First of all, this question doesn't get brought up very fast in Italian conversation. As an American, I was used to hearing this question asked much more often. We are internationally famous for how much we talk about money.
But when money matters do come up in Italy, the way to interpret them differs radically.
In the US, we talk about earnings in terms of yearly gross sums. For example, Jenny makes $45,000 a year. Meanwhile Italians cite their net monthly income. Giovanna might say,"I earn Euro 1200." That means she makes Euro 1200 a month net, after taxes and INPS (Italian Social Security).
This really small amount shocks Americans. But although it is true that the average Italian makes much less than her comparable American colleague in the same job and position, some pieces of the puzzle are missing in this statement of earnings.
What the American needs to realize is that the Italian, if she has a full-time contract, gets paid in 13 or 14 "monthly" installments within the 12-month year. You might be asking how this is possible now. Well, she gets paid a double salary in December (13th month) and even August (14th), depending on the contract. Essentially she gets big lump sums just in time for the major holidays. It helps pay for Christmas gifts and August rent at the beach. Those extra 2 months salary add 20-30% to annual income overall.
How can Italian employers get away with paying their people so little? Partially this is due to the huge taxes paid for each official employee. To pay someone Euro 1200/month, the company may be paying the government an additional Euro 800-1000 in income tax and INPS contributions. The country's heavy tax burden almost entirely lies on the shoulders of employees who declare their salary. Their earnings get mightily taxed because so many other Italians are not declaring their income and subsequently avoid paying taxes on it. There are plenty of examples of doctors, plumbers, gondoliers and shop owners who declare Euro 18000 annual gross income while they are actually pocketing over Euro 100,000. This feeds Italy's continual frustration with the tax burden of honest citizens and the idea of fairness for everyone in the Repubblica.
It's true that Italians can survive on less because so many do not have a mortgage to pay. They are living in family homes, perhaps left by a deceased grandmother, or one purchased by their parents with a lifetime of savings. Since Italians don't have to spend very much on putting their children through college, funded publicly, they squirrel away savings to put toward real estate. If one family cannot give their child an entire house, sometimes they split the expense 50/50 with the future son-in-law's family. Italy has the largest per capita home ownership statistics in all of Europe. They avoid paying rent as much as possible by living with mamma and papà until they get married and then they buy many properties cash-in-hand, maybe with their parents' money.
On the flip side, this tradition makes life more complicated when you ask for a mortgage, like I did recently. The banks are extremely cautious, especially in light of the American fall-out.
This is a classic example of how everything gets interpreted uniquely based on the culture. Society colors how we think about money and spend it. There are several layers to every question and answer, based on where we come from.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Just Sign at the Top
Well, I have moved to mountains for 3 weeks in August to escape the heat, enjoy some fresh air and get my heart rate up while hiking and climbing. This is the famous Ferragosto in Italy--lots and lots of vacation time.
Shifting to mountain topics, today I'll talk about a dear tradition surrounding the libro di vetta (Book of the Peak). Many mountains feature a book where you can sign and comment on your feelings and experience. It is especially satisfying to fill in when your hike was long and challenging. A record remains for posterity that you were there. You typically include a comment, the date, your name and can mention where you are from. By reading others' entries, you can see just how far some people came to climb that mountain and make that comment.
Here is a picture from Monte Fertazza, which is not a difficult walk but you get the idea. The peaks in the Dolomites always have a metal cross to indicate the tallest point. It is a wonderful sight to see, especially after 6-9 hours of a steep climb. You know you are almost there!
This cross has a compartment that houses the libro.
Once you write your entry, you can tuck it back into its nook on the cross, which usually also includes a pen.
These are the entries from July 31. Italians can be so poetic and emotional about nature.
Trascribed entries:
1. Oggi una bella giornata di sole che brilla come le stelle. Qui il nome Fertazza molto bello da visione comunque bello.
2. Ho veramente toccato il cielo con le dita.
3. Questo posto è un paradiso terrestre, gli angeli dominano tutto, è una bella giornata
Translations:
1. Today is a beautiful day where the sun shines like the stars. Here the very nice name Fertazza gives way to a lovely sight.
2. I really touched the sky with my fingers.
3. This place is heaven on earth, the angels preside over everything, it's a wonderful day
There can also be a very pratical aspect to this tradition. A record remains of your presence. In fact, this was important in reconstructing the series of events involved in the death of a noted priest in the area this past winter, Claudio Sacco. This man of God was also an avid alpine skier and had opened some new routes in the Dolomites over the years. He was killed during an avalanche on Monte Pore in December during a solo night ascent. The rescuers were able to establish that he was killed on the way down, and not while going up, because he had signed the libro di vetta at 11: 30 p.m.
Don Sacco, may you rest in peace.
For article from the Corriere del Veneto in italiano, click here.
Shifting to mountain topics, today I'll talk about a dear tradition surrounding the libro di vetta (Book of the Peak). Many mountains feature a book where you can sign and comment on your feelings and experience. It is especially satisfying to fill in when your hike was long and challenging. A record remains for posterity that you were there. You typically include a comment, the date, your name and can mention where you are from. By reading others' entries, you can see just how far some people came to climb that mountain and make that comment.
Here is a picture from Monte Fertazza, which is not a difficult walk but you get the idea. The peaks in the Dolomites always have a metal cross to indicate the tallest point. It is a wonderful sight to see, especially after 6-9 hours of a steep climb. You know you are almost there!
This cross has a compartment that houses the libro.
Once you write your entry, you can tuck it back into its nook on the cross, which usually also includes a pen.
These are the entries from July 31. Italians can be so poetic and emotional about nature.
Trascribed entries:
1. Oggi una bella giornata di sole che brilla come le stelle. Qui il nome Fertazza molto bello da visione comunque bello.
2. Ho veramente toccato il cielo con le dita.
3. Questo posto è un paradiso terrestre, gli angeli dominano tutto, è una bella giornata
Translations:
1. Today is a beautiful day where the sun shines like the stars. Here the very nice name Fertazza gives way to a lovely sight.
2. I really touched the sky with my fingers.
3. This place is heaven on earth, the angels preside over everything, it's a wonderful day
There can also be a very pratical aspect to this tradition. A record remains of your presence. In fact, this was important in reconstructing the series of events involved in the death of a noted priest in the area this past winter, Claudio Sacco. This man of God was also an avid alpine skier and had opened some new routes in the Dolomites over the years. He was killed during an avalanche on Monte Pore in December during a solo night ascent. The rescuers were able to establish that he was killed on the way down, and not while going up, because he had signed the libro di vetta at 11: 30 p.m.
Don Sacco, may you rest in peace.
For article from the Corriere del Veneto in italiano, click here.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Impressive Recycling
The recycling system is one aspect of the new surburb where I live, just outside of Padua, that has been most noticeable. Its autonomous government administration takes recycling very seriously.
Things were a bit different in Padua. I used to just take my recycling bucket to the two giant bins that asked me to divide into the following categories: yellow for paper products and blue for tins, plastic and glass. Sometimes there was also a small brown bin for umido (organic waste). Then at a nearby spot, you could open the big metal trash bins for all other non-recyclable trash. The plastic bins, especially for paper, would get emptied about once every 2 weeks and you hoped that the bin wasn't already overflowing 5 days before the trucks came by.
A picture from a former post:
Now in Noventa, I've been presented with a near rainbow of recycle bins.
YELLOW for paper
ORANGE for plastic
BLUE for tins, cans and glass
GRAY for non-recylables
GREEN for organic
BROWN for grass and plant clippings
I don't understand why everything is colored differently except the 2 blue and gray containers that almost look the same color, especially after dark. You need to read the fine print on the bin to understand the difference. Did they run out of available colors? What about trendy purple, for example? The tins could go there.
Anyway, they are all lined up at the foot of my building or hidden within the property of each of my neighbors' individual houses. You have to put the correct bins out on the right days, according to the official calendar provided by the city. This is nothing different from many American towns, I presume. But there is barely enough space in the lousy 2 bins we have for the non-recyclables. This is especially when I consider I live with another 8 families. The paper bins get filled in record time, too, but we have 3 of them.
Not only do we have the above-listed divisions, but my new town has yet another category: bins for used diapers. There are so many young families brimming with children, and inevitably their thousands of pannolini (diapers), that you see these special containers dotting the municipality.
This system is in stark contrast to places like Naples, which had its citizens burning excess trash that was overflowing in the streets from the lack of pick-up at the normal city on-street trash bins. This was big news and considered a national disaster in 2008. Information also came out that very little recycling was done at all in that area, therefore aggravating the situation of general trash collection for the city. There was just too much trash and awful trash management (maybe due to the Naples' mafia involvement in waste removal?).
Meanwhile we are here in the Northeast, dividing and dragging out bins to the streets after dusk almost every night. So far F and I haven't had to do it for our building but we will be on duty for the whole month of September. That will be "fun", I'm sure. In the end, we'll be doing our civic duty.
Things were a bit different in Padua. I used to just take my recycling bucket to the two giant bins that asked me to divide into the following categories: yellow for paper products and blue for tins, plastic and glass. Sometimes there was also a small brown bin for umido (organic waste). Then at a nearby spot, you could open the big metal trash bins for all other non-recyclable trash. The plastic bins, especially for paper, would get emptied about once every 2 weeks and you hoped that the bin wasn't already overflowing 5 days before the trucks came by.
A picture from a former post:
Now in Noventa, I've been presented with a near rainbow of recycle bins.
YELLOW for paper
ORANGE for plastic
BLUE for tins, cans and glass
GRAY for non-recylables
GREEN for organic
BROWN for grass and plant clippings
I don't understand why everything is colored differently except the 2 blue and gray containers that almost look the same color, especially after dark. You need to read the fine print on the bin to understand the difference. Did they run out of available colors? What about trendy purple, for example? The tins could go there.
Anyway, they are all lined up at the foot of my building or hidden within the property of each of my neighbors' individual houses. You have to put the correct bins out on the right days, according to the official calendar provided by the city. This is nothing different from many American towns, I presume. But there is barely enough space in the lousy 2 bins we have for the non-recyclables. This is especially when I consider I live with another 8 families. The paper bins get filled in record time, too, but we have 3 of them.
Not only do we have the above-listed divisions, but my new town has yet another category: bins for used diapers. There are so many young families brimming with children, and inevitably their thousands of pannolini (diapers), that you see these special containers dotting the municipality.
This system is in stark contrast to places like Naples, which had its citizens burning excess trash that was overflowing in the streets from the lack of pick-up at the normal city on-street trash bins. This was big news and considered a national disaster in 2008. Information also came out that very little recycling was done at all in that area, therefore aggravating the situation of general trash collection for the city. There was just too much trash and awful trash management (maybe due to the Naples' mafia involvement in waste removal?).
Meanwhile we are here in the Northeast, dividing and dragging out bins to the streets after dusk almost every night. So far F and I haven't had to do it for our building but we will be on duty for the whole month of September. That will be "fun", I'm sure. In the end, we'll be doing our civic duty.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Hot US Celebs Buy Property in Northern Italy
It wasn't enough to only have one of the sexiest American men alive with a beautiful luxury villa in Italy since 2002. That is George Clooney, who has also been in the news over the last couple of years because of his romantic liason with Italian TV sweetheart Elisabetta Canalis. He bought Villa L'Oleandra in 2002 on Lake Como.
Now there is another sexy duo on the Italian scene--in Northern Italy! Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are reported to have recently bought a mega villa in the hills of Valpolicella, the region famous for its red wine of the same name. Paying a mere $40,000,000 their new abode includes a park, two swimming pools with waterfalls and jacuzzi tubs, a cinema room and a well-equipped gym. They have supposedly been in Italy for the last 10 months while Jolie has been working on the film, The Tourist in Venice. According to the property firm owner Alexander Proto, "They wanted something more exclusive and in record time to spend the summer vacation in Italy."
So Brad, Angelina and family, any plans to come to Padua soon?
Photo credits:
Clooney's villa: MailOnline
Clooney and Canalis: cinema-tv.guidone.it
Pitt and Jolie: myluxury.it
Now there is another sexy duo on the Italian scene--in Northern Italy! Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are reported to have recently bought a mega villa in the hills of Valpolicella, the region famous for its red wine of the same name. Paying a mere $40,000,000 their new abode includes a park, two swimming pools with waterfalls and jacuzzi tubs, a cinema room and a well-equipped gym. They have supposedly been in Italy for the last 10 months while Jolie has been working on the film, The Tourist in Venice. According to the property firm owner Alexander Proto, "They wanted something more exclusive and in record time to spend the summer vacation in Italy."
So Brad, Angelina and family, any plans to come to Padua soon?
Photo credits:
Clooney's villa: MailOnline
Clooney and Canalis: cinema-tv.guidone.it
Pitt and Jolie: myluxury.it
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Local Headlines
This is the first in a new series of featured headlines from local newpapers. They go from funny to tragic.
Today's feature:
VIAGGI, SCOUT OCCUPANO L'AGENZIA
Il Mattino di Padova, front page story
"TRIPS, SCOUTS OCCUPY THE TRAVEL AGENCY"
A group of 20 boy and girl scouts based in Crespano del Grappa found out their tickets had never been purchased to go to Brazil. They found this out yesterday when they showed up at the airport, bags in hand. It is suspected that the Euro 15,000 they spent back in January for the July departure had just been pocketed by the travel agency's owner, Vito Barbieri. The scouts had planned a 20-day mission in the South American country.
Once the group and its organizers realized the truffa (scam), they promptly occupied the travel agency in Padua, where they had deposited their money. Despite spending all day there, no real answers were given.
Now the police are on Vito's tail.
Today's feature:
VIAGGI, SCOUT OCCUPANO L'AGENZIA
Il Mattino di Padova, front page story
"TRIPS, SCOUTS OCCUPY THE TRAVEL AGENCY"
A group of 20 boy and girl scouts based in Crespano del Grappa found out their tickets had never been purchased to go to Brazil. They found this out yesterday when they showed up at the airport, bags in hand. It is suspected that the Euro 15,000 they spent back in January for the July departure had just been pocketed by the travel agency's owner, Vito Barbieri. The scouts had planned a 20-day mission in the South American country.
Once the group and its organizers realized the truffa (scam), they promptly occupied the travel agency in Padua, where they had deposited their money. Despite spending all day there, no real answers were given.
Now the police are on Vito's tail.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Requests by Friends and Family as an Expat
It's not your normal affair. My guests come half way around the world. Very often they are on some sort of European tour and let me know they want to stop in Padua. Other times they come specifically to see me and this part of Italy for a longer stay. But that is just the point. The visit is heavily laden with touring on their minds. After all, they are on vacation for a week or more. They have a city, country or all of Europe to discover.
Meanwhile I am settled in this place. I have lived here for over twelve years now, off and on, and the last six have been steady in one city. I have a normal job with hours, clients and basically mandatory vacation time periods, just when the work naturally wanes. Officially I am freelance but it's quite a scam here in Italy--the freelance status, I mean. It's not as "free" as it is designed to be, especially in my field of teaching. (Maybe I'll do a post on it soon?)
This contrast is significant because it creates conflict between their desires and my capabilities. Most of the time, I am barely on vacation myself during their stay in Padua. I desperately want to enjoy their company but have the pressures of work, the money loss of not working if I do take off time to be with them, as well as house to cater to and husband to keep in the mix.
Every moment weighs heavily as I spend time with these beloved people. We haven't seen each other for between 6 months and 3 years. Everything should be perfect as we spend time together since we haven't seen each other for so long and won't see each other again for quite a while, most likely. Meanwhile I am working...as well as seeing them.
It's out of the question to be in a bad mood or talk poorly about anything. Those words get imprinted forever by these special listeners, who have come from across the ocean.
I try to be a tour guide. I do love talking about the places I know well. I am even good at it. However it can get tiring. I am often visiting what I have seen many times before. My friends and family rely on me to prepare many, many aspects of their trip. They are often timid about making reservations and plans themselves for fear of a language or cultural problem. Irene can do it so much more easily, right? I usually help, but it goes beyond my normal relationship as friend or family. Since when does an American friend ask you to put together hotel accomodations, tours and travel tips when you want to visit San Francisco or Santa Fe? Can't the guide books help out with 80% of that, if not more? But in a foreign country, these requests just seem normal for the American to ask of me. Meanwhile I haven't visited some of the places on their tour for 5-10 years because they are in distant regions from me in Northeast Italy.
Or then there are those who get the information about possible hotels, for example, and then don't use it. Of course, that's their right but it sure makes my effort feel insignificant and not particularly appreciated.
What bothers me most is the pressure to make everything perfect. I have to be "on" all the time. I wish the visitors could better understand that the imperfections don't have to be indelible. Sometimes, they are just witnessing temporary lapses of an expat that is experiencing her regular life with special guests while their visit may be during the vacation of a lifetime.
Meanwhile I am settled in this place. I have lived here for over twelve years now, off and on, and the last six have been steady in one city. I have a normal job with hours, clients and basically mandatory vacation time periods, just when the work naturally wanes. Officially I am freelance but it's quite a scam here in Italy--the freelance status, I mean. It's not as "free" as it is designed to be, especially in my field of teaching. (Maybe I'll do a post on it soon?)
This contrast is significant because it creates conflict between their desires and my capabilities. Most of the time, I am barely on vacation myself during their stay in Padua. I desperately want to enjoy their company but have the pressures of work, the money loss of not working if I do take off time to be with them, as well as house to cater to and husband to keep in the mix.
Every moment weighs heavily as I spend time with these beloved people. We haven't seen each other for between 6 months and 3 years. Everything should be perfect as we spend time together since we haven't seen each other for so long and won't see each other again for quite a while, most likely. Meanwhile I am working...as well as seeing them.
It's out of the question to be in a bad mood or talk poorly about anything. Those words get imprinted forever by these special listeners, who have come from across the ocean.
I try to be a tour guide. I do love talking about the places I know well. I am even good at it. However it can get tiring. I am often visiting what I have seen many times before. My friends and family rely on me to prepare many, many aspects of their trip. They are often timid about making reservations and plans themselves for fear of a language or cultural problem. Irene can do it so much more easily, right? I usually help, but it goes beyond my normal relationship as friend or family. Since when does an American friend ask you to put together hotel accomodations, tours and travel tips when you want to visit San Francisco or Santa Fe? Can't the guide books help out with 80% of that, if not more? But in a foreign country, these requests just seem normal for the American to ask of me. Meanwhile I haven't visited some of the places on their tour for 5-10 years because they are in distant regions from me in Northeast Italy.
Or then there are those who get the information about possible hotels, for example, and then don't use it. Of course, that's their right but it sure makes my effort feel insignificant and not particularly appreciated.
What bothers me most is the pressure to make everything perfect. I have to be "on" all the time. I wish the visitors could better understand that the imperfections don't have to be indelible. Sometimes, they are just witnessing temporary lapses of an expat that is experiencing her regular life with special guests while their visit may be during the vacation of a lifetime.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Mysterious Identity
It was another walk around the neighborhood, but this time, there was a mystery animal to meet. My dog got instantly curious when he happened to see this curious robot, which is about the size of a medium dog but quite silent as it rolls around the lawn and cuts grass.
Automation is the new frontier in Noventa's lawn grooming. You don't have to push or even sit on a machine to do it. Just set the robot on the grass and let it do all the work. These were pictures taken at dinner time. I could hear the plates clanking in the background while the black robot was at work.
The dog has since remembered the strange being at this house and jumps up to look for it every time we pass by. His doggie brain can't get around this human invention. He was expecting it to bark but it never did. It just rolled on.
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