Berlinguer’s legacy
Plus, more trouble for the M5S and Mario Martone’s ‘Nostalgia’
Yesterday, 25 May, marked the centenary of the birth of Enrico Berlinguer, the Italian politician, and Former Member of the Chamber of Deputies, who served as the leader of the National Communist Party, the PCI, from 1972 to 1984 during which time he guided the left to the apex of its popularity. Under his leadership the PCI distinguished itself from other left wing parties in Europe by vocally opposing the authoritarianism of the Soviet Union, opened itself up beyond a Marxist clique to form alliances with Catholics and liberals alike, and prioritised anti-corruption as a key political struggle. In 1976, as a result, the PCI obtained the highest vote share it ever would: 34%. Of course, Berlinguer faced difficulties in his career: his repression of legitimate dissent during the efforts to extinguish factionalist terrorism proved calamitous, and his capitulation with conservative forces limited the scale of economic reform. Nevertheless, the PCI’s success in local constituencies – introducing participatory democracy to many towns and cities, and investing in public services – live on as successes even to this day, and continue to inspire many who would never dream of calling themselves ‘communist’. Guido Liguori has published a compelling overview of the man’s life and work over at Jacobin which I highly recommend reading if you’d like to learn more about a figure who - regardless of ideology - remains one of the most popular, and most widely respected, politicians in Italian history.
Back to the present day, and prospects for the future of the Five Star Movement (M5S) continue to look bleak. This week the prominent Sicilian MEP Dino Giarrusso announced that he is leaving M5S to form his own political movement. His stated reasons were, in a sense, rather predictable: that the party hadn’t fulfilled its promises to the electorate to further the cause of direct democracy in the country, that they had capitulated too far with the partisan interests of the centre-left Partito Democratico and that under the current leader, ex-PM Giuseppe Conte, they were losing their anti-establishment spirit. More interestingly Giarrusso was also at pains to draw attention to M5S’s ‘betrayal’ of the Italian south, offering a scathing criticism of their failure to tackle regional inequality. His new party, he claims, will aim to develop a politics that can finally “make it possible for the south and north to be equal.” This is an ambitious goal - of course - and Giarrusso is hardly the first to attempt to solve the problem. Nevertheless, given the importance of Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Puglia to the M5S base, his departure represents a serious threat to the national cohesion of the movement and, on the other hand (and at a stretch) an opportunity for the mezzogiorno to have its voice heard…
On a jollier, early-summer note, the writer Solveig Steinhardt has just published a lovely Italian travel piece as part of the BBC’s ‘Comeback Cities’ series. This is a very welcome format which eschews listicles in favour of nuanced local knowledge with a view to “showcasing under-the-radar capitals, championing the urban underdogs and reveling in the success stories of cities that have turned their fortunes around.” In her piece, Steinhardt explores Livorno, the under-rated port city just a few kilometres to the west of Pisa. It’s a place I love, and I’ve written about it myself on a few occasions. Steinhardt, though, was raised there, and really gets under the skin of the port community. Beyond the ‘usual’ truisms about industry, ugly post-war rebuilds and the impressive fish market she also manages to capture the deep cosmopolitanism of the place. Her passages on the ‘Livornine’, laws that allowed foreign traders and exiles from any nation and ethnicity to settle in the city, are particularly enlightening and should be of interest to any history buffs reading. Here’s the link.
Arts and culture: the labyrinth of the soul
Neapolitan director Mario Martone has a new film out which is already gathering praise from critics. ‘Nostalgia’, which is adapted by the novel of the same name by Ermanno Rea, tells the story of a man who returns to Naples after several decades abroad to find that a childhood friend has become associated with the Camorra crime organisation. Variety magazine published an interesting ENG interview with Martone yesterday in which he describes his fascination with his home city, and specifically the district of Sanità, where the film was shot. The area is, in his words, “sort of like a chessboard or a labyrinth” a quarter that “reflects the labyrinth of [the protagonist’s] soul. Martone also states that he chose to set the entire film in this notoriously dangerous area, not to exoticize the poverty, as is so often a risk in such films, but on the contrary: so that it might seem “more universal than a mere Neapolitan tale.” The gambit, for what it’s worth, seems to have paid off, and the film received a nine-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the Cannes festival on Tuesday evening. Here’s the trailer [Italian only for now I’m afraid].
Scrolling through book reviews this week my gaze stopped on an LA Times piece about a novel called Red Arrow by the author William Brewer. I’ve never heard of Brewer before but the title alone caught my eye. ‘Red Arrow? Like the Italian fast train, FrecciaRossa?’ I wondered, somewhat incredulously. Well, it turns out my highly context dependent translation was actually bang on the mark. Brewer’s novel, or at least part of it, is indeed set aboard a FrecciaRossa. Specifically it follows a depressed young writer who is travelling by train across the Italian countryside to meet with an unnamed physicist (based, apparently, on Carlo Rovelli). Now I cannot, of course, recommend this book, not having read it, but this strange, psychedelic sounding pressure cooker of a plot does sound intriguing and the LA Times critic’s description of it as a “beguiling and ruminative synthesis of strange couplings: art and physics, psychology and psychedelics, characters and ideas” certainly whetted my appetite. So check out the review, if you’re interested, or order a copy here.
Recipe: whole barley salad with sautéed vegetables
The weather has been mad these past few weeks, with temperatures in Italy’s biggest cities – including Florence – suddenly hitting the 35 degree mark. Cooking is a pretty unappealing prospect at the moment. It’s muggy enough without turning the oven on, let alone stirring for hours above a boiling pot of sugo. Time, then, for salad. One of my favourite dishes for this time of year, which I rustled up this week, is a Tuscan classic: the insalata di farro (whole barley salad with sautéed vegetables). Farro is a versatile ingredient, earthy and a little nutty; pleasant enough, sure, but it does needs a good range of contrasting flavours to keep things exciting. Giulia Scarpaleggia, over at Juls Kitchen, has a good baseline recipe to follow using a vast range of vegetables. My own version is pretty similar, though I do add some homemade pesto, cubes of pecorino and occasionally the odd pickled artichoke to mix things up. Feel free to experiment with whatever you like; but do keep in mind that, whatever the combo, this is a dish that benefits from a couple of days marinating in the fridge. My advice? Make a big batch and keep it to nibble on over the course of the week.
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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