Is this the end for the Partito Democratico?
Plus, a new culture podcast from the ICI and a tip for cooking with bergamot
Hello! And welcome back to another year of The Week in Italy. It’s the 12th January already so I’ll spare you the belated buon anno, auguri, wrapping-up, previewing and so on. Suffice to say: I’m finally feeling well-rested and I hope you are too. So let’s get started. First off – jumping right back in – I’ve got some political dates for your calendar. On 12th and 13th February local elections are taking place in two of Italy’s biggest and most densely populated regions: Lombardia and Lazio [home to Milan and Rome respectively]. The results, coming less than half a year after the ascension of Meloni’s right-wing coalition to power, are more or less a foregone conclusion. Low turnout and an ultraconservative victory are all but guaranteed. Francesco Rocca, a neo-fascist sympathizer who has served jail time for dealing heroin as a teenager, is currently on course to win the Lazio Presidency while Attilio Fontana, of the Lega, will likely hold onto his position as President of Lombardy. I know, this is hardly a political earthquake by now. But there are a few trends worth keeping an eye on. The liberal ‘Third Pole’ candidates, for example, are facing their first real electoral test; and this contest will certainly provide a good barometer as to how viable a radical-centrist-Macron-like-coalition might be for Italy in the future. The same is true for the Five Star Movement (M5S). Final result aside, the vote-share next month is likely to confirm or disprove the working-theory that the self-styled anti-establishment force has, once again, become the main and most credible opposition party. I’ll be covering the results in detail closer to the time, but for now I highly recommend taking your eyes off the politics news for a while. The campaigns may just be warming up but things are already getting pretty wild…
Which takes us to an - arguably - more important date. Just a week or so after the elections, on the 19th or 26th February (yes, they still haven’t decided), the Partito Democratico (PD), Italy's ailing centre-left party, will hold a conference to decide who will replace the incumbent leader Enrico Letta. As things stand the two leading candidates are Elly Schlein aka “Italian AOC” who calls herself a "progressive green feminist” and the social democrat Stefano Bonaccini, President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, who is currently the frontrunner. For what it’s worth, I'd back Schlein if I could, but looking at the near total collapse of the traditional leftist base, it’s clear the PD ship is sinking. Whoever wins they are likely to inherit the shell of a party that just fifteen years since its inception is now in freefall. More than the leadership itself, then, we should probably be asking: what will the future split(s) look like? How will these factions align? And most of all, how might a new democratic coalition emerge? One capable of bringing together everyone from the liberals to the M5S and blocking the (growing) post-fascist hegemony? Most analysts seem downbeat, including the philosopher Massmio Cacciari, a long-term supporter of the PD, who recently offered the following grim analysis: "Bonaccini or Schlein it makes no difference: there is no political depth here and there are no cultural roots. The PD conference means nothing at all. At this rate Meloni is going to be around for a long time." Yikes!
OK time for something with a little more substance. Over the break I read an interesting essay about food nationalism and the future of Italian cuisine which I thought I'd share here. The long read by John Last, published by Noema magazine, starts off with a fascinating reflection on history and environmental change, drawing on examples from the explosion of Italian kiwi production in the 1970s to recent efforts at harvesting mangos, avocados and coffee plants [something now possible due to climate change]. Most interesting of all, however, are the passages on migration. I particularly enjoyed reading Carole Counihan of Slow Food evoking "the Pakistani and Moroccan butchers preparing prosciutto in Parma, Sikhs raising and milking cattle in the Val Padana, Romanians and Albanians herding sheep in the Abruzzo and Sardinia", for example, not to mention Alex Ravelli Sorini 's excellently posed simile that “Italian cuisine is not like a castle … but like a field.” It was the Nigerian-born, London-trained Milan-based chef Immaculate Ruému’s remarks, however, that really got me thinking. Will we soon be seeing ogbono soup for sale across the peninsula, prepared with Sicilian mango seeds and Calabrian okra? Could that really be the future of Italian cuisine? I have to say, it sounds pretty good to me. Read here for the full analysis.
Arts and culture: talking heads
It’s always a pleasure to start off January with exciting new projects to share. Well, on Monday ICI London/FILL Productions launched the first episode of a podcast series called The Italian Files. The series which will be released in seven instalments across 2023 aims to shine light on some of the “lesser known protagonists, themes and stories of Italian culture, society and history” focusing in particular on forgotten writers, artists and innovators. Episode one sees Thea Lenarduzzi – who you might know as author of the memoir Dandelions, and as editor at TLS - speaking with critics Brighid Lowe and Henry K. Miller about Lorenza Mazzetti, a novelist, filmmaker and puppeteer who lived an extraordinary and dramatic life between Italy and London in the immediate years after WWII. I found the discussion interesting and generally engaging if a little self-indulgent at points. Overall, though, this pilot offers a promising taste of what might be on the horizon and it’s well worth a listen. Subscribe on Spotify or via your favourite podcast app here.
Are you reading this from London? If so then stop what you're doing right now and get on down to the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art at Canonbury Square to check out the new exhibition ‘Giorgio Morandi: Masterpieces from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation’ which is dedicated entirely to the Bolognese artist’s still life masterpieces. I'll be honest, it took me a while to get my head around Morandi's work. For years I found myself uninspired by his muddy-looking beige paintings of pots and pans. I just didn’t get what all the fuss was about. Then, last year, out of the blue, something finally clicked. Yes! It’s all about quantity. About sequence. When you see these paintings one by one they look anonymous, flat, even dull. Seen one after the other, however, they are transformed. The viewer is forced to take note of minute changes, the shift of a grey to a brown to a green, the subtle change of light on an old wine bottle you gradually come to recognise from different angles.... The result, once you surrender to the rhythm of the work, is a profound zen-like meditation on existence, life and ultimately, as with all still-life, death. Morandi’s paintings are rarely exhibited abroad in such large numbers side-by-side, so this is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in his esoteric universe. The London exhibition runs until 30 April. Italian readers, meanwhile, can get down to MAMbo in Bologna which has a whole wing dedicated to his work. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon.
Recipe: Linguine with swordfish, bergamot and pine nut sauce
It's peak citrus season in Italy right now and the oranges have just reached that perfect point of ripeness: still-firm (not stringy), sweet (but just a little sour). The grapefruits are bursting, the lemons are glowing and Navel, Moro and Washington fruits are everywhere you look. The absolute star of the market right now, however, is the bergamot. I know, I know, this fruit isn’t always easy to track down abroad, or even in Italy for that matter. But it’s worth the hunt if you can find it. And if you do get so lucky I’ve got the perfect recipe to start-off the year: linguine with bergamot and pine nut sauce. This dish, which I found a few years ago in Valentina Oliveri's Calabria in Cucina, is eaten around the Straits of Messina, and in a break from usual procedure, and given the book is so hard to come by, I'm sharing a photo from the contents below. You could, at a push, swap some elements here (fresh tuna for swordfish, or bay leaves for myrtle) but the bergamot is essential - providing an exquisite fragrance that’s completely otherworldly and which pairs perfectly with the creamy, nutty texture of the sauce. If you're looking to experiment in the kitchen this year this is a great place to start. Trust me. This is the real deal.
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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