Passionate about Italy

Yesterday we watched an Italian actor, being interviewed about Italy and it's future. He talked enthusiastically about how creative Italians are, about how they are so inventive and original.The best in the world.. It's in their DNA to be geniuses. Italians only go abroad so they can come back and say how lucky they are to live here.

He saw Italy's future in tourism, exalting all the attractions of the country. Italy has about eighty per cent of the world's art treasures, more UNESCO Heritage sites than any other country in the world. Even the Mediterranean diet has managed to become one.

All Italian towns have a piazza. The word piazza comes from the Greek "platea". For the ancient Greeks and Romans, for the Renaissance Italians, the piazza was the central pulse of the city. Even today, with all the competition from the Shopping centres, built on the outskirts of the towns, the Piazza is always a favourite meeting point. Whenever you go for a cappuccino in an Italian piazza on a sunny day, of which there are many, you can see why Italians love their country.


Italy,  today, is suffering from the brain drain. So many, bright young people with University education are finding employment in other countries. Brookes University, in Oxford, has done a study about it. You may want to look at this article from The Economist: Italy's brain drain. No Italian jobs. Why Italian graduates cannot wait to emigrate (<= click), Jan 6th 2011

In the past, many Italians had to emigrate, to survive. In living memory, they went to away to work, the Northern Italians went mostly to South America, and the Southern Italians to North America. In Sicily, people were starving, they had no choice, but to seek work elsewhere to help their children have a better life.

Not a country for young people

Now, it seems that young people go and work in other countries not to survive physically, but to use their education and have more possibility for a career. When you go and live in another country, you have to adapt to different ways of doing things. Some, are obvious, like driving on the other side of the road, or not expecting cars to stop at a pedestrian crossing. Others, like not making noise between 2pm and 3.30pm, if you live in a block of flats, or always saying "Buon giorno" when you walk in and out of  a shop, are a question of manners.


We have a pact in our family, I never criticise Italy and they never criticise  Britain. We all just look at the best in both countries.

Thinking of all the people at this moment that are moving to another country, for whatever reason, I thought of a saying that I read recently. It was addressed to parents, but could easily apply to countries.

"Give your children roots to grow, wings to fly, and a reason to come back."