WATCH YOUR TONGUE IN ITALY!

This is an article of mine which was published in Italy Magazine yesterday. I thought you might enjoy it:

WATCH YOUR TONGUE IN ITALY!

Poking your tongue out in order to insult someone became a crime in Italy on Friday when the Cassazione, Italy’s highest Court of Appeal, upheld a farmer’s conviction for doing so.

Last year the farmer, Carlo O…. from Fabriano [Marche] walked into a field belonging to a neighbour with whom he had often quarrelled and poked his tongue out at him. Unfortunately for Mr O his neighbour immortalised the moment with a camera phone and then took this evidence to a Justice of the Peace who ordered Mr O to pay compensation. At the appeal hearing Mr O said that the gesture was a “grimace” but the Court held that it was an insult. Now that his appeal has been turned down Mr O will have to pay his neighbour’s legal costs of 1,300 euros as well as damages. The amount will have to be decided in another, civil court process. Mr O’s criminal penalty has not been made public.

Italy has strict laws regarding “insult” which, under Article 594 of the Penal Code, is often seen as a slur on the victim’s dignity or honour. It is punishable by six months’ imprisonment plus a fine of up to 516 euros. In cases that amount to a slander committed in front of many people the penalties can be doubled. Under Friday’s ruling poking your tongue out or sneering at someone are regarded as offences to their honour.

Albert Einstein might have to be careful if he were in Italy at the moment.

SICILY IN FLAMES

43 C here at 1pm and many parts of Sicily are in flames. Three people were killed on Wednesday in a fire at a hotel in the Messina area and today a village in the Palermo area has been evacuated. Some of these fires have been started deliberately and Sicily Guide gives two possible reasons here. As I've mentioned before, I have read that another motive may be the hope of obtaining a job as a firefighter. This would seem to be an erroneous assumption, though, as I read in Corriere today [article unavailable online] that at this time, 70% of Protezione Civile workers are on holiday! Can you believe it, at the most dangerous period of the year? The reason? Good old Italian bureaucracy, of course: these workers' contracts are renewed annually on 31st August and in early August this year 7/10 of them were ordered to take their statutory leave entitlement of 19 days plus 4 bank holidays, so that if their contracts are not renewed they will not have to be paid for holidays they did not take. An almighty row has broken out, with the authorities saying that the workers on leave do not work for the fire service, their colleagues stating that they jolly well do and the public calling for the head of whoever signed this leave law into existence. Meanwhile the President of Italy is calling for a mobilitazione permanente to prevent further tragedies like the one in Patti, Messina.

CIREUSE ÉLECTRIQUE

With regard to my tomato squashing machine, I am in danger of emulating the woman who falls in love with and sings to her electric floor polisher in the Jean Renoir film, La Cireuse Électrique. This afternoon I turned 4 trayfuls of tomatoes like the one above into sauce and I am getting more adept and quicker with the gadget. This time I added some chopped chilli pepper to the soffrito.

I'll let you know when I start singing to the machine!

WHAT A BLOGGER WILL DO...

...to get a post. Today in the Altro Posto I espied this lovely torta alla strega [Strega liqueur cake]. I wanted to sample it only in the interests of blogging, you understand! I'd like to be able to tell you that the little flower was a sugar one, but alas, it was plastic. Nevertheless, I thought the cake looked very pretty, so imagine my horror when I looked up and saw that the staff were taking the flowers off and throwing them away! At dessert time they all fell about laughing when I said, "I'm not having any of that unless you put a flower back on it, even if it's out of the bin - I need it for a photo for my blog." Reader, if they only thought I was mad before, they are convinced of it now!