Sorry, dear tourists, Italy is dirty
It took the new president of Calabria, the tip of the toe of Italy's boot, to finally take the courage to admit that Italy is dirty from bottom to top.
Chapeau to Mr. Loiero for having the balls to say this. It's not easy, particularly for him, since his region takes a large part of its sustaining from tourists spending their hols in its fabulous coastline.
If you have travelled anywhere south of (or in) Rome, you'll have noticed it yourself: Italy's tolerably clean at the best, and filthy at the worst.
Now let's get back to the basics: why is it so? answer: because we dirty our own country. Just look at the side of the street in the average crossing in Rome. It's a festival of plastic bottles, paper tissues, newspapers, glass, corks, cigarette packets and so on. Now just climb into any car in Italy: it will be perfectly clean, almost aseptic.
My friends always complain about my car being so dirty inside. I admit I'm a desperate case, since I wash it about 3 times a year (particularly, when rats walk away in disgust). But the truth is: I never ever throw even a chewing-gum from the window. When I smoked (Yes, sir! I just stopped and feel excellent!) I hesitated to throw ashes from the window.
So what do you make of it? clear: people would rather keep the street dirty and the car clean. As Tim Parks rightly wrote over 15 years ago, this is quintessential Italy: ceremony within, anarchy without.
No complaints then if tourists go to Spain and Turkey instead. We can cry about economic recession, but they will keep on leaving. Or shall we start keeping our country a bit cleaner, if not for the tourists at least for ourselves?
Chapeau to Mr. Loiero for having the balls to say this. It's not easy, particularly for him, since his region takes a large part of its sustaining from tourists spending their hols in its fabulous coastline.
If you have travelled anywhere south of (or in) Rome, you'll have noticed it yourself: Italy's tolerably clean at the best, and filthy at the worst.
Now let's get back to the basics: why is it so? answer: because we dirty our own country. Just look at the side of the street in the average crossing in Rome. It's a festival of plastic bottles, paper tissues, newspapers, glass, corks, cigarette packets and so on. Now just climb into any car in Italy: it will be perfectly clean, almost aseptic.
My friends always complain about my car being so dirty inside. I admit I'm a desperate case, since I wash it about 3 times a year (particularly, when rats walk away in disgust). But the truth is: I never ever throw even a chewing-gum from the window. When I smoked (Yes, sir! I just stopped and feel excellent!) I hesitated to throw ashes from the window.
So what do you make of it? clear: people would rather keep the street dirty and the car clean. As Tim Parks rightly wrote over 15 years ago, this is quintessential Italy: ceremony within, anarchy without.
No complaints then if tourists go to Spain and Turkey instead. We can cry about economic recession, but they will keep on leaving. Or shall we start keeping our country a bit cleaner, if not for the tourists at least for ourselves?
posted by mac | 20:40
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