Some Festive Thoughts
The Week in Italy will be back in 2024
Cari lettori — you know the drill by now. It’s 21 December. The ’best of’ listicles are out, the summaries, soundbites and annual wrap-up op-eds are here ad nauseum. So I’ll keep mine brief. I’ll be largely offline for the Christmas period, filling up on pork rolls, panettone, podcasts, and trying (finally) to make some headway with a massive reading and films list.
So what to say before the break? Well, I could draw attention to Georgia Meloni’s Atreju conference which featured Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak as guest stars; I could offer some thoughts on the government’s culture war weaponising of presepe nativity scenes, or the Chiara Ferragni “Pandoro-gate” scandal. But frankly, media buzz aside, none of these strike me as particularly interesting or relevant for the festive period (or any time of year for that matter)…. So here’s a quick personal reflection instead.
2023 has been pretty full on. Alongside the usual writing, I’ve been busy working on a crowdsourced, collaborative campaign for a permanent peoples’ assembly for Europe, “The Democratic Odyssey”. Honestly, it’s been refreshing to zoom out, to focus on the transnational and global picture. Next year’s EU parliament election is going to be a game changer. Based on current polls - and recent policy shifts in both France and Germany - the far-right is is in a strong position to expand its influence in 2024. Whatever the result, Meloni will not be short of allies, that’s for sure. Coupled with the generally poor level of European public debate, I feel as strongly as ever that people desperately need other ways of participating in politics beyond and parallel to elections. The Democratic Odyssey is an audacious experiment. But by bringing together civil society, academia, policymakers and people from many other walks of life I do think it’s a useful initiative for focusing our collective minds on long-term democratic reform. Check out our website if you’re interested, and join the network to get directly involved in the design.
I’m also thinking a lot these days about Antonio Negri, the Italian philosopher and theorist who died last week at 90 years old. I’ve always had reservations about the vagueness of Negri’s concepts, and his cavalier evocation of abstract terminology. Nevertheless, there’s something about his writings on the State, on anti-work politics and more recently ‘multitudes’ that seems vital to understanding contemporary debates about freedom, ethics and the struggle of the individual to maintain autonomy within a crowd. I’ve got much more to say on this, and may even write something long-form in the new year about his legacy. So watch this space. If you don’t know Negri’s work - or even if you do - K.M. Seethi has written an insightful obituary for The Wire India that’s well worth reading. Here’s the link.
A note on some books: my winter reading pile this year includes a fair bit of Italy-related fiction: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Roman Stories, which I’m halfway through, Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed and Veronica Raimo’s La vita è breve eccetera are three standouts. I’ve also got a few English language titles queued-up: and I’m particularly excited by Paul Lynch’s Irish dystopia Prophet Song and Teju Cole’s Tremor. Time-permitting I hope to get round to re-reading John Galsworthy’s distinctly non-Italian epic The Forsyte Saga; one of my favourite early 20th Century prose works and frankly one of my favourite books ever [the 2002 ITV adaptation, starring Damian Lewis, is also a perfect Christmas watch by the way, if you’ve never seen it.]
More immediately, as ever, I’m thinking about food. Italy remains a great place to eat: mainly on account of the stellar produce that’s available in markets just about everywhere. Unfortunately, though, the picture is looking bleaker and bleaker for the humble trattoria. Costs are rising, closures are gathering momentum and in many cases, based on personal experience, standards are slipping. Still, there’s some excellent stuff out there. Last week in Turin I had the pleasure of dining at a Cafe’-Bistrot called Scannabue. The bill came to 35 euros per head for a five course traditional menu - for dinner - and it was absolutely stellar. Add it to your list if you’re visiting the city anytime soon. Meanwhile, closer to home, I remain a faithful client of Piatti e Fagotti, a low-key osteria just outside of Florence which has sustained me exceedingly well throughout the year. Huge props to the staff for the amazing work.
But basta. That’s it for now. I’m off to spend some time with the family, and to (actually) get some reading done…
Thanks, as ever, to all of you that have supported The Week in Italy by paid subscription (or PayPal) this year. I’m deeply grateful for your contributions and for helping me grow this newsletter from a hobby into a routine and now a portion of my actual work. Grazie di cuore. The next step - in my dreams - is to experiment with some audio stuff, some interviews, and a bit of longer form reporting. But let’s see what next year brings. If you’re interested, have the means and inclination and haven’t supported yet, please do consider chipping in via the link below. Otherwise, to everyone else, keep on reading, and do spread the word!
Wishing you all a great holiday season, and more from me on 10th January.
Ciao
Jamie
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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