Don't Give a Damn

      Italy is one of the most beautiful countries on earth, right? Can everyone agree with me on that? Even if you're, let's say, a France person, or a Thai freak, or a Guatemalan aficionado, you'll still agree I know, that this is one helluva bit of eye candy here.

      But do the Italians cherish that?

      Hell no. What do I care? 

      Non me ne frega niente. I do not give a damn -- one of Italy's best-loved and most-internalized sayings.

      Which leads to attitudes like, I will leave all my trash behind here on this beautiful beach when I leave, because, really, I don't give a damn about what it's like when you get here. Care a whole lot more about changing my son into his dry bathing suit after his afternoon swim.

      I will push ahead of you in line when you're not looking, too, because, well, I'm in a hurry. Who cares if you are too?  

      And so on.

      Italians have no sense of civic duty, only duty to their family. Trust me on this. I've got shades of it in me too (Neapolitans might have invented it), although, I think I was somewhat tamed by growing up in the States. 

       My husband may not agree with that statement. This has been a source of conflict over the years. The Brits are all about civic duty.

      Back to my ancestors. 

      That's a good metaphor -- the taming of wild animals. My new Australian-Italian friend reminded me of this yesterday (two new friends in one summer? What bounty Italy provides!)

       She was saying how she remembered Aussies yelling at Italians at staggeringly beautiful, empty beaches in Australia when she was a kid when they would just leave their trash there after well, a day at the seaside with their families. (What do I care? We had fun.)

      I thought about a newspaper story I once wrote about Hmong immigrants in Minneapolis. Mimicking their lives in the wilds of northern Thailand, they would go to Minnesota parks in the summer and shoot at anything that moved pretty much -- felling birds, hawks, squirrels, rodents, anything, to bring home for supper. The local police were stymied as to what to do with them. 

      Italians are truly like wild animals when it comes to this majestic land they've inherited, this staggering amalgam of mountains, seas, and spell-binding cities. 

      They just take it all for granted. Throw their trash everywhere. Drive like maniacs. Treat their neighbors like crap. Only nurture their own infinitesimal piece of this amazing country.   

      I mean c'mon, be serious, non me ne frega niente about the rest of it.

      I've got lunch with my family to think about.