The Old World

Having recently returned from an extended trip to Italy, and while my memories are still fresh I wanted to talk a bit about the vivid impressions I had of the people and the culture; not to draw a contrast with our world, but to celebrate what I found years ago and have since reaffirmed. But before I do that let me simply say that this post is not intended to suggest that Italy as a country and Italians in general get everything right. They have had their brush with cultism and veneration of fascist leaders going back as far as early Rome, and they bear their fair share of blame for wars, colonialism and other indignities visited upon their neighbors. But they are old, centuries old, while we are very young, barely out of the womb.

This was brought home to me on an earlier trip by a part time guide and full time professor of Modern Italian Art who when questioned by us as to what constituted modern commented that it was anything created after the 15th century. He was not making light of the question. We may point to our own struggle for independence, our founding fathers, our civil war and our current political strife as if it is unique, but Italians have experienced the equivalent not once but dozens of times over.

Italy has given birth to great minds, paragons of art, music, and the written word; invented technologies that shaped the world as profoundly as anything we have contributed and they did so thousands of years ago. They've experienced just about every form of government from despotism to empires, founded republics and defined democracy all before we were a germ of an idea and they did this over and over again from a land a fraction of our size, and by comparison, bereft of the resources we so generously enjoy.

So who are Italians today and what, if anything might we learn from them about ourselves, our humanity, and the future? It would be arrogant of me to suggest I have the answers to those questions, mine are just spot impressions and observations based on trips over the years and brief interludes with the people who live in this remarkable country.

Italian culture revolves around family and this bond that lasts long after children are married and leave home persists into old age. Elders are respected, accorded stature and looked after in a manner that suggests their contributions do not end because they have reached a certain age. And health care reflects this respect for age with an average lifespan nearly seven years longer than in the US.

Food, yes and wine, are a big part of that family life --cooking, gardening and eating and drinking together are not occasional events but a social convention, And the food is --well not just delicious but respected. Stand at any green grocer's in any market and feast on the display of fruits and vegetables days from harvest, or visit a butcher or bakery and you will see and taste unadulterated, unprocessed, real food--organic not by a label but by a respect for quality. Italians have supermarkets to be sure but the array of processed foods is vastly limited. Why, because no one will buy food that is unappealing.

Walk through any Italian town of any size and you'll walk past houses and public buildings dating back at least to the middle ages, further in many places and not just famous structures in Rome or Venice but in the smallest village. Being in the presence of the past changes the way you look at the world, it offers perspective. Governments come and go, time is not measured in minutes but longer intervals at a pace that allows one to stop and savor, to reflect. I am sure there must be places where the urgency of the modern world invades daily life, but one must look for it. Only the tourists seem bent on flitting from one thing to the next, racing to take in all they can. Italians know they have been here before, and will be again--there is no rush.

As you might expect, religion plays a central role in Italy. Even the smallest of villages is apt to be home to several churches and they are a prominent feature of every tourist's sight seeing. But nowhere does one run across that curiously American invention of politicized religiosity. In a country that is 80% Catholic, Italy today is far more tolerant and respectful of the separation of faith and government than might be expected. Again, Italians have been there, done that, and today display a considered tolerance for those of different faiths, nationalities and orientation.

Above all, I have consistently found Italians to be a warm and generous people. I have been treated with kindness and regard wherever I travel, even if the apparatus of travel can be at times quaint, vexing, or simply daunting. But there is an empathy, a sense of human kinship that permeates Italian life as if we and they are part of a larger family and while we may not always understand each other or shrug our shoulders at the curiosity of the way our counterparts behave, I've never felt dismissed. Quite the contrary, I have always felt welcomed, perhaps in the way one welcomes an awkward child who is still learning the ways of the world. Maybe we will become a different people in time, centuries from now, only time will tell.