“How is it that individuals on this nation all the time affiliate Italians with the Mafia?” It needs to be a longstanding friendship whenever you get sideswiped by such an advanced query late at night time. We have been standing on the White Avenue Pier watching the road lights twinkle alongside Smathers Seaside, and such a watery place would naturally result in reflection. The truth that Giovanni, a heart specialist, was visiting for simply two days on the again of a medical conference on the mainland meant we had a number of catching as much as do in a short time.
We grew up collectively, Giovanni’s household spent most of their time within the metropolis and I spent most of my life in exile at that age, in an English boarding faculty. After I left Europe Giovanni, who adopted the standard life plan laid out for the son of a physician remained my tenuous reference to he Outdated World, a thread threatened by time, distance and commitments, however that has develop into much less frayed as we get older. We attempt to meet a minimum of each couple of years alone or with household and trip a bike, laze on a seaside all the time staying up late to set historical past and the world to rights.
Explaining the Mafia stereotype to a forty-nine yr outdated Italian who has by no means imagined hanging out with, or being intimidated by Cosa Nostra again dwelling is not straightforward. The Mafia is as removed from his life as it’s for any American, its a topic for the flicks; Hollywood is brief hand for graven photographs. “Nicely, you have seen the Godfather,” I begin out by saying. “Il Padrino strengthened the picture first created when Italian immigrants began coming in massive numbers to the US…” And his rebuttal, constructed across the irritation he feels when he replies, in his damaged English, to strangers that he’s Italian not Mexican, they usually go on and on concerning the few issues they learn about Italy,The Mafia, and Italian historical past adopted by a tour of monuments they’ve seen. Giovanni sighs and leads us to a dialogue concerning the stereotypes of la dolce vita a picture of Italy created in flip by Italian filmmakers.
Too usually I hear about how Europeans have it straightforward with lengthy holidays and many time without work, however I keep in mind properly Giovanni’s incredulity after we walked one morning right into a California Starbucks and he could not imagine all of the lounging round happening throughout a workday. In France the 35-hour work week stands probability of being overturned as a result of individuals are bored with the monetary constraints of a brief work week which sure, permits for extra time without work nevertheless it additionally severely limits incomes. The brand new French President is at present fighting that drawback and on the identical time in Italy, pension plans, these distant rewards for a life time of 51/2 day work weeks, are being pushed again by threats of State chapter.
Giovanni, who lives in an impressive, excessive ceiling’ed, condominium within the coronary heart of the Terni envies me my suburban American life. He liked to sprawl in my California yard smoking and pretending to be home proprietor for every week or two. In Florida its the large open deck we frolicked on at night time, me in my Keys uniform of cargo shorts and a tee shirt whereas Giovanni, even en deshabille, wore a crisp collared shirt and ironed Dockers, stretched out in our recliners admiring the celebs and setting the world to rights.
We do not drink a lot alcohol collectively, we often get drunk on exhaustion, speaking concerning the previous, musing concerning the future, questioning how we obtained to the place we’re. Giovanni does not see a really rosy future as he has payments to pay and plenty of extra years of hospital work and personal apply to pay his payments, get his children by means of school, assist them purchase properties, repay his personal mortgage and eventually qualify for a his State pension. He drives a pleasant automotive, rides a giant bike, takes holidays the place he likes, and infrequently has time to be alone and assume. Which he says, is simply as properly. Even when he’s alone he thinks about what items to buy and take dwelling to his household.
“The large distinction between us, ” he stated as he was struck by an epiphany between the eyes because it have been.” The distinction between us is that you do not have kids.” He is proper. I view the long run as a sequence of various decisions, variations on the assorted forks within the highway which have led me up to now. It is all speculative however I ponder if maybe I could or could not permit myself to reside a number of the time in Italy, using round in Giovanni’s wake… A fantasy rudely shattered by his insistence that these potentialities aren’t open to him. La dolce vita guarantees him a life lived arduous at work until the final potential minute. However all the time fashionably properly dressed…
Over the many years I’ve come to understand the fact of Giovanni’s every day life in Italy which is, for many Individuals, a romantic idyll far faraway from actuality, a film set inhabited by cheerfully gesturing lovers divorced from visitors jams, limitless payments, and unemployment. Just about the identical manner each Italian in America might be intimate with the interior workings of the Mafia.
I snapped this image of Giovanni hanging with my buddy Scott on the Tropic cinema one heat sundown. I too love hanging out with Giovanni, he all the time makes me admire my life all of the extra.