How to Win an Election

The person who was formerly known as the richest man in Italy, Mr Berlusconi, has been making noises about acquiring Alitalia in an attempt to save it from the dastardly marauding French. What a master stroke, right at election time too. He couldn’t have planned it better. Who knows how may votes this little stunt […]

The Vatican is Anti-Berlusconi!

Yep, it’s official, well almost. There have been quite a number of news stories about the new 21st century sins that the dear old Vatican has come up with. And here they are, the sins, that is, in no particular order, at least I don’t believe so: Environmental pollution – Change you car – or […]

Pots Calling Kettles Black

As you may imagine, Italy is suffering from a minor bout of election fever at the moment. The general elections are just around the corner and election posters are appearing right, left, and centre. I’ve seen a couple of amusing ones, so far. First there was this lovely one from the Berlusco-Fini duo which, much […]

Italy has No Government…well, not quite

Cara Jo, a fellow blogger from over the pond, was a little disappointed to see that I had not written about Italy’s current state of non-government. Well, I’ve decided to attempt to explain the current political situation in Italy.

An Interesting Student

One of the students on a course I am holding at the moment is an ex-aspiring Italian politician. I won’t mention his name, or the course he is doing because he does not know I am writing this, and I hope he won’t mind. Anyway, it is a bit of a shame to see someone […]

Turning Round La Brutta Figura

Italy is a very image conscious country – just wander down any Italian street and you will see beautiful shops and elegantly dressed passers by. The places and people are examples of ‘la bella figura’ – which means ‘creating the right impression’. The opposite of the ‘bella’ version is ‘la brutta figura’, which is similar […]