Giovanni Di Lorenzo, director of “Die Zeit”, who lived in Italy when he was a child and then moved to Germany, once said that the stereotypes about Italy are actually wrong.
People say that Italy is the country of the sun but every time I go to Tuscany it rains. They say that Italians are romantic people but on the contrary, they hate any sentimentality.
People say that they are people not following the rules but a rule such as the smoking ban in public places is observed more than in Switzerland.
These paradoxes are more present nowadays than ever. Abroad Italy has always had the reputation of a country perhaps not that clever, which is hard to believe, but with a real good heart, big tolerance and empathic compassion. The Italians as real good people who have been able to earn anyone’s love thanks to their strong sense of humanity.
Lately we have seen a reversal even of this culture ancestral quality which has always compensated for our obvious gaps in many fields.
Now that Italy is tightening up, in a discriminatory way, the vaccination laws becoming the first country in the world that precludes work to healthy people, the big heart of Italy seems to have stopped beating.
Let’s hope not forever.
LAURA MALTAGLIATI
(Original article by ANDREA ZOPPOLATO/DUILIO FORTE)
