VicenzaPiù - Notizie, Inchieste, Analisi su Vicenza e provincia

It's not often the English press mentions Vicenza. On Friday 27th, the Guardian, a left of centre daily mentioned a meeting held in our town in December, at which Mr. Bossi of the Northern League suggested the redrawing of Europe's borders, with a new country called Padania, which would include parts of Switzerland, Austria, France, and Germany. It seems inhabitants of the other lucky countries having their maps redrawn have not yet been informed.

Apparently adherents of the league must swear to fight solemnly for the secession of Padania. In my own country, the United Kingdom, there is a similar movement to take Scotland out, led by the Scottish National Party, which has control of the Scottish parliament.
Over the many years I have lived in Vicenza, the underlying differences between North and South Italy often come to the fore. The basic grievance of the Vicentini is that they have to pay taxes to support the South which produces little. Their perception of the south is often based on meeting the large number of civil servants who come from there. Teachers, policemen, tax officials are often southerners, many seeking a way out from long-term unemployment. There is a widely held feeling that many of these civil servants, at least in the past, received their positions through political connivance rather than genuine merit.
Scots and Vicentini share a desire, common to most of us, to have more money, and many suppose that having their own wealth only for them, and not shared with those taking it away from them, in the Scots' case the English, in the Vicentini's the southerners, will help them get it. At the moment, the Northern League's sworn enemy is the new Prime Minister Monti, who unlike their former ally Mr. Berlusconi, does not appear to have Mafia connections in Sicily, originally the League's cause célèbre. Vicenzapiù had an in depth analysis of how, in reality, the Northern League locally has become a nesting bed for vested interests, exemplified by an internecine struggle regarding the use of land belonging to one of their senators near Montecchio. There were strong hints at a quick buck being sought at the taxpayer's expense. Speaking of Mr. Berlusconi, my compatriot Mills, former husband of the Minister for Culture in Tony Blair's government, is currently trying to explain the six million dollars he received from a mysterious Mr. B for supposedly withholding evidence at another trial regarding Italy's former premier. The lure of the quick buck is ubiquitous...
Once, like the Scots, the League showed an interest in maintaining local culture; this, I sympathise with. When I arrived in Vicenza, few people spoke Italian, local dialect was the vernacular. I remember in 1981 asking for ‘sei uova' (six eggs), and not being understood. The lady behind me became impatient, and explained to the shopkeeper that I needed ‘sie ovi'. The shopkeeper replied to her: ‘Parche non lo ga miga dito?' (Why didn't he say so?) On Christmas Eve 2012, my wife was baking a cake, and had run out of eggs. Vicenza, since the first instance, has become rich in supermarkets, and I rarely buy eggs in small shops. However, on this occasion I didn't relish the queues, so I went to a small shop in Corso Fogazzaro. ‘Mi occorre quattro ovi' I said brightly. The lady looked at me nonplussed. ‘Come?' ‘Quattro ovi go bisogno' I said in Vicentine. Her husband emerged from an inner room and asked: ‘Ha bisogno di quattro uova?' in standard Italian. And so after this reversed linguistic mix-up - not the only one I've known, I went home with my four eggs.
Dialect is disappearing in the town. As a lover of Goldoni's dialect comedies, I am saddened at the idea of people no longer understanding them, or needing an Italian translation. I feel it is wrong to suppose that knowing dialect implies not knowing Italian. It is quite possible to function efficiently in both. I try to do it all the time.
As I mentioned in the last article, one of the consolations of Vicentine life is the possibility of drinking a good glass of wine for a euro or less. Not a hundred metres from Bar Flavia, where one may enjoy the Verduzzo Dorato del Friuli for a euro, there is the Drive-In. Here, I would recommend a ‘piccolo spriz macchiato campari senza ghiaccio'. Be careful how you order it, because if you use the wrong terminology, and say ‘spriz' for example, you're liable to end up with the same ingredients in a larger glass with ice, and pay over twice as much. It's particularly good here, because unlike many bars in Vicenza, they have soda on tap instead of ageing mineral water in a plastic bottle.
Yet another advantage of Vicenza life is that it is still relatively safe to walk home after the one-euro experience without being mugged.

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