Mysteries of the Conclave
Plus, Venice's updated “access fee” and Laurent Binet’s new murder mystery set in Renaissance Florence
For a few weeks now, I’ve had a “Pope bag” by my door, packed and ready to go with clothes and supplies for a quick trip down to Rome in the event of Francis’s death. On Monday, when the Pontiff passed away after battling for months against a long illness, I finally had cause to use it. I’ve been following the press conferences, the tributes from world leaders, the JD Vance memes and, of course, the obituaries. The liberal press has seemingly synchronised its verdict. Francis was a progressive reformer, but he was also “a disappointment,” or so the story goes. He was a visionary but he was “inconsistent.” He was, by general consensus, a “good” leader, a moral “counterbalance” to right-wing populists, but still a Pope, the product of a corrupt institution which, as Francis himself admitted, is seemingly unreformable. The main question now is political. Will the next Pontiff continue Francis’s mission, or will his opponents regain the upper hand? In the coming days, cardinals from around the world will travel to St. Peters to participate in a secretive ballot to elect Francis’s successor and determine the Church’s direction for years to come. Front-runners include Luis Antonio Tagle, a Filipino Prelate, Pietro Parolin, a “centrist” Italian bureaucrat, and Peter Erdő, a Hungarian conservative and ally of Viktor Orban. My advice? Take this speculation with a pinch of salt. Conclaves are mysterious and unpredictable, and most of what you read today will be nonsense tomorrow. New names are bound to appear as the process unfolds. In the meantime, as we wait for developments, I recommend listening to John Hooper’s commentary for The Economist’s ‘Intelligence’ podcast where he gives a clear overview of what is at stake. As for me, in the weeks ahead, I’ll be focusing on the public reaction, on crowd behaviour and the collective, emotional experience of watching history unfold. So watch this space.
Note: I’m off next Thursday to celebrate May Day, but don’t worry, the Week in Italy will be back in your inbox in a fortnight’s time with live updates from the conclave…
Apropos of the above, I’m genuinely sorry to have to report that Italy’s far-right politicians have been instrumentalizing the Pope’s death to try and water down tomorrow’s Liberation Day celebrations. The culture war surrounding 25 April — i.e. the Anniversary of the Resistance against Nazi-Fascism — flares-up every year. This year, following Francis’s death, the government has announced that all events should be “sober” and “low key” out of respect for the “period of national mourning.” While PD-run cities like Milan and Florence will still mark the occasion, others are using the excuse to clamp down on the celebrations altogether. Benevento will close all theatres and live music venues tomorrow. Legnano, near Milan, has already cancelled a Punkreas concert. The town of Ponte San Nicolò, in Veneto, has annulled the celebrations entirely. Even major institutions, most notably Rome’s State Archives, are postponing events. It’s important to remember here that 25 April is not just a sagra or an excuse to party. It’s a moment for reflection on the nature of resistance, anti-fascist struggle and, ultimately, the importance of democracy. One thing’s for sure, tomorrow’s events have nothing whatsoever to do with Pope Francis, who I’m sure would himself have disagreed with the government’s cynical efforts to exploit his death for their political interests. Che schifo ragazzi. Seriously.
You may remember last year the city of Venice introduced a trial “access fee” of five euros which all day-trippers were required to pay during particularly crowded periods. Well this week, the municipality re-introduced the scheme with a new, more extensive set of rules. From 18 April to 27 July 2025, on 54 dates, mostly weekends, day-trippers to Venice will have to apply online for a QR code “pass” in order to move around the city. Stewards will be stationed in key transit zones to check passes, and anyone who fails to present valid codes (or exemption documents) will be issued with a fine. There’s no space here to go into criticism of the scheme itself (besides, the Guardian covered the finer details and local protests very well last year here.) What I would add is this: with Venice now home to fewer than 50,000 year round residents, and tourist numbers still rising, it’s urgent that the municipality thinks beyond its own pockets and takes real action to address issues like short term lets and poor public services. Over-tourism and hyper-tourism are important. But without emergency policies to guarantee work and housing I’m afraid there will soon be no “city” left to support.
Arts & Culture: Intelligens
Sticking with Venice, it’s just two weeks to go now until the opening of the 2025 Architecture Biennale which will run with the theme “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.” Ahead of the opening, I highly recommend reading this short interview feature in The Financial Times in which the journalist Caroline Roux speaks to the curator Carlo Ratti about his vision for the show. And I have to say, that vision seems… somewhat mysterious? Ratti is the first Italian in years to head up the Biennale, and his silence on politics, his scientism, his utilitarian language and somewhat shifty positioning on big tech should, I think, raise eyebrows. Some critics are already speculating that Ratti’s appointment represents “the rightwing government’s determination to Make the Biennale Italian Again and neutralise the event’s perceived leftism,” and, without jumping the gun, it’s certainly the case that, this new edition is framed in less “woke” terms than Hashim Sarkis’s How will we live together? (2021) or Lesley Lokko’s The Laboratory of the Future (2023). What will Ratti’s vision look like? We’ll find out very soon. In the meantime check out the piece here.
The award-winning French writer Laurent Binet, best known as the author of HHhH, has got a new novel out and it’s set in Renaissance Florence. Perspective(s) is an epistolary murder mystery told via 127 letters. The story follows the art historian Giorgio Vasari who, in the novel’s diegesis, takes on the role of a detective who is tasked with exploring the circumstances surrounding the death of Jacopo da Pontormo, a painter whose body was found by nuns in the church of San Lorenzo. One part giallo, one-part postmodern plaything, this is a historical novel with numerous tricks up its sleeve. As in Binet’s other works, the author gleefully blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction, history and anachronism with brilliant results. As the New York Times put it this week: ““Perspective(s)” may be set during the Italian Renaissance, but its vision of the period is absurd, antic, slightly askew, steeped in art history and underpinned by an aficionado’s delight.” Click here to read the full review, or buy the book straight from the publisher here.
Recipe of the Week: U’ Pan’ Cuott’
This week’s recipe hails from the small town of Bernalda which is located deep in the mountains of the southern region of Basilicata. The dish is virtually unknown outside of the area and, like many others, I only came to know about it thanks to the wonderful anthropological investigations of food writer Katie Parla who included the recipe in her 2019 book Food of the Italian South. There are three principal ingredients here: sweet cherry tomatoes, crusty durum wheat bread and provolone cheese. That’s more or less it. As is the case with many cucina povera dishes, the town’s residents apparently cook this recipe as a way of using up leftovers, tossing the mix with garlic, herbs, chili and plenty of olive oil before baking the whole thing in the oven for twenty minutes. The result is a kind of vegetarian “casserole”; a pleasingly chaotic jumble of flavours and textures that ends up tasting like a deconstructed pizza. Parla suggests serving u’ pan’ cuott’ as a side to roast chicken, which is certainly a valid option, but personally I prefer to eat it as a standalone meal with a green salad for a quick and cheap midweek supper. Here’s the link.
I’m Jamie Mackay, a UK-born, Italy-based writer, working at the interfaces of journalism, criticism, poetry, fiction, philosophy, travelogue and cultural-history. I set up ‘The Week in Italy’ to make a space to share a regular overview of the debates and dilemmas, innovations and crises that sometimes pass under the radar of our overcrowded news feeds, to explore politics, current affairs, books, arts and food. If you’re a regular reader, and you enjoy these updates, I hope you’ll consider becoming a supporter for EUR 5.00 per month. I like to think of it as a weekly catch-up chat over an espresso. Alternatively, if you’d like to send a one-off something, you can do so via PayPal using this link. Grazie!