Tomorrow is Liberation Day here in Italy. It commemorates the day when Italy was liberated by Allied troops during the Second World War.

There will be various celebrations and even some protests in different cities throughout the country, along with fairs, concerts, and various other events.

Of course, schools and offices will be closed. And, since it happens to fall on a Friday this year, people are happy because they get a long weekend.

Happy Liberation Day!

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I’d like to tell you a story about families and how special they are. It isn’t my story, but the story of someone who has become a good friend. I only play a minor role in the events that happened, but it brought some special people into my life.

It all started shortly after I moved here to Italy two years ago. It was Spring, I had been here a few short months and had met a lot of people but, naturally, was still sorting out who was who.

I had some friends who were interested in coming to visit and wanted to know how to get here, so one day I went online and typed in “directions to Palmoli“, hoping to find a handy map and written directions. Instead of directions though, I ran across a note that had been written on a bulletin board on one of the popular travel sites. The person had written several months previously asking for directions to my town, but no one had responded.

Naturally, I responded and said that I was an American living in town and if they hadn’t found any directions yet, I’d be happy to help. She wrote back saying that they were coming to Italy in order to go on a cruise, but were hoping to come visit her ancestral town for a few hours on the day before their cruise left. Since she was also looking for relatives in town, I sent my private email address to avoid her having to put any private information on the bulletin board. That started our correspondence along with a chain of some pretty amazing coincidences.

When she sent me the names of her relatives, I mentioned them to O since he knows everyone. Amazingly enough it turns out that her mother’s cousin was a lady that we had prepared pasta with for an Easter Monday picnic just a few days before. Of course, we informed her right away and she was pleased to hear from her relatives in America since they had lost touch years before. She brought out all the photos that had been sent to her years before and showed us the letters that she had received. We mentioned that they were coming to visit and she said she would let all the relatives know.

Shortly before my new friend arrived from the States, we found out that not only were they arriving on the same day as my parents, but on the same flight and only a few rows away from each other. Yet another coincidence…

A few days before Rosemary was set to arrive, her cousin told us that she had arranged for a meal at the local restaurant and that she had been able to contact a good part of the family to come. Little did we know that it was over 40 people!

The day arrived and we met Rosemary down at the main road so that they could follow us up to the restaurant in their car. You can imagine her surprise and shock to see all of the people eagerly coming out of the restaurant to meet her. There were tears of happiness as the family got to meet each other for the first time.

The next few hours were a whirlwind for all of us. I was the “official interpreter”, and things were busy as the families shared stories and experiences and tried to explain who was who and how they were all related. As with all Italian parties, there was lots to eat and then someone broke out an accordion and there was singing and dancing. Her family is full of talented singers, so hearing them sing the traditional songs of the town was truly something special.

It was a magical day that ended way too soon, but there was a wedding coming up the following year and Rosemary hoped to come back.

Understandably it was an unforgettable day for Rosemary, but it was one for me as well. I met some special people that day that have become good friends, both here and in the US. In fact, when O and I went to the States for Christmas that year, Rosemary hosted a party in her house for us and we had the opportunity to meet her family and friends.

Several months passed and it was time for her to come back for her cousin’s wedding. This time she brought along her brother and his wife and they stayed for a few days here in town. As you can probably imagine, the family here went out of their way to welcome them. There were three days of feasting in one house or the other. The special china was brought out and we were treated to several course meals every day sweetened with homemade wine. I say “we” because, in my role as “offical interpreter”, I was invited too. We won’t talk about how much weight I probably put on in those few days. The wedding itself was a 14 course meal, if my memory serves me right.

Another good thing was that they were also able to meet some other relatives from her grandmother’s side of the family that she hadn’t had the chance to meet the first time she came. It was funny to find out that one of her distant cousins on her grandfather’s side is now dating one of her cousins on her grandmother’s side.

Of course, it came time again for them to go home, but knowing that one day they’ll come back again to visit. (Hopefully the dollar will regain some of its strength so that they can come back soon.) In the meantime, they’re hoping that some of their Italian relatives will take the trip over to the states.

Don’t worry Rosemary, we mention it to them often.

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The saga continues……

As you probably already know, Italy is headed for elections on April 13 and 14th and it has certainly been interesting watching all of the developments. But, I think the latest one really underlines the craziness of Italian politics.

It seems a small party, the Christian Democracy Party led by Giuseppe Pizza was banned from participating because of the fact that its symbol was too similar to the symbol used by the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC). And yes, I did mention that the guy who leads the party is named Giuseppe Pizza which has led to an enormous amount of joke headlines like

Pizza’s party could stop poll

and

Pizza delivers threat to Italian election

But, all joking aside, it seems a bit ridiculous considering that this small party may get a total of a few hundred votes. Of course, as one of the articles mentioned above states, this small party is allied with Berlusconi’s Popolo della Libertà (PdL) and could be capable of bringing those votes over from the UDC which is no longer allied with the PdL.

If you’d like to read more about this latest development, here’s an article in English that discusses it.

In other Italian election news, Joe over at the Italyville blog wrote Tuesday about receiving his Ballot from the Italian Consulate (complete with pictures of the documents included, so go check it out).
Plus, over at Bleeding Espresso you can read up on the procedures for Italians voting abroad. (She and I share the same political views here in Italy, so do seriously consider taking her advice when voting.)

In the meantime, let’s hope that the vote doesn’t get postponed.

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Besides being busy with various translations and interpreting tasks, I’ve been busily watching the political situations both in the US and in Italy, avidly reading the newspapers and online news sites to get an idea of what is going on.

I’ve basically steered away from discussing political issues here, but sometimes you just have to give in and talk about them. But, I’ll stick to the situation here in Italy.

Politics in Italy has always included a bit of theater, but lately things have been over the top. For those who haven’t been following what’s been going on, I’ll give you the basic run down.

First, a little bit of (simplified)recent history. (Believe me, the whole situation is much more complicated than this, but I’ll give the basics.)

Italy voted in 2006. At the time, there were basically 2 large coalitions, the House of Liberty (right) and the Union (left). Italy has numerous small political parties which then became part of one of the large coalitions. A change in the election law in 2005 made these coalitions necessary, as the vote tally awards seats in parliament to the winning coalition.

The vote in 2006 was won by the Union by a small margin and the Prime Minister was then Romano Prodi. Again, because it was a small margin, the winning party really didn’t have much of a majority. Two weeks ago, Prodi was forced to resign after one of the parties in his coaltion withdrew their support. Why? Because the Party Leader’s wife was arrested under corruption charges and he himself was put under investigation. So, with the rationalization that his “allies” should have stopped the arrest and investigation, he withdrew his party’s support and Prodi was forced to request a vote of confidence from Parliament. Since he had a small majority to begin with, when that party withdrew, he no longer had a majority and he lost the “confidence” vote. Having lost that vote, he was then forced to resign.

But, remember how I said that Italian politics has always included a bit of theater? Well, let’s not forget that theater part. During the confidence vote, one of the members of the party that withdrew their support wanted to vote in favor of Prodi. He was consequently called a “piece of s*%&” by the other members of his party and spat upon, whereupon he started crying, then fainted, and was carried out on a stretcher.

But wait, things get better….. When the votes were tallied and the Speaker announced them to the floor, the opposing party popped open some spumanti and started eating mortadella (their nickname for Prodi since he’s from Bologna) at which point the Speaker shouted at them that it wasn’t a tavern. I have to admit, I was watching this and could not believe my eyes.

At this point, it was obvious that Prodi would have to resign. But, the President of the Republic, Napolitano, did not want to dissolve Parliament and go directly to vote with the current voting law which, obviously, leads to instability in the government. At that point, he appointed Marini to investigate the possibility of electoral reforms.

Of course, the opposing coalition, led by Berlusconi, wanted to have Parliament dissolved right away and set things in motion for elections. Why? Because he was sure he could win. In fact, he even said that if the call to vote wasn’t set, that he’d march into Rome with a million people. (Later he said that he was misunderstood and never actually stated that.)

His opposition, the newly formed Democratic Party, called for election reform, something that had actually been under discussion before the current crisis occurred. Different systems were being discussed and a referendum was set for May 18th. But, then came the current crisis and the referendum will most likely be delayed.

Marini met with all of the leaders of the various political parties, but, due to resistance to electoral reforms by those who wanted elections right away (Berlusconi and his coalition), he was forced to declare that the reforms would not be possible. Hence, Italy will vote on April 13 & 14. And the campaign begins…

You can read here about the two candidates for Prime Minister.

More on Berlusconi
It will be interesting to see what happens. Veltroni, the leader of the Democratic Party, has declared that his party will go to elections by itself, without a coalition. Some say he’s doomed to failure and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, part of the larger House of Liberty coalition, is bound to win. Of course, the current election law favors these coalitions, so they may be right. Then again, many Italians are aware of the need for change and want leaders that actually care about the needs of the country. Only time will tell. And the drama continues……

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I’ve been a bit under the weather this past week with a nasty cold (or flu) that actually had me in bed for 2 days, something that rarely happens to me. Despite a nagging cough though, I do feel better and actually did get out a bit this weekend.

Yesterday the Scuderia Ferrari Club visited town. They spent the weekend in the Vastese, visiting several towns in the area and were scheduled to arrive at the castle at 2 pm before heading to lunch at the Boomerang (the local hotel/restaurant). We knew nothing about the visit until we went to the tobacco shop to get a copy of the newspaper, La Repubblica, and saw the brochure sitting on the counter. Of course, O was ready to see a Ferrari rally, of that you can be sure.

The group arrived early though, shortly after 1 pm. We were sitting down, enjoying our lunch when we heard the unmistakeable roar of the powerful Ferrari engines as they wound their way through town. By the time we had finished our lunch, they were no longer up by the castle, so we headed down to the Boomerang so we could get a good view of the cars.

There were about 20 of them (I didn’t really count, so I’m not sure) and all but two of them were the usual Ferrari red. There was one black one and one that was a maroon color. Plus, some were older and some brand new.

OK, so I have to admit that I wasn’t all that excited about the cars. But, O enjoyed seeing them and they are very nice-looking.

Plus, it was a perfect day to cruise around in a convertible. Too bad no one was offering to take us for a ride.

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