Plight of the Roman pines
Plus Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest and some canon-busting Italian music
When you think of iconic, visual emblems of Rome the first things that come to mind are probably buildings. The colosseum, surrounded by its odd cosplay centurions, the cats running though the old forum, perhaps the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. For me, though, the most representative image of the ‘eternal city’ is its pine trees. There’s something comforting about these thin-trunked, flat-topped, pleasantly gnarly giants. You can see them in the background of frescos by Giotto and Raphael. They tower above our human constructions offering some vital temporal context to the ruins of past epochs. Yes, I do love those trees. That’s why I was particularly sad to read in Italy Magazine this week that a parasite, known as ‘pine tortoise scale’ (toumeyella parvicornis), has infected 80% of the specimens in and around Rome with a “thick black mould that leads to extreme needle loss.” The Lazio Council has allocated €500,000 to help save the pines, but, frankly, given there are over a million in the region, this doesn’t sound like anywhere near enough. Many are going to die, I’m afraid, and one can only hope that NGOs, environmental activists, the EU and national governments will step in quickly to help limit the damage.
On Wednesday morning, just after sunrise, the French police arrested seven Italian nationals, all of whom had historic links to left wing terror organisations active in the 1970s. The raids have historic ramifications. All of the targeted people had fled across the border in the years following 1978 to escape possible prosecution following the assassination of the one-time prime minister Aldo Moro at the hands of the Red Brigades. Now, 40 years since those events, France has lifted these peoples’ immunity. POLITICO has the details. This historical moment was grim to put it lightly, and few come out well from it. These particular leftists were clearly caught in the grip of fanaticism. Yet the state, for its part, has much to be ashamed of too. The police, many of whom had links to fascist organisations, arrested thousands of artists, intellectuals, activists and citizens during those years, often on spurious grounds. Indeed, by the late 70s anyone on the left who spoke out against the combined orthodoxy of the communist PCI or Christian Democrats was accused of supporting the terrorists. Many faced prison as a result. Times change, thankfully. Few today would advocate the beliefs once held by groups with such bizarre and melodramatic names as ‘Nuclei Armati contro il Potere territoriale’ [Armed bands against territorial power]. Ultimately, though, unless these arrests are accompanied by a historical reckoning with the realities of that traumatic past, they will do little more than re-kindle old grievances that remain unresolved to this day.
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of editing a short video about a small Calabrian town, Polistena, where citizens are standing together to confront the mafia. This 5-minute documentary was produced by Babel International and it’s mainly focused around interviews with Michele Tripodi, the town’s mayor, and Don Pino De Masi, a ‘socially engaged’ priest. Media on this topic tends to be rather bleak. This film, though, is surprisingly optimistic, and it is a good reminder of how the ‘416 bis law (1982)’, which enables social movements to take legitimate possession of confiscated mafia assets, has aided the fight for justice in the south. There’s a long way to go, but examples like Polistena are still heartening proof that for all the ideological divisions and violence of recent Italian history, democracy can still, sometimes, prevail.
Arts and culture: Whereabouts?
There’s little doubt that Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the most distinctive voices in Italy-related literature. You may know her as the author of In Other Words (2015), a memoir in which she virtuosically interlaces intimate reflections about her life with a philosophical inquiry into what it means to ‘inhabit’ a language. This week her new novel Whereabouts will hit bookshops in the UK and US. Reviews in the New York Times and the Guardian have been generally favourable. While I haven’t read it yet I am a sucker for moody vignette-heavy fiction so it’s up there on my ‘to-do’ list. This also seems like a good opportunity to flag up the fact that Lahiri recently edited an excellent anthology of Italian short stories, including tales by Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante and Luigi Pirandello. It’s one of the best such collections I’ve read in English, so - personally - I’m looking forward to seeing how she integrates that translation work into her own writing this time round.
Think you know your Italian music? I wouldn’t be so sure. Last week Francesco Fusaro and his collaborators over at n-orient, published a fascinating series of essays calling on us all to think a little more deeply about how we collectively imagine the national canon. Contributors include radio DJ Lorenzo Cibrario and LGBT historian Luca Locati Luciani on queer club culture in postwar Italy; Riccardo Balli on how the drum machine transformed dance music; and Federico Campagna on why the late Italian Baroque still has existential significance in the 21st Century. If that wasn’t enough, there’s even an essay on k-pop which, as the clip below shows, is grabbing the attention of Italian Gen Zers as much as anywhere. I highly recommend you take an hour to peruse the full collection for more profound reflections on Italy’s place in today’s globalised music ecology. Oh, and it goes without saying there are some great playlists hideen in there too….
Recipe of the week: Ligurian potato salad with prawns and squid
I first ate this dish about ten years ago somewhere in the Ligurian hills and I’ve been wanting to reproduce it at home it ever since. Last weekend, with the sun shining over Fiesole, I decided it was finally time to give it a go. The recipe itself - as this version by Great Italian Chefs attests - is a basically a potato and seafood salad, dominated by a zingy dressing that’s something between your typical pesto genovese, and a salsa verde. Parsley, olives and anchovies all play a role. I purchased some calamari and king prawns from the fishmonger and added some wild fennel that I found in the hills, plus a bit of celery for added crunch. I’ll admit I was a little intimated by the short cooking time for the calamari (just one minute?) but it turned out perfectly, so if like me you’re wary of such things don’t let that put you off. Provided your ingredients are fresh the result will be delicious.
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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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