The Road Not Taken
Plus, nuclear futures, lies & sorcery!
Last weekend, members of CGIL - the trade union association - took to the streets of Rome in their thousands to protest Georgia Meloni’s proposed autumn budget. “Enough with cuts, enough with wasted investments, minimum wage now!” they chanted. Representatives of the major opposition parties were present too of course, keen to capitalise on the crowd’s energy. Elly Schlein, head of the PD, was front and centre. During her speech, Schlein emphasised the PD’s historic links with organized labour and the ongoing importance of the grassroots left in shaping democracy. She also reiterated her core campaign pledge: to rebuild the welfare system, starting with the national health service. Generally speaking, Schlein’s efforts seem to have been successful. Polls this week show the PD has gained a boost among traditional left wing voters. But attenzione! The big picture is far from rosy. While Schlein is slowly winning back the union crowd, she is simultaneously losing votes to the liberal parties Azione and Italia Viva, who have vocally opposed her economic policies. And then there’s the Five Star Movement; in theory a more ideologically aligned ally which, polling at 16%, will play a key role in any opposition coalition. Nevertheless, Giuseppe Conte, the party leader, has long resisted the idea of playing second fiddle to a socialist PD government, and he was conspicuously absent during Schlein’s speech. The picture therefore looks much as it did a year ago. While the CGIL rally in Rome was impressive, I’m afraid the prospects of a credible, unified opposition look as far away today as they ever have.
One of the biggest and most divisive issues for the Italian left today concerns energy policy; and nuclear power in particular. Back in 1987, following the disaster at Chernobyl, Italians voted in a referendum to phase out all nuclear facilities in the country. As things stand the country therefore has zero nuclear plants; compared with, for example, 57 in France, or 9 in the UK. For some - the PD, the Greens, Five Star Movement - this is a good thing. Not only is nuclear “not really renewable”, or so they argue, it’s expensive, it contributes significantly to air pollution and it perpetuates the unsustainable practice of uranium mining. According to others, such as Azione, Italia Viva and Piu’ Europa, nuclear is nevertheless preferable to natural gas (on which the country is currently so reliant) and will, in future, allow a full transition away from fossil fuels. This week, the government caught headlines when Matteo Salvini announced a new plan to “overturn the 1987 referendum result”; to convince Italians to say YES to nuclear and open the way for new reactors. According to the latest blueprint, unveiled on Monday, Salvini plans to hold a vote to secure buy-in from the public to back a new development process that would bring the business, environment, infrastructure and economy ministries together to oversee the construction of several new plants. As Salvini put it earlier this week: “if we start in 2024, we can switch on the first nuclear power station in 2032. And, being a Milanese, I want the first next generation reactor to be housed precisely there; in my home city, in my home neighbourhood.” Crikey.
An interesting, if rather niche, bit of news from Brescia - one of Italy’s twin capitals of culture this year. This November a new “Mita-Museo Internazionale del Tappeto Antico” will open to the public at the Fondazione Tassara headquarters in the city’s Don Bosco neighbourhood. The centre will apparently be home to the world’s largest private collection of historic antique carpets; ranging from Europe to Asia to Africa and dating back to the 15th to 19th centuries. It’s certainly an interesting prospect for we history and/or design nerds, and I have to say the initiative seems especially fitting for a town like Brescia which itself has played such a key role in the development of international textiles. As the first curator Giovanni Valagussa recently put it: “our main goal here is to preserve, protect and valorise artistic heritage [but at the same time] we also want to provide space for a comparison between different cultures represented in the collection.” Valagussa’s main hope is that visitors from around the world will “recognize in the diversity of the collection the new identity of Brescia itself”; a courageous and cosmopolitan goal that seems particularly important in the midst of the far right Lega heartlands. Click here for more details [ITA only I’m afraid].
Arts and culture: the body with organs
Jenny McPhee - one of the most capable ITA>ENG translators alive today - has got a new book out with NYRB classics which you should probably add to your reading list. After years working through the Natalia Ginzburg back-catalogue, McPhee has now taken on Elsa Morante and specifically her first 1948 novel Menzogna e sortilegio [Lies and Sorcery]. This is a long, dense, difficult book. “A social epic tinged with fabulism and written in a sensual and highly ornate prose” to quote the Washington Post. “Its style, content and setting are a stark contrast with the predominant strain of immediate postwar Italian writing, which is typified by socially minded and stylistically simple neorealism.” Morante wrote this book in exile in Sicily during WWII. In her own words, she put “all of her life’s experience to that point into it”, and, I have to say, it shows. Over 800-pages, the author narrates a family’s evolution over several generations, offering precise, highly intellectualised social commentary on key decades of Italian social history while juggling at least three complex love triangles simultaneously, in Tolstoy-esque fashion. The prose is sensual; almost baroque. Beautiful - I think - but not for everyone. If you’re new to Morante I’d suggest La storia as a better entry point. But if you know Morante’s work already, and know what you’re getting yourself in for, this will make a valuable addition to your bookshelf.
My friend Francesco Fusaro - DJ, producer and musicologist - published a great instalment of his substack newsletter Tafelbrief the other week which should interest anyone here who has ever attended a classical music concert. ‘Does classical music reject the body? (On Tradition and Physicality in Live Performances)’ is a serious if-light-hearted philosophical investigation into the sociology of concert halls. Starting from the phenomenological experience of the concert-goer (“Yes, you can applaud—but at the precise moment, please!—any other bodily sounds or movements should be avoided at all costs. This includes rustling, sneezing, coughing, throat clearing, knuckle cracking, and even adjusting your leg’s position) Fusaro goes on to explore the classical music tradition’s own fraught relationship with studio recordings, with dance, with the figure of the performer itself. Fusaro is an acerbic critic, but, as a true lover of classical music (which he’s curated and deconstructed artfully for years on his NTS radio show Tafelmusik) he’s perfectly placed to intervene on the topic. You might be tempted to read this piece as a bit of a joke. Sure! Personally, though, I found the latent, unvoiced questions genuinely profound: what are the differences between a techno club and a concert hall? How might performers play with that interface? How can contemporary classical music root itself in tradition, while also blowing the black box open? And what about the classical tradition outside of the West? If you’re heading to any ballets or symphonies or chamber music recitals this winter - this is a must read.
Recipe: Sara Cicolini’s RIGATONI all’Amatriciana
A heated debate broke out last week at the offices of Italy Segreta regarding what pasta shape is most appropriate (and most delicious) as a vehicle for amatriciana sauce. Rigatoni, the classic short pasta? Or bucatini, the long Sicilian thick spaghetti with a hole in the middle? For my money, this is a totally false dichotomy. I mean, it can only be rigatoni, right? Bucatini are slimy and slippery. Perfect for liquidy sauces like the Palermitan pasta con le sarde [pasta with sardines and fennel] sure, but useless when the sugo is thick and pleasantly stodgy as it should be for amatriciana. Rigatoni are firm and crunchy. They keep a good al dente texture as they scoop up the tomato sauce. They catch guanciale inside the tubes. They have a big surface area, a perfect vessel for grated pecorino, and the ridges mean the pepper stays in place on every morsel. How on Earth can bucatini compete with that kind of absolute alchemical perfection?! Polemics and passion aside, amatriciana is one of my all time favourite pasta dishes and a classic of the early autumn table. So here’s a recipe for the Roman staple done as the Romans - or specifically Sarah Cicolini of the excellent Santo Palato trattoria - do. Rigatoni all’amatriciana. Per sempre.
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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