Just Call Me Doc

In Italy, I've discovered I get an assumed boost in status as the proud holder of a bachelor's degree (even if it IS in one of the borderline social "sciences"). Technically, I could be called "doctor" -- or dottoressa, Dott.essa for short.

It's the Food

In honor of Festa della mamma, an Italian website surveyed 400 foreign exchange students from 50 countries, asking who has the best mothers. The winner, of course, was Italy. The 17-year-old students said Italian mothers always find time for their children.

I think a good pastasciutta probably pushes Italian mammas over the top....

Groundhog Day, Italian Style

The Italians have something similar on April 3: "Terzo aprilante, quaranta di' durante..." (If it rains on that day, you can expect 40 more days of rain until summer.)

Given that two weeks of April were enchanted, I'm assuming we're in for several more weeks of this.

Equally ominous: The first 12 days of January are supposed to predict the weather for the months of the year. Early January was wet...

The Great Race

The Mille Miglia rolled through town yesterday--classic car after classic car putting through Piazza Signoria. Even my son, who normally doesn't pay much attention to these things, got into it: shouting "not old" at the newer model "service" cars from BMW and Mercedes.

Now a two-day endurance road rally from Brescia to Rome and back, the Mille Miglia used to be an annual, 1,500 km, 20-hour race from 1927 to 1957. It inspired carmakers like

Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche to design GT or grand touring cars. It was disrupted only by World War II and cancelled in 1957 after a Ferrari blew a tire and killed nine spectators.

Today, the only cars allowed are cars that participated in the original races over those 30 years. We noticed plates from as far away as Japan and Canada. And Jack saw a suspicious number of modern Ferraris...

It reminded me a little of "The Great Race."

The Day the Music Died

Despite a sellout crowd for Strauss' "The Woman Without a Shadow" (in my opinion, he should have stuck with waltzes) and the presence of Sophie Loren (I was THIS close) on opening night, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino company members are in full protest.

Last month, Italy's president signed a decree reducing salaries and allowing early retirement for female musicians and dancers (lowering the age from 52 to 45-years-old) in an effort to save money. According to The Florentine, from 2004 to 2008, the lyric and symphonic foundations in the country (not the major national symphonies and opera companies) lost 100 million euro--70 percent of that money goes toward salaries.

The musicians say it will be the death of the theater. To make the point, they've been hanging sheets with scrawled messages outside the windows of Teatro Communale (not a lot of poster board in the country, apparently).

On strike, they cancelled the May 2 performance.

And yet, Florentines still crammed the ticket window on a Saturday morning....

Tanti Auguri a Me

Lunch at the Four Seasons, Firenze. First, a look around the 15th-century villa (a former papal residence with the largest private garden in town). Restoring this frieze (discovered after construction started) delayed the opening for three years.

Then, the food: Semolina and black cabbage soup, beef tagliata and pistachio creme brulee with birthday greetings written in nutella.

Blue period

I've been noticing the work of a particular graffiti artist. He gets around town--leaving this bulldog face on a garage door near Santo Spirito, on a crumbling brick utility building in the suburbs and on the bathrooms in Cascine....