The sounds of Sanremo
Plus Pixar mer-boys and mafia women
If you’ve been following Covid-19 case rates in Italy you’ll know that unfortunately the news is not looking particularly good. In fact, just as I thought I was done writing this, Guido Bertolaso, a government physician, raised the prospect that a new nationwide zona rossa, i.e. a lockdown, might be on the cards soon. Actual facts are scarce for now, and this sounds a bit hyperbolic to me, so I’ll wait until next week to give a measured overview. In the meantime I want to talk about Sanremo which has been a welcome distraction the past few days. If you’ve never heard of it, Sanremo is a kitschy pop festival that was once associated with the glitz and glam of Fellinian celebrity culture, but which is now basically a glorified Eurovision rehearsal. I’m not going to lie: it’s not a great advert for Italy, and it’s not going to convert any international readers to the wonders of the country’s pop music. Still, it’s a big deal here for some reason. Right now, the newspapers are gushing over Francesca Michielin’s duet with Fedez, a heavily tattooed Gen-Y sex symbol who, with a little help from auto-tune, can apparently sing as well. Their performance - see below - got off to bit of a shaky start, but it soon heated up. Actually that’s not true. It was dire, and two minutes in Fedez looked like he was just about ready to throw in the towel. That said, under the circumstances, it’s still been nice to share in the sense of people coming together to watch something simultaneously, even if that something has been the living, breathing epitome of Italy’s rather exhausted postmodern cultural-libidinal malaise.
I’ve spent a lot of time wrestling with my printer and scanner this week, looking over book proofs and editing a long-read about ‘whiteness’ (and the lack thereof) in Ancient Rome. More on that soon. I raise this only because it probably explains why most of the stories that have caught my eye these past few days seem to have been history-related. Readers who have any interest at all in Pompeii, for example, might want to read this Guardian feature about the site’s new director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, who, being German-born, and just 39 years old, has proved a controversial choice for the role. Some ageing board members, that were due for retirement anyway, have even stepped down in protest at his appointment! I find that pretty ridiculous. Zuchtriegel is by all accounts well qualified to fulfil his role, and his emphasis on “making sure nobody feels like a marginal group” seems admirable to me. Polemics aside, I noticed the BBC also reported from Pompeii last week, about a remarkably well preserved chariot that’s just been discovered. The artefact hasn’t been dated yet. And while I like to think it once belonged to a Fedez-like boy racer of the ancient world; it seems more probable that it was a ceremonial object for use during a wedding procession. This euronews video has some excellent close-up footage.
In more history news, FAI, Italy’s National Trust has just announced the winners of their public vote as to which places they should offer support to in the years ahead. I was really pleased to see Tuscany’s Castello di Sammezzano up there in second place, winning the silver award. The building, which isn’t far from Florence, was once the private residence of Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona (a 19th Century statesman and botanist) and then became a luxury hotel which promptly went bust. The building is decorated in an orientalist fashion, reminiscent, at a stretch, of the castles in Sintra, in Portugal, for anyone that knows them. Nowadays, unlike Sintra, Sammezzano is in a state of terrible neglect and it’s sadly falling to pieces. Several private investors have turned up at auctions and pledged to restore it, but without exception they’ve all vanished into the ether. I started writing this story a few years ago, but I hit a brick wall when I came up against some dodgy paper trails and fake company names (that’s one for the real investigative journalists I think.) Anyway, this latest accreditation from FAI has to be good news, and hopefully it will help get this site opened-up to the public one day in the not too distant future. For now, alas, drone footage will have to do…
Arts and culture: Pixar takes on the Cinque Terre
Later this year the animation giant Pixar will release a new film called Luca, which is set in a fantasy Italian coastal town along what looks a lot like the Ligurian riviera. According to the latest PR materials, the plot will follow the adventures of a pair of ‘mer-boys’ as they enjoy “an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides.” Sounds good to me. Movie buffs on YouTube have been busy taking apart the new footage and analysing it frame by frame. The twitter account ‘Italians mad at food’ has even isolated a still image which, if you squint, you can just about see says “Rissa del comitato sul tipo di pasta” (Local council argues over pasta shapes). Talk about attention to detail! I know this is a children’s film, but it looks pretty charming, and I reckon we could all use a dose of sunny escapism right about now. The film is out on 18 June via Disney +.
One of the many things I’m finding frustrating about Covid-19 is the sudden halt to meeting new people. To compensate I’ve been trying to organise calls with digital acquaintances that I don’t know in real life. A couple of months ago I had a particularly interesting such chat with Francesco Fusaro, a producer, DJ and musicologist from Italy who is currently based in London. I’m a big fan of Francesco’s show on NTS called Tafelmusik, which mixes baroque with contemporary classical, electronica and jazz. His most recent show, from February, is about animals in music and it’s one of my favourites yet. The playlist includes excerpts from Rossini’s La gazza ladra; Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf; and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, and I really recommend you have a listen. I particularly enjoyed Sebastiano De Gennaro and Louis Andriessen’s composition, the woodpecker, which I’d never heard before, and which, with its intense onomatopoeic energy, conjures up a magical forest-like soundscape. So grab some headphones and check the episode, and the archive, here.
This weekend, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, CinemaItaliaUK is hosting a screening of six films which, in different ways, explore the role of women in the mafia. The line-up and programme seem well-curated, and the theme, I think, is a really interesting one. I cento passi, about a young activist, named Peppino Impastato and his one man war against Cosa Nostra, is one of my all time favourite Italian films, and it’s true, though I hadn’t considered it before, it does raise some really interesting questions about gender stereotypes and organised crime. If you haven’t seen it I recommend tuning in if you can, or at least streaming somewhere. There are Q&As too, with luminaries including the mafia historian Clare Longrigg, so that should be a clincher. You can get a festival pass for £30; otherwise it’s £5.99 for a single film including the discussions. Personally, I’ll probably sign up for La Terra Dei Santi, which I’ve been meaning to watch for a while but have never got round to. For more info, details on the programme and tickets check out their website.
Recipe of the week: spinach and ricotta gnudi
This week’s recipe is a classic Tuscan spring dish. Gnudi, as the Florentines call them, are ‘naked’ lumps of ravioli filling (i.e. without the pasta), which are then shaped into floury gnocchi-like balls. The mix is tricky to get right; you need to use good ricotta, fresh spinach and really get rid of that excess water after blanching the greens. And you can’t add too much flour either. The classic way to serve these is in good quality butter, with a ton of sage and parmesan. Though personally I recommend this version on Great Italian Chefs, which has a tomato base. One word of advice if you do make these: don’t stint on the nutmeg. And take your time. I like to fiddle away over the dumplings in the morning while listening to a podcast, then boil them up for a late lunch with a bit of salad on the side.
That’s it for this week. Thanks, as ever, for reading. I must say, I’ve really enjoyed hearing from you all about what you like and what you’d like to see more (and less) of here. So how about it? Is anyone else out there watching Sanremo? Do you have a favourite performance? A least favourite? What did YOU think of Elodie’s Kylie Minogue-like medley? Did you love to hate to love it as much as I did? Let me know. Oh, and, yes, the usual spiel: if you feel like forwarding this to anyone who might be interested, or giving it a shout out on social media, then please do, it’s always appreciated and it helps a lot. Thanks again anyway, and more next Thursday!
About Me
My name is Jamie Mackay (@JacMackay) and I’m a writer, 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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