Loro, the movie. Money for nothing and chicks for free. The immoral majority’s and Berlusconi’s philosophy
Loro 1, Loro 2, regia Paolo Sorrentino, 2018 “What did you expect: to be the richest man in the country, become prime minister and be madly loved by everyone too?” “Yes, that’s exactly what I expected.” I approached this two instalment movie with a certain apprehension. In Il Divo (2008), Sorrentino portrayed Giulio Andreotti…
Silvio Berlusconi: 11 overwhelming questions
Silvio Berlusconi and the dark aspects of Italy: why writing a book about them? Silvio Berlusconi is “not just any old charlatan”, as the Nov. 21, 2011 Newsweek cover reads. As I have said time and again, Silvio Berlusconi’s ventennio (his twenty years in office) is a privileged observatory as far as the future of democracy is…
Mediterranean Summer – on the road ‘write as you go’ diary of summer wanderings throughout Italy and Southern Europe
You’ll see no Rome, Florence, Venice or Taormina in this diary. Instead, I’ll take you to small unknown places of rare beauty often harbouring next to territorial or industrial diseases, ‘ugliness’ of various kind that makes Italy the cradle of the best and the worst. I was taken to these places in the long hot…
The Ballad of the Covid-19 Gaol, part one
The Burial of the Dead April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland Part 1: It all began where the streets have no name – looking back at one month of quarantine (Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Easter…
Mediterranean Summer, chapter 3 – West Sicily, Monument Valley by the sea. In the name of the law?
You’ll see no Rome, Florence, Venice or Taormina in this diary. Instead, I’ll take you to small unknown places of rare beauty often harbouring next to territorial or industrial diseases, ‘ugliness’ of various kind that makes Italy the cradle of the best and the worst. I was taken to these places in the long hot…
World Cup 2018 – out of the cup, into the mud: corruption,violence, beauty in Italian football
All the World is a football Stage Italian football is the mirror of our society: it means organized crime connections, both at top management level or at mafia and camorra rank; it means corruption, in match-fixing, slush funds creation and drug use; it means another weapon of mass consent in the hand of the demagogic political candidate.…
Mediterranean Summer, chapter 2 – Matera, the unbelievable ‘city of stones’: from dust to stardom
You’ll see no Rome, Florence, Venice or Taormina in this diary. Instead, I’ll take you to small unknown places of rare beauty often harbouring next to territorial or industrial diseases, ‘ugliness’ of various kind that makes Italy the cradle of the best and the worst. I was taken to these places in the long hot…
Mediterranean Summer, chapter 1- Malta: Christendom facing the Muslim dominion
You’ll see no Rome, Florence, Venice or Taormina in this diary. Instead, I’ll take you to small unknown places of rare beauty often harbouring next to territorial or industrial diseases, ‘ugliness’ of various kind that makes Italy the cradle of the best and the worst. I was taken to these places in the long hot…
Vasco Rossi’s Modena Park concert: the world’s biggest live rock concert ever – in my hometown. Who’s that guy that comes from the farm?
Vasco Rossi’s Modena Park means 220.000 paying spectators at the concert. Is this a modern-day Woodstock or just a megalomaniac product? Is the rebellious spirit of Woodstock still here or are the children-parents-grandparents singing along together just celebrating cheap thrills? Is Italy a full-time member of international rock music now or are we just celebrating…
Mafia Republic, a true crime book by J. Dickie – review
Mafia Republic: Italy’s Criminal Curse. Cosa Nostra, ‘ndrangheta and Camorra from 1946 to the Present by John Dickie My rating: 5 of 5 stars … a wise traveller should bring this book with him on an Italian holiday and read it while tanning on a gorgeous Sicilian beach. As I was researching for my book…
The book "Silvio Berlusconi's Italy" is finalist at the London Book Fair's International Literary Competition 'The write stuff'.Vittorio Vandelli’s prize winner book: “Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy”
