Not Another Listicle!
Plus, B-movie soundtracks and Italy’s answer to Breaking Bad
It’s that time of year again — a time when journalists (try) to go into brief hibernation, when the news grinds to a standstill and op-eds and current affairs stories give way to listicles, rankings and best-of features. One such ranking reigns supreme in Italy and that’s ilsole24ore’s league table of “most livable cities” which is published annually in mid-December. It’s hardly news that Italians are prone to campanilismo, or that inter-comune rivalries are part and parcel of civic life here. Usual pantomime antics aside, this is serious business. The S24 ranking has implications for local economic prospects, for the housing market, for domestic prestige and international investment opportunities. This year, following a long scientific study - which incorporates data on crime, tourism, leisure, culture, jobs and environment - the winners have been announced. And they are as follows: in first place is Bologna, closely followed by Bolzano and finally, in third place, Florence! It’s a great result for central Italy, no doubt about it. But it also confirms some trends we’ve seen since Covid-19: the Dolomite towns retain their allure; bigger cities, like Milan and Rome, continue to decline; Tuscany and Emilia are experiencing a resurgence of sorts. As ever, take these results with a pinch of salt. Data is one thing, but love is in the eye of the beholder. Palermo, for example, one of my favourite cities, is right at the bottom of the table, but anyone who’s ever lived there knows that’s just a partial story. But does this mean the whole ranking is a waste of time? Or is there something to it? Read the criteria [IT] to judge for yourself.
Paolo Gerbaudo, the sociologist, gave an interesting interview to Jacobin’s Doug Henwood this week about the comparative ‘weakness’ and structural peculiarity of the Italian bourgeoise compared with other developed western economies. In the discussion Gerbaudo goes back to the core of the issue, tracing the story of how, in the 19th Century, the Italian middle class failed to establish itself as a national powerhouse as distinct from other forms of entrenched elites. The implications are still visible in all fields, though politics is the most obvious. And several questions arise as a result: what role, for example, does this once-again-collapsing middle class play in the rise of Meloni? What mediating role might it have in exacerbating, or tackling corruption? Perhaps most important of all: what routes might there be for the ‘post bourgeoise middle class’ to break, substantively, with neoliberal conservatism, and champion some breed of progressive, egalitarian, values? This being Jacobin, the discussants’ implied answers are, to my mind, curtailed by an overly orthodox socialist idea of economic determinism. But it’s still well-worth your time [The Italian part starts from 27mins17secs at the link below.]
Arts and culture: beyond retro
The historian Erin Maglaque published a wonderful little essay for the London Review of Books today exploring the meaning of Dante’s enigmatic first book Vita Nuova. Part-autobiography, part-poetry, written in a mix of verse and unrhymed meter, interrupted by chaotic asides and scribbles, Vita Nuova is a hard work to categorize. Some critics have emphasized the importance of religious conversion in the text; others have treated it more like a notebook of false starts and artistic dead ends. When I tried to read the book many moons ago I found it fascinating, complex but ultimately impenetrable. Here, in just a couple of thousand words, Maglaque does a fine job of making the book more accessible to general readers by, among other things, foregrounding Dante’s troubadour like efforts to imitate his contemporaries, explaining his intertextual referencing and contextualizing his formal experiments with the sonnet as a new exciting tool through which he sought to express his romantic yearning for his beloved Beatrice. Read the essay here or go the full hog and dive into the complete text by Virginia Jewiss who released a lively, playful translation earlier this year.
I don’t know about you but I’m a big fan of vintage Italian movie soundtracks. Morricone, sure, he’s wonderful. Of course. Nino Rota? Magnificent. Both are a fixed place on my Spotify rotation. There is, however, something quite magical about the next tier list of names; the TV-only composers and B movie maestros who, in the 60s and 70s in particular, created some absolutely mental compositions. Full orchestra meets jazz fusion meets samba meets flamenco. Classical pop. Synth-opera. Spaghetti western twang. It’s still, genuinely, dizzying to listen to this stuff. Well, if you share my enthusiasm, or are just curious, I’ve got some good news. Over the past few months Four Flies Records has been rereleasing a bunch of these old scores in remastered formats with improved audio and new graphics. It’s a fun project, and scrolling through that back catalogue seems like a perfect way to spend those post-festive January days. Check out this Guardian feature by Dean Van Nguyen for more info.
Done with White Lotus Season Two already? Well, a new Amazon Prime series, The Bad Guy, is (apparently) the thing to watch over the winter break. The show follows Nino Scotellaro, a Sicilian judge who, after spending his life fighting the mafia, finds himself wrongly convicted as being part of it. What follows is a no-holds-barred action fest in which the audience follows Scotellaro’s undercover infiltration of Cosa Nostra on a Park Chan-Wook style one-man mission to enact vengeance. Reviews in the press have been overwhelmingly positive. One critic, for WIRED Italia, found themselves “astonished to witness such original and fantastic ideas coming out of an Italian domestic production.” It’s certainly the most talked about series of the year, and probably one of the most hyped TV shows I can remember since Romanzo Criminale way back in 2010. The trailer below is Italian only, but you can stream with ENG subs over at Prime Video here. One for the festive watch-list no doubt.
Recipe of the week: quince pies!
Forgive me dear Italian friends but it has to be said: you guys are just not the best at Christmas. Yes, you have panettone. Yes, you have pandoro, gubana and other sweet treats. But in general I can’t escape the feeling this is a nation of people acting out a performance of an alien ritual called xmas. You have no carols. Little in the way of music. English songs are abundant - sure - but they too are taken out of context to cringe-worthy levels (check out Sergio Cremonese’s Jingle Bell Rock which I once heard at a street food festival around Ferragosto if you don’t believe me). This year I therefore want to share a recipe by another English migrant in Italy, Letitia Clark, who, it seems shares my feelings on this matter. Personally, I’m confined to ranting. But Clark actually has something constructive to offer here in the form of a recipe. Quince pies to be precise. They are, as it sounds, just like the British classic, only here she adds a funky fruit mix in place of traditional mincemeat and puts almond in the pastry as one might do in Sardinia. It’s a wonderful and fun invention from one of my favourite cooks and a fitting dish to see the year out I’d say. The recipe is available, for free, on Clark’s blog so give it a go if you’re feeling adventurous.
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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