Friday, August 25, 2006

Passionate and Proud ... Nobody does it quite like the Italians ...Vespa another Example

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Italians. Yes it means Passion, Pride, Gesticulation, Gusto, Gastronomy, Creativity, Beauty, Inspiration  and so much more,

 

But one of my favorite comments is:

The Italians have a great track record of finding beauty and inspiration even in moments of catastrophe.

To quote Harry Lime in the film of The Third Man: "[In] Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance.

"In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."


PASSIONATE AND PROUD...... NOBODY DOES IT QUITE LIKE THE ITALIANS!!!

 

IC Wales.co.uk

The National WebSite of Wales

David Williamson, Western Mail

August 24, 2006

 

THIS month I discovered the definition of pride and delight.

No, I have not encountered fatherhood or had a winning entry in the Curiously Groomed category of an exclusive Venezuelan dog show.

Instead, I met the Welshman who is custodian of one of Italy's finest treasure houses.

Bruno Alessandrini does not polish Roman eggcups or guide tourists around heaps of Etruscan rubble. Instead, he celebrates the wonder of the Vespa scooter at the Piaggio factory in Pontedera.

Motorbikes in Britain and America are associated with noise, grease, long hair, black leather and Niagara-like torrents of testosterone. A machine is judged great if it has a roar like that of a cigar-smoking Tyrannosaurus Rex.

But the Vespa is the encapsulation of cool. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck whizzed through the streets of the Italian capital on one in Roman Holiday.

A Vespa is a merging of mechanics and mystique; it zoomed out of the swirling chaos of post-war Italy and became an icon of romance and European panache.

The Italians have a great track record of finding beauty and inspiration in moments of catastrophe.

To quote Harry Lime in the film of The Third Man: "[In] Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance.

"In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

The giant buildings of the Piaggio factory stretch out behind Pontedara's sleepy railway station. This is as much a dream factory as any Hollywood back-lot...

I had a brilliant time. It's not every day you get to see a scooter signed by Salvador Dali or one decorated as a cow or designed to be parachuted - but Bruno is the greatest marvel of them all.

He wanders through the gift shop he runs with evident pride. Drop into conversation that you come from Wales and expect an explosion of glee of Roberto Benigni proportions.

He shouted in Italian and then launched into a rendition of The Green, Green Grass of Home and a Cardiff City anthem. For 25 minutes, his arms waving like propellers, he regaled us with stories and showered us with gifts.

Bruno spent the first 15 years of his life in Aberdare and Canton, Cardiff. His parents had come to Wales to work, leaving behind the chaos of post-war Italy.

In the land of laverbread they fell in love and a son as astounding as any masterpiece or motorbike was born. Nobody does it like the Italians.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0300business/

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=full&siteid=50082&headline=passionate-and

-proud-------nobody-does-it--quite-like-the

-italians--name_page.html

 

 

 

 

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