As a student who took Italian for GCSE and had decided to take it for A level, I assumed myself to be more knowledgeable than the average person when it came to anything Italian. Perhaps I did know a thing or two, but as I have come to realise after my first term of deeper and more culture-oriented study, there is far more to the country than first meets the eye. Italy almost certainly does fulfil it’s role as a typical European tourist haven; practically oozing with historical influence and dramatic stories to tell, from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius and fossilisation of the city of Pompeii in 79CE, to the years of Mussolini’s Fascism in 1922-1943 (commonly referred to by Italians as ‘il Ventennio’). Something that I feel is often overlooked however, is how the country’s sizeable, and on many occasions tumultuous history has affected how people in Italy live today. To follow are just a few of the most interesting, and unless you are an A Level Italian student, rarely discussed things that I have come to discover recently.
Most notable of these ‘revelations’ perhaps, is that there are not one, not two – but 34 official dialects spoken in Italy today, and unlike the unfortunate decline of our own Jèrriais, these dialects are commonly spoken just about everywhere. In reality, what we call ‘Italian’ is a language that stems from a dialect spoken in Italy’s northern region of Tuscany (specifically the City of Florence). This is not to mention the variety of other official languages spoken in the northern regions that border other European countries, including Slovene, German and French. This wonderful congregation of European language, that sits somewhat improbably within the confines of the Italian peninsula, is in essence down to one factor; Italy’s very short career as a country.
During the hay day of the notorious Roman empire, c.27AD-476AD, Italy was effectively unified by being under the control of one ruler, but the country as we know it was not unified completely until 1871, which as I’m sure any self-respecting history student will tell you, is really not that long ago. The process of unification, or ‘il Risorgimento’, was a long and rather complicated one – perhaps a story for another day. Suffice to say that up until around 150 years ago, Italy was divided geographically, linguistically, culturally and by it’s rulers. I don’t know about you, but this is something that I’d barely even considered until a couple of weeks ago. Consequently, the country we so often seem to narrate as a Pizza-loving, opera-writing, hand-gesturing Nirvana, in fact also possesses deep rooted Germanic traditions in the Alpine region of Trentino-Alto-Adige, as well as Spanish, Arab, Greek and even Norman influences in Sicily, for instance.
As I have come to learn, these differences don’t just make for an interesting scroll on Wikipedia – quite the opposite in fact. The vast amount of diversity that exists within Italy, whilst fascinating, is perhaps the most significant problem the country has been tackling since it’s birth. Issues such as the redistribution of tax, corruption, unemployment and organised violence all either have their origins in, or are closely linked to a lack of unification. A manifestation of this concern appears, in my opinion, in the slightly dubious form of ‘Lega’, formerly ‘Lega Nord’. This political party’s primary aim is achieving much greater regional autonomy within the Northern regions, and by the same token introducing fiscal federalism (effectively meaning that taxes get redistributed in the area they are collected from rather than on a larger and more balanced state level). Say what you will about these ideas, but ultimately, I feel the amount of support for the party in the last thirty years says a lot about the true nature of north/south relations in Italy.
I expect quite a lot of you will think that that’s quite enough history for one day – and you’re probably right. But if like me, you find yourself sat in your room waiting for the day that you can travel again, then I would definitely recommend having a click through the internet. Discovering things about other countries online is definitely not as good as actually going there, but I think we can all benefit from looking beyond our British horizon from time to time.
All in all, I feel confident in saying that there’s more to Italian culture than you might imagine. The further you look, the more you discover. Although this is probably true for any country you may choose to explore, whether in reality or through an interminable series of clicks through the internet, Italy seems to have an endless stream of cultural curiosities, just waiting for a hungry Europhile to happen upon – and for that, I am eternally grateful.
Tamsin Hollyman Y12
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