godfathers pizza Yesterday I was talking with an arabian girl. I asked her what she knows about italy. She answered me I know Rome is its capital, and that your country is famous for pasta. She said also that Italy is known for mafia (foreign people often confuse the reality of mafia with the romantic figure of the Godfather’s movie), prada, gucci, versace… and of course, PIZZA! Well, i told her, you know almost nothing about my country. Italy has got the 70 % of the whole world art and one of the most ancient history of ever, but at the same time it became a state only in 1860. The last time it was during the roman empire. The bank system has been created in Florence, whom richness at that age (in 1.400 – 1.500 a. c.) was higher than the one of whole UK. Italy is a pearl in the middle of Mediterranean Sea. On its lands there are both maritime pine and fir, palm and snow, vulcans and green fields. Italy is composed by twenty regions, each one so different from another for traditions, food and dialect. Italians never follow laws, but they interpretate them, so we are the magician of nuances. We have problems with organization, but we always fix them: that’s because for century and century we were dominated by others kingdoms and families who really didn’t care about the population. This condition through centuries configured the mentality where mafias has taken place. We don’t go often to Church, but we are quite religious because we are dreamers, we love fantastic stories, inside we’re animist and superstitious. We have a rigid honour and respect codes, but just in front, and our friendships look like love stories, so we don’t like to leave someone alone, even if at the same time integration of GLBT people isn’t still done, different families from the traditional one still aren’t completely accepted, there still are social differences between women and men. Italian is still the language of art and fashion. Our history is composed by thounsands of stories, from north to south. And yes, we eat pizza and pasta. Sometimes.