The Real Italy

Or why you should vet who you listen to, plus some heartwarming vignettes

The real Perugia, from today’s walk. Photo mine.

Cari amici,

Recently an Italian friend of mine took issue—and rightfully so—with a traveler who complained online that Italian cuisine is sadly lacking in vegetables. As anyone who has eaten in non-tourist-trap restaurants, had a meal at an Italian friend’s house, or shopped at a local market knows, Italy’s standard fare is rich in vegetables and the traveler’s complaint is ludicrous.

It's distressing how many “instant experts” pop up in online exchanges. In Italy-related conversations you’ll find visitors who pontificate, with self-appointed authority, about the topic in question whether they’ve been in Italy for six hours, six days, or six weeks. Then there are those who don’t claim to be authorities but share their (limited) experiences as if they believe 1) Italy is a uniform place and 2) their experiences here are universal. How (often) wrong both of these online over-sharers are.

So let’s talk about “the real Italy” (filtered, of course, through my personal, Italian American lens, which I polish often in an effort to keep my perspective open and fair and realistic). And, in the spirit of this season of good cheer, let’s single out the warm-and-fuzzy stuff; after all, who doesn’t need a dose of positivity as we enter the new year? If you want to hear about the frustrating, maddening, confusing, and sometimes incomprehensible aspects of life here (which, by the way, most people passing through this little treasure chest of a nation never see or experience), I’ve written about them before. Today I’m too lazy to link to them, but feel free to search the archive—or not. I’ll totally understand if you want to abandon your laptop or phone and spend time with a loved one instead.

What, you’re still here? Okay, picture this: you’re walking down the street in Bologna, staring fixedly at a side-street Christmas market, so you don’t see the cutout in the sidewalk ahead and take a spectacular tumble. Within seconds, almost before you can register what happened, two passersby will grasp you by the arms and set you back on your feet, then make sure you didn’t hit your head before moving on.

Or this: you go to your local pharmacy during the holiday season, as one does (in this case, to spend yet more money on your dog because yes, we fill veterinary prescriptions at “people pharmacies”) and leave with a small gift—last year, a tube of house-brand hand cream (luscious, I might add); this year, a tisane (herbal tea) in a wintry blend.

Or how about this: you get on the wrong Frecciarossa train (fortunately going to the right place), and when you explain your mistake (don’t trust the Trenitalia app to keep up with binario changes!), the ticket-checker says there’s a €10 penalty for that. He doesn’t smile, but—che fortuna!—he also doesn’t charge you. He does, however, kick you out of carrozza 5, the location of your reserved second-class seat, because on this train (but not on the one you should have taken, obviously) carrozza 5 is business class.

You know how Christmas is typically a family-focused holiday here, whereas Easter is often shared with friends? Well, that tradition doesn’t stop friends, when they find out you’re spending the holidays alone, from inviting you to lunch on Christmas Day. (This year, the invitation came from a good friend, but my first Christmas alone in Italy happened when I was new to the neighborhood, and the family who opened their home to me barely knew me.)

In the real Italy, you’ll find quiet villages and stone-paved streets, but you’ll also find vibrant, sophisticated cities that blend past and present in varying concoctions. You’ll find hilltop hamlets, university towns, industrial sprawl, meh-inducing residential areas, and historical centers of all stripes, from crumbling to so carefully curated that they border on the artificial. You’ll find places that guidebooks and online enthusiasts tout as stunning, gorgeous, charming, not to be missed, when the fact is that up or down the road a piece are under-the-radar places that are equally all-of-the-above. You’ll find high cuisine and cucina povera, places where seafood abounds or where pork rules, focaccia and unsalted bread and torta al testo. The real Italy is diverse: mountainous, coastal, rich in ravines and valleys, dense or sparse in population, bone-chillingly cold, swelteringly hot, delightfully temperate, foggy or smoggy or clear, viciously windy or still as death, loud, silent, friendly or less so. Its language is diverse; its people, its attitudes, its practices, its politics, its food, all diverse. This is why I simultaneously laugh and despair when I see, popping up over and over again on social media, the eternal FAQ “where should I live in Italy?” There is no one Italy (just like there is no “one” wherever-you-come-from), and that’s a beautiful thing.

I know you’re busy, so run off now and do whatever’s on your list. But first I want to thank you for reading “Italicus.” Whatever your religious or agnostic or atheist traditions are, I wish you a peaceful holiday season.

Tanti auguri e ci vediamo nell’anno nuovo—

Cheryl

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Italian words of the day

• saputello—a know-it-all

Funny how Italians don’t eat vegetables, yet there are so many words for vegetables. Hmmm. Anyway, don’t these vegetables have cool names?

• friarielli—broccoli rabe

• finocchio—fennel

• cavolo nero—kale

• cavolfiore—cauliflower

• cetriolo—cucumber

• peperone—bell pepper

• barbabietola—beet/beetroot

• sedano—celery

• carciofo—artichoke

• porro—leek

Book of the day

Proof, if any were needed, that vegetables are a thing in Italy:

• The Glorious Vegetables of Italy by Domenica Marchetti (who writes

  Buona Domenica
  , a Substack magnet for foodies)

P.S. My book! Which you can buy here or on the usual sites, or, better yet, order it from your local bookstore. Another fab option is to ask your library to stock it. If you read it and like it, please tell your friends and/or leave a few lines of praise on any bookish site. You’d be surprised how much a rating or review helps authors. Baci!