beppe severgnini@belgrado
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under books, media
Beppe Severgnini is a well-known Italian journalist, columnist in Corriere della Sera daily, a former 
correspondent of The Economist, as well as the author of several books, which regardless of whether they deal with how Italians are navigating the living in the Western world or explain the mystery of Italy to the foreigners, are united by a single topic – an exploration of the Italian identity. As a part of the mini Eastern European tour, during which he already visited Sofia and Bucharest, Severgnini came to Belgrade, talked with students, professors, Italians working in Serbia, in Italian Cultural Institute, as well as on the Faculty of Philology the next day.
Despite having spent a part of his life in London and Washington, during the period of the Fall of Communism he was a correspondent from Eastern Europe (he remembers the interview he did with the opposition leader Vuk Draskovic in Belgrade in the spring of 1991), Severgnini is mostly involved with his homeland, the character of his compatriots, supreme achievements that this country offered the world, as well as the mentality issues, contributing to the weak spots of it: corruption, nepotism and bureaucracy. The stubborn resistance to introduction of organization and order, distrust over every attempt to reform the society, gripping influence of the Church on the society and as of recently the inflow of immigrants are some of the problems troubling Italy. Yet, if Severgnini was solely focused on the justifications, no matter how ingenious or witty they were, and they are, the people would stop after reading his books.
“Your Italy and our Italia are not the same thing” he wrote in the English edition of his popular book La Testa Degli Italiani, called La Bella Figura: An Insider’s Guide Through Italian Mind, provoked by the manner people treat his country in the Western media. Although droves of tourists and Italo-enthusiasts come upon the boot on the Apennine peninsula, what you can read today about la bella paese, Severgnini classifies into two groups: love letters and the diary entries filled with disappointment, depending on who is writing. The stories on the superiority of Italian cuisine and wine, importance of family and mama with the capital M are the product of American women in their forties, while the reports on corruption, embezzled European funds and the irresponsibility of the political elite are mostly to be found in the British media, written by middle-aged men, who according to Severgnini are full of interest, but lacking in passion for the subject matter. Meanwhile, Italy is something else entirely – a labyrinth that Severgnini embarks on exploring with excitement, in a book shaped as a ten-day journey, during which the readers can learn about Italians and their ways on an airport, beach, high way, la piazza, restaurant, hotel, bank or at home. Inspired by the though of Luigi Barzini, who said “In this moment, being honest with one self is the greatest form of patriotism”.
As of 1998, on the website of Corriere della Sera, Severgnini has been keeping a blog and managing the forum called Italians, gathering Italians scattered around the world, as they have a long tradition of emigration and foreigners living in Italy, whose number multiplied over the years, this forum providing a platform for various discussions stemming out of this situation. At the same time, it is the title of his new book – Italians: Il giro del Mondo in 80 pizze (Italians: A Trip Around the World In 80 Pizzas), a travelogue on the journey that took him to different parts of the world, but no matter where there would be some Italians ready to take Severgnini out for a pizza. In the foreword to the book, Severgnini is quoting NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman and his “the world is flat” maxim, only correcting this statement to say that Italians knew it all along, thus they put a pizza on the flat surface. The Belgrade gathering was occasioned in Pietro del’Oro restaurant, owned by a football player Dejan Stankovic, which enthused our guest even more, as he is a long-time supporter of Inter, which is the subject of no less then three books (Interismi, Altri Interismi, Tripli interismi).
“Italy is not a nation, but a temptation” (Italia non e una nazione, e una tentazione), provoking only associations on the beautiful things in life – music, food, opera, art, he told the students during the lecture that English is used, while Italian is loved. Several of the traits vital for the understanding of the Italian character start with the letter I: if we believe Severgnini, Italians are too intelligent for their own good, their brain is working 24-7. For example, seeing a red light in the traffic would make a decent person stop (by this he probably means law-abiding Northern Europeans), while an Italian would start to think about the type of the red light he sees and engage in a discussion with it – it is not really STOP, it is a relational STOP and it is up to you to decide whether and how it applies on you. Or ideology: depending on the side on which they’re on Italians call the opposition “fascists” or “communists”, today’s burning topic of immigration is a result of the policy of the “good heart” of the Left and “firm hand” of the Right, both of which did nothing to solve the issue. Italians improvise, ahead of the meeting in the European Commission in Brussels, an Italian Minister will prepare himself in the car on the way from the airport, despite the meeting being scheduled weeks in advance and the topic being of essential importance. The chief advantage of Italy is “the capacity to turn every crisis into festivity” Severgnini concludes.
Writing about a collective entity is a slippery slope, due to the tendency of an author to overcriticize or overpraise, and always generalize, because if everyone is dissolved into a mass of different individuals books like this would be pointless. But it seems that Severgnini is successfully traversing this terrain. Until his books are translated into Serbian or I have another opportunity to go to Italy and buy one, here is an excerpt from his London lecture.
Tags: beppe severgnini, italians, italy, la bella figura
March 29th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Excellent overview of the contemporary Italian political and socio-cultural momentum. How triangle of -corruption, nepotism and bureaucracy - sounds familiar, ‘ve been facing it here. No much difference between Italy and Serbia at some points quoted above. Oh, well..
Thank you for writing this interesting entry.
Will search for Severgnini online edition though my Italian sux.
March 29th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Mine sucks as well.
Get the English version. It is what I got last year, when I was there. Boy did it make the things clearer. Otherwise, I would end up hating the Italians … on that and more in a private message.
So, the English version is available in all store that have English-language section. It is called La Bella Figura, in Italian it is La Testa di Italiani, which I think he meant an insight into Italian mind.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Interesantan tekst.
p.s. nije la bella paese nego il bel paese
October 17th, 2009 at 3:28 am
[...] to host a reception for the Italian Embassy to welcome journalist Beppe Severgnini, author of Italians – Around the World in 80 Pizza 18h30 October 22, 2009 at Tadioto 113 Trieu Viet Vuong, Ha Noi Tel 2218 [...]