In the infinite universe of the web there is a place, a piazza, albeit a virtual one, where Italians scattered throughout the world can regularly meet, write, tell, explain, ask, discuss, protest (and many do), and in the end, get together for pizza.
This place, this free-form bastion of italianità is full of pride and emerges between the waves of the information ocean: it is called none other than “Italians.” It is the forum that the noted journalist and travel writer Beppe Severgnini moderates on
Corriere della Sera [2]'s website. Every day eleven letters are published on his site, selected from the hundreds that are written by Italians who, for the most part, reside abroad. This has occurred every day for the past ten years.
On December 3, “Italians” blew out eleven candles. It’s an impressive record for an experiment that came about when the ‘Net was still an esoteric phenomenon in a country where the ‘Net is everything today. A few days ago
Eurostat [3]reported that Italy is the only European country that has registered a decrease in Internet usage over the past year. We are not sure what to make of this statistic, but the success of Severgnini’s initiative deserves even more attention in light of it. The numbers support this accomplishment: half a million letters were received, of which 40,000 were published on the web; 140,000 guests from around the world and from diverse backgrounds visit the site; and several offshoots from the forum have become independent ventures, such as
Italiansonline.net [4] o
Italiansoflondon.com [5], to name only two. In short, it’s an Italian success story on a global level. Kudos to Severgnini!
The forum’s tenth anniversary was celebrated on December 3 in Corriere della Sera’s Milan offices. There was a gathering of readers who are the forum’s heart and soul, as well as the presentation of two editorial initiatives that were created just for the occasion.
The first is a book in which Severgnini collected his readers’ experiences and impressions as he met the Italian community while he traveled all over the world. The book is entitled Italians: Around the World in 80 Pizzas and it came about one day when a London reader wrote to Severgnini: “The next time you come here, why don’t you join us for a pizza?” It started off as a little pebble but grew into a mountain. “Half of the attendees,” writes the author in the introduction, “live, study, and work abroad. I invented the idea of the pizzas to meet them and get to know to them.” Just like that, as if it were the most obviously simple solution. But it is much more, especially since the Italian Pizzas are now at 82 and have taken place all over the world: Asia, Oceania and Africa, the Americas, and Europe. It was a long and tireless journey, frequently happy but bitter at times, to describe the world from the outside, but most of all to explain what Italians, who are far away from Italy, do and think, what they dream and what they fear, whether they want to return or remain where they are.
“Italian emigration,” writes Severgnini, “is not like English or German emigration – solid and coordinated. Our movement as a group has always been the movement of single people, families, small towns, and professions. Our history, when we are among other Italians, breaks down into smaller stories which are at risk of being forgotten. In places where we arrived en masse, someone has gone to the trouble of gathering stories, finding images, writing, publishing, and remembering. For Italian emigration to North America, Argentina, Brazil, and Australia there is a body of literature (frequently lacking, but it does exist). The same is true for countries where we conducted amateurish attempts at an empire (Ethiopia, Somalia, and Libya). But the world is vast and Italians are restless. We have sowed stories and enough time has passed for us to now think about the harvest.” The harvest, thankfully, has arrived and it is abundant.
Besides Severgnini’s book, the project Italians: A Day in the World also comes to light. It is comprised of 240 stories written in first-person by the forum’s readers/authors – our countrymen who for love, work, the spirit of adventure, or for all of these together, decided to leave Italy and live abroad. It is an e-book in the best sense of the word, and easily downloadable from Corriere.it.
And it is worth the effort. Each of the participants in the forum was asked to tell the story of an hour, a single hour from his or her life in 2,000 words. Ten stories were selected from the many submissions, one for each hour of the day from noon until midnight. The result? A wonderful trip through “sunrises, awakenings, breakfasts, commutes, work, desks, meetings, lunch breaks, afternoons, returns, husbands and wives, children, television, sex, dreams, silence.” All of these tiles, in short, comprise the mosaic of the Italian presence in the world. It is a faithful and entertaining self-portrait of we Italians who while we are “discontented and litigious in our home country, abroad we embrace our nationality. Our country is the bel paese that both ticks us off and leaves us in ecstasy: we cannot nor do we want to do without it.” Download and read them. More often than not you will recognize yourself. Kudos, Severgnini!
(Translated by Giulia Prestia)
We inform our readers that Beppe Severgnini will come to New York in occasion of the conference The Italians: Yesterday and Today - Luigi Barzini Jr. 1908-2008 - Journalism between Two Worlds. The event will take place at the Italian Academy, Columbia University (1161 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY ) on December 18, 2008 from 3:30 to 6:30 pm. Program follows.
The Italians: Yesterday and Today - Luigi Barzini Jr. 1908-2008 - Journalism between Two Worlds
Moderated by
Massimo GAGGI (Corriere della Sera)
With remarks by
Gay TALESE (author and journalist)
Beppe SEVERGNINI (Corriere della Sera)
Gianni RIOTTA (Corriere della Sera)
Ian FISHER (The New York Times)
Gerry HOWARD (Doubleday Publishing Group)
Roger COHEN (The New York Times)
Anthony TAMBURRI (Calandra Institute, CUNY - i-Italy)
Luigi Barzini Jr. conveyed the US to Italy and Italy to the US before
and after World War II, chiefly as correspondent for the distinguished
newspaper Il Corriere della Sera and as the author of several books
including Americans are Alone in the World; From Caesar to the Mafia;
The Italians: A Full Length Portrait; O America When You and I Were
Young; and The Europeans. This afternoon is dedicated to an analysis
of Barzini's achievements, particularly his comprehensive and popular
dissection and elucidation of culture and society. Speakers will
reconstruct the relationships that the journalist built in the United
States, and the cultural climate in which he worked, while looking at
the continuing challenge that faces journalists between the two
cultures today.
Free and open to the public.
