Italian TV Programs

Recently, I met a British lady who teaches English in Rome. She has been living in Rome for over a year. She told me that she misses watching her own country's TV programs. I perfectly understood her. I, myself, is a big fan of BBC. We started to discuss about Italian TV programs and reached a conclusion: we, being women, watching Italian women, no matter at what age, from 18 to 70,  on TV, wearing high heel shoes, mini skirts, exposing breasts(some natural - built, I believe, others man-made) as much as your eyeballs can take, heavely make-up like layers of cake. Worse of all, these women standing with male hosts on the stage are often as objects to be made fun of.

I have been watching a certain types of TV programs on Rai channels which I'd like to make comments on regarding different aspects.

The most common free broadcasting TV channels in Italy are Rai and Mediaset.

RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana, known  as Radio Audizioni Italiane until 1954, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI is the biggest television company in Italy. It competes with three major private television companies, Mediaset, Telecom Italia Media, and Sky Italia.

News reporters on Rai often hold a 4-form size leaflet in hands and they drop their eyelids to read news on the papers. It's an act which I'm not used at all. I can't recall when and where I saw a news reporter read news like that for the very last time before moving to Rome, Italy. Thus, I did not reserve my curiosity to raise my question after I got to know an Italian friend named Cristina. She was surprised and confessed to me that news reading on TV doesn't bother her at all , even when I pointed it out to her now, she wouldn't consider a change is needed. Later on, I met a TV news reporter from Belgium and I mentioned to him the Italian way of reading news on TV. He stated that it's indeed a curious case but Italy does keep some specific features which are different from other EU countries.

Rai Channels, in general, hardly provide exciting nor interesting programs. But there is one program that impressed me deeply. It's on Rai 3, every Saturday evening from nine to eleven, seasonal. The name of the program is "Ulysse", and TV presentator is Alberto Angela. The first time I watched his program was some time in 2008. Today I still could recall the episode I watched then. It was about Pompeii, an ancient town well established long before it came under Roman hegemony.  On August 24, 79AD, Vesuvius unexpectedly awoke, and the violence of the eruptions brought one of the biggest disasters in the human history. Pompeii, one of the nearby towns which was hit the most terribly, entirely remained buried under a layer of  more than six meters deep, from which hardly any humans as well as animals were able to escape. Not until the18th century, the buried town was uncovered and came miraculously to light. Nowaday, the archaeological site of Pompeii attracts millions of visitors from all over the world. The three-hour long  documentary TV program showcased Pompeii with historical evidence as well as the technical method of modern research . It was a great film.

Since then, I followed some of the "Ulysse" episodes. Later on, I got to know an Austrian diplomat who is currently  posted in Rome. He told me that he had been watching Alberto Angela's program since he was a high school student in Austria, which means in the early 1990's. In fact, the program he watched then was called "Super Quak" which was more in the direction of science, created by Alberto's father Pietro. By the time when Alberto took over the program, history and human interaction blended into it, making it more a story-telling style. The Austrian diplomat was learning Italian when he started to watch the program. He is fluent in Italian after gratuating from college, majoring in Italian language and literature. Recently, he managed to get an autograph of Alberto by buying his newly published book on the Roman Empire.

 Ancient Pompeii uncovered, behind it stands Mt. Versuvius

I had no idea how to justify Italian humor until I started to watch the program of "I Soliti Idioti" (The usual idiots) on MTV Italia channel. It is an Italian sitcom (situation comedy)  broadcasted by MTV Italia. The protagonists are the various characters of the sitcom starring Francesco Mandelli and Fabrizio Biggio, transmitted for the first time on 12 February 2009, up to date airing 38 episodes in total.

Each episode consists of unique sketches in which each of the two protagonists appear, played by Mandelli and Biggio, with the appearance of extras that are sometimes inherent to the story but almost never interact directly with the main characters. They in general reflect daily life in Italy, i.e. father and son's relationship, routine office job, inefficient post office service, etc. Among these the two-gays sketch and the two catholic fathers sketch are the most extraordinary. A gay couple tries in every way to have a child, which results in ridicule as most of the time they ask the pharmacist for the meter to check for pregnancy.The other sketch consists of two men of the church (Father Boy and Father George) who work at the Vatican, showing other priests and the Pope the most extravagant ways to increase the consent of the public towards the Catholic church and Jesus Christ. 

In one way or another , humor could be the most effective weapon in mankind. Whatever humor, British, Chinese, Jewish, or Italian, it makes its people laugh, think and then perhaps change.

"I isoliti idioti" defintely made people who understand Italian society and culture laugh and think,  and probably a bit of change is happening. It's the hardest thing to measure.

In short, "Ulysse" is the program mainly focuses on culture and history, meanwhile "I isoliti idioti " showcasing daily life of Italians in an amusing way. For outisders, the above two programs are  the ideal combination to get a true glimpse of Italia.

Visiting Vatican Museum

Last Sunday morning, on the 26th June, I accompanied my mother, who is visiting me in Rome currently, to the Vatican Museum.

It was 10:30 when we arrived at the Vatican. I did not realize that it was the last Sunday of the month, when the museum opened to visitors free of charge, until I caught sight of people queueing along the tall wall of Vatican. It was a long long queue stretching from the museum entrance to the other end which almost reached St.Peter Square. Summer holidays just started, visitors from all over the world are pouring in.

On Sundays, the museum closes at 2:00 in the afternoon, and the last entrance admission is at 12:30. I did not think we would manage to get in the museum by queueing at the end of the line. While I was standing near the entrance trying to figure out the above mentioned entrance rules, my mother started a conversation with a group of five people who were queueing. My mother is the type of person who could break boundaries quickly with strangers. She is a naturally born diplomat. After a few minutes, she signalled me to approach the group and introduced me to them. They were seniors, coming from my home city Guangzhou, China. They were doing a European excursion. Eventually both my mother and I became part of the group and we entered the museum together at about 11:00 AM.

Vatican Museum is always a pleasurable place to visit. Such a treasure for the world to admire.

We strolled around until 1:30PM. We were exhausted, thirsty, and hungry. Vatican Museum always makes visitors feel this way at the end of the tour for there is so much to see, to absorb, and so many stairs to climb. Be prepared for it.

I was listening to my Ipod to keep my spirit up. After listening to all the uploaded songs, I switched to radio channel and it was one o'clock news, talking about the recent controversial debate between Italy and France. I read about it the day before in the news which the title was : "Florence requests Mona Lisa's return, Paris says no way":

Florence, 24 June (AKI) - Italy has launched a campaign to convince the Louvre Museum in Paris to lend the Mona Lisa painting to Florence's Uffizi Gallery in 2013 to mark the 100th anniversary of its recovery following one of history's most famous art thefts.

The Italian Culture Ministry and the Province of Florence have jointly launched an appeal to the French to lend them what may be the world's most famous masterpieces, but the prestigious French museum said the painting is not in the condition to withstand the trip south.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa was briefly displayed in the Uffizi in 1913 after being recovered in a Florence hotel two years after its theft from the Louvre.

That was the last time it appeared in Italy and only one of three times the work was displayed outside of the Louvre, according to a statement posted on Thursday on the Province of Florence website.

Starting with Italian politicians, the initiative aims to collect at least 100,000 signatures to be sent to France in around six months, the statement said.

"This is not a declaration of war against France. It's an appeal aimed at collaboration," said Silvano Vinceti, the head of an Italian Culture Ministry historical society jointly organising the petition along with Florence.

"The Gioconda has left the Louvre museum three times. It can do so again," he said, referring to the Italian name for the Mona Lisa.

On Friday the Louvre released a statement saying that Mona Lisa is "extremely fragile" making it 1,100-kilometer trip to the Tuscan museum "absolutely unimaginable."

Interesting cultural event,isn't it? Italy owns so much historical treasure, however, just the absence of one Mona Lisa makes Italy feel there is something missing in their culture.

long queue alongside the wall

queueing









At the Sistine Chapel, no flash is allowed.



Night Train, Nightmare

I discovered night train(Treno Notte) travel in Italy two years ago, when I took a night train from Venice to Rome. It was a reasonable 7-hour long journey though I wasn't able to sleep properly on my couchette berth due to the constant noise of the running train.

Since then, I chose to take night trains to travel to Milan and most recently to Rovereto from where I took a public bus to reach Garda Lake(Lago di Garda)in Trentino region, north of Italy. There I met a couple of friends who travelled from China. We spent three days to stroll around the lake.

It was my first time to visit Garda Lake, a holiday hot spot in summertime. Right upon my arrival at Garda Lake, I found myself among a majority of German tourists, minority of Dutch tourists and some odd-accent English-speaking old folks. Garda Lake, by nature, is a beautiful creation, a large lake meeting the lower part of Alps, but at the same time a busy tourist destination with countless hotels, holiday apartments, eateries, bars, mini supermarkets, and last but not the least, souvenir shops.

On the night of June 21st, after bidding friends good-bye, I took a public bus from the bus terminal of Garda Lake to Verona train station, from where I intended to catch a night train back to Rome.

By the time I arrived at Verona train station, the ticket counter had already closed long ago, so I had to use the ticket machine. However, I wasn't able to buy a train ticket from the ticket machine which indicated that all the couchette berths as well as cabin seats were sold out. It was an hour before the night train departed. I was in slightly panicking for I didn't want to spend a night in Verona.

I caught sight of two African young women with a little boy running into the station from outside, and they were walking close to where I was standing. I knew I had to ask them for a suggestion. After listening to my explanation, they told me I could buy a ticket in the train which meant I'd be able to leave Verona. I felt at ease without further consideration of what'd happen in the train.

One hour later, we got on the train. The two African women told me to stay with them so that they could help me explain my problem to the conductor if necessary. So I sat in the same cabin with them, which contained 6 seats.We were three women, one little boy and one big tall middle-aged Pakistani man in the cabin. There was room enough for us stretch our legs a bit from time to time.

One of the younger African women was more talkative. I noticed she spoke French to the other one. I asked her if she was from Congo. Instead, she told me another name of a country which I never heard of. She wasn't happy to see the fact that I wasn't aware of her country. But very quickly, she seemed to forgive me about that. She had been living and working in Italy for 11 years. If she had come to Italy at the age of nighteen which is common for her case, she must have been thirty years old by now. The little boy was her son whose father is Italian. I had guessed it earlier for the boy looked fairer than her. She had very shining dark skin. They had to make a trip from Verona, where they currently reside, to her home country's embassy in Rome so they could get a travel visa for her son who holds an Italian passport. This would allow him to visit her home country. There was a Consul General in Milan which is nearby Verona, but visas couldn't be issued there.

The Pakistani man in our cabin was also applying for a visa. He planned to visit England, therefore, he was going to the UK embassy in Rome.

Visa, passport, country boundaries, these things I wish would disappear from Earth. However, I know it simply will forever be a dream.

After running for an hour, the train stopped at Bologna station. More passengers got on the train, Africans, Asians, and Eastern Europeans. The Pakistani man said that all foreigners in this country travelling by train tonight were perhaps getting visas in Rome.

One tall African young man and one Indian slim young man checked their train tickets in front of our cabin. They had gotten tickets issued with seat numbers while I had purchased a ticket in the train without a seat number. I had to move out to the corridor at once.

The nightmare began. Along the narrow and long corridor packed with passengers,either sitting or standing, who had no cabin seats reserved. We could sit next to the windows of the corridor but every now and then we had to make way for conductors, policemen and passengers passing by. I looked up at my watch almost every fifteen miniutes and counted how many hours were left before reaching Rome. At midnight, I couldn't convince myself that I could keep sitting there for the rest of six hours, which would be the longest six hours of my life.

It costed thirty Euros one way from Verona to Rome by night train, meanwhile, double of this price for a couchette ticket. None of these foreigners who work and live in Italy is willing to pay for a berth.They are domestic helpers, construction workers, and gas station employees whose wages are probably lower than most of the Italian citizens'. They choose to take night train for saving daytime to work, also for avoiding to spend money on accommodation in Rome.

At about 4am in the morning, after struggling not to fall onto the corridor floor due to overwhelming tiredness for hours, I couldn't help stepping into the cabin where the African women were. I asked the young one for sharing her seat with me and she immediately made room for me. Her son was sleeping, lying on one seat opposite to us. She was thicker than me, and so I tried to occupy as little space as possible. She had to lay her head on my shoulder and we were very close to each other but avoided to be touched. Sitting still, we could feel each other's body heat. It was just an amazing feeling which comforted me very much under such harsh circumstances.

I managed to doze for an hour or so by sitting with her.

By the time we arrived in Rome Tiburtina train station, I felt it was so unreal. I don't believe I could survive a trip like that for a second time.

Of course, it was a night made me see different things in Italy. The media globally showcases images of trains packed with passengers in Asia, particuliarly in India, and it might bring viewers a big shock if this night train which I boarded would be exposed through a video camera. I was far too torn apart to take one photo/video shot at that moment.

This physically challenging night train trip made me learn two lessons: try to avoid to take the night train, if you have to take one, make a couchette ticket reservation in advance.