Blue is the Colour

"Why are we called the blues when our flag has got no blue in it?!"

One of the very famous football anthems for Napoli Calcio sings, "my heart is blue... and when Napoli is on the pitch, my heart beats ever so fast, my voice trembles and I get the impression that Napoli is my one love!"

My dad has had the misfortune of being surrounded by women all of his life. Only son in a family of five girls, married to a lady, has two daughters (with loads of female friends) and works in the female dominated fashion industry. I imagine some of my beloved blog-readers may consider my dad's life pure bliss..but I often feel sorry for him. My parents always told me that they were delighted when I, their eldest, was born. (Well, which parent wouldn't be!) Mom had had a miscarriage of a beautiful baby boy in her fourth month of pregnancy, which was a harsh blow. Then she fell pregnant with me and they couldn't wait to meet me. Although I wasn't a boy, dad would still take me to the football ,stay up watching telly until late together and on Sundays, as sure as the daylight, we would watch the footie on TV (on silent) as the radio would be softly playing the live F1 races commentary in the background..lulling us into a restful afternoon siesta.. I never really minded that, if anything I was always honoured and proud to be daddy's girl/the son he never had..God, please, bless him with manly sons in law!
My dad loves football and Napoli, even more than the national team, are a love of his. I was there when Napoli, captained by Maradona, won the scudetto in 1987, I am even named after Ruud Kroll's wife (yeah, named after a wag?!) ..
Those happy times taught me (and still do,every time I go back) a lot. For all my anti-Italian attitude with regards to ethos, mentality and manners, when it comes to patriotism,blue is the colour, red is the car and green,white and red stripes is the flag. Last night I watched most of the Italy-Scotland game and listening and singing the national anthem brought a tear to my eye.. Gli azzurri won again 2-0 and made me proud. Blue is the colour indeed, but why the heck are we called "gli azzurri", the blues, when there is no blue in our flag. My personal, ever so poetical interpretation is that blue is the colour of a sunny sky, of the mediterranean sea..but you may have a better explaination! So, what do you think?

By the way, yesterday another Italian made this little chicken very proud: Filippo Magnini won the gold in Sydney for the 100 mt men world championship freestyle final, we've got two finalists in the 200 mt breaststroke whilst Federica Pellegrini broke the female world record in the 200 mt freestyle.. Euro 2008 qualifiers, swimming world championships, going home for the week-end..ah! I am a happy lady!!!

PS: Pictures like this make me realise why swimming is my favourite sport..

'Like My Mama Used to Make It!'

For my British readers, you will have surely recognised by now where the inspiration for this post's title comes from, put on a fony Italo-American accent, drown your four fingers towards your thumb,reached your lips and blown noisy kisses in the air, vigorously begun to gesticulate in uncoordinated patterns and read the sentence again, out loud this time,(possibly even stroke your fake black mustache..) and hopefully chuckled to yourself.. For those overseas, however, 'Like Mama Used to Make It' is the catch-phrase from a series of tv ads for "Dolmio", producers of 'allegedly' Italian style pasta sauces made in Holland and tasting as Italian as sushi is a vegan Moroccan dish! Last night I watched a little bit of "The Goodfellas"with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. To much of my amusement, this movie portrayed a lot of, paradoxically realistic idiosyncrasies about the Mafia culture and Italians abroad in general. My friend's dad calls me "the Irish Mob" -'coz I am Italian, bossy, and have a funny distinctive Northern Irish twang in my miscellaneous English accent - go figure! Often people ask me if the mafia is a fictionary concept invented by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, but it is so not! In as ridiculous as it may sound that one of the G8 nations, world leader for culture and arts (not to mention football) who's forefathers conceived the foundations for most international jiuridical systems, Italy is a country ruled by three legal entities: the Constitution, the Papacy and the Mafia.

"Coffee and Cigarettes, 2003"

In last night's movie, a Jewish American young lady marries a top Irish gang member of the mob (Ray Liotta). She often repeated over the course of the film that even things which should have appalled her, or at least raised her suspicion over her husband's whereabouts, suddenly became 'normal'. Likewise, most Italians stopped raising questions a long time ago and comfortably cohabit with this entangled concoction of legal systems, illegality and chaos..little nothing ever happened. We are just like 'the three wise monkeys': Don't hear, don't speak, don't see! I, on the contrary, could tell you a million and one stories about it. Like when they stole my dad's motorbike and,instead of calling the cops, we called my uncle who called a friend of his who has a friend who knows somebody...long story short: we got the bike back in less than an hour for the modest price of £100. Convenient,ah? Or do you need a ticket for a sold out concert? There is always a friend. Really don't fancy wearing that seatbelt that creases your freshly ironed fake Valentino's? Wear a t-shirt with a seatbelt drawn over it (available in most shops)...and the list could go on and on and on. Mysteriously, it all becomes 'normal' like sipping coffee sitting at the table outside a family run cafe in the piazza, or shopping at the market. I don't condone any of this, but I can see why people find it funny... Here is to the Italians' inventiveness, humor and 'gift of the gab'!