The Italians have always appreciated quality and keep the very best of foods for themselves. Italy is still an agricultural nation and its small farmers (i contadini), who wield enormous power in the community, are highly practical men. They pay little attention to E.U. directives and farm according to time-honoured ways, harvesting wonderful produce.
Many city-dwellers have relatives in the countryside who will keep them stocked up with home-grown and home-produced specialities. The salad and wine that are put on the table in honour of a guest will be very special, and every bite and drop will be truly memorable.
The Italians acknowledge the changing of the seasons and the different delicacies linked to each. The whole family will take part in preparing the passata di pomodoro (tomato purée) in the late summer, go mushrooming in September, grape-picking in October, and in March collect those exquisite young dandelion leaves that add a zest to salads.
“They learn how to cook when young, and a look at Italian cookbooks shows that the writers start from the premise that their readers already know how.”
The secret behind Italian cooking lies not only in the fact that the ingredients are fresh and of good quality, but also that most Italians, male and female, are excellent cooks. They learn how to cook when young, and a look at Italian cookbooks shows that the writers start from the premise that their readers already know how. Italian recipes are much less precise than British or American ones and don’t say, ‘carefully add 150 grams of this’ or ‘slowly pour in 4 fluid ounces of that’; they simply say, ‘take a pinch of this’, or ‘add a couple of drops of that’.
Despite their admiration for many things American, the Italians have been remarkably resistant to some American foodways. Coca-Cola and hamburgers have been accepted, but peanut butter and baked beans have not; breakfast cereals are advertised, but without much success. Italy is the only country in the world where the marketing strategies of McDonald’s have been hampered by the highly successful Slow Food Movement.
Italians are the world’s largest consumers of whisky, especially malt – an average bar in Italy will stock a greater selection than most pubs in Scotland – and beer is becoming fashionable with the young, especially if it is strong and imported. But what really runs in the nation’s veins is wine.
“What really runs in the nation’s veins is wine. Country wines vary from the regal to the robust, each with its own distinct character.”
Italian wines range from purple-black table wines frothing in your glass to sparkling dry whites. They are generally drunk locally and young, and the fact that many of the best Italian wines are unknown outside Italy serves to keep their prices reasonable. Country wines vary from the regal to the robust, each with its own distinct character. As a village salami-maker remarked as he savoured a glass of his region’s vino nero: ‘A wine is like a man; it can have flaws and still be pleasing.’
On the whole, Italians drink only when they eat, but this does not mean that they stint themselves. The meal will be preceded by an aperitivo, and each course will be accompanied by a different wine, with a sparkling wine reserved for the dessert.
“On the whole, Italians drink only when they eat, but this does not mean that they stint themselves.”
Unfortunately, the human stomach was not designed for such conspicuous over-indulgence, so the Italians have thought up a variety of ingenious ways to help their digestive system cope. They drink mineral waters throughout the meal, and after it can choose from a host of evil-tasting medicinal preparations called digestivi, or perhaps a fiery grappa, in the hope that it will spur their jaded innards into action.
“The human stomach was not designed for such conspicuous over-indulgence, so the Italians have thought up a variety of ingenious ways to help their digestive system cope.”
Despite these precautionary measures, the hard work that Italian digestive systems are asked to perform often leads to their going on strike, and constipation is a common complaint. Other nations’ remedies are suspect, and Italians refuse to eat the German-style wholemeal breads and American-style high fibre cereals which might solve their problems, in much the same way as they refuse to change their eating habits, by eating, for example, a little less.
Health
“Italians are in general fairly healthy people who spend a great deal of their time thinking that they should feel healthier than they do.”
The most common Italian illness is hypochondria. Italians are in general fairly healthy people who spend a great deal of their time thinking that they should feel healthier than they do. This is partly because they imagine that everyone else feels better than they do, and partly because they have absurd expectations about their own health. They worry constantly about it. Could that stomach ache be the beginnings of a peptic ulcer (forgetting that they ate too much the night before). Might that headache be the beginnings of a brain tumour? (forgetting that they drank too much the night before).
Italians are always eager to tell friends and neighbours about their preoccupations at length, so that animated exchange you witness as you pass may as well be about piles as politics. The recipient may not be quite so happy to be targeted, and when health bores have run out of friends and neighbours they may be obliged to button-hole any available stranger.
People are happy to spend vast sums of money servicing their hypochondria. If their doctor tells them they are in the pink of health, they will go to a private specialist. If this specialist finds nothing wrong, they will go to another one, and so on, until they find a doctor who is prepared to prescribe for them. The prescription will then be taken to the local chemist and discussed at length, before the medicine is bought (and one or two others that the chemist has recommended as well; after all, you never know…). Consequently, the typical Italian bathroom cupboard is crammed with as many medicines as most dispensaries, most of them years beyond their expiry date.
Problems can occur when Italians are genuinely ill. They have already exhausted their doctor’s patience and precious time, and they have already visited half the specialists in town. One possible solution is the hospital Casualty Department. But is that ingrowing toenail a serious enough ailment? Or might the hospital surgeon remove the wrong toenail in his zeal?
“The typical Italian bathroom cupboard is crammed with as many medicines as most dispensaries.”
Italian news reports are full of hospital horror stories, like the one about the Franciscan friar who went into hospital for a hernia operation and came out with only half his trachea. Or the footballer who had the wrong knee operated on. Despite the fact that there is little real evidence of Italian hospitals being any better or worse than those of other European countries, Italians will often travel to Switzerland or France for treatment, in the unshakeable belief that hospitals function better elsewhere.