Free Press Officially Demoted for Italy

Italy should be ashamed. According to the world map and journalist team at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Italy's freedom of press status has been recently demoted to only "Partly Free". The reasons for their curatorial and journalistic decision is explained in the second photo below. The map at the Newseum has the world divided into 3 major categories and colors: red for Not Free, yellow for Partly Free and green for Free.


Explanation for Italy:



The Newseum, created by the Freedom Forum to show the influence of the media on the world, demonstrates the importance of the free press and highlights technology's impact on media and the news.

The museum located just off Washington's mall, at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, was opened about two year ago and has a temporary exhibition currently running about the history of the FBI, including its fight against the mafia last century in the USA.

Expensive Food and Oodles of Time

The airport experience. Hurry up and wait. This time I have a 5 hour layover. The loudspeaker blares announcements, searching for people about to lose their flight, the security check rings, the internal airport cars honk their horns to make way. Groups of people stagger down the halls with their heavy luggage. The news rumbles across the rafters and emanates from big TV screens scattered across the grounds.



I just finished having an expensive portobello mushroom pizza and overpriced Sam Adams beer at the sports bar at JFK Airport. At least I got to watch some baseball while eating.

I know. Why am I eating pizza in the US? Well, it looks more appetizing than most of the carissimi panini in the airport. I'm still doing the American experience because I even got ID-ed!

Now it's on to surfing the net to kill time and get back in touch with my cyber followers. It's been hard to find the time or best Internet connection to make blogging easy. I am back thanks to T-mobile wi-fi at JFK.

Airports are such an ordeal for ex-pats. They offer the opportunity to go anywhere in the world yet drain us physically, mentally and financially. Getting "home" is never easy. The endless hours of layovers and jet lag to boot at the end of the trip make them dreadful. People turn into numbers and get pre-occupied with bags and passports as they race to distant terminals in the pursuit of the connecting flight and get inspected repeatedly. We study monitors for flights to appear and instruct us about our destiny: gate number, boarding call, wait time. We wander around the shopping area, not wanting to spend any more money but too bored not to go in and look. Our cumbersome bags make us think again, whether it is worth entering into Hudson News or the Prada store. But it's just so boring here!

Soon I'll get onto a plane and hope that there isn't a crying child next to me tonight as I try to sleep. Maybe the movies will be new and interesting for me to watch. What's for dinner, the big event while in-flight? And why do airplane meals always make my stomach feel strange, even when I order a vegetarian menu?

Eventually I will land in Italy and be welcomed by my husband's embrace and the long trip's annoyances will be forgotten. 'Tis travel in 2010 of An American in Padua.

Mopeds USA

While spending a few days in New York, I also noticed mopeds parked around the area. There are not many, but they are there. This picture shows a cream Vespa locked to a sign in Brooklyn during a downpour. With the rain I encountered in the Big Apple, it was definitely not a nice day to take those wheels out for a spin. Americans are warming up the these "wasps".

Did you know why they call it a Vespa?

Because the sound its engine makes resembles the insect's buzz.



My thirteen days in the US are coming to a close. Tomorrow, I will be in airports and airplanes for too long, since I have a 5.5 hr layover at JFK, the ugliest airport in the country (at least at Delta's terminal). I will be back in Italy in time for Easter lunch.

It was a wonderful time after so long. I was able to see old friends, meet new people, connect with a lot of family. Hopefully the next time won't be so far off in the future. Over two and a half years was a bit too long to stay away.

iPhone Mecca

If you would like to join the throngs of iPhone lovers, move to New York! The city supposedly has the highest concentration of users in the world. In fact I heard a story about someone who wanted to purchase one this month and the phone dealer informed her that she had to wait a month because of a problem with provider number availability due to city saturation. There are so many people using Sprint, iPhone's service provider, in the City that the service is often overloaded and not very good.

I have noticed some behavioral changes in Americans in this city. Everyone is ALWAYS looking or talking on their phone--mostly because it is a multi-purpose iPhone. If I ask a local where a street or café is, they quickly check on their phone. Anytime on the subway is filled with iPhone consultations or internet use. People are uploading their constant whereabouts via Facebook, using guess what--their iPhone. Yesterday I saw 3 girls walking down Broadway, not interacting with each other in laughter or conversation, but absorbed in their individual phones dressed in the colors white, hot pink and black. The same girls were wearing Ugg boots in beige, hot pink and black.

Italians used to have the Americans beat when it comes to cell phone use when it involved sheer talk-time but the New Yorkers have surpassed the Italians with the new wave of technology. The combinations of phone, texting, internet, Google maps, Facebook and other applications have made the idea of using a phone a seemingly 24/7 affair stateside.

Meanwhile I am using my mother's borrowed cell phone in the USA and can't even access the voice mail because we don't know the phone's password. I'm living old-style in hip iPhone heaven, NYC.

By the way, there are people using the free wi-fi on their iPhones from the bus service I am taking from New York to my home town, as I write this post from a classic laptop.

With Foreign Eyes

After nearly three years of not being in the US, I am approaching the country as if it were somehow new to me. I am rediscovering carpeting, on all the floors and stairs. The building are very high. I am marveling at them flashing bright lights against the sky in downtown Philadelphia. I get excited to hear regional accents. "Water" has a special pronunciation in these parts. The "a" sounds like a sort of "er". There's a better cocktail menu at the bar. I ordered a Sidecar this evening as my aperitivo. The taxi driver strikes up a conversation as he takes me from the train station to my hotel. Coffee is "long" and watery. Donuts and muffins are the prefered breakfast choice. Professionals are young and wearing baggy trousers. Nobody's smoking.

It's time to close my black-out curtains and curl up in bed. The light will be seeping under and around those curtains early tomorrow morning, something that is impossible with Italian windows.

Berlusconi Everywhere

While visiting an art show in Philadelphia yesterday, I found a familiar face from Italy: Mr. Berlusconi. The prime minister of Italy, who is mostly considered a joke abroad, is one of the featured world leader picture shapes to use to assemble a politically-loaded art work currently on display at The Print Center. The image recalls December's assault to his face, using a souvenir of Milano's Duomo. He has the expression of shock and only look of weakness I have seen in Italian media in the over 15 years that I have seen him in power.

Pictured below are the instructions for how the public should help create the art, choosing from various shapes, colors and themes. Then they leave their part of the creation on the table and more come to add on.





Even in the US, I can't get away from Silvio.

New House Progress

The work is underway on the new house. The kitchen has been gutted. Tiles have been ordered. They will be laid next week. Some light bulbs have been installed to have some sort of temporary illumination for evening visits to the property. We got a quote for changing the locks, and then the fabbro never called back to do the work. In the end, we thought it would be better to change the locks once the workmen have all had their access. A sofa has been ordered which will be custom-made for us and should be ready in a month. The original painter backed out since he was more of a friend who wanted to help and pick up some money than a professional and the walls, full of holes from former tenants, proved complicated. So now we are having the tile men move on to do the paint job next, since they also offer painting services and are doing a good job so far.

The interesting and quirky part to this new house is that we will have hardly anything done by Italians. The kitchen work and painting will be the product of Romanian sweat. The sofa is being made by Albanians. Most of our furniture will probably be Swedish design from IKEA. Only the locks and lights will be done at the hands of Italians. So much for Italian design and quality. Either we can't afford it or don't like it.