Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Being Italian is a Full-Time Job : "La Bella Figura" -Beppe Severgnini

The ANNOTICO Report

Excuse me, but Beppe REALLY cracks me up, and observing the response of American reviewers makes it even funnier.

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Why Rules and Speed Limits Don't Apply In Italy

Sun Sentinel- South Florida

June Sawyers
September 24 2006

La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind. Beppe Severgnini. Broadway. $23.95.

"Being Italian is a full-time job," writes Severgnini. And he should know -- he is not only Italian himself but also the author of the international best seller Ciao, America!: An Italian Discovers the U.S. Now he turns his perceptive eye toward his native land. But, Severgnini has a quirky mind of his own. Hence, in La Bella Figura, he doesn't abide by the usual travel rules.

Instead, he takes a look at three locations on each day of a hypothetical 10-day trip. He tries to explain the rules of the Italian road (what rules?), muses on why people talk on trains ("We are a nation where everyone speaks to everyone else") and considers the overall theatrical nature of ! Italian life itself. As for rules in general, he says there is a good reason why Italians don't obey them as people do elsewhere: "We think it's an insult to our intelligence to comply with a regulation. Obedience is boring," he concludes.

Hence, to cite just one example, the speed limit in Italy is "an opportunity for debate." Another thing that Italians don't like, according to Severgnini, are chains, especially hotel chains. They want to be surprised, "to be treated as unique individuals, in a unique place, in unique circumstances." Clearly, La Bella Figura is not a travel book in the conventional sense, but rather Severgnini's entertaining and humorous observations on what it means to be Italian in Italy.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/travel/

print/sfl-24bookzsep24,0,6097283.

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