FOR ITALY, WITH LOVE

At the end of a tragic day for Italy, there is little that I can add to the news updates that you will all be following in your own countries but here are some snippets:

As I write, just before midnight in Italy, the death toll is 159 and 368 people are reported injured. Rescuers are still working, however, so these figures are expected to rise.

Early this evening the Mayor of Amatrice said that he thought 100 people were still missing in the town.  There is said to be nothing left of Amatrice and for me the most poignant image of the day has been of the town's clock tower with rubble all around it and the clock's hands resting at 3.36, the time this morning when the earthquake struck,  [Eerily it was at 3.32 am on 6.4.09 that the L'Aquila earthquake struck.]

A ten-year-old girl was pulled out alive at Pescara del Tronto after 17 hours. Sadly her sister has died.

A 28-year-old Sicilian man from Siracusa Province was pulled out from the rubble of the bakery where he had been working in Amatrice this afternoon.

The youngest victim was an 8-month-old baby.

At least 1,000 people have lost their homes.

Reports of strong aftershocks are coming in frequently.

In Ascoli Piceno 20 asylum seekers have asked if they can go and help the rescue effort in the village of Amandola.  In Gioioso in Reggio Calabria 75 migrants have offered the allowance they receive in Italy to families affected by the quake. I am sure that other migrants and refugees are also offering help.

People around the country have been queuing to donate blood since the first news of the quake broke.

If you are in Italy, you can donate €2 by texting a message of support to the number below or by calling the number from a landline:

You may find other ways in which you can help here.

Food blogger Paolo Campana has come up with the idea of raising funds through Amatrice's famous pasta dish: for every plate of spaghetti all'amatriciana ordered, participating restaurants will donate €2 to the earthquake fund via the Italian Red Cross:

The Italian information hotline number for the earthquake is:

800 840 840

It may seem that there is nothing we can say or do but we can donate funds if we are in a position to do so and blood if we are in Italy. There is also a need for underwear and blankets for the many displaced people and these should be taken to your nearest Protezione Civile branch if you are in Italy. [Please check with them first.]  But most of all, Italy tonight needs our love.

Albinoni [attrib.] / Giazotto - Adagio in sol minore

GOING POTTY

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What a day Thursday was for those whacky news stories that can only, it seems, happen in Italy.  For those of you who may have missed them, I'll summarise them here:

The first giggle was over the tale of a somewhat optimistic Viterbo [Lazio] police officer who was arrested by his own colleagues for growing no less than 17 cannabis plants in his barracks.  [The carabinieri are military in Italy.]  Maybe he had been relying on a law, passed by the Italian Supreme Court in June, under which we are each allowed to grow one cannabis plant, for personal use, on our own balcony or terrace.  I don't suppose even a barracks has 17 balconies and one has to admit that the unfortunate officer was - well, pushing it.

Basilica di San Salvatore al Monte, Firenze
Image:  Wikimedia Commons

No sooner had I stopped laughing at that than news came through of a group of monks in Florence who, having had two precious Bibles stolen from their Basilica, were praying for the thief to be punished ..... by an attack of diarrhea.  I wonder how long he'll stay on the run?

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More seriously a survey of the five largest EU countries reported yesterday that Italian housewives are the most unhappy in Europe:  the economic downturn has worsened their situation and it is harder than ever for them to find adequate child care - assuming, that is, that they can find employment in the first place. In addition, 95% of Italian men have never so much as emptied a washing machine - we do not know whether they have ever loaded one but the odds are not brilliant - 70% have never used an oven and most do not help at all in the house or with bringing up children.  Half of the women interviewed said they regretted getting married and most, sadly, regretted having had children.  The antics of the Prime Minister, who is deemed to be setting a bad example to a generation of men who hardly need his encouragement,  were the last straw for many of the women.

Ruth Orkin: An American Girl in Italy - 1951

Then, late last night, came a surprising and delightful item of news:  Ninalee Craig,  the American Girl in Italy of the famous and iconic Ruth Orkin photograph at last spoke publically about the circumstances in which the picture was taken and how she felt about it.  It seems I was wrong when I wrote about the photograph here, which just goes to show what can happen when you judge one era from the viewpoint of another, but I am pleased to know that Ninalee was happy on that long-ago day and it was nice to end the evening on a positive note.

MIGRATION UPDATE - 5

Flags flew at half-mast in Sicily today for the migrants drowned when their boat capsized off Lampedusa in the early hours of Wednesday morning.  In my last migration update, I reported that a tragedy had been waiting to happen and did, but now, as so many of us feared, a much larger one has occurred.  It is impossible to be sure exactly how many poor, desperate souls lost their lives, just as it is impossible to be certain how many were travelling aboard the inadequate boat, which sailed from Libya:  it may have been carrying 300 passengers, it may have been 350 and some reports put the figure at 400.  They were from Bangladesh, Chad, the Ivory Coast, Somalia, Nigeria and Sudan and some of them had fled from their own countries to take refuge in Libya.  Then, when violence erupted there, they became refugees again.  UNHCR estimates that 213 people were drowned, the Armed Forces of Malta say 150 and the Italian media are reporting 250 deaths.  

What we do know is that the boat got into trouble in appalling weather conditions in Maltese waters 32 miles off Lampedusa and that a distress call was received by the Maltese Coast Guard at around 1.15 am.  As the Maltese apparently do not have the fast boats at the disposal of the Italian Coast Guard, they contacted the Italians, who sent two rescue boats to the scene immediately.  The Italian military battled for several hours to save the migrants, but it seems that some panicked and, rushing en masse to one side of their boat, caused it to capsize.  Some managed to swim towards the Italian boats but others could not do so or were dragged back by their frightened companions.  There were 40 women and five children on board the migrant boat but only two of the women were among the 48 people saved by the Italian Coast Guard, a Maltese helicopter and an Italian fishing boat.

All the survivors are said to be in a stable condition tonight.  The dead will be buried in Agrigento and Nichi Vendola, the Governor of Puglia who is tipped as a future Prime Minister, has asked President Napolitano to declare a day of national mourning for them.

Tonight La Sicilia reports that only 72 migrants now remain on Lampedusa, the others having been evacuated to other parts of Italy or repatriated under an agreement reached by Mr Berlusconi and the Tunisian government when the Premier visited Tunis on Monday.  The Tunisians are said to have agreed to some, but not "collective", repatriations in a deal under which the Italians will help to smash people-smuggling rings operating out of Tunisia.  Prior to his departure for Tunis, Mr Berlusconi had said that a "human tsunami" was waiting to sail for Italy on the Tunisian coast.

The governors of other Italian regions, needless to say, are not happy about having to house the migrants and  have, with some justification, pointed out that management structures to help them do so are not in place.  Renata Polverini, the Governor of Lazio, refused permission for tents set aside for visitors to Rome for the May Beatification of Pope John Paul 11 to be used for the migrants, although she is reportedly working with humanitarian agencies to find a solution. Sergio Chiamparino, the Mayor of Turin, blocked plans for a tendopoli or "tent city" in his area because he had received no guarantees of help from Rome.  Mr  Chiamparino says he would welcome genuine refugees but not illegal immigrants, though he admits that he does not know how the authorities could decide who is a refugee and who is not.

There have been hunger strikes in some of the accommodation centres for migrants and escapes from several, notably the one in Manduria [Puglia].  There have also been clashes between migrants and police as the first migrants to be repatriated have been put onto coaches.

In another effort to resolve the problem, Italy has this week granted temporary permessi di soggiorno ["permission to stay"] documents to some of the migrants as this will enable them to travel to other Schengen states.  This move has caused particular anger in France, a country which many of the migrants wish to reach, and relationships between the two governments over the past two days have been decidedly frosty.  However, Corriere della Sera is reporting that an agreement has been reached tonight under which France and Italy will jointly patrol the Tunisian coast with a view to stopping any further departures of migrant boats.

Mr Berlusconi, whose plans to buy a villa on Lampedusa are on hold for the moment as the one he wanted is on common land and too near the airport, is to visit the island again tomorrow and is said to be looking for another home there.

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 14

This is my pick of last week's Italy Magazine articles:

Our blog of the week was cookitaly.com and I enjoyed talking to blog author and cook Carmelita Caruana.

If you have ever dreamed of wine flowing from a fountain, there is a place in Lazio where this actually happens!

If you are in London, you may like to know about a very special exhibition there to celebrate the Papal visit.  In this article you can also read about the Ninian tartan which the Pope wore in Scotland today.  This was also the week in which Giorgio Armani was named International Designer of the Year by GQ Magazine and Gucci announced a new cinema award for women.  Personally I am glad that the outmoded Miss Italia contest is over and with it, all the speculation about this.  If I were in Tuscany right now, I would love to attend this exhibition on the life of Mìichelangelo and this one on the history of wine.

For my personal Patti Chiari column I wrote about traditional Sicilian carts.  If you've been to Sicily, you will have seen them at tourist spots and you may even have bought a replica as a souvenir.  But do you know how they came to be so richly decorated?  Take a look at the article to find out.

Happy reading.

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP

Here's a selection of my Italy Magazine articles from last week:

In one of the quirkiest news stories I've covered, you can read about an audacious Welsh company and its plans for the Italian market.

If you are interested in art, here you can read about some unusual art exhibitions or, if you prefer ancient art, about some newly opened Etruscan tombs in Lazio.

Finally, for my personal Patti Chiari column I describe the summer sounds of Sicily.

Happy reading.