Are Italians senile?

There’s something rather funny about Italians (actually, there are a LOT of funny things about Italians!). Every year the news programs will tell you where Italians will go on holiday, what they’ll do when they get there, how they’ll get there, what’s the traffic situation like on the highways, if they’re having fun or not once they’re at their vacation spots, what they do when they get back, how much weight they’ve put on (especially after Xmas!) AND how they’ll manage to cope with the stress of being back at work (at this point the “expert” is drawn into the picture, usually a psychologist who will tell tv viewers what to eat and how to sleep before heading back to work). Ditto for high school exam time. Seeing that unlike North America, school exams are on a national level in Italy, so come June the media will inform you that kids are getting geared up to take their exams. They’ll tell you what they’ll consist of and, perhaps the most comical part, how kids should prepare for them. Again, the famous “expert” is drawn into the picture. He/she will tell viewers, especially the kids’ parents, that their young Giannis or Marias should get a good night’s rest, that they should eat lightly the night before and that they shouldn’t cram for the exam. In those 20 years of schooling in Canada, absolutely NO one ever told me how to face exams (not even my own parents!), whether at junior high, at high school or at university. It was just plain common sense that to prepare well for your exams you shouldn’t a) stay out the night before until 7 am, b) not shoot-up with cocaine or heroin, c) not get drunk out of your mind and d) not eat a 15-course meal the night before! It was just plain common sense. Not so in Italy where 9/10 times Italians have to be led by the nose on how to drive properly on the highways (especially in the fog!), have to be told to not to stay under the scorching sun for 10 hours per day without suntan lotion and how to prepare well for exams. It’s no surprise then that old Benito (Mussolini) had once referred to his fellow Italians as “a bunch of sheep”!