BOOKED!

Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.

- Blaise Pascal

At around lunchtime yesterday, probably thinking that there was no one at home as it is still the holiday period, a burglar entered an apartment in Rome from its balcony but stopped to read a book about Greek mythology which he saw on a bedside table. The elderly owner of the apartment found him either sitting on the bed with the book, according to some reports, or on the balcony according to others. Either way, the owner raised the alarm with neighbours, who managed to stop the burglar from escaping and the police arrived quickly to arrest him.

It seems that our 38-year-old burglar, as well as being cultured, has refined tastes, as a bag full of designer clothes, possibly stolen from another apartment nearby, was found in his possession.

The title of the book?  Gli dèi alle sei - L'Iliade all'ora dell'aperitivo - The Gods at Six O'Clock - The Iliad at Apéritif Time by Giovanni Nucci.  Apparently it is a book about the Iliad from the point of view of the gods and how this ancient story might help us understand our own era.

Had our burglar read Pascal, he might have reflected before picking up the book! Let us hope that there is a library wherever he is imprisoned and that he will mend his ways for, as the French author Daniel Pennac says,

A well-chosen book can save you from anything, even yourself.

ARTFUL ARANCINI

In Italy domiciliari, or house arrest, is often used for minor crimes and sometimes for prisoners who are nearing the end of their sentences or are too ill to remain in a correctional facility. This punishment is very strict and over the years on this blog, I have sometimes written about the comical occasions when offenders undergoing it have run away because they can no longer stand being shut up with their family, or have even gone to the police station begging for rearrest. One wonders how they fared in lockdown.

However, the offender who takes the biscuit - or rather, the riceball - is the young man from Catania who this week evaded house arrest to buy a tray of arancini. I must admit, the arancini of Catania are very good, and anyone who has ever experienced the aroma of freshly made Sicilian arancini wafting towards them from a nearby rosticceria will feel some empathy towards this man. Apparently an offender under house arrest can obtain permission to attend an urgent medical or dental appointment and this is what the young man had done. However, it was not the first time he had told police he was going to the dentist and they had become suspicious. After checking with his dental surgery and finding that he had never been there during his house arrest, the police waited outside his home, and soon along he came, already eating one of the steaming arancini from the trayful he had just purchased.

Whether the carabinieri confiscated the whole trayful is not known.

  

SUMMER TIDES 6 - ANOTHER TRAGEDY

In Britain, as I write, a very famous baby is celebrating his first birthday; in Messina, as I write, arrangements are being made for the burial of a migrant baby of the same age who was found dead on arrival in the port.

Having been advised of a migrant boat in difficulty by a satellite phone SOS call at 4 am on Saturday, the Rome Coast Guard alerted a Danish tanker bound for Tunisia and the Coast Guard in Lampedusa. The tanker was first to arrive on the scene, between Libya and Malta, and immediately set about rescuing the passengers from the inadequate fishing boat. Some, however, drowned during the transfer.

But worse was to be discovered: 29 poor souls are known to have been asphyxiated by fumes in the hold, which they were prevented from leaving by the people traffickers and the 581 survivors who arrived at Messina on Sunday are saying that more than 60 people were killed at random by the traffickers; they were allegedly kicked, stabbed and their bodies thrown into the sea. It is estimated that the boat could have been carrying up to 800 people and that there are 180 dead but neither figure can be confirmed.

It has also been revealed that the people traffickers were operating a two-tier fare system, with migrants of Arab origin paying  $1,000 - $2,000 each for the journey and those of African origin paying $250 - $500.

Five men have now been arrested by Sicilian police on suspicion of mass murder.

The world watches Gaza, the world watches Ukraine and the world watches the little prince but no one outside Italy, it seems, is watching the Mediterranean.

UPDATE, 23.7.14

It now appears that the men who randomly killed some of the passengers were not the people traffickers, but passengers themselves. Presumably they thought that the boat was going to capsize and wanted to lessen its weight. The people traffickers, according to survivors, did nothing to stop the killing. Four men have now been arrested for people trafficking. This is in addition to the five arrests for mass murder.

A TRUE ART LOVER

Here is a heartwarming tale of honesty:

One day in 1975, a Sicilian man who had moved to Turin to work for Fiat attended a lost property auction at a railway workers' recreational club. As the man was an art lover, his eye was drawn to two particularly attractive paintings, a still life and a portrait of a young woman in a garden. He bought the two paintings for 45,000 Italian lire, worth £19 or $31 in today's values and, until a few weeks ago, both paintings hung in his kitchens, first in Turin and then back in Sicily following his retirement. There, in the heart of the home, he could gaze at them to his own heart's content.

Recently the man's son, an architecture student in Siracusa, happened to be looking through a catalogue of paintings by Gauguin and noticed some similarities with one of the paintings on his father's kitchen wall. After further research by his son, our honest Sicilian pensioner alerted the police and an extraordinary story came to light:

The paintings, now verified as a Gauguin from 1889 and an undated Bonnard, had been stolen from a London collector in 1970 and he, in turn, had bought them at a rather more prestigious auction in 1961. No one knows exactly how they ended up in the lost property office of the Ferrovie dello Stato but it is thought that the thieves were carrying them on the Paris to Turin train when they realised that there was to be a check at the border, so they abandoned them. They are now, obviously, worth a lot more than £19!

Having made enquiries in London, the Italian police have discovered that the art collector was a relative of the Marks and Spencer family and had no direct heirs. At the moment the paintings are still in police custody but, if there are no claims, it is possible that our Sicilian pensioner will be able to continue to enjoy them if he so wishes.

COURAGE

On International Women's Day last Saturday a 67-year-old Sicilian woman was received by President Napolitano at the Quirinale [the President of the Republic's official residence] and invested with the honour of the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.

The woman was Franca Viola, a tenant farmer's daughter from Alcamo [Trapani]. At the age of 17, Franca was kidnapped by her former fiancé, Filippo Melodia and some of his friends. Franca's father had ended the betrothal because Melodia was a member of a Mafia gang. The Viola family home had already been burned down as a reprisal.

Franca was held for eight days and repeatedly raped. Her father pretended to be cooperating with Melodia's gang but actually he was helping the police, who on the eighth day found and released Franca. Her kidnappers were jailed.

In those days, rape in Italy was regarded as an offence against public morality rather than an offence against the person and a man who had raped a woman could be absolved of the crime if he married his victim. The woman would agree to the marriage to save her reputation. 

Franca, however, refused to marry Melodia and her father supported her. This took incredible courage amid the threats that the family received and in the cultural climate of the time but both were determined.

The story has a happy ending, for Franca married her childhood sweetheart in 1968 and had two children. She is now a proud grandmother.

The law whereby a rapist could be absolved of his crime by marrying the victim was abolished in 1981 and Franca Viola was instrumental in bringing about the change. Rape was not designated an offence against the person in Italy until 1996. 

On International Women's Day 2014 the Quirinale was bathed in red light in remembrance of victims of femicide in Italy.

Franca Viola

NUTTERFINGERS?

If there is one Italian passion I do not share, it is the enthusiasm of the citizens of my adopted country for the hazelnut and chocolate spread, Nutella.  I am therefore perplexed as to why anyone would want to steal some, let alone 5.5 tonnes of the stuff but that is what happened at the weekend when thieves took the jars, valued at €16,000, from a parked lorry in the city of Bad Hersfeld in the German state of Hesse.

There is no word as to whether or not the thieves have been caught but, unless they are from that lucky group of individuals who can eat chocolate-covered lard all day without feeling sick or putting on an ounce, they shouldn't be hard to find.

Now, 5.5 tonnes of gelato I could understand.....

IN MEMORIAM

Twenty years ago today the anti-Mafia Judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three members of his escort were killed in a bomb outrage that has become known as the Strage di Capaci - the Capaci Massacre.  Fifty-seven days later his colleague Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort were killed as he was going to visit his mother in via D'Amelio in Palermo.

Today these two brave men and those who lost their lives trying to protect them have been commemorated in events all over Italy, among them, and taking place as I write, a charity football match between teams of singers and judges in Palermo.  There have been talks in schools, processions and concerts and the Mayor of Rosolini in Siracusa Province asked citizens to hang out white sheets in memory of Judge Falcone this morning.

IN MEMORIAM

Strage di Capaci, 23.5.92

Judge Giovanni Falcone

Francesca Morvillo 

Rocco Di Cillo

Antonio Montinaro

Vito Schifani

Strage di via D'Amelio, 19.7 92

Judge Paolo Borsellino

Agostino Catalano

Walter Eddie Cosina

Vincenzo Li Muli

Emanuela Loi

Claudio Traina

Nowhere is the calvary of Judge Giovanni Falcone better documented in English than in John Dickie's Cosa Nostra and I recommend this volume to you.

MORE PATIENCE AMONG THIEVES

In September I told you all about a thief who, in order to steal a bicycle, patiently felled the tree to which it had been tied.  Now his efforts have been topped by a group of thieves in the Ragusan countryside, reports the Corriere di Ragusa: these thieves have been chopping down telephone poles in order to steal copper telephone cable and 2 kilometres of cable have disappeared recently, causing disruption to lines as well as economic loss   to Telecom Italia.  Fifteen instances of cable theft have been reported in the area since the beginning of January and last year over 15 kilometres of cable were stolen.

One would think that such thoroughness would be welcomed in certain legitimate jobs.

A RESTITUTION

In September I reported that Daniela Zuccoli, the widow of Italian TV presenter Mike Bongiorno [26.5.1924 - 8.9.2009] was, on the advice of the police, to appear on the television programme Chi l'ha visto?  ["Who Has Seen Him / Her?"] in an attempt to find her husband's body. This brave  decision did not lead to the hoped-for result but it now seems increasingly likely that the body will be restored to the family within the next few days:

In a crime so sick as to be utterly incomprehensible, Mike Bongiorno's coffin and body were stolen from the Dagnente Cemetery in Arona [Piedmont] on the night of 24th - 25th January this year.  The distressed family received several ransom demands and there were even some arrests but these did not provide the police with the information they needed.

Then, yesterday afternoon, events took a dramatic turn when a man walking his dog near a church in Vittuone [Milan Province] found a coffin behind a ceramics factory on the outskirts of the Parco Sud.  Police were alerted and later Mike Bongiorno's two eldest sons were able to identify the coffin - which still bears its plaque -  as their father's.  Forensic tests are still being carried out on the body but the family are optimistic.  Police believe that the coffin had lain where it was found for only a short time as it was in an area which is popular with joggers and dog walkers.  Latest reports say that the coffin had not been opened during the interval between its disappearance and yesterday.

Mike Bongiorno was born to Italian-American parents in New York City but emigrated to Italy as a young man.  He fought with the Italian partisans during World War 11 and went on to become Italy's most famous and popular TV presenter ever. His ancestors were Sicilian and the small towns of Campofelice di Fitalia and Mezzojuso in Palermo Province both claimed to be their birthplace.  In 2007, when Bongiorno stated on television that his ancestors were definitely from Mezzojuso, the inhabitants of Campofelice di Fitalia took offence and declared him persona non grata. [However, it turns out that both towns have a legitimate claim as Campofelice di Fitalia was, when Bongiorno's paternal grandfather emigrated to the USA, a district of Mezzojuso.]

Here we are all thinking of Mike Bongiorno's family, who have suffered double bereavement, and hoping that they will be able to obtain closure this Christmas.

ANOTHER TREASURE RETURNS

The Prosecutor's Office of Enna has taken into possession a Greek vase - a polychrome lekanis - which dates from the second or third century BC, it was revealed today.  The vase, found in a private collection in Lisbon, had been illegally excavated and removed from Italy, then seems to have travelled to Portugal via Australia.  The date of its disappearance from Sicily is not known.

It has been emphasised that Italian police had the full cooperation of the Australian and Portuguese authorities and it is likely that the vase will be returned to its rightful home, the Museum of Centuripe in the Province of Enna.

Welcome home, beauty.

A STREET FOR A HERO

On Sunday Modica named a street in honour of Giuseppe [Peppino] Impastato, the anti-Mafia campaigner from Cinisi [Palermo Province] who was murdered at the age of 30.

Giuseppe Impastato was born into a Mafia family but, traumatised by the Mafia murder of an uncle, began to ask questions and campaign against the criminal organisation during his teenage years. He became estranged from his father, who threw him out of the family home.  As a left-wing activist and writer, Peppino used humour to criticise both the Mafia and politicians and, in the year of his death, became a candidate in local elections.  He was brutally murdered on the night of 8th - 9th May 1978 and his body, with TNT beneath it, was tied to a railway line, either to make it look as if he had been involved in a botched terrorist attack on the line or to simulate his suicide.  Two days later the people of Cinisi symbolically elected him as a town councillor.

Peppino's mother and brother fought for justice for him for many years and in 2002 Gaetano Badalamenti, the head of the Mafia in Cinisi, was sentenced to life for the murder by an Italian court.  However, Badalamenti was already serving time in a US penitentiary and he died in America in 2004.

The house where Giuseppe Impastato was killed is to become an anti-Mafia museum and exhibitions of documents, photos and art have already been held there.

A PATIENT THIEF

Painting by Gino

A thief in Palermo added a new dimension  to the concept of Sicilian pazienza on Wednesday night when, in order to steal a bicycle that was chained to a four-metre plane tree, he patiently sawed the tree down.  This happened in a busy street in the centre of the city and, although the task must have taken some time, no one noticed a thing. 

Only on Thursday morning did the bicycle's unfortunate owner discover the theft as, descending from his apartment to the street, he found the tree lying on the pavement.  Luckily it had fallen without damaging any parked cars or other property.

Vittorio De Sica - Ladri di biciclette

DESPERATELY SEEKING MIKE

Image: Wikipedia Italia

Daniela Zuccoli, the widow of Italian TV presenter Mike Bongiorno [26.5.1924 - 8.9.2009], is to appear on the television programme Chi l'ha visto?  ["Who Has Seen Him / Her?"] this evening in an attempt to find her husband's body, which was stolen from the Dagnente Cemetery in Arona [Piedmont] on 25th January this year.

Signora Zuccoli will be appearing on the programme on the advice of the police in the hope that someone, somewhere, will give the programme's presenters information which they do not feel able to communicate to the police.  Since Mike Bongiorno's coffin and body disappeared his family have received ransom demands and there have been some arrests but that vital clue that might lead the police to find the body has not been forthcoming.

Mike Bongiorno was born to Italian-American parents in New York City but emigrated to Italy as a young man.  He fought with the Italian partisans during World War 11 and later became Italy's most popular TV presenter ever.  His ancestors were Sicilian and the smalls towns of Campofelice di Fitalia and Mezzojuso in Palermo Province both claimed to be their birthplace.  In 2007, when Bongiorno stated on TV that his ancestors were definitely from Mezzojuso, the inhabitants of Campofelice di Fitalia took offence and declared him persona non grata. [However, it turns out that both towns have a legitimate claim as Campofelice di Fitalia was, when Bongiorno's paternal grandfather emigrated to the USA, a district of Mezzojuso.]

Federica Sciarelli, the presenter of Chi l'ha visto? has not always behaved impeccably but I hope that the programme can help signora Zuccoli to locate her husband's body and obtain closure.

PATRIOT OR PURLOINER?

It is 100 years today since Vincenzo Peruggia [1881 - 1925] stole the Mona Lisa or Gioconda from the Louvre and I have told his story here.  The painting was recovered two years later and Peruggia's defence was that he had acted out of patriotism, believing that the painting belonged in Italy.  He served only a minimal prison sentence and later went back to France where appropriately, perhaps, he opened a paint store.

Yesterday his birthplace of Dumenza [Varese, Lombardy]  honoured him by staging a play called Il Processo a Vincenzo Peruggia  [The Trial of Vincenzo Peruggia] by Giovanni Epis as part of its summer festival.  The play's director, Simone Toffanin, believes that Peruggia was a patriot but the Mayor of Dumenza has his doubts and says he does not want the town to be famous only as the birthplace of the man who stole the Mona Lisa.

What do you think?  Was Peruggia a patriot or a purloiner?

GOING POTTY

myspace layouts

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?

myspace layouts

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.

BEWARE THY NEIGHBOUR ....

.... especially if you are under house arrest in Sicily, seems to be today's message from the town of Agrigento.  There a 42-year-old man who was supposed to have no contact with anyone except his immediate family with whom he lived managed to have a quarrel with his neighbours whilst under house arrest.  The neighbours reported the man to the police, who immediately re-arrested him for attempting to escape.

I wonder if a certain high-profile Frenchman has similar problems with the neighbours?

DESPERATE TIMES, DESPERATE MEASURES

The negotiating skills of flying squad officers and a Provincial Councillor were instrumental in averting a suicide on Tuesday when Bruno Nativo, a former school porter, threatened to throw himself off the balcony of the office of  Ragusa Province Education Authority.  

Mr Nativo, who had chained himself to the railings of the building for the previous six days, had been protesting because his work contract had not been renewed but when no one seemed to be listening, he made the threat to end his life.  He had, in fact, been employed as a school porter in Vittoria for five years but was dismissed when it emerged that he had lied in a declaration stating that he had committed no criminal offences;  it was found that he had committed several minor offences such as driving without a licence.  Mr Nativo was later reinstated after appealing to an industrial tribunal but in August last year his annual contract was not renewed.

The last straw for him was to be told that he would no longer receive any unemployment benefit and, as he has a wife and three sons, two of whom are disabled, he decided to make his desperate protest.  On Tuesday he said he wanted to speak to the Prefect of Ragusa Province and came down from the balcony after he was promised that the Prefect would be informed of the situation.

Those in public jobs should not, of course, lie in their declarations to their employers but how different is what Mr Nativo did to exaggerating a little on a CV, which we have surely all done at some time in our lives?  Personally I think this man has suffered enough.  What do you think?

A DOG CALLED DREAM

Warning:  This is an upsetting post.

In an unspeakable act of cruelty carried out by a sadist whom I'll be happy to help string up when he or she is caught, a beautiful dog now known as Dream had three of his paws cut off last week.  Dream was found lying in agony in a field near Vittoria [Ragusa Province] on 13th March.  

What happened to Dream has sickened the whole of Italy but has also brought out the best in Italians:  as soon as the news broke, money poured in for his care and there has been no shortage of kind folk offering to adopt him.

Today Dream was flown to a specialist animal hospital in Bologna and the captain of the Alitalia plane allowed him to fly in the passenger cabin with a volunteer from the hospital.  The appropriately named Captain Alessandro Salvati announced that a very special passenger was on board and all Dream's fellow-passengers and the crew showed their concern and compassion for him throughout the flight.  Dream, who is said to be a gentle dog with eyes to break your heart, turned out to be a good traveller and continued his journey to the hospital with the good wishes of all who know his story.

Veterinary surgeons in Bologna hope to be able to fit Dream with prostheses from the USA and to help him walk again.

If you read Italian, you will be able to follow Dream's progress on facebook.  I am sure that all of you, like me, will be thinking of him in the days and weeks to come.

Update:  According to the latest facebook bulletin, Dream's operation today went well. Another part of Dream's front right paw,  part of his back right paw and part of his tail  had to be amputated because of advanced necrosis.  His back left paw was cleaned during the operation because of infection.  It is now hoped to fit him with a front right paw prosthesis from Italy and that this will enable him to walk but veterinary surgeons in the USA are being kept updated.

NABBED - BY SANTA

myspace graphics

A man suspected of collecting protection money for the Mafia received a seasonal surprise on Christmas Eve when he was arrested – by Santa Claus.

The man was being watched by an undercover policeman dressed as Santa as he collected the money from a Catania shopkeeper who had been the victim of a Mafia extortion racket for some years.  “Santa” was distributing sweets to children outside the shop but dropped some just before he pounced on the man, who was about to drive off.  Other police officers who had been waiting nearby then arrived on the scene. 

The police had placed hidden cameras both inside and outside the shop.  The shopkeeper, who did not know that his premises were being watched, admitted to having paid protection money for over a decade.

At the time of his arrest, the suspected mafioso was carrying a ceramic dish, 200 euros and a panettone which he had allegedly obtained by extortion from a nearby bar.   I wonder if he enjoyed the panettone in jail?

ITALY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP - 13

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

For my Patti Chiari column I wrote about our lovely Castello di Donnafugata in Ragusa Province.  This is not the Donnafugata mentioned in Il Gattopardo or the one in Marlene de Blasi's book!

Our blog of the week was Napoli Unplugged.  Do take a look at it because I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Our final summer romantic film set in Italy had to be a golden oldie so we looked at September Affair, a weepie with an improbable plot but great actors and a real tear-jerker of a theme song.

Italians, it seems, are rebelling against paying for supplementary services in hotels and, like me, many of them find minibar items to be overpriced.  Let's all rebel together!  In my opinion you can never have enough cookery books and here is one that I am determined to add to my collection, especially as the proceeds will go to the L'Aquila Earthquake Relief Fund.  My Dad [who was not religious] always said that if you wished to worship God, it made sense to do it among the most beautiful of His creations so I would love to see this tree cathedral near Bergamo. Finally, in the news section, we have two police tales:  the first made me chuckle and I loved this heartwarming story of a life saved by the swift actions of a blogger and the Catania police.  Let us hope that the young man concerned is receiving the help and support he needs now. 

I shall be participating in the Bloggers Unite World Suicide Prevention Day event tomorrow.