Beppe’s Chat
Last night the Italian-American Institute put on a special presentation by Beppe Severgnini, a foreign correspondent for Italy's Il Corriere Della Sera newspaper who has recently written a book trying to explain Italy and the Italians to an American audience.
Severgnini delivered his speech informally, offering humorous anecdotes about Italian life without revealing too much of the book's content. I was interested in hearing more about his foreign correspondence career (he wrote for The Economist for close to a decade) but he didn't get into that at all; his intention was clearly to promote his book.
His closing anecdote was the funniest one. Asked by an audience member to sum up Italy, Severgnini told this story (paraphrased):
I was on an Alitalia flight from Milan to New York City that was nearing its conclusion when a flight attendant told me that one of the fellow passengers was upset and that, being a doctor, wanted to talk to me.
So I went to see her and she was indeed crying, saying "it's the salami's fault" (la culpa della salame) . She was carrrying in too much salami and prosciutto (Italian ham) and cheese to possibly get through customs. She showed me her bag, and inside was an enormous amount of all three items. She wasn't sure what to do, and was afraid that she would have to throw away all of the beautiful food she brought.
Then the flight attendant and I thought of a solution: there was just enough salami, prosciutto, and cheese to serve all of the passengers. Why not break out some red wine and have a last-minute snack before the plane lands? The woman agreed and the flight attendants, bored after a long flight, snapped into action and prepared the food.
As the passengers happily ate their snack and drank their wine, the flight attendant said over the intercom: "You were expecting a boring flight, but instead you got a food and wine party.".
The Italians, for all their faults, can turn even the most banal situations into a bacchanalian celebration. Amen.
