Photo credit: David P. Williams for The New York Times
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ciao bimbi
TRAVEL: venice in winter (the new york times)
Dave Yoder for The New York Times
"Can Italy emulate Spain in avoiding becoming a vast open-air museum?" - Dan Hill's travelogues
Photo credit: Dan Hill (full gallery here)"And again, the coffee is wonderful. It all makes me wonder why we don't live in Italy. I realise there are issues with, say, the Italian attitude to efficiency, the variable levels of entrepreneurship and ambition, and a political scene that rivals New South Wales in its shambolic corruption, but the quality of life and culture (mostly in both senses) is so good. Is this paradox at the heart of humanity? As Rifkin would have it, the tension between empathy and entropy? Is it possible for Italy to be innovative, progressive, heterogenous, driven and efficient in the areas of life that warrant such values, whilst retaining the easy quality of life, of culture, of valuing something like a local strawberry, a tiny espresso stand, a healthy literary scene, or a square full of scampering children and bereft of cars? That these things should be preserved while others improved? Is it possible? Can Italy emulate Spain in avoiding becoming a vast open-air museum? It has much work to do there - but how to do it without discarding what makes it special?" (Dan Hill, City of Sound, "Thursday May 20, London to Turin")
The short answer is no chance.
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