The Dark Heart of Italy - Tobias Jones

While television and the internet may have developed the phenomenon yet further, the idea of the armchair tourist is not that new. In the nineteenth century well-to-do young men set off on the "Grand Tour" to see Europe and bring back souvenirs from, in particular, Greece and Italy. It was at this time that many British people found out, through the drawings and paintings executed by these young men, in essence the forerunners of the Inter-railing ...
...albeit in pictorial form, what the pyramids or the Colisseum looked like.

Thanks to technology we have live news reports beamed to our television sets from the other side of the world, we can watch New Year being celebrated in Sydney under the famous Harbour Bridge while thousands of miles away our celebrations are yet to commence. We eat food from all over the world and we can communicate in real time with people in other continents. ... more

While television and the internet may have developed the phenomenon yet further, the idea of the armchair tourist is not that new. In the nineteenth century well-to-do young men set off on the "Grand Tour" to see Europe and bring back souvenirs from, in particular, Greece and Italy. It was at this time that many British people found out, through the drawings and paintings executed by these young men, in essence the forerunners of the Inter-railing gap-year student, what ancient monuments and ancient remains really looked like. It became very popular to own picture books full of depictions of famous historical sights around Europe. Those who did not want to travel or could not afford to, could see, albeit in pictorial form, what the pyramids or the Colisseum looked like.

Thanks to technology we have live news reports beamed to our television sets from the other side of the world, we can watch New Year being celebrated in Sydney under the famous Harbour Bridge while thousands of miles away our celebrations are yet to commence. We eat food from all over the world and we can communicate in real time with people in other continents.

We can cross the Atlantic Ocean in a matter of hours and are choosing holiday destinations further and further away from where we live. Places that once seemed a million miles away are now even promoted as destinations for weekend breaks.

Even if we do not physically set foot in aplace we sometimes feel that we know it well. Mention Paris and many of us will think of elegant ladies sashaying through the streets leading poodles on leashes or romantic trips down the Seine. If we think of Egypt we think of the pyramids and the sphinx and cruising down the Nile to Luxor. These places seem as familiar to us as if we had actually been there because we have seen them on television or in films or read about them in literature or in travel guides.

For me Italy is that kind of place. I know that the north is predominantly industrial while the south is more rural. I know that Italians are very style conscious and regard their cuisine as the best in the world. I know that the ancient Roman ruins at Pompeii give an insight into the way people lived there before nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the town under a blanket of volcanic ash. I also know that Italians love their cars and that Venice is expensive and that there is a terrible stench from the canals in really hot weather. I have seen countless pictures of the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and I know exactly what the Leaning Tower of Pisa looks like, after all it is probably one of the most recognisable sights in the whole of Italy. I have been there only a couple of times but I think I'm pretty clued up on Italy.

But do I really KNOW Italy? Having read "The Dark Heart of Italy" by Tobias Jones, I would say that I don't but I am much more in touch with the real Italy than I was before. For me, much of the pleasure I derive from travelling comes from learning bits and pieces of a new language, trying different foods and meeting the locals. Of course, I like to see the sights but I do not like to be told what I "must" see. I am as happy to wander the streets watching people at their work or at play as I am to see castles and palaces and works of art. I feel that many city-guides are just a list of the most famous buildings in that place and do not strive to give much more than a fleetingly mention of the ambience of the city and even less about what the people are like - what makes them tick, what are their passions, how do they interact with one another?

Tobias Jones moved to Italy in 1999. Like me, he had a pre-conceived idea about the country: he had an image in his mind of Italy being an idyllic country , blissful and cultured. Gradually he began to see the country in a different light. He a country where the Prime Minister not only dictates what happens (what is broadcast, who is employed,etc) at he country's state television company and simultaneously owns and controls nearly all of the country's commercial channels. He found out that referees for matches in the top flight of Italian football, the celebrated Serie A, are chosen by the clubs (the owners and managers), not by a random draw like most other countries. He found out that Italians spend on average 7000 minutes each year queueing to carry out simple tasks at public offices; Italians even need documentary evidence to prove they exist.

Jones starts with a general overview in which he lists some of the perceptions non-Italians have of Italy and then briefly addresses them. He outlines the chapters to follow and some of the ideas which he will consider. He almost gives a warning in this first chapter - in Italian the word "storia" means both "history" and "story". This is fitting because it is often difficult, in Italy, to distinguish between the two. If you find things complicated to understand, it is because they are: even Italians find it hard to know what is truth and what is fiction. Very few historical novels are written or read in Italy because the news is much more exciting; literature could not compete with the goings on in Italians politics. Jones was warned when he started his book, people told him that he would continually come up against a "muro di gomma", literally a rubber wall, which would impede his investigations. As he delved further into this remarkable country, Jones realised they were right.

Tobias arrived in Italy just as the "Slaughter Commission" was beginning to come up with some answers concerning the "anni di piombo", the "years of lead" during which Italy was, from the 1960s to the early 1980s, the scene of intense conflict between those on the right, the Fascists, and those on the left, the Communists.
These decades were characterised by a campaign of political terrorism which culminated in bombings in Milan, Bologna, Brescia and other Italian towns. It has always been held that these bombings were carried out by Fascists but no-one has ever been successfully prosecuted. He asks why, despite certain names cropping up time and time again, no-one was tried for the attacks and why the Italian public have not had more to say about this reluctance to pursue the bombers.

I found this chapter hard going; not because Jones does not do the subject justice or because he does no demonstrate the necessary literary skills but because it is a complicated subject. However, he does an admirable job and off sets this with a chapter which, while it continues the motif of corruption and secrecy which seem to pervade all levels of public life in Italy, it addresses what appears to be a different subject altogether. (I say "what seems to be" because Jones highlights the fact that Italian politicians seem to have their fingers in many pizzas and the same names arise throughout the book).

As he is coming to the end of writing the chapter on the "Slaughter Commission", Jones is sitting with an Italian friend, enjoying a beer at an outdoor bar in Parma. His friend asks how the book is going and Jones tells him that after researching the "Slaughter Commisson" he wants to write about something much less somplicated for the next chapter. The friend asks what he has in mind and Jones looks around for inspiration Seeing a Parma football shirt hanging up he tells his friend he will write about football. The friend laughs uncontrollably and Jones gets the feeling that it's not going to be quite as easy as he at first thought.

Indeed, it is another complicated subject but it is a fascinating one. Jones asks why certain football matches had unexpected results, why some referees have disallowed perfectly accetable goals at crucial moments and wonders exactly one Serie A football club owner sent a Rolex watch to a group of soccer referees.

If football's not your thing there is a chapter examining the role of Roman Catholicism in Italy and there's another looking at Italy from a cultural perspective. I found this fascinating. Often when we think of Italy we associate it with opera, sculpture, perhaps Dante's "Inferno" or maybe the beauty of the duomo in Florence or the wonderful, romantic views of Venice as painted by Canaletto. However, Italians, on average, read less than one book a year. They are not particularly interested in reading newspapers either, possibly because everything is so long-winded and complicated. On the other hand, practically every house has a television even though Italian television output is widely regarded as amongst the worst in the world. All this is hardly surprising when the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, owns the commerical channels, is in charge of the state channels, owns the football club which gets most television coverage, owns the biggest publishing house in Italy, most of the newspapers and even the companies who produce the television commercials screened during the breaks. Furthermore, Italian chat shows often feature "internal adverts" when the host suddenly jumps up, crosses over the studio and begins to extol the merits of one product or another, usually made by one of Berlusconi's other companies. Italians can usually wax lyrical on the talents of renaissance artists and architects or the works of Puccini but seem little interested in contemporary culture. Jones aks why this is. In another memorable moment Jones says to one of the students he lectures, "But Italian television is terrible" to which the student replies "So is English food: I would rather watch crap television than eat crap food".

An interesting question posed in this book is why Italians seem to describe and therefore rate something in terms of beauty rather than goodness or virtue. What is this Italian obsession with aesthetics? Even words seem to follow this pre-occupation: did you know that there is a type of pasta which translates literally as "priest strangler"? And what about "capucino"? Isn't it wonderful to think that the Italians have named a way of serving coffee after a little monkey! The book examines the little idiosyncracies of the Italians and tries to explain why they exist at all.

Jones has an appealing, easy to read style and this book is both witty, comical and highly insightful and informative. I found that the interspersion of lighter subjects with the heavier, more serious ones worked well and I felt that I had earned a frothy cappuccino after diligently finishing a bowl of pasta (to use Italian metaphors!).

Some of the stories are incredible, some shocking but always fascinating and eye-opening. Some might argue that Jones seems to come down, for the most part, on the side of the left wing in Italy, those whose position is examined right at the end of the book. However, I prefer to think of it as the author looking at the behaviour of public figures in Italy (be it politicians, footballers, judges, etc) and judging it against what would be construed as unacceptable behaviour for such figures in Britain.

I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks they know Italy and anyone who is looking to learn about more than simply the times of the bus out to Pompeii or the best time of year to go to Sicily.

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Published in paperback by Faber & Faber, priced 7.99 Pounds from bookshops although no doubt cheaper through internet booksellers.

ISBN 0-571-20592-5

 

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