SSN Cuts. Fact or fiction?
Plus mosquito woes & metal detectors
This Monday, the Italian government finally submitted its autumn budget, and one topic in particular has caught the headlines: healthcare. PM Georgia Meloni claims her administration has just signed off on “the biggest investment in healthcare ever” at 136bn euros, which, in isolation, does sound like a lot of money. On closer inspection, however, this is a gross distortion of the facts. First, as a proportion of GDP, healthcare spending is actually about to decrease significantly. In 2021-22 the Conte government invested 7% of GDP into the SNN (Italy’s NHS). Meloni’s administration, meanwhile, is reducing this figure to 6.3% in 2024 with a further drop to 6.1% expected in 2025. When you add inflation, rising costs of medicine and care into the mix, the truth is pretty straightforward: the government has just slashed the SNN budget. The devil, as ever, is in the details. Meloni likes to boast that she’s allocating an extra 3bn euros to help reduce hospital waiting times. Leaving aside the fact the sum would have been 12bn if she’d maintained the previous government’s spending commitments, her own policy is dependent on a dubious system of tax cuts for doctors and nurses who can demonstrate they’ve “sped-up the system” on an individual, case-by-case basis. The consequences, needless to say, will be grim. As the quality of SNN services inevitably decreases (with staff newly incentivised to rush diagnoses) more patients will turn to private hospitals in order to receive adequate treatment. Italians already spend 40bn euros per year, on top of high taxes, to secure what is supposed to be a constitutional right. Thanks to Meloni’s measures that number, sadly, looks set to skyrocket even further (For a broader breakdown of the budget as a whole, check out the FT’s useful overview here).
I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed a big increase in the number of mosquitoes around and about this autumn. Every evening, going to sleep, I’m kept awake by the little bastards who have somehow managed to breach my bedroom window netting in order to buzz around my head and annoy me well into the early hours. Argh! Well apparently, according to official data, I’m not alone in this experience. Zanzara numbers are indeed exploding. In early October, mosquitos in Italy laid 30% more eggs than usual due to the unseasonably warm weather and the animals’ growing resistance to insecticides. This is particularly concerning given that - according to the EU’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) - Italy is one of the most vulnerable countries in Europe when it comes to so-called tropical diseases. So far in 2023 the country has seen 7 cases of Zika virus, 4 cases of Chikungunya and 261 confirmed cases of Dengue fever; 49 of which were from “native mosquitos.” Most people will recover from Dengue after a few days of fever, headaches and muscle pain. Nevertheless, the infection can still be lethal for the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, and that’s precisely why scientists are calling for action now. As the FIMMG medical association recently put it: “we’re calling on local authorities to take preventative measures immediately, to monitor and control population rates of tiger mosquitos in particular. [With the climate changing rapidly] there is no longer much time to plan ahead."
OK — bit of a strange one this. On Sunday The Observer’s Italy corespondent Angela Giuffrida published a whimsical piece which, while I have no idea how it was commissioned, I did enjoy reading. I mean: have you ever spared a moment to contemplate the possible pleasures of metal detecting in the countryside near Viterbo? I thought not. It turns out though, based on this testimony, that the pastime has quite a lot going for it. Giuffrida’s main interviewee is Leonardo Ciocca, an amateur coin hunter who, after an ad-hoc entry to the “detectorist” world, has since made it a full-time hobby. He’s uncovered all manner of things over the years apparently: weapons, religious relics, even, most intriguingly, works of “trench art” which soldiers produced during WWII using old mess cans and other military paraphernalia. Fascinating. Italy, it turns out, is a paradise for detectorists, and around 20,000 people are regularly engaged in the scene; participating in contests and even festivals. You may well laugh, but, frankly, based on Ciocca’s account of things, it doesn’t sound a bad way to spend a weekend. As he puts it: “You can never get bored of this hobby, because even if you don’t find anything, you have still had a good walk in the outdoors, in areas full of nature where the only sound is the beep and the birds, and are instantly relaxed.” Here’s the link, to find out more.
Arts and culture: Copy/Paste
I’m heading to Venice on Saturday to see some friends and catch the second half of the Architecture Biennale which I missed during my last visit in the spring (if you’ve not made it yet, by the way, the exhibit runs until 26 November so you’ve still got time). Anyway, that’s by the by. Last night, as I was planning the trip - and fantasising about mountains of tramezzini, cichetti and fritto misto - I happened to notice that the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has just opened a new temporary exhibition about Marcel Duchamp which actually sounds great. Frankly, I am not a big Duchamp fan. While I can appreciate his historical radicalism he does seem, from a distance, like a bit of a pretentious arse. Yet that’s precisely why I’m so intrigued by the exhibit, Marcel Duchamp and the Lure of the Copy. Curated by Paul B. Franklin, an independent scholar, the show promises a philosophical look at the artist’s output in terms of its “contemporaneousness.” Through 60+ works - from the Guggenheim permanent collection, Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna and MOMA - Franklin has set himself the mission of demonstrating that Duchamp was not just a frivolous troublemaker. He was, according to the exhibition notes, a major philosopher in his own right who played a key role in establishing the hermeneutic protocols for interpreting visual culture as it is today — a century on. If any of that sounds of interest, and you too are planning to be in La Serenissima over the coming months, the exhibit runs until 18 March.
Calcutta, my absolute favourite living Italian singer bar none, has got a new album out at midnight — and I am literally counting down the seconds. After five years of “sitting at home, chilling, watching films” the millennial cantautore “voice of a generation” is back with the boldly-titled Relax; a poetic album of ironic, darkly comedic, melancholic love ballads and romantic/nihilistic ambient pieces. The Italian internet, or at least one indie-nostalgic-jaded-ex-hipster corner of it, is absolutely buzzing. The Relax limited edition vinyl is already sold out. And the upcoming tour tickets vanished in hours when the dates were announced the other week (I’ll see you fellow Calcutta fans in Torino on 16 December if you happen to be there). Suffice to say, I’m excited. So excited in fact that yesterday I even found myself listening to a full ASMR lyric-video of the new album, which was released, in anteprima, as a marketing stunt. And I quite enjoyed it! The message, I think, is loud and clear: if you don’t know Calcutta, open a new tab right now and listen back to Evergreen (2018) or Mainstream (2016) — two of the finest albums of the last decade in my humble opinion. If you’re a fan already, I hope you enjoy your listening party. Because tomorrow, finally, it’s time to Relax.
Recipe of the week: Coniglio all’ischitana
Ischia-style rabbit is the Sunday dinner par excellence for many Campanians. Traditionally ‘slow-cooked’ in a terracotta pot, this is as much an “event” as it is a recipe. The symbolic head of the family - ideally nonna - distributes the various cuts to an assemblage of family and friends in a convivial al fresco feast that typically lasts a full afternoon. Recreating the authentic experience in a small apartment is near impossible, but last weekend I had a bash at the basic recipe and I have to say the results were delicious! I followed Katie Parla’s instructions from Food of the Italian Islands which are pretty simple: marinate an entire chopped-up rabbit overnight in a cup of white wine vinegar. Drain, pat dry, season, and discard the vinegar. Place in a pot with 800g of chopped tomatoes, parsley, garlic, pepper, olives, EVO oil and white wine and leave to bake in a covered pot, in the oven, for 1.5 hrs or so at 140 degrees C (or until the meat is falling off the bone). Serve with crusty bread, sautéed greens and a glass of Per’ e Palumm to really end the week in style.
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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