Writing Assignment #7

During my time here I have realized that many of the youths between ages of 14-35, in Italy but particularly in Rome and Naples have a deep investment in the arts. When I say arts I am referring to not only art but music, film and even their own youth culture and groups and possibly even their own political movements. Many of the youth that I have spoken to and observed have a strong sense of nationalism and a common shared identity among the youth of Italy. Italy is currently a changing and dynamic country that is what some would call being on the breaking point due to the large scale corruption that is rampant through the countries political system especially with the Berlusconi administration; and man other factors including policies, laws and problems surrounding the large scale immigration that has taken place over the last decade and recent problems in some of the northern African countries have added to this dilemma. The youth here in Italy are to an extent marginalized by the older generation mainly through jobs which accounts for the large amount of unemployed that is seen associated with the youth population. Plus in addition to that their still remains the social hierarchy of importance with age, as the young have less authority than those who are older. These reasons account for as to why there is such an age discrimination in government held offices where there are relativity very few people that aren't men in their 50's and 60's. This discrimination of the young people here in Italy leads to not many young people completing their education and even fewer going on to complete their university level work; which later will only tend to cause Italy more and more problems in the next 15 to 30 years when much of the older and more educated populous retire and there is this group of youths that are relativity “uneducated” for a professional job.

The youth generation in present day Italy differs by a large margin from the older generation not only in their age but more importantly their views on many political issues and many of the other issues that are currently being debated in Italy. The stance that the youth take on many of the issues differ from those of their parents and the older generation. A great example of this divergence is the issue of immigration, many of the younger generation in Italy don't really care that there is large scale migration to their country and many of them actually approve of the current state that it is in. This isn't true of the older generation in Italy though, among them their isn't much agreement with the youth on this topic, they generally disapprove of the current level of immigration and feel that the migrant population is ruining Italy while they wish to preserve their country. This is represented by some of the laws that are currently in placed right now in Italy for example the recent education reform where no schools may have an immigrant population consisting of more than 30% of the school. Some of the law surrounding immigration and the process to be a legal resident of Italy are to an extent ridiculous in their nature. For example having to wait a minimum of 10 years to be able to apply as a citizen, the difficulties with obtaining a permesso di soggiorno, the list goes on and on for the difficulties that they face in this country.

The youth also have different thoughts on the North/South divide within Italy. With the other generation there is a lot of post war resentment towards each other and this has been drawn out for the last 60 years. The youth that I have spoken with mainly in Rome have a different view on this issue, they don't share this same resentment that the older generation does, they would like to see a more unified Italy with a more true Italian identity. In general their seems to be a define line dividing the youth of this country whether it be their art and culture or their differing political views.

Writing Assignment #6

My assigned Rione is Vatican City, this is a unique district within Rome, since it's a country within Rome and in this respect differs from all of the other Rione's. Interviewing residents from our Rione proved to be difficult since there are very few people who actually are residents within the walls of Vatican City, 826 residents as of 2009; but talking to visitors of the city was extremely easy since there are tens of thousand of visitors here each day. We interviewed 2 people visiting the Vatican but I will get to that later. Vatican City is the where the pope resides and is currently viewed as one of the most important monuments to the Christian faith. Vatican City resides on .17sq miles on the left bank of the Tiber river, the church in it's current state was built in during the baroque era and this is reflected in the church's interior and also on the facade. The church was designed by multiple architects and is the culmination of much of their different original designs also, meaning parts of the church were designed by a single architect and not just one master design; the square and the colonnades were the design of Bernini. This main piazza is where we meet the people that we interviewed for this assignment, as it is the most assessable part of the whole Rione. The majority of the rest of the city is made up of the museums which we saw a few of, and also the gardens and areas that are off limits to the public. The Vatican museums hold some of the most valuable works of art in the world and also some of the most important religious pieces of artwork to the catholic faith. The Vatican also has its own military and police who are known as the swiss guard, in addition to this they also have their own economy and political system which is an absolute elective monarchy.

What we learned from the people we interviewed was that for many of them it was their first time visiting the Vatican and Rome, and that is was one of the attractions that they had came to see while they were in Italy. From sitting around and listening to the people visiting we learned that the vast majority of them were foreigners, while many from other western European countries and America their was a surprising amount from Asia also. I think that for many of these visitors visiting for the first time, they were overwhelmed by the immense size of the actual structure and the sheer size of the building and square.

For our first interview we decided to talk with an American couple who had been visiting Rome for the first time and also the Vatican. We discussed with them the first impressions that they had when entering the Vatican for the first time, and the thoughts that had about the importance of the city to themselves. The other person that we interviewed for this assignment was a student studying in Rome from an American university much like us. We asked them similar questions a we did the other people we interviewed and got answer similar to those above. The thing that really stood out to me about our Rione was the diversity of people that visit the site, in all actuality there are people from all over the world that visit this site everyday and that this city is host to some of the most important art and architecture in the world; and holds some importance for all of those who are catholic.

Multicultural Italy: Introduction and Salvation

The introduction of this collection of Italian Literary works introduces us to the general themes of the book and a general overview of the majority of the stories that are to follow. From reading the introduction it appears that the majority of the stories are about immigrants and stories that they have to tell, and they appear to be only written by immigrants living in Italy.

The story called Salvation is an interesting story, the main character portrayed in this story is from the middle east and has been in Italy for some time and is established within the country. The protagonist of this story is willing to accommodate his friend but tell him that the process of coming to Italy is very difficult and even say that he will have be baptized in order to even gain entrance to the county. But this is all a clever ploy to keep his cousin back home so that he doesn't have to help him get his life in Italy started. This story shows the true side of human nature that someone may say that they're going to be willing to help but when the time comes to actually help them they just make excuses to preserve their own well-being.

Writing Assignment #5

Despite being only a short distance apart between Rome and Naples their are many differences and characteristics that define these cities. Before leaving we read the articles depicting to us what we were to expect while traveling in Naples and how the culture and people here differ from the rest of Italy and especially Rome. Visiting Naples has allowed us a glimpse of the northern and southern divide that we have read and discussed about in class previously, granted it is difficult to spot the differences without talking to the local people of Naples and obtaining their view points on the subject matter. What I did notice when visiting Naples was that their was a much larger immigrant population then compared to Rome and there is a much greater diversity of where they originate from; this for me was a first hand opportunity to observe the “gateway” of immigration for not only Italy but all of Europe.

This was not my first time in Naples but, much of the city and people are exactly as I remember it the first time I visited. Having visited Naples before many of the “myths” were known to me and I was aware of the dangers that the city hides within its grimy shadow. Alex our tour guide for Naples explained some of the problem that face his city for example, large drug rings, piles of garbage in the streets and an extremely high crime rate; despite all of these problems he still shows an unconditional love for his city. The last time that me and my family were in Italy we visited our cousins in Pastena and when we told them that we were going to Naples for a few days they were extremely worried for our safety and told us to not stay in Naples; since we would be robbed on the streets. Even Italians fear going to Naples which says something extremely negative about the city if the natives from a commune less than an hour away don't even want anything to do with Naples. I think though that Naples has received a bad reputation over the years that has caused a lot of fear of the city and prevents people from going their to experience the real “Naples”. Much of the fears that I had about Naples are still present in my thoughts of the city even after visiting and staying in one of the safer parts of the city and are even perhaps more acute now that I know what to look for. Much of what has been said about the city of Naples and the “myths” that are attributed with the city are true to some extent, but some of the myths can also be true of Rome; it is just that in the case of Naples they have been exaggerated.

There are many differences between Naples and Rome some of them are obvious while others take some time to be seen. Some of these are obvious like the myths that we have heard about in class and some of things that Alex explained to us before we left. One of the first things that I noticed about Naples when we got their was the skyline was significantly different than in Rome where it is dominated by St. Peter's; but Naples had no one dominate figure but rather buildings of various heights some even considered skyscrapers. A not so obvious feature that I noticed was that the artwork and graffiti were more politically aimed and actually carried a message rather than being incomprehensible gibberish which it is often times. Even the way the Neapolitans dress is different than the Romans, in Rome they dress more to the fashion trends and it is easier to distinguish them rather than the Neapolitans. Naples and the Neapolitan people even have their own regional dialect which differs from the Italian spoke in Rome and other major cities; and to go back to the north-south divide this regional dialect plays a large role in the division that exist. Another thing that I noticed while in Naples is that their isn't the large scale amounts of people outdoors during the day and evening like we see in Rome in the Campo dei Fiori or in the other large piazza's of Rome. I don't want to say that Rome is a better city than Naples is but, I will say that there are features of Rome that I like a lot more than those in Naples and if I had the choice of where to live I would choose Rome every time.