History with a capital H

CREVALCORE MAY 19— “When a dog takes over control....” Or so goes the refrain from the theme song of my new favorite program, “Commissario Rex.” This is an Austro/German import about a police homicide detective, his K-9 Rex and his attractive female partner. The show is dubbed into Italian from the German but curiously the theme song is sung in English. I usually watch it while I’m eating lunch. Today I can just squeeze it in before the Giro d’Italia comes back on for the finish of the first mountain stage at 2:50 p.m.

While we’re waiting let me give you a little historical background on the country and region in which I live: The history books tell us that Italy, in fact, has no single cultural identity. The combination of its geography (i.e. mountains), which we have discussed in earlier posts, and its turbulent political past has ensured that the residents of the Peninsula have been able to retain, to a greater extent than many of their neighbors, a more culturally diverse landscape. We Americans tend to accept as the norm the stereotypical jovial, gesturing individual in front of a large platter of spaghetti and meatballs doused in red sauce. In general, our perceptions of Itlay have been molded by the Italian-American experience and those foisted upon us by the mafia-glorifying films of Hollywood.
The reality is that Italy is a diverse patchwork of former isolated city states that have only been linked by a common language since the advent of mass communications.

Unofficially, Italy is divided into the rich, industrial north and the poorer, agricultural Mezzogiorno (south). Officially, Italy is divided into 21 regions and each of which is divided into provinces. Emilia-Romagna, my region, is divided into four: the provinces of Piacenza and Parma; Reggio Emilia and Modena; Bologna and Ferrara; Romagna. Each province is further subdivided in relation to what we might call county seats. Crevalcore, my “commune” or city, is under the provincial seat of Bologna (eventhough it’s closer to Modena) and it is, in turn, over the neighboring smaller towns which are called “frazioni” or “borgate.” The nearby little village of Caselle is under the Commune di Crevalcore. It is a “frazione” of Crevalcore.

This unofficial division still forms a substantial barrier in Italian politics and has given rise to parties such as the Northern League which is in favor of separating from the economically depressed south. Milan, in the north, is seen as the efficient economic motor of the Peninsula. (Actually, Bologna is the richest city per capita in Italy and capital of the richest region.) By contrast, the Mezzogiorno is seen as unorganized and at times chaotic. People in the north often feel that the southerners are dragging them down. Some of these claims are not without merit; I read the other day that some parts of Sicily have unemployment rates as high as 13 percent.Be that as it may, all of Italy is now in Dutch with the EU for running a deficit of more than 3 percent of “PIL” or Prodotto Interno Lordo (GDP). The headline in today’s paper reads: “Deficit, pronto il cartellino giallo della Ue” (EU readies yellow card on deficit).Serious Italian newspapers even manage to work in soccer references in serious economic stories.

There’s always plenty of blame to go around. Just as the economic crisis stories hit it just so happens that one of Berlusconi’s right hand men, Foreign Minister Giancarlo Fini, from Bologna, had his photo splashed across tabloids with an attractive female minister who is part of the prime minister’s governing coalition. Wonder who’s behind that smear campaign? But it wouldn’t be Italy without “un gran casino” (a big mess) going on. History shows us that, prior to the 19th century, Italy was only united once, under the Romans. And we know what happened to them during the fifth century C.E.; they overplayed their hand and lost all of their chips to Germanic invaders. I’ll spare you the thesis and boil Italy’s long history down to one sentence: The Etruscans were the first major civilizing tribe on the peninsula followed by Rome, from Republic to the Empire, then invasions by Goths and Lombards, the rise of nation states such as Venice, Genova and Pisa, then the late Middle Ages brought us the Papal States, Holy Roman Empire and the Angevin Kningdom of Naples, on whose heels followed the Republic of Florence and Aragonese possessions of the Renaissance, the Spanish possessions of the Counter Reformation, 50 years of peace during the 18th century, topped off with the Risorgimento culminating with the unification of Italy in 1870. Whew.

Emilia-Romagna is the bread basket of central Italy. In the winter, winds rush down from the Dolomites in the north and collide with warmer Mediterranean air on the “pianura”(plain) of the Po River. This trapped air causes a blanket of impenetrable fog in the cold months that is responsible for many traffic accidents. The current borders of the region were drawn in 1947. If all of this sounds confusing, it is just as difficult for native Italians to understand. As the Giro d’Italia passed through the other day, stopping in Ravenna, the commentators were presenting the usual cultural fare for the “gentili telespettatori” at home. They couldn’t make up their mind where Emilia ended and Romagna began. A call from the mayor of Ravenna ended the discussion. I won’t go into detail, but Romagna is basically situated in a triangle between Ravenna, Imola and Rimini.

The ancient Via Emilia (sometimes spelled Aemilia) built in 187 B.C.E., bisects the region which is basically rectangular in shape. In ancient times it linked the town of Rimini on the Adriatic coast with the Roman garrison town of Piacenza in the northwest corner. Other major towns along this road include Cesena, Faenza, Imola (where the Grand Prix of San Marino Formula One race is held), Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, and Fidenza. The Etruscans (from whom the region of Tuscany, just to the south, takes its name) ruled from their capital of Felsina, later named Bologna.

Rome’s fall brought much political upheaval as the focus of the region moved from Bologna to Ravenna under control of the Byzantine Empire. In the Middle Ages, great noble families took center stage and exercised great power. There were the d’Este in Ferrara, Bentivoglio in Bologna and Farnese in Parma to name just a few. If soccer rivalries seem a bit out of hand these days, one must remember that many of these cities were at war with each other during the Middle Ages. Bologna regularly clashed with Modena when their interests went against each other. This spirit of “campanilismo” or provincialism is still present today.

As I experience every day, language is one of the most powerful forces of cultural identity. Most in Italy over the age of 60 spoke a language other than Italian at home as children. Nowdays, people in Modena, for example, speak with a slightly different accent than those who live in Bologna. The Modenese dialect of yore was a bit different than that of Bologna but mutually intelligible. It’s hard for an American to believe that cities just 40 km apart spoke different languages. When I say different languages I mean that they are not mutually intelligeble to a speaker of modern Italian. (The linguist’s joke about the difference between a dialect and a language is that a language is a dialect with an army applies here.) Bolognese has nasal vowels like French and the soft ‘s’ characteristic of the Castillian Spanish spoken in Spain. In modern Italian to say ‘I don’t understand anything’ is: “Non capisco niente.” In Bolognese it is: “An capesz brisza.” Tortellini is pronounced ‘tortalang.’ Stefania’s parents spoke only Bolognese at home as children and only learned Italian at school.

Modern Italian was basically an arbitrary choice made by those in power during the unification of Italy to establish the Tuscan dialect of Florence, always popular among the cultural elite of the Penninsula because of the importance of its capital city, as the official language. Italians, always slow to change, didn’t cede their languages easily and the Italian government, unlike that of France in the 19th century, did not take as drastic measures to impose ‘standard Italian’ on its citizens. Radio and TV could only do what the government couldn’t. At any rate, the dialects are now dying. In ten years there will be very few native speakers of any regional dialects left. That is to say, all of the people in their 70s and 80s who I hear talking in dialect will no longer be around. It is such a treasure to walk by and see all of the little old men with their broad-brimmed hats sitting in cafes playing cards and arguing in dialect. Their female contemporaries are never to be seen in the little cafes but I certainly hear them congregating in front of each others’ first floor windows. They always seem to be suspicious of everyone and everything, are quite formal, often addressing acquaintances as “signora” and quick to show flashes of indignant anger when brushed rudely by a youngster on the bus. Stefania’s mom addressed her mother-in-law with the formal “Lei” (’you’ equal to the ‘thou’ that disapeared from English several hundred years ago) until the day that the latter passed away.

Aside from their dialects, the residents of Emilia-Romagna are proud of their famous sons (Verdi, Marconi, Cassini, Fellini), their hills, plains and deltas, their food (lasagna, Parma Ham, Mortadella, tortellini, tortelloni, spaghetti al ragu’, Balsamic vinegar), industry (Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Ducati, Malaguti), architecture, universities (Bologna’s is the oldest in Europe and dates to 1088) and so on and so forth.

No K.C. strip or Manny’s burritos or cold beverages around here but I think I can handle the other fringe benefits in their stead for a bit longer. Gotta go, the roads are calling me.....