Letters from Rome
August 4, 2010
Can Italy Be Too Italian?
Thomas Couture, "Romans during the Decadence", 1847
In a recent article New York Times reporter Michael Kimmelman asked the bizarre question “Is Italy Too Italian?” suggesting that Italy is so tradition bound, insular and...
July 19, 2010
Falcone and Borsellino Die Again
On July 18, the day before the l8th anniversary of the murder of Judge Paolo Borsellino, the statues commemorating him and another emblematic victim of the Sicilian Mafia, Judge...
June 29, 2010
The Child Soldiers of Scampia
Davide Cerullo comes from the gangland of Scampia, Naples. Once a drug hustler, he finally rebelled to the "easy life" the Camorra offered him: "Give people an opportunity, and...
June 18, 2010
Cradle of love
The "Ruota" instituted by Pope Innocent III at Santo Spirito hospital
Back in the Middle Ages a priest named Datedo disposed the institution of Italy's first orphanage for children born out of adultery to save them from abandone and death. In 1198...
June 13, 2010
Where’s the Joke? Not in the Senate, alas
Cartoon by Ed Stein (www.freedomhouse.org)
The "Privacy Law" wanted by Silvio Berlusconi passed in the Senate in a vote of confidence on Thursday. In Italy’s “darkest moments” for press freedom, as the National...
May 30, 2010
Fini: “Other dangers” Lie on the Political Horizon. But Just What are They?
"Our Constitution is the foundation and guarantee of the unity of the Republic,” Fini told a group of students visiting the Chamber of Deputies the other day. Ambiguously he...
April 29, 2010
Mafia, Kinds of Applause & Saviano's Quotes
A confusion of applause: ovation at Perugia for Italy’s heroic Roberto Saviano and hurrahs at Reggio for arrested ’Ndrangheta boss Giovanni Tegano
April 15, 2010
Emergency’s Emergency: Italian Medics Seized in Afghanistan
On Saturday in Rome’s Piazza Navona a demonstration is being organized in support of a trio of Italian doctors Matteo Dell'Aira, Marco Garatti and Matteo Pagani who were...
March 30, 2010
Back in the Saddle with Silvio
Demonstration of PDL in Piazza San Giovanni, Rome
“We have given the left a lesson,” Berlusconi trumpeted from Rome Monday evening. Meanwhile, Umberto Bossi's populist right-wing, anti-immigrant Northern League will now...
March 25, 2010
Move over, Tony Soprano—you’ve had it
The era of the Corleonesi is definitely at an end. We are witnessing the mutation of the Mafia strategy into one that is clearly based on finance. (Antonio Ingroia, Prosecutor)
March 8, 2010
In our Churches; On our Beaches. The Gypsies of Italy
Can gypsies in Italy be integrated? In spite of the numerous efforts to address the negative image that people have of them, the stereotype in Italy, and not only here, is that...
February 27, 2010
Does Sex Make Italy Go Around?
Whereas sociological studies showed that Italians are wonderfully happy with sex, the powerful and privileged are the exception, for they are obliged to resort to paid escorts...
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