Last Thursday, 27 October, marked the 100th anniversary of the fascist blackshirts’ march on Rome. It’s a moment that, while sometimes overstated in importance vis-à-vis the rise of the regime itself, undeniably changed Italian history forever and has left its mark on the collective, national, imagination. This year, fears were rife that an emboldened far-right would use the occasion to embark on a nostalgic campaign of jingoistic nationalism. Which they did. As they always do. The windows of bookshops, as ever, were filled with poorly conceived ambiguous displays about WWII, partisans and democrats, as ever, reiterated their calls for a better, more critical remembrance which, as ever, fell on deaf ears, and, as ever, far-right militants congregated in Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace, to pay their bizarre theatrical tributes to the dead dictator [click here for images]. Media coverage, across the board, was pretty superficial. One notable exception, however, which I want to flag here, was Adam Tooze’s Chartbook analysis over at his substack newsletter. On 30 October, in a brilliant post, Tooze offered a clear analysis of the historical conditions that led to rise of the regime (“an authoritarianism that was “self-consciously modern and popular rather than aristocratic or elitist”) while also offering a meta-critique of how and why we talk about this stuff at all. The aim, he warns, cannot be to make false parallels with Meloni’s ascendency, or to indulge in “antiquarian indulgence” but instead “to place oneself in a lineage of descent” and make some sense of “modern history-making.” Read the piece here for a clinical overview of the current political situation; made all the more disconcerting by its level-headed lucidity.
It’s been a busy news week: from the government’s plans to raise the cash payment cap from 2,000 to 10,000 euros, to proposals to cut all income support to poor able bodied people, to a thinly veiled attack on the ‘right to assembly’ via an ‘anti-rave’ law, the right-wing coalition is already living up to expectations. I’ll be addressing each of these issues - corruption, welfare and civil liberties - in future editions of this newsletter. This week, though, I instead want to zoom out a little to direct readers to some cultural nuggets I’ve come across recently. First-up is this BBC podcast about AfroItalian beats, narrated by Tommy Kuti. The episode, which is produced as part of The Cultural Frontline series, takes the listener through the music scene of three cities in the North of Italy – Milan, Brescia and Verona – where, despite widespread racism, artists of Afrodescendent backgrounds are finding fertile conditions for experimentation and innovation. Kuti, who came to prominence on the back of his own aptly named track #AfroItaliano in 2018, is a perfect guide to the scene, and his lesser-known collaborators Anna Bassy, Mosè Cov, David Blank and The Slings all provide similarly eloquent testimonies of how they navigate art and politics in Italy today. Whatever’s going on in the parliament, this podcast is a welcome reminder that Italian society and culture is shifting in ways that often evade simple categorisation. Listen back here.
Sticking with ‘sonic excursions’ for a moment: last week the DJ and musicologist Francesco Fusaro and philosopher Federico Campagna released a fascinating project on the 19'40'' record label called "La favola della realtà" [The Fable of Reality] which words can hardly do justice. If I had to describe the experiment – which I suppose I have to now – I’d do so as follows: take one-part literary criticism, one part oral storytelling, throw an original score on top and you’ve got something close. The forms bleed into one another - a philosophy lecture metamorphoses into soundscape - in a manner that well-reflects the means by which humans build, destroy and reconstruct cultural worlds. Readers familiar with Federico’s philosophy will know what I’m banging on about here, though personally I found Fusaro’s minimalist composition(s) on retro synths particularly vital to this particular collaboration; augmenting the words with a thematic playfulness almost reminiscent of Mussorgsky or Prokofiev. Take your time over this one. Get comfy, pour yourself a tea, turn your headphones to max and get ready for 40 minutes of profound meditation [this one’s Italian only I’m afraid].
Next up I want to share an ENG language GQ interview with Michael Imperioli which I really enjoyed reading a few days ago. Best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos, Imperioli has recently become an unexpected social media personality in his own right not least due to his lockdown podcast about his experience filming what, to this day, remains one of HBOs most successful and most-loved dramas. In this exchange with the always-hilarious Joel Golby (VICE, Guardian etc) the actor opens up about his band Zopa, his music tastes, his NTS radio set, his novel The Perfume Burned His Eyes (which I’d never heard of) and his awkward audition for the forthcoming series of The White Lotus (which allowed him time and space to lounge around The Four Seasons in Sicily, Taormina, for three months off season.) Imperioli is an outspoken, independent-minded guy with great taste in books, films and fashion. This deep-dive into his worldview is simply a joyous bit of arts/lifestyle journalism which I hope will brighten up your week a bit.
Finally, some escapism for food-travel lovers: Stanley Tucci is back on the BBC and iPlayer this week with the next instalment of his much lauded series Searching For Italy. This time Tucci starts his journey in Calabria, his ancestral homeland, before heading to Puglia, Liguria and Sardegna where presumably we can all watch him hitting the seafood hard. I’ll be honest, after enjoying the first series I’ve found the following post Covid-19 episodes a bit of a letdown. Don’t get me wrong, Tucci is a fine host. He’s charismatic, he always looks sharp, he’s amusingly wry and, at his best, he gets under the skin of the localities he visits. Having said that, there is, nevertheless, something about the editing, the short format, that feels at odds with or even diametrically opposed to the real rhythm of life in Italy and phenomenology of eating here. Fingers crossed this new series, which reverts back to hour long episodes, will set the show on course again. Here’s the link.
Recipe: bagna cauda party
As November arrives, and the days begin to darken, I’ve got one dish and one dish only on my mind. Bagna Cauda, a Piemontese classic found in osterie all around Turin, is traditionally eaten in late autumn to accompany the wine harvest. Put rather crudely, it’s the region’s cheese-free answer to a fondue. This is party food. The host places a dish of oil, anchovies, garlic and sometimes butter in the middle of a table, which is kept warm with a candle. Meanwhile, guests dip bread and various vegetables inside: usually peppers, cardoons, fennel, cauliflower, Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes. Garlic is the star of the show here, however, and the quantity is up to you. Some people go with five or six cloves per person. I prefer a full head. Serve with a punchy red wine - e.g. Nebbiolo, Barbara d'Asti, Dolcetto d’Alba - to really make the most of the flavours, and the convivial occasion.
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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