise, private photos) before being ushered through his private art collection. The grand finale will take place in the drawing room, where the visitor will be able to admire many of Berlusconi’s favourite musical objects: his piano, his guitars and his favourite karaoke system. It all sounds mind numbingly boring if you ask me, but if you happen to be a Berlusconi fan, or find yourself possessed by a morbid curiosity surrounding the man and his legacy, this may be something to keep an eye on...
Recipe of week: caffè leccese
It’s hot here. Super hot. The dog days of summer are coming. The shutters are closed and the oven is absolutely off limits. Still, there are a few upsides, and the pleasure of iced coffee is certainly among them. Every July-August I switch up my regular morning Moka routine to embark on a more ambitious ritual that I highly recommend: preparing Caffe Leccese. Now, if you haven’t heard of it, Caffe Leccese is basically Puglia’s answer to the Greek frappe’. It’s prepared as follows: pour some good quality almond milk in an iced glass, mix with sugar, top with cold espresso (or even better a coffee shakerato) and that’s it, you’ve got your perfect morning beverage. Lavazza has a good enough recipe if you want a basic guide, but I’ve got a few tips of my own. First, make sure there’s plenty of sugar in everything. The coffee and the milk alike. This drink is an indulgence, and there’s no point in half measures here. My second and more important hack is to pour in the almond milk first, together with the ice cubes, and then SLOWLY add the cold espresso on top. That way, instead of a brownish mess, you’ll get a beautiful, textured drink with two distinct and elegant layers. Serve with a pasticciotto - if you can find one - to enjoy the full Salento experience.
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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