Last Thursday, just as I was typing up the previous newsletter, Carles Puigdemont, the exiled Catalan separatist leader who is on the run from Spanish prosecutors, was found in Sardinia where he was arrested by Italian police. At first, a diplomatic crisis seemed inevitable when the Madrid government demanded the fugitive be extradited to face charges of sedition in his home nation. Italian politicians, though, were virtually unanimous in defending his right as a European citizen to freely reside abroad. In the end, Puigdemont was set free after just a few days. And while Spain did make a fuss, the other EU member states were united in their total lack of interest. Indeed, this would pretty much be a non-story if it weren’t for the crowds of Sardinians who took to the streets to support Puigdemont. At first, this surely seems bizarre. Why would Italian-islanders be so impassioned by a niche sovereignty debate in a far off country? Well, for one thing, Catalonia was not always so far off. In fact, Sardinia was a Catalan territory for centuries. In towns like Alghero people still eat paella and escalivada without batting an eyelid and the street names are bilingual to this day. Apparently, Puigdemont came to Sardinia to build ties with the island’s own small but vocal independence activists. But this seems almost besides the point. The real impact of his visit was symbolic: to build a kind of historical bridge to a time, not so long ago, when it was quite normal to think of Mediterranean cultures as being as liquid as the sea itself. For a sovereignist - apparently fixated with borders - I can’t help thinking it was a curiously ambiguous message to send.
Supporters of the Italian centre left have been enjoying a rather salacious scandal involving Matteo Salvini’s ex head of communications, Luca Morisi, this week. Details are still emerging, but according to police the so-called ‘guru of the Lega’ probably purchased 125ml of GHB (the so called “date rape drug”) from a Romanian escort and trafficker in advance of a party at his summer house in Verona over the summer. Not only this, on searching the property, officers found cocaine on plates and hidden inside books (surprise, surprise). Of course, this is a pretty grim story with implied sexual assault at its centre. Attempts by newspapers like La Repubblica to milk the allegations for all the moral capital they can get are, I think, pretty distasteful. That said, there will be, and should be, political ramifications. Firstly, the gaff of a prominent conservative, anti-drugs campaigner being caught almost red handed in such an affair will put further strain on the fragile alliance between the Lega and Fratelli d’Italia (who are trying to re-brand the Italian right around Catholic values). More immediately, though, the timing of the revelations will almost certainly have an impact at the ballot box: apparently Lega voters are already abandoning the party ahead of this weekend’s local elections as a direct result of this affair. More on that, though, once the results are in.
In less squalid news: a new EU grant scheme called BAUHAUS, which is dedicated to supporting young graduates working in the field of sustainable architecture, has just awarded Italy several million euros in development funds. Communities including the ex-industrial town of Ivrea in Piemonte and several earthquaked villages in Lazio-Abruzzo are set to benefit as a result. One project in particular has caught the media’s eye. A group of three Engineering graduates from the Politecnico di Milano have received funding to transform the city’s suburban Porto di Mare neighbourhood into a self-sufficient ‘eco-district.’ Their idea is rooted in the concept of the ‘15-minute neighbourhood’, where residents can find all necessary commodities as well as services like schools and sport facilities without having to use a car. Of course, there’s always a risk that projects like these take the form of small, gentrified bubbles, separated from the larger urban fabric. Given the stipulation that the grant be used to help tackle inequality, though, and that the local administration is promising to invest in social housing in the area, one can reasonably hope this initiative will contribute to a broader process of green development in the city. More information is available on the EU website.
Arts and culture: The Republic of Letters
If you click on just one link in this week’s newsletter, then make it this. The FT has just published a fascinating email exchange between the writer Elena Ferrante and performer Marina Abramovic and it’s one of the best culture pieces I’ve read all year. The premise alone (“The world's most private novelist exchanges letters with the world's most public artist”) is a very smart work of commissioning. The details of the discussion, though, make the encounter genuinely profound. The two women discuss private and public personas, creative processes, bodies, gender identity, politics, their unpublished and un-staged works, as well as their hopes and fears. My personal highlights include Ferrante’s remarks on solitude and liberty, and Abramovic’s anecdote about female beard growing in conflict zones, but the whole transcript is worth bookmarking for multiple read-throughs. If you don’t have an FT subscription it’s worth doing the 1 EUR trial just for this I’d say.
A new Italian series has just dropped on Netflix that - to be honest - may or may not be worth a look. ‘Vendetta’ is a true crime documentary which follows the escapades of Pino Maniaci, a renegade journalist who, on the surface, seems to be a public hero leading a noble campaign against Cosa Nostra. As his career develops, though, Maniaci finds himself accused of defamation, extortion and having invented sensationalist details to further the interests of his own TV channel. According to the Guardian review, the series succeeds in dodging some of this genre’s more sensationalist tropes. As Stuart Heritage writes: “there’s a bracing lack of romance here […] rather, it is a slow procession of old, tired men and women smoking indoors, worn down by the relentlessness of it all.” This won’t be for everyone. Frankly - based on that description - I’m not sure it’s for me. But given how little attention is paid to corruption within the anti-mafia it seems an important release nevertheless.
Recipe of the week: caponata + fried zucchine flowers
Once again I’ve spent this week scrambling around to purchase all the remaining aubergines, peppers, tomatoes and zucchini before they’re replaced by pumpkins, mushrooms, cabbage and so on. I picked up a particularly beautiful-looking haul at the market over the weekend so I felt I had no choice but to rustle up a caponata; a traditional sweet and sour vegetable stew usually served cold as an antipasto or eaten with some cheese for lunch. There are lots of versions of this dish. My favourite is probably Georgio Locatelli’s from Made in Sicily, which is more elegant, and crunchier, than the standard home-cooked fare. To top it off I fried some zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and anchovy (something roughly like this) and served them on the side. It turned out to be a great combination and I highly recommend it if you’re in need of a couple of relaxed hours over the hobs.
That’s it for this week - as ever I do hope you enjoyed this instalment. 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. If this email was forwarded to you, or you’re accessing on the web and would like to receive further updates, you can subscribe using this link below. Thanks!
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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