chapter nine
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chapter nine |
Italy is a country of communicators, but not always successfully in English. Although English is taught in primary school, many Italians (especially the older generation) are not particularly confident English-speakers. For those who are, their English is often quite heavily accented, with the vowels strung out musically, extending the length of words and sentences. It is important not to expect everyone to understand English. There are two ways of dealing with this: one is to make allowances with your English, and the other is to learn some Italian. Both approaches should be adopted.
Speaking English clearly isn’t a matter of slowing down, it’s a matter of leaving pauses so that your interlocutor can catch up. So speak a little more slowly and clearly than you would normally, but leave a short gap (a mere beat will do) between sentences or phrases to allow the conversation to breathe.
Secondly, avoid idioms and slang. And if you use initials or acronyms, spell them out the first time you use them as they will probably be different in Italian.
Finally, it’s clearer if you use shorter sentences and make them active (“I do it”) rather than passive (“it is done”) if possible.
Many universities and private language schools in Italy offer short courses in Italian for foreigners from two weeks’ to three months’ duration. Courses cover both Italian language and culture, ranging from Etruscan history to contemporary Italian literature and art. Florence has some twenty-five foreign language schools teaching Italian, and there are two state-funded organizations, the Università Italiana per Stranieri in Perugia, and the Scuola Lingue e Cultura per Stranieri in Siena. Study grants may be available and it is worth inquiring at the Italian Consulate or Italian Cultural Institute. Perugia and Siena run courses year-round, as do private language schools. Universities usually only offer courses during the summer vacation.
Italians aren’t such avid newspaper readers as the British or the North Americans, and readership is greater in the North than in the South. Newspapers are published regionally, but some have national circulation. All newspapers have political leanings and it is useful to know about these.
Italy’s best-selling newspapers are Repubblica, published in Rome and holding center-left views; the Milan-based Corriere della Sera, which holds center-right views and includes an English section; and Italy Daily, which is more centrist. L’Unità, Italy’s Communist newspaper, is also influential although less widely read. A number of regional newspapers are also important, such as La Nazione (Florence), La Stampa (Turin), Il Tempo and Il Messaggero (Rome), Il Secolo X1X (Genoa), and La Sicilia (Catania). The main Italian news magazine is L’Espresso.
Italy doesn’t have downscale tabloid newspapers, but the specialist sports papers Corriere dello Sport and La Gazzetta dello Sport have a wide readership. Gossip magazines like Oggi (Today) and Gente (People) are very popular. This is where you’ll find the paparazzi pictures.
Several English-language magazines are available in the big cities. You can ask for Time Out Rome (monthly), Where Rome (monthly), or A Guest in Milan (monthly) at your hotel, though they usually run out early in the day.
Newsdealers are uncommon in Italy. Instead there are state-run kiosks (edicole) all over the cities. They are where Italians buy the popular weekly part-work magazines with CD-Roms or videos on any number of subjects.
The international press is well represented in Italy. The International New York Times is one of the most popular papers. The weekly news magazine The Economist is also widely read.
The first thing to know about Italian TV is that it works on the PAL system and may not be compatible with systems outside Europe. The second is that Italian TV went digital in 2012, massively increasing the number of free to air terrestrial TV channels. The third thing is that most broadcasts are in Italian. English-language access channels are hard to come by. The state television and radio network is RAI, but the private Mediaset (Rete 4, Canale 5, and Italia 1) network, owned by former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is extremely powerful.
If you live or own property in Italy and have a TV or radio you have to pay a TV and Radio license tax (canone rai), even if you don’t access domestic broadcasts. Even if you are in a furnished flat, if it has TV, you have to pay the license fee. Get the form from the Italian Post Office and you will need a tax code (codice fiscale) to apply. The RAI Web site has details in English (www.rai.it). For Italian and international music commercial stations, try Radio Italia, Radio Globo, or Radio DJ.
For English-language radio and TV the BBC World Service is the world’s largest international broadcaster with services in English and twenty-seven languages. It also operates the satellite subscription service BBC World TV. To find program schedules for BBC World Service radio visit www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice.
Other international services may also be available, notably Eurosport, CNN, France 24, Russia Today, and the US stations CBS, NBC, and Bloomberg, depending on availability through your hotel or satellite network.
If you have access to satellite TV in Italy, you can receive BBC 1, 2, 3, and 4, and also Radio Canada, Radio Australia, and Voice of America. To access BBC programs online, go to www.bbc.co.uk.
Television
After the Portuguese and the British, Italians watch more TV than any other European nation (on average, about four hours per day). Surveys suggest that 90 percent of Italians watch some TV every day and that most receive their news from the television.
There is little or no cable TV in Italy, but wide use of satellite TV (see next page) from the Astra satellite. Imported programs are dubbed into Italian. Violent or sexually explicit programs cannot be shown between 7:00 a.m. and 10:30 p.m.—it was the Italians who pioneered the “violence chip” that filters out violent programs when children are watching.
Until 1976 all TV was state-owned and censored by the Church. Since deregulation, however, Italy has acquired six main stations and hundreds of local ones. Of the six main terrestrial stations, three are run by the state: Rai 1, Rai 2, and Rai 3. The state channels command about half of the regular viewing audience.
The main commercial stations—Italia 1, Rete 4, and Canale 5—are owned by Silvio Berlusconi through his Mediaset company and command about 50 percent of the viewing audience.
The remaining 10 percent of the audience watch programs put out by the approximately nine hundred local TV stations.
Italian TV is not noted for the quality of its programing. The key issue, however, is that in a country where TV is the main opinion-former, the entire private sector has been owned by one person, who is also the leader of a political party.
Satellite TV
Pay TV is very popular in Italy, with over a million subscribers. The advantage of pay TV and satellite TV is that they offer much wider access to English-language programs. The doppio audio track allows you to bring up the original English-language soundtrack. You can also receive BBC World TV and other English-language stations such as CNN.
TV Systems
Standard PAL, NTSC, and SECAM videos won’t work in Italy, which uses the PAL-BG system. It’s best not to import a TV or video into Italy, but to buy a multi-standard system locally. Italy is a Zone 2 DVD area, so US Zone 1 DVDs can only be viewed on a multi-standard DVD player.
The Italian state telephone company is Telecom Italia but, like Britain and the USA, other suppliers are now in the market, notably Tiscali and Wind. All major towns have a Telecom Italia office, which is responsible for the installation and maintenance of phone lines. Telecom Italia is the first port of call if you are getting a new phone line installed or changing the subscriber name, but the phone itself may be provided by another company.
In most countries area codes begin with a (0), and when you dial from abroad you omit the zero. In Italy you don’t. So if you are dialing a number in Florence, for example, which is 00 39 (0)55 …, you should dial 00 39 055 followed by the subscriber number. If you forget, a recorded message will remind you, but in Italian only.
All calls, even local ones within the area you are calling from, require the area code to be entered. Dialing out is much simpler: simply 00 and the country code.
Many Italians now have mobile devices. To call someone on their cell phone, you must always dial the area code before the number, even if you are in the area.
Italian has a universal greeting for answering the phone: “Pronto.” If you hear an answering machine message, it will probably be something like “We are momentarily absent.” No Italian will let you know that they have gone away for three weeks as it would be considered tantamount to an invitation to burglars.
This can be tricky as public pay phones are frequently out of order. You will need to buy a phone card (carta/scheda/tessera telefonica) from a tabacchi (tear off the marked corner first).
If you need a landline, go to one of the numerous telephone centers that have sprung up in the cities. In the countryside, bars or restaurants may still have a telefono a scatti (points telephone), which records the number of units of each call. The barman switches on the phone for you and you pay him for the units used.
In the countryside, some houses display a telephone symbol that means they are authorized as public phone-service providers.
Telecom Italia publishes directories in two formats, Pagine Bianche (White Pages) for personal numbers, and Pagine Gialle (Yellow Pages) for business. You can also access them on the Internet at www.paginegialle.it and www.paginebianche.it.
An English Yellow Pages service is available for major cities at www.englishyellowpages.it. Directory inquiries in Italy are accessed by dialing 12, but the procedure is automated and you have to hold for a human voice. There is no English directory inquiries service.
Italy’s general emergency number is 113. Local operators speak only Italian but a translation service into English is available on 170.
The PT (Poste e Telecomunicazioni) is a limited company with a 75 percent government holding. Traditionally, the postal service in Italy is considered extremely unreliable and most Italians prefer to use registered post (posta raccomandata) or a private courier service for anything important. The most reliable postal service is from the Vatican in Rome, which sends all its international mail from Switzerland, so you get interesting Vatican stamps and safe delivery too! All the major courier services have offices in the main cities. US Mailboxes Inc. now has several franchisees in Italy.
Italy has an ordinary postal service (posta ordinaria) and a priority service (posta prioritaria). Posta prioritaria guarantees delivery within Italy on the next working-day, and in three to four days within the EU. You need a gold priority stamp and an airmail sticker for foreign destinations. There’s also a Postacelere express service available in main post offices. For anything important make sure you obtain proof of posting.
Postcards and letters (if they arrive) will take three to seven days within Italy, and four to ten days within Europe. Allow at least a week for airmail letters to North America; for Australia and New Zealand, two weeks.
The best place to buy stamps is in a tabacchi (marked with a black T sign). Stamps (francobolli) are sold loose, not in booklets. The official identification color of the post office is red, although documentation is often done in blue. There is usually only one collection per day.
Post offices get very busy and have different windows for different services, so make sure you are in the right line. Post offices deal with telegrams, faxes, telex, foreign currency exchange, cash transfers, utility bills, road tax, and TV licenses. You can buy the bollo for the car in the post office. They also pay state pensions and deal in lottery tickets. Unless your business specifically needs a post office or you have plenty of time, you are better off buying stamps in a tabacchi and posting in a mailbox. Main post offices are open all day during the week but close at 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays.
Italian addresses have a five-digit postcode, or CAP (codice di avviamento postale). It is important to get this right to ensure delivery. You can find postcode details at www.poste.it.
Here is the normal way of writing an Italian address:
Maggiore Paolo
(surname followed by first name)
Via Marghera, 2
1-10234 Torino
Italy
The communication that really matters to Italians is face-to-face. Conversazione originally meant associating with others, and it is here that the Italians excel. They will go to great lengths to draw you in to conversation, and every town has its piazza, which is essentially a space for conversation. Stare insieme (being together) is important for Italians as it gives a chance to air grievances, express feelings, and defuse flare-ups. Even on the beach, where the British and the Americans will walk miles to find a lonely cove, the Italians will crowd deck chair to deck chair in a good-neighborly fashion.
A new venue for conversazione is provided by the TV talk shows, which are exceptionally popular and go on for hours.
An amusing way of passing time is to sit in a café and watch Italians talking. They talk with their hands, and their gestures can be very expressive, particularly in Naples and the South.
A person who is expressing disagreement may stroke their fingers upward under their chin, palm down, and then thrust them forward.
At a football match, you may see people pointing their hands at the referee with the “pinky” and forefinger out and the other fingers and thumb turned in, palm down. This means that the spectators disagree with the referee. If the palm is turned upward in the same gesture, then you know that they are saying something obscene to the referee.
Despite its charm and openness, Italy is quite a formal society. Italian has the formal “you” (Lei) and the informal “you” (tu). You should remain on formal terms until invited to use first names, though this doesn’t apply when you are with children, teenagers, or young adults, or in an informal environment. As a guest you will always be introduced first.
Shaking hands is a physical affair. Hands will be shaken warmly and your arm may be grasped with the other hand. Friends and male relatives will often embrace or slap each other on the back in greeting, and women (and sometimes men) will kiss on both cheeks. At a large gathering, it is considered acceptable to go up to someone, shake hands, and introduce yourself.
Most Italians are highly cultured people, and will be happy to talk about art, architecture, and monuments, particularly in their local area. Local food and wine are popular subjects, and sports are very important. Don’t treat soccer lightly—it is taken seriously by many Italians. Family, local scenery, holidays, and movies are other favorite topics of conversation.
As mentioned previously, although Italians are often critical of things in their country, they do not appreciate it when foreigners criticize them. Religion, politics, and the Second World War are off-limits, and sexually explicit jokes are not usually exchanged in mixed company.
The downside of “romantic Italy” has always been the impression that foreign women are “fair game.” In fact, Italian women are on the whole strictly brought up, and Italian men live at home longer than their counterparts in the US or UK. In the North, it is acceptable (though still unusual) for a single woman to eat alone in a restaurant. In the South, however, people are less accustomed to this idea, and you may attract unwanted attention. One way to show that you do not wish to be bothered is to keep work or reading matter on your table.
Italy, as we have seen, is a land of contradictions, combining conformity and anarchy, bureaucracy and evasion, extreme riches and great poverty, scandal and religion. One writer has compared Italy’s shining surface with its “dark heart.”
And yet what keeps Italy and the Italians going is the conviction that the one loyalty that matters is family and close friends, and that with time and understanding everything can be worked out. It is only a matter of finding the way. This fluidity makes life in Italy exceptionally attractive, even seductive, for foreigners, although for residents and business people it can be frustrating.
Modern Italy faces unemployment, immigration (particularly from the Balkans), environmental pollution, rising housing costs and crime, and the social fallout from economic reform. However, it has overcome political extremism and achieved a degree of government stability, and is one of the main upholders and beneficiaries of the EU and the euro.
Italy has one of the largest economies in the world, and is a powerhouse of manufacturing ingenuity and creativity in food, fashion design, and the automotive industry. The Italians are a vital, warmhearted, and inventive people whose contribution to Western civilization cannot be overestimated, and who have contributed hugely to the gaiety of nations.
