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Sunday, September 3, 2017

EXPRESSIONS by Father Ed

NOTES FROM ITALY

Everything changes.  Ideas change.  Perspectives change.  Culture changes.  People change.  Difference and diversity are the only truth.  My travels in Italy re-convinced me of this.

Italy has changed dramatically since I lived there almost 50 years ago.  There are more tourists.  There are fast-food chains, even Domino’s Pizza!!  Who would eat it in Italy?  Starbucks - why?  It could never compare to a neighborhood cafe’s cappuccino.  A more diverse population, not just Italian but Africans, Muslims, and Asians.  Who wouldn’t want to live in Italy?  More locals speak English, especially the young.  Everyone is friendly - a uniquely Italian trait.  Like everywhere else in Europe, trains are the easiest way to travel - and sometimes cheaper with more people.  One, for example, is usually more expensive than three.  Everything is more casual - but with style.  It is Italy!!!!  The “tu” form is now universal in conversation.

I visited lots of places but stayed the longest in Torino, the first capital of united Italy because it was the original residence of the kings.  Their palaces, citadels and statues dominate the city.  I stayed in an Airbnb in the very center of the city, close to all the historic sites.  Next time, however, I would choose a hotel near the main railway station.  A three star hotel costs less than a typical Airbnb.  I don’t need an entire apartment.  It was certainly quicker and less expensive to eat out, e.g., $6 for a delicious pizza.  My apartment, however, was well-located, clean, and modern.  It even had a roof terrace!

While I was not immediately aware of it, I stayed in a unique section of the city - and now one of the most expensive - the former Jewish Ghetto.  I couldn’t help being reminded of the dangers that religious and ethnic segregation and persecution pose - even in our contemporary era.  At the same time, ironically, I was reading an article on Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice.  Odd how things converge, without planning them.  For almost 3 centuries, the Jews of Venice were forced to live in a ghetto, locked in from the outside every evening.  The same in Torino.  Neither city, however, shows much evidence of this lamentable past, though there are public plaques acknowledging it.  The ghetto was considered a compromise solution, locking people in but not locking them out, still allowing their active participation in society and business.  Not good, but better than the walls people and politicians today are proposing!  What Shylock the Jew declaims in Shakespeare easily can be adjusted for any segregated or persecuted group:  “Hath not a Jew eyes?  Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?  If you prick us, do we not bleed?  If you tickle us, do we not laugh?”  All xenophobia, however it may try to dissemble, is innately inhuman.  It fails to admit the commonality of every person, to recognize the needs and rights of others as equal to mine.  It is ultimately an ethical failure.  We forget those “huddled masses” are our ancestors and our contemporaries.

I did not visit Rome or Florence, or any of the other typical Italian travel destinations.  Too hot and too crowded.  Instead, I visited friends near Brindisi down south, Perugia, an Umbrian hill town, Vicenza, near Verona the setting for Romeo and Juliette, and Torino where yet another friend lives.  I was forced to speak in Italian to friends, waiters in restaurants, strangers on the street, shops, and on trains.  Everyone was extremely accommodating and patient.  I felt so accepted and loved, despite my deficiencies.  Everyone tried to help.  I imagined Italy as home - easy to do.  Despite all the changes, I was returning from where I started. 

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