The assault on good food by corporate shills who label decent food and local farmer’s markets “elitist” continues. It’s getting old.

Yeah, ok, I’m elitist. I admit it. I like good, non-poisonous food that doesn’t trash the universe. Elite can be good you know. Wouldn’t you want America’s elite fighting force on your side—the Green Berets perhaps—when you’re in a pickle? How is that bad?

Anyway, the point is that I just realized that I’m here in Italy in part because to be elite costs much less than it does in the U.S. Italy seems to have a plethora of elitists, you see, and they mind what they put in their mouths and don’t trust corporation dickheads to tell them what’s good to eat. And they shop at local open air markets all the time, without someone in a suit calling them idiotic names.

Yesterday I visited an outpost of Elitism in the Lunigiana called Naturalmente Lunigiana. I got waited on by the guy you see in the pictures on the website who is shown making cheese or chasing lovable and happy barnyard animals around. The food they sell in their store along the highway comes from just a few kilometers away, which is elitist for sure.

We got a huge bag of stuff. Some soft cow cheese similar to stracchino you can spread on foccacette and make a meal out of. We got a big wedge of aged sheep cheese. I got a beefsteak and a couple of fat sausages.

After the guy hacks off the number of sausages I want he thrusts them over the counter so I can see up close what they look like.

“You see, they are dark. They are dark because we don’t use any colorings or preservatives, only pork, salt and pepper,” he says, only in Italian. Then he adds the kicker, “You can eat them cooked or raw.”

Now, I gotta tell you, only elitists of the first order are gonna want to slide some raw pork sausage down their gullets. That’s because the big corporate profit machine has made us scared to death of their poisoned “food.” They use the government to do their bidding, of course. So the government, using your tax dollars, dutifully informs you to cook your sorry excuse for a chicken for 17 hours in a 350 degree oven and then test for radioactivity before you eat it.

No thanks.

Anyway, all this food cost me a mere €12. Remember, we’re talking artisan produced cheeses and sausages, and a hunk of beef that hasn’t been genetically modified or given monkey brain tissue to eat.

And so, get this, after we pay he asks us if we like yogurt. After hearing our enthusiastic reply he goes in the back and comes out with a bottle of yogurt from his cows. He gives it to us.

Elitism for free! You gotta love it! (It’s like illegal drugs, the one true free market commodity: the first one’s always free.)

(The night passes, the steak is devoured. It is the morning after the storm…)

Breakfast. We already had some yogurt in the fridge that we liked. But this, man, this yogurt was like light years better in our informal taste test—zesty, flavorful and all those other superlatives usually reserved for stupid PR materials.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, come to Italy for your elitism. You’ll save money and eat quite well.

I wonder if the corporate shills have ever been to the old country? Perhaps we should send them. Perhaps they’d never come back. Elitism is that yummy.

This post, called “In Italy, Elitism is Yummy”, first appeared on Wandering Italy. The URL is http://wanderingitaly.com/blog/article/549/in-italy-elitism-is-yummy

Italy seems to have something of an aversion towards research, unless it is absolutely essential, that is.  Behind the scenes though, research is being carried out in Italy.  I know, I’ve heard about plenty of examples of Italy’s hidden brainpower.

Hidden Brain Power in Italy

For some Italian businesses research is not regarded as being essential to business development, probably because it tends to be regarded as being too slow a process, too time consuming, and too darn costly.  Obtaining a return on investment is not guaranteed either.  It is probably the time gap between research and return on investment which puts businesses in Italy off, and is why the country devotes only 1.1% of its GDP to research activities, whereas the European average is 1.8%.

Outwardly, it looks as though Italy is a little behind the rest of Europe in terms of research, but this needn’t be the case.  If one digs a little deeper, and one knows Italy perhaps a little better than others, one may discover that research is being carried out in Italy, even if what is being done is not officially counted as being research.

Recently I’ve been doing some research into developing some new training courses, but I have had a problem.

Can’t Find the Information About Italy

It does not really matter what the subject of these courses is, so much as the fact that the information I will have to use to create them will come from outside Italy.  This is not necessarily a bad thing in that what works in one culture or society will probably have the desired effect in another.

One Culture is not the Same as Another

Sometimes though, especially with regard to culture and perceptions arising from a specific culture, what works in one country will not necessarily work in another.

To illustrate this, think about the psychology of colour.   In today’s web driven world, colour plays a fundamental role.  Get the colour scheme on a website right, and visitors will accept a site as being valid for its purpose.  However if visitors to a website consider that the colours used do not sit well with the contents the site has to offer, then they are likely to go elsewhere, even if by doing this, they may well be forsaking useful, and perhaps even key, information.  What’s this got to do with Italy and research?  I’ll explain.

People who have been in Italy for a few years will have noticed from the way Italians dress, the colour of their cars, and furnishings that Italians have an acute sense of colour.  They know which colours go together, and which don’t.  Bright and brash colours are not attractive to many Italians.  Transfer this sense of colour to a website and if Italians perceive the colour combinations as being wrong, then they may discount the credibility of the information the site contains, unless, perhaps, the site is run by a recognised authority, such as the government.

Yet has any specific research been carried out in Italy to see how colour schemes can affect how well websites perform?  Possibly, but aside from guides on the choices of colour combinations which all seem to be based on studies which have taken place outside of Italy, I have not found anything.

Sources in Italy

Just because I cannot find much from sources within Italy does not mean it has not been done, even if a web specialist I know would probably tell me to not bother looking because there is nothing to be found.  This person has noticed that when Italians make presentations, their hypotheses are based on information which is, more often than not, from outside Italy.

Well, as I said that the beginning of this post, lots of research is being carried out in Italy, only its not formally recognised as being such.  As a result of the lack of official recognition, this ‘research’ is not being directed.

So, what is this research which isn’t?

Thesis Equals Research

The research which is not, but is, if you follow me, is that bane of many Italian students’ degree studies, the end of degree ‘tesi’  – which is ‘thesis’ or ‘dissertation’ in English.

Italian university students, both those doing the newer three and the more traditional five-year courses have to prepare a thesis as part of their degree courses.  No thesis, no degree.

I’ve heard a lot about Italian degree theses over the years, in fact, a section of the English courses I run at the Business School of Il Sole 24 Ore involves helping students prepare a paragraph or so on their degree theses in English.

Being able to summarise their theses in English can help job candidates impress interviewers and allow them to end up an internship which just might lead to a full time job.  Anyway, back to the theses.

Amazing Theses

I have to say that some of these theses are amazing pieces of work.

A few examples of the topics covered include things like detailed examinations of volatility theory in the financial markets, including the development of new and complex mathematical models.  Other subjects covered include the evolution of the tourism market or some other industry sector in a specific area of Italy.  These examples are the tip of the iceberg.  And there are boatloads of detailed case studies too.

Often, the fruits of a year or two of hard labour are works of pure, and quite often high quality, research.  The kind of research companies would probably pay good money to see.

Some Italian companies do indeed rate these documents highly, and a good, relevant thesis can improve the job prospects of the authors considerably.  In fact I do know of at least one ex-student of mine who has gone on to greater things, and his thesis, which will have helped him show off his abilities, no doubt impressed potential employers.  This young man is now working in the UK, incidentally.

Jobs Offers on the Basis of Thesis Subjects

On the strength of the work, sorry, ‘research’ carried out in connection with the preparation of these documents, some students have actually been offered jobs.  Indeed, I can just about predict which students will find a job after doing a master on the basis of their degree thesis.

Clever students can even use their theses to launch their careers, and some do internships while writing their theses to help them understand the industries they are analysing better.  However, even clever students face obstacles, often in the form of being assigned subjects which may not do their prospects of finding work in the future much good.  And I often hear of Italian university students who have had incredible problems trying to find a university professor to oversee their thesis preparation work.

Real World Relevance Required

If a student is assigned a subject which is of little relevance to the real world, then the resulting thesis may make it a little easier for them find work in the real world.  From what I have gathered, many Italian undergraduates seem to have little choice as to what to prepare a degree thesis on, and some are aware that the subjects that have been chosen for them are not likely to help them once they are out in the big wide world.

This is a shame.  With a little forethought on the part of Italy’s universities and business, two birds could be killed with one stone.

First, Italian universities, working with Italian business, could compile a list of topics which require research, and then these topics could be assigned as thesis subjects to students.

Once these theses stroke research works have been completed they could be sold to companies looking for research data on a particular topic.  Students could be given a cut on any sales, and universities could develop a income stream which would allow them to worry a little less about government funding.

Italian businesses would be able to benefit from having access to useful research carried out for them at a low cost.  The same businesses may well also come across high potential employees.

Forming a system which would turn theses in to valid forms of research might give Italy’s universities a much needed boost too, seeing as not one Italian university managed to make it onto list of the top 100 universities around the world.  See here: the Times Higher – QS World University Rankings for 2008.

An Opportunity for Italy

As an alternative to universities working directly with Italy’s businesses, then business, either companies and professional associations or trade organisations, could sponsor students to prepare theses on areas of interest – with the approval of the university concerned obviously.  Sponsorship could be in terms of a bursary, an internship, or even the offer of a job for a year or so once the individual concerned has completed his or her degree.

The cost to companies would be minimal, but the results could (would?) benefit Italy as a whole.

As a result of such a strategic alliance, universities would come to be regarded as being more than mere academic institutions, students would find it easier to start careers, and Italy may start to appreciate the true worth of research.

It’s a win-win situation, if ever there was one.

Image credit: A chimpanzee brain at the Science Museum London by Gaetan Lee

One of the frustrating things about long stays in Italy is that every little village you happen to visit seems to have a story that unravels slowly and spans several hundred years, if not thousands. The terminally interested can get lost in interesting threads, as I do.

Yesterday we visited Montereggio, for example. Heard of it? Of course you haven’t. It’s small, tiny even, though rather famous among some bookish characters.

Montereggio came to my attention when a map I had bought called it a booktown. I had no idea what that was or why little Montereggio, a mere annotated speck on a map, could be lauded as a booktown. Italy’s only booktown I might add

So we loaded all the maps of the region we could find into the Citroen and started out. At first the roads were fine, of normal Lunigiana narrowness, but paved at least. Then they got twisty. But finally, spanning a narrow ridge, Montereggio came into view. Maybe 50 houses. It had a parking lot. A belltower. Not much else of note.

The town did have these little nooks—passageways, open entryways and such. Inside these nooks there were tables loaded with books. Nearby was the notice you see in the picture. It says to put money into the little mailbox thingy corresponding to the price of books you wanted. You can see the sign better if you click the little picture.

In any case, on a Monday in October, except for the stacks of books hidden in dark passageways and a couple of workers resurrecting a terrace, it seemed we were alone in the village. It was one of those single street villages. We went up and back and out the other side a bit, where we saw two women collecting chestnuts. Further on was the cemetery.

On the road out of town we had spotted a restaurant which was also a hotel. We dismounted the little town by walking rather briskly down a ramp that ended at the door, but the restaurant seemed deserted. We peeked in. A woman, no doubt noticing our voyeuristic tendencies, eventually came to the door.

“Will the restaurant be open?”

“Si.”

“When?”

“Adesso.” Now, which we took as an invitation to enter.

It was only a few minutes past noon, but the locals were already eating. There were tables set for other regulars. We ate a huge meal. Gnocchi with meat sauce, a platter of boiled beans, baked shoulder of pork, a platter of cheese with whole rounds of it, eat what you want. It was good, hearty food, typical of an Italian roadhouse.

That, in a chestnut shell, is Montereggio. So how did it become a booktown?

Well, all started back in the 15th century with Gutenberg’s Bible fragment in 1456, as you know. The Lunigiana got a kick start on the book trade in 1471 when Jacopo da Fivizzano started printing in the town of Fivizzano. (You can visit the printing museum in Fivizzano today. Stop by the Bar Ricci first for a zeppole, if they have them.)

In 1493 a local, Sabastiano da Pontremoli (a reference to another Lunigiana village, close to Montereggio) went to Milan to learn printing and returned to Montereggio to become the first bookseller. By the 16th century, many of his countrymen had started loading up wicker baskets full of books and selling them first in Pontremoli, then further out into the plains. Eventually they covered northern Italy into Germany.

The book-selling trade out of Montereggione expanded well into the 19th century as books became affordable for the masses. The whole story is, of course, more complex than this, and involves the poverty that came with the collapse of the silk trade in the north and the transformation of workers from that trade to knife and tool sellers and sharpeners who kept note of markets and fairs in a “Brianzino” or almanac. It was easy for the tool sellers to transform themselves to booksellers, given the enormous interest in this thing called a book that many small villagers wanting their knives sharpened had never seen before.

As the historic center of all this bookselling, Montereggio went on to to host Italy’s premier literary prize, the Premio Bancarella for the first time in 1952. Since then the Premio Bancarella has been awarded in Pontremoli.

More on Booktowns:

Montolieu and Booktowns

What are Booktowns

It Takes a Town to Build a Private Library

Montereggio Paese dei Librai

Consider the tablecloth. I’m sure you have if you’ve ever been to an Italian restaurant. Tablecloths are essential table coverings, even in the smallest of dives.

By contrast, in America tablecloths are used by wives to torment husbands on those special occasions when tablecloths are put to use. “Honey,” you can hear them whine in unison from coast to coast, “do that over a plate. Look what you’ve done to my tablecloth!”

Yes, they own the tablecloth. It is a holy skin upon which all is sacred.

“Look at that spot! It’s ruined! Honey, next time go in the bathroom to pour your wine.”

Yeah, yeah.

You see, Italy is liberating for a guy. Say you open the door to a restaurant and find a woman moping the floor. Your wife will hold you back with her forearm because the floor has just been mopped. The Italian woman with the mop looks at you like you’re nuts and motions you forward. Heck, she’s gonna mop again in 5 minutes anyway. You slosh through the suds. Liberated.

Then you sit down and order some wine. A carafe is plunked down onto the table. The last drip ends up on the white tablecloth.

Nobody cares.

You look at other tablecloths. There are purple spots, olive oil spots, indeterminate spots and spots on top of spots.

Nobody cares.

People have been having fun. You can tell because the tablecloths are the playing field for fun. Liberated fun

And you know what? Tomorrow there will be gleaming white table clothes, devoid of spots.

I love Italy.

After having written about two other Italian indie bands which sing in English, Amycanbe and the The Mirrors, I’ve been contacted by another one, Ofeliadorme.

Italian Music

Ofeliadorme wrote to see if I might like to write something about them, saying that they would be perfect for this blog.  Interesting this.  It almost looks as though word is getting around that some guy is happy to help give Italian bands a little more exposure.  Well this is true, and from what I read in an LA Times article, it appears as though 50+ year old Italian record execs are generally too old to appreciate the talent, and earning potential, lying in their own backyard.

Hence Italian indie bands like Ofeliadorme contacting the likes of me.

Before writing another post on Ofeliadorme, here is something about the state of the music industry in Italy.

Italian Bands Achieve Success Abroad

There was an interesting article on the Times website back in July 2008 entitled, ‘Italy’s new rock bands‘.

Italian Indie Band Ofeliadorme

The Times article was partially about about Turin-based Italian band Disco Drive who managed to grab the attention of legendary British music publication NME.  For Disco Drive’s second album, NME gave the band an 8/10 rating.

What this seems to demonstrate is that music buyers don’t really mind where bands are from as long as they like their music.  This means that an Italian band with a good enough sound can achieve success beyond the Living Museum’s boundaries, especially if they sing in English.

Disco Drive, like Ofeliadorme, and the other two bands mentioned in this post, do sing in English.  Yet according to Disco Drive’s comments in the Times article, the Italian music industry seems to believe that only Italian bands singing in Italian will ‘make it’.

The Italian music industry is missing the obvious.  Even music in Italy suffers from ‘Living Museum syndrome’ -  Italy’s general reluctance to embrace things which are new or innovative, iPhones excepted, of course.

Bands Which Sing in English Popular in Italy

As Disco Drive astutely points out, many bands from outside of Italy, and who sing in English, have been very popular in Italy.  Actually, Disco Drive was not so much being astute, as merely pointing out the blatantly obvious.

Want some examples? How about: the Beatles, U2, Madonna, Santana, the Spice Girls, Black Eyed Peas, Natalie Imbruglia, and I could go on and on.

However, what is obvious to many, does not seem to be at all obvious to Italian record execs.   The reason for this, er, oversight, can’t be that these execs don’t know English well enough themselves to help new acts attain success at international level.  No, not at all.  The record industry bigs have had a presence in Italy for years.  And the iconic Beatles are still popular here today, as are bands like Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and many other music industry veterans, so the Italian record industry must be aware that there is a big market for music sung in English in Italy.  There is more evidence of the obvious too.

Take a quick look at the current MTV Top 20 Hit List for Italy, and one may well notice that around half the bands listed are not Italian and sing in English.

This begs the question:  Why can’t Italian bands be allowed to sing in English in their home market? Or at least they could sing in Italian here in Italy, and produce tracks in English for the music hungry iTunes fuelled UK and US markets.

Economic Sense

Promoting Italian bands which sing in English would make probably make economic sense too, now more than ever.

Distribution costs nowadays are next to nothing what with the advent of downloadable music and services like Apple’s iTunes Store.  What was once spent on making CDs and then taking them to shops around Italy and the world, could now be spent on publicity.  After all, most of us have the capacity to create our own CDs, if we want to that is.

Waking Up the Italian Music Industry

For the moment though, the best tactic an Italian band can adopt appears to be to go outside of Italy, become well known, and then return to the Living Museum, which is what, by all accounts, Disco Drive did. It’s very easy to say this, but not at all easy to do, it has to be said.  And such a strategy should not really be necessary either.

As Disco Drive and Italian rock band, Linea 77, know only too well, the only way to bring about change in Italy is to do it from the outside in.

Eventually, the success of Italian bands outside of Italy might wake Italy’s dozing music industry up.  In about 20 years or so, knowing Italy.  I’d love to be proved wrong though.

Any Passing Non-Italian Record Execs and A&R People?

While the Italian record industry is waking up, record labels from outside of Italy looking for fresh meat should perhaps consider setting up a group of scouts in Italy, or at least sending people here from time to time.

It is possible that the  next Beatles will be discovered.  Well, you never know.

Now, go listen to some Italian music.  Three very different Italian bands, each of which is good at what it does:

Ofeliadorme on MySpace – Dark, melancholy, but interesting stuff – worth a listen.

Disco Drive on MySpace – Listen to the track ‘The Giant’ – pretty good.

Linea 77 on MySpace – Turn your speakers down before listening!  If you speak Italian, listen to the track ‘La Nuova Musica Italiana’ -  interesting comment on Italy’s stodgy music scene!

Source:

Los Angeles Times, October 14 2009: Italy and rock ‘n’ roll are not mutually exclusive