A REMINDER OF LAMPEDUSA

The island of Lampedusa, off the coast of Sicily, has for a long time been a gateway for people wanting to escape for a better life in Europe. The most recent boat accident, where 300 migrants - mainly from Eritrea and Somalia - lost their lives in early October, is only the latest incident and I fear, not the last. In the city centre of Genoa, on Piazza de Ferrari, there is currently a very eye catching reminder that this problem is not Italy's alone.

This banner, hanging outside Palazzo Ducale says it all: "Deaths again. Lampedusa is not the graveyard of hopes". 

Vittorio Longhi commented on the Guardian online (www.theguardian.com):

"So why do Eurocrats keep investing in security measures? Why don't they focus on a shared asylum policy, on serious multilateral agreements between transit and receiving countries, on building search-and-rescue capacity in the Mediterranean, on the full respect of the right to international protection?

Europe cannot go on sealing its borders and pretending not to see what's going on in the south, especially in still-troubled Northern Africa, and in a continent with growing poverty, along with a food and health crisis. Increasing social conflicts inevitably result in harsher repression by authoritarian regimes and therefore in further asylum-seekers, just like the Eritrean young men and women who drowned in Lampedusa."
Well said.

ITALY'S ANSWER TO NORDIC NOIR: IL COMMISSARIO MONTALBANO

I have a bit of a crush on actor Luca Zingaretti. Well, not on him personally, but on the character he is playing in Italian television series Il Commissario Montalbano (Inspector Montalbano). In the series, based on detective novels by Andrea Camilleri, Zingaretti is Salvo Montalbano, a Sicilian police inspector, who solves crimes in a small town called Vigata. The state-owned Italian broadcaster RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) commissioned the series in 1999 together with  Swedish television. It has become an international hit and is available on DVD with foreign language subtitles. The BBC is currently showing some episodes.The success has also generated another series called Il giovane Montalbano (Young Montalbano), which is about the start of Salvo's career and his very first cases.

   I have only seen season 1 & 2 of Il Commissario Montalbano so far, but I am hooked and there are several reasons why. 

   Firstly, it is happening in Sicily. The camera carresses the gorgeous landscape in every episode, the sun is shining all the time. The Sicilian tourist office can certainly relax now, we have all put Viagata on our list of all important places to see. In reality, Viagata does not exist. The show was filmed in the region of Ragusa and several other locations. It is heavily edited to give an impression of a perfect Italian holiday location.

   Secondly, Salvo Montalbano is a very different type of a police officer compared to his colleagues elsewhere in Europe, especially in the Nordic countries. There are murders but no detailed close-ups on post mortems or discussions about methods of killing people. Salvo visits the scene of the crime for briefest of moments in general and never takes notes. His right hand man, Fazio (played by Peppino Mazzotta) is the one who always goes out to find out more and comes back to report the results. Salvo's deputy Mimi Augello (Cesare Bocci) has constant problems with women and is basically quite useless as a police officer but is capable of helpful action when it counts.

   The Montalbano stories are an interesting mixture of relationships and old fashioned community police work. Salvo is not operating in a vacuum. There are plenty of cultural references, yet it shows that Italians can have a bit of a laugh about their own peculiarities and national characteristics.

   In the Nordic noir (Wallander, Killing, Bron) work is the only thing that matters to the officers because they are normally divorced or mentally unbalanced or alcoholics. There is no humour whatsoever. The police inspectors and detectives are incapable of any kind of human warmth, solving crimes with efficiency, spiced with gunfights, clever computer work and  the latest surveillance equipment.  

   Not Salvo. He talks to the neighbours of victims, who are always able to give him a lot of information about lifestyle, family ties, sexual histories and frequently offer their own theories of the possible perpetrators and motives of the crimes. Salvo lives in a luxurious seaside villa. He swims every morning in the open sea and loves spagetti with fresh sea urchins, enjoyed with robust red wine. Salvo has a girlfriend, Livia, who flies in from Genoa every now and then. Mostly they talk on phone. Salvo is relatively faithful, but what can a man do, if there are supermodel types with Sophia Loren lips walking around? We are all wondering, if Salvo is going to give into temptation or not. Often he is not, but you can understand the struggle the poor man goes through.

    The Nordic crime writers and producers of television series could perhaps take a deeper look into the world of  Il Commissario Montalbano. The current assumption that detailed descriptions of extreme violent acts and expert knowledge of forensic crime scene investigations is what is needed to create "entertainment" could do a little shake-up.

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

STREET MARKETS: EVERYTHING FROM CARROTS TO FUR COATS

  A friend staying in Milan came for a visit and  and I went to meet her at Brignole station. Since I arrived early and there was still time before the train arrived, I decided to take a little stroll around the little streets around Brignole. To my utter delight I stumbled upon a street market selling antiques on Via Galata, only 5 minutes walk from the station. As soon as my friend arrived, I suggested we go back there to check what is on offer. She agreed and we ended up walking up and down the market for couple of hours inspecting every single bancarella, tables covered with suitably aged goods, such as decorative glass bottles and stoppers, handbags, jewellery, books, posters, dolls and numerous other small items.

   I love all kinds of street markets in general and Italy is an especially good country to visit these. Every local area have their own monthly or weekly veggie, fruit and general goods market. A street stall can be as simple as a lorry stopping for some hours in the street near you - here in Nervi there are regular opportunities to sample Sardinian cheese, wine and salami every Monday and Thursday on Via Oberdan and often during the weekend a fruit and vegetable lorry stops there as well. Organic farm produce is sold on Wednesday mornings in the little park near the Commune.
   On Tuesday mornings one can have some serious savings and real bargains in Quinto, where at least hundred stalls are selling clothes, shoes, underwear, bags, fur coats (looked real to me), bedlinen and sheets, kitchen utensils, children's clothes and many other things. In these times of financial distress, this type of a general goods market makes a tight household budget a little bit more flexible. Bus number 15 stops right in front of the market.
    Sometimes it is tricky to find out when and where the markets are happening. So, when I went back the following week to check if the antique market is on at Via Galata, it wasn't. It happens only once a month, on a Thursday of the second week of the month.
  Then there is a big antique market on in and around Palazzo Ducale every first weekend (Saturday and Sunday) of the month (www.genovantiquaria.com). I recently went there and came back with collectable Danish Christmas plates (10 euro a piece), vintagle ear rings, old postcards of Genoa, one vintage compact powder case and an unsual leather handbag from the 1950s (in truth, it is a bit difficult to open, but once you figure out how the little key works, it is possible to use it on special occasions).

If you are a foodie, the monthly market in front of Palazzo Ducale is the place to discuss the finer points of Italian delicacies.

  The same place in front of Palazzo Ducale (via San Lorenzo side)  is transformed into a regional gourmet food market every second Saturday and Sunday of the month. I am now a regular custormer for a nice nutty rye type of bread from South Tyrol. There are also unusual country type cheeses and salamis, olive oil, wine and plenty of other delicacies. However, no bargains on this market. It is a serious meeting of foodies. These farmers/producers are particularly keen for you to sample their product. That one bite should tell you the difference between the product that is for sale here and the one in the supermarket. Italians can definitely taste it.
  I was just about to finish this by saying that the City of Genoa could do a bit more to advertise these markets, when I saw a little booklet John had left on my desk: Calendario degli Eventi Fieristici in Liguria 2013. He had picked it up from the tourist office and it has a list of all regular events, festivals and markets in the whole of Liguria. No more detective work needed!

  

LA FESTA IN THE HARBOUR

There was a small festival last night in Nervi in the small boat harbour, at the end of passegiata Anita Garibaldi. We saw an advertisement promising food, drink and music and decided to wonder down the harbour area in the early evening to have a look.

   The local fishermen's association had transformed the tiny square into an outdoor restaurant with long tables  and benches. There was an air of informality. Tables were covered in plastic cloth, secured in place with brown packaging tape. Simple, but efficient.

   Even though the weather - which has been absolutely gloriously sunny and hot for couple of weeks now - turned into a thunder storm with light rain later, it did not spoil the festive weekend athmosphere. People still came to the party: families with small children, elderly couples, teenagers...

  After buying a ticket, €8 per person for food and drink, we found a free table  and sat down to enjoy the evening. Teenagers volunteering as waiters and waitresses came to inspect the tickets and then brought us a plastic plate of freshly cooked fish with pieces of bread covered in tasty tomato sauce and a glass of deliciously cold white wine.

   Then the rain started and everyone ran to seek shelter in a covered area. We found another table and met a very nice Italian family. We even managed to have a conversation in Italian with them. Luckily, they also spoke some English so we got the basics covered.  

  A Rwandan band was supposed to be performing but sadly that was cancelled due to the weather.  Neverheless, the evening continued in all the other small restaurants and bars along the harbour.

   We went home happy. 

   This was the first time we had a strong sense of having participated in something benefitting the whole community.  After last night one other new feeling has started to take shape as well: perhaps this is now a little bit our neighbourhood too.

  

  

  

  

  

  

PILLARS OF SHAME

Everyone has heard about monuments built in honor of something or somebody. But the Genovese have gone one step further: in this city there are monuments in order to remember something that is shameful or disgraceful. There are at least two pillars of shame (colonna infame) in the city centre. My friend Mary took me to see one of them and it has actually been put there to shame the city of Genoa itself.

This pillar of shame can be found very close to Museo di Sant'Agostino in Piazza di Sarzano.

This particular pillar is a reminder of the fact that when the city of Genoa decided to re-built a specific part of the historical centre, they destroyed a whole neighbourhood in the process, including the birth place of violonist Niccolo Paganini. Even though a new house has been built nearby to mark Paganini's birth place, it is not quite the same say those who would have preferred to visit the original one.



On top of the pilar, there is a proverb saying "Do no evil, have no fear". There is also list of all the original neighbourhoods which were destroyed in the building process: Marina, Via Madre di Dio, Via del Colle, Portoria, Sarzano e Ravecca. At the end there is a quote from Franz Lizt:  "There will never be another Paganini".

GONE TO THE BEACH!

It's hot. It's humid. No air in the apartment.
It is easy to understand why the whole of Italy is practically closed in August.
For the past couple of weeks day temperatures have reached well over +30C every day in Genoa and some days even  up to +40 C in the afternoon. We have tried to keep one room cool with the air-conditioning unit and windows open everywhere else. Keeping the window shutters down helps too, but who wants to sit in a dark apartment with lights on when there is bright sunshine and glittering waters nearby?
There is only one remedy. Must find a beach.

This is not a difficult mission as there are beaches everywhere. One of the best things about Genoa is that it is so close to all the pretty little villages/small towns along the Ligurian coast, all easily accessible. Yesterday we went to explore Camogli - pretty little seaside resort town only 20 minutes from Nervi by train and simply followed the crowd. Bingo! They were all going to the same place as us - the beach.
   Once you have found a beach that looks promising, there are usually two options - paying for sunchairs and an umbrella or trying to find a free spot in the sun. The Genovese are famous for being careful with money. Basically, nobody wants to pay and therefore the search for a free piece of beach is a popular sport.
   The paying option becomes pricey very quickly, if one wants to meet the waves more than once a week. There is normally an entrance fee (say €10 euro per person). A sunchair is another €7 per person and an umbrella €5 optional extra for half a day (from 9 am to 2 PM or from 2PM to 7PM). Yesterday it cost us €30 for the family for a half-day in this particular il bagno  but on the plus side there was a  restaurant/bar/cabins/toilets/beach shower and a life-guard on duty. The chairs were not particularly comfortable and they were in a row of ten other chairs, but the umbrella was a good size giving well needed shade.

  A beach is not always full of white sand or any sand for that matter. In Camogli the beach was made out of small pebbles which meant that the small distance from the towel to the sea became a humiliating acrobatic exercise, especially attempted with bare feet.  The pebbles were like hot coals in the heat of the day.  We made a mental note to buy cheap plastic shoes for the next time...

 
  

 

  

 

 

ROUGH EDGES

Yesterday I was walking in an area in centro storico, better known as Maddalena.

This is a particularly lively part of town, practically in the backyard of Via Garibaldi, one of the main tourism attractions. It is full of character with  quirky little shops selling vintage clothes, bags and shoes (not necessarily cheap) and food shops with special pasta and olive oil to die for (try olioteca Le Gramole on Via dei Macelli di Soziglia).  Being a small and compact place, a casual stroll will soon lead to a particularly noteworthy church, the Santa Maria Maddalena, which is actually an active parish with a community feel, and not just a museum piece. I was on my way to another landmark in the area, Palazzo Spinola,  which does not look much from the outside but is rich in velvet, silk, antique furniture and paintings inside. The real depth of this area can only be appreciated with repeated visits as something new always catches the eye.

    But it does not take long before something else registers too: the number of prostitutes along the narrow alleyways. Groups of quite young looking girls stand idly in the street corners, in dresses, which would not look out of place in a disco or a nightclub, but are a slightly comical choice of clothes to wear in the full afternoon sun. Stylish jeans teamed up with generously open t-shirts,loud lipstick, smoky eyes and lots of mock gold jewellery were giving the same message to any passer-by. Loud popmusic was coming out of one open window. These streets may not be a pleasant place to be during the night time, but I was not feeling particularly threatened as it was only 4 PM, full day light and plenty of people around. I was surprised though to see so many girls, chatting or catching a dance step or two.

  Prostitution is legal in Italy, but establising a brothel or pimping is not. There are many sad stories of human trafficking and violence against women, drugs and desperation. In the Maddalena area, the local shopkeepers are not happy about having such an open display of a different kind of trade on their door step as potential customers for other than sex are inclined to take a quick shortcut to a safer looking side of town as soon as they see the girls. Neighbourhood action groups are trying to find a solution to the problem. For the time being the shopkeepers and the girls are forced to tolerate each other. It is an uneasy relationship.