Italy for Italians

Posted on August 8, 2020 by babbityjean

As the lockdown in Italy is being lifted, Italians are beginning to rediscover their stunning artistic patrimony… without hordes of tourists.  Before the pandemic, with 7.5 million visitors annually to the Colosseum, Italy’s most visited monument, Romans did not want to tackle the long lines and crowds. Likewise, the locals avoided the Vatican where 29,000 visitors a day formed queues that could snake around for up to a mile.

In Milan, la Pinoteca di Brera reopened on June 9, exactly 70 years after it had reopened following the bombing during World War II.  The reopening took place in compliance with requirements for masks, disinfectants, sanitization and social distancing.  The maximum capacity is 152 people, divided into rooms according to size and following a single direction without the possibility of going back.  Visitors must book online and then receive a link to a “Brera Box,” with activities and personalized information to better prepare their route.  At the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, there are staggered entrances to see Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper: 5 people every 15 minutes.  It’s an opportunity for Italians to fully enjoy the masterpiece, detail by detail, appreciating the emotional reactions and gestures of the apostles.

At the Uffizi in Florence, black dots have been glued to the floor in front of the most popular paintings—works by Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, Raphael and Caravaggio—to guide social distancing.  The gallery has halved the number of people who can visit at any time, from 900 to 450, and capped guided tours at 10 people.  The Uffizi’s director, Eike Schmidt, says, “It would be wonderful if the model of relaxed tourism that we are experimenting at the Uffizi in this particular historical moment would become the model for tourism in the future.”

In Venice, it was Venetians who thronged the piazzas.  The alleys, rivas and porticoes reverberated with Italian and the Venetian dialect.  The absence of cruise ships reduced acqua alta and enabled locals to take their small boats and kayaks out on much cleaner waters.  Venetians even gathered to protest a new dock that would bring boatloads of tourists through one of Venice’s last livable neighborhoods.

But this new-found freedom has a steep price.  Gondoliers are seeing very little action, and tour guides throughout Italy have almost no work.  In fact, flash mobs of guides and organizers have staged protests in front of the Pantheon in Rome and throughout other cities to raise awareness about their plight.  With 63 million foreigners travel to Italy annually (more than 1 for every citizen), tourism accounts for more than 13% of Italy’s gross domestic product.  About 3.5 million people in Italy depend on tourism for their livelihood, including restaurateurs and waiters, hoteliers, language teachers, tour guides, and taxi drivers.  Many people work on a freelance basis.

The directors of many cultural institutions are worried about the loss of revenue from ticket sales.  Special exhibitions had to be cancelled.  Even the loss of revenue from trinket sales is hampering the preservation and enhancement of Italy’s artistic treasures.  “It’s a disaster,” said Massimo Osanna, director of the Pompeii archaeological site, which attracted nearly four million visitors last year.  From 40,000 visitors a day at the peak, the site is now capped at 400 a day and sometimes only 250 people show up.  “It was like being in a surrealist painting,” he said.  “We won’t be able to carry out many of the projects we had planned.  Now we are focused on things that can’t be postponed, like ordinary maintenance.”

It would be nice to have a balance.  Maybe after tourism returns, Italy could preserve one day a month just for Italians to explore and savor their own museums and monuments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Architecture, Arte, Campania, English, Firenze, Foto, Italia, La Gente, Milano, Pompei, Roma, Storia, Vacanze, Vaticano, Venezia, Viaggio | 4 Comments

La risposta alla pandemia: L’Italia verso l’America

Posted on July 30, 2020 by babbityjean

Nel seguente post ho preso a prestito generosamente spunto da un articolo d’opinione del New York Times di luglio 202, e vi ho aggiunto i miei pensieri e le mie osservazioni.

L’Italia è stata la prima nazione occidentale a sperimentare una forte ondata di casi Covid-19. Gli ospedali erano sovraffollati e il bilancio iniziale delle vittime iniziale era terribile. Ma poi l’Italia si è mossa rapidamente per affrontare il corona virus. Ha istituito una quarantena molto rigida, a cui si è severamente attenuta.  Si possono ricordare i video sui social media di sindaci che esortavano, supplicavano, minacciavano e persino urlavano ai loro cittadini di rimanere a casa; erano divertenti, ma anche mortalmente seri. Dopo alcune settimane, i contagi e  i decessi hanno raggiunto il picco e poi sono iniziati a diminuire.

Negli Stati Uniti, i contagi si sono stabilizzati dopo alcuni mesi. Gli stati hanno iniziato a riaprire e di nuovo i contagi sono iniziato rapidamente a salire.  L’alto tasso di mortalità è stato naturalmente una conseguenza. I numeri sono spaventosamente sfuggiti di mano, in particolare al sud. Troppi americani hanno pensato con arroganza che “Se l’Italia può farlo, noi possiamo farlo meglio. Siamo la nazione più grande e più forte sulla terra. ”

È vero che l’Italia presenta alcuni importanti svantaggi rispetto agli Stati Uniti: un’economia stagnante da diversi anni e un grande debito pubblico. Il rapporto tra gli anziani e gli adulti in età lavorativa è tra i più alti del mondo occidentale. E di fronte a un nuovo fenomeno come la pandemia, l’Italia ha elementi che non sono a proprio favore come la pesante burocrazia o la scarsa volontà dei cittadini a seguire le regole. Questi possono essere stereotipi nazionali, ma i cittadini italiani hanno superato se stessi ed hanno così effettivamente rispettato l’ordine di rimanere a casa e hanno indossato le mascherine, e tutto questo non in nome del noto individualismo italiano.  Negli USA invece, i cittadini, con aria di sfida e di egoismo, hanno detto: “Nessuno può dirmi cosa devo fare”.

L’Italia ha un enorme vantaggio che manca agli Stati Uniti: la leadership. In Italia il primo ministro e il governo hanno preso sul serio la pandemia: hanno rapidamente preso misure nazionali, come i moduli di autocertificazione per uscire di casa durante la quarantena. Gli aiuti del governo hanno contribuito a sostenere i lavoratori e le imprese. Sono state forniti molti supporti e strumenti per la pandemia. Naturalmente a volte ci sono stati alcuni problemi nella risposta, ma anche il Primo Ministro si è scusato con il Paese per ritardi e ha provveduto a risolverli.

Non è così negli Stati Uniti. La risposta — se così si può chiamare — dal presidente è stata orrenda. Prima da tutto ha negato che ci fosse una pandemia, poi ha detto che sarebbe andata via. Quindi ha consigliato falsi rimedi come ingerire candeggina. Non ha ascoltato i migliori scienziati ed epidemiologi.  Ha insistito a riaprire prima che il Paese fosse al sicuro. Lui stesso non ha portato e non porta una mascherina. Ha legato i finanziamenti agli stati in base alla riapertura delle scuole. Empatia per coloro che hanno sofferto: nessuna.

Il piano A era di rilanciare l’economia; ma se on avesse funzionato, non aveva preparato un piano B. Ora gli americani guardano con desiderio al successo dell’Italia per aver contenuto il corona virus. Ristoranti e bar sono aperti, anche se con certe restrizioni e la maggior parte della vita è tornata normale. I numeri dei casi in Italia sono una piccola percentuale rispetto a quelli negli Stati Uniti. Siamo diventati uno stato patetico sulla scena mondiale.

Ma non dobbiamo rimanere paralizzati. Le elezioni sono tra meno di 100 giorni. Ognuno di noi deve avere un ruolo attivo per garantire che Trump non venga rieletto. Sto sostenendo il Lincoln Project, il cui obiettivo è la sconfitta di Trump e del Trumpismo. Ironia della sorte, è stato avviato da agenti della campagna repubblicana che condividono questo unico obiettivo. I loro discorsi sono brillanti e difficili e possono essere visualizzati su YouTube. Non è iperbole affermare che Trump è un dittatore autoritario. Deve essere rimosso dal suo mandato.

Posted in Abitudini, Differenze culturali, Italia, Italiano, La Gente, Medicina, Politica | Leave a comment

The Response to the Pandemic:  Italy vs. America

Posted on July 30, 2020 by babbityjean

In the following post, I have borrowed generously from an opinion piece in the New York Times from July 2020, and I have added my own thoughts and observations.

Italy was the first Western nation to experience a major wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Hospitals became overwhelmed, and the initial death toll was terrible.  But then Italy moved quickly to do what was necessary to deal with the coronavirus.  It instituted a very severe lockdown and kept to it.  You may remember the videos on social media of mayors of Italian towns and cities who walked out into their communities and pleaded, exhorted, and even screamed at citizens to stay home; they were funny, but also deadly serious.  After a few weeks, cases peaked, and then the numbers began a steep decline.

In the United States, cases plateaued for a couple of months.  States started to reopen, and then cases began to rise rapidly.  Death rates followed.  The numbers got frighteningly out of hand, particularly in the south.  Too many Americans arrogantly thought that “If Italy can do it, we can do it better.  We are the largest and strongest nation on earth.”

It is true that Italy has some major disadvantages compared to the United States.  The economy has been stagnant for some time; the country is deeply in debt and without its own currency cannot print money to extricate itself.  The ratio of seniors to working-age adults is among the highest in the Western world.  And in facing a new phenomenon like a pandemic, Italy is not known for its bureaucratic efficiency nor for its citizens’ willingness to follow the rules.  Those may be national stereotypes, but look whose citizens actually defied stay-at-home orders and mask wearing in the name of individualism?  Whose citizens defiantly and selfishly said, “Nobody can tell me what to do”?

Italy has one huge advantage that the United States lacks:  Leadership.  The Prime Minister and the Government took the pandemic seriously: they quickly initiated policies, like the auto certification forms to leave home during the lockdown.  Government aid helped to sustain workers and businesses.  Pandemic supplies were mobilized.  Of course, there were flaws in the response, but even the Prime Minister apologized to the country for delays in aid and took steps to resolve the problem.

Not so in the United States.  The response, if you can call it that, from the President has been abysmal.   First, he denied that there was a pandemic, then he said it would go away.  Then he advocated phony remedies like ingesting bleach.  He didn’t listen to top scientists and epidemiologists.  He still doesn’t.  He insisted on reopening before it was safe. He wouldn’t wear a mask.  He has tied funding to the states based on reopening the schools.  Empathy for those who have suffered—none.

Plan A was to get the economy going again; when that didn’t work, there was no Plan B.   Now Americans can look longingly at Italy’s success in containing the coronavirus.  Restaurants and bars are open there, albeit with restrictions, and much of normal life has returned.  Italy’s numbers are a tiny fraction of those in the United States.  We have become a pathetic figure on the world stage.

But we must not be paralyzed.  The election is less than 100 days away.  We must each do an active part to ensure that Trump is not re-elected.  I am supporting the Lincoln Project, whose goal is defeat Trump and Trumpism.  Ironically, it was started by Republican campaign operatives who share in this one iron-clad goal.  Their ads are brilliant and tough and can be viewed on YouTube.  It is not hyperbole to state that Trump is an authoritarian dictator.  He must be removed from office.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments