Anyone read "La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind"?

Hey, Kent: Loved it! Read it a few years ago, and then his book on his year living in D.C. with his family...and the Italian take on OUR foibles. He's a witty, funny guy. Reminded me a bit of Bryson. To me, if one reads Barzini's "The Italians" and Severgnini's "La Bella Figura," two completely different approaches to exploring Italian history, culture, and character--one through sarcasm and irony and humor, and the other through serious, thoughtful analysis--you can start to get some sense of the place and why it is what it is, how it became ITALY.

Another quote: "Pedestrian crossings are there for decoration only."

Great book - Beppe really explains the Italian way of thinking in politics. And why the Italians love Berlusconi. I have just finished 'Into the Heart of the Mafia: A journey into the Italian South' by David Lane. Fascinating.

Read it, loved it. Laughed out loud often (and got some funny looks from family members!)

I've read it twice in the last year. It is a great 'bedside table' book because I then go to sleep with a smile. He is so witty AND you learn alot.

It's a very witty book and worth reading & rereading. I don't know how true it is, as I've never been to Italy, but I can tell you at the end of the month!

After one trip to Italy, I don't think you'll know how true the book is. One of the things he seems to be saying in the book is:

If you've only visited Italy, you probably don't know the Italians or life in Italy as well as you think you do.

A personal experience driving in a car of a native Floretine:

It was night and we were on our way to some "hot spot" with a locale. The driver turns down a narrow one-way street in the city center of Florence...going in the opposite direction of the arrows. My sister calmly asked if this was "okay" to do. The driver responded very non-chalantly that "sometimes it is okay, sometimes it is not...but" he admitted, "mostly it's not okay."

Lisa: That's a good Italian driving anecdote, it perfectly captures the Italian approach to driving that Severgnini describes in his book! thanks for sharing it.

A couple of years ago, on this forum, I started an "Epics of Driving Rental Cars in Italy" topic. Got a lot of responses, all entertaining and some positively riveting.

Driving over there is different than driving here.

Kent,

I'd never heard of the book, but after reading your comments I decided to order it. Amazon is usually fairly quick, so I should have it in a few days.

Thanks for mentioning it!

Ken, here's another quot from the book, just to whet your appetite!

"In Italy, motorists, small children, priests, and good-looking women do whatever they want to."

And don't worry: the book is more substantive than these short quotes make it appear.

Beppe is a very nice person as well. My daughter was working on her Masters in Italian at Middlebury in Vermont 2006 when she first met him. When she returned to Italy he invited her and some other students to his home for the weekend. He later asked her and two friends for help when he spoke to some Stanford University students in Florence.Good guy!

Great book.
I found that driving in Tuscany and northern Italy was no problem as long as I did not drive in a city of any size. I stayed in several small towns (Cortina is wonderful)and driving was fine as long as the hills were not too steep.

Cortina had one long steep one-way street I had to drive up (in my tiny manual shift car) to get across town, with lots of people strolling in the road. All I could do was gun it and lay on the horn until I got to the top. Mostly people were laughing as I passed. I also recieved a round of applause after my labored attempts to squueze into a very tiny space.
In other words...crazy Italian driving does have it's up side.

Another quote from the book "Field Guide to the Italian Mind," this one on the subject of Italian TV:

"But if the churches are emptying, television holds on to its faithful. Fifty years ago, people talked about the television of the people. Nowadays, we are the people of the television."

I've now finished reading Severgnini's book (Field Guide to the Italian Mind, see the OP). Although he's almost off-puttingly glib, as an Italian he knows a thousand times more about Italy than I ever will.

One of his theses may have some interest to others here, which is:

If you think you know Italy and Italians, but you're only a visitor, you probably don't know it or them nearly as well as you think.

He doesn't take it easy on his own, does he. Done in a non-offensive way but gets that point across. I'm at Day 3 Milan right now and I got to tell you I couldn't understand the interest in this book based on Days 1 and 2. Finally his message is reaching me and confirming my observation that life is just too hard in Italy. That would be compared to American standards but that's all I have to compare. The bureaucracy makes me want to pull my hair out just reading about it.

For what it's worth, his book "Ciao, America" seems to reveal a bit more about him as a person. Sort of like "Field Guide," but written for Italians trying to get a handle on America, in a sense. In it, he describes his family's experience moving to America for a year. So this time, the joke's on us--and it's pretty funny, too. I don't find Beppe 'fall-on-the-floor' hysterical, to be honest, but there is something authentic about his voice and there's a simplicity in his writing that, by the time you finish a book, you sort of feel like you know the guy, and maybe learned a little something, as well. And they're such quick, easy reads. Reminds me a little of Mike Royko, the old newspaper columnist...if anyone remembers him.

Kent : We thank you for informing us of the existence of that book. I found that book in a Public Library, recently. I like the map of an Italian man's brain, printed on the end pages in that book.

As far as crosswalks are concerned. It seems to me Italian drivers are more than happy to go around you, they just don't want to stop for you. The thing that seems most irritating to Italian drivers is when pedestrians cross in stops and starts rather than just walking a steady pace.

Our technique in Rome was to all rejoin at the curb. I would say ready...go and we would all start walking together as a group across the street. We were never hit and never honked at. I saw some tourists, who were afraid to walk steadily across the street, creating all sorts of problems including a safety hazard for themselves.

Ron: The paperback version doesn't have the same illustration that you describe, on the cover it's got The David being fed what looks like french fries, with ketchup spills on his face.