Florence and Bologna

North from the Meridionale While northern Italians will use the word Mezzogiorno ("Mid-day") to describe those living in the south, it is a derogatory term. it is more respectful to speak of people from the Meridionale, Rome and south. Indeed, driving to Florence for the day, through Umbria and then Tuscany, the rolling hills of the landscape announce the change of style, everything looks a bit more ordered. Arriving in Florence, the buildings lack the monumentality of Rome, but evince a greater sobriety. Florence, though is a tourist mecca, while Bologna is a largely untouristed provincial capital. In that lies its great appeal. the least of which is based on the seven entirely interconnected Renaissance churches, the tourist guidebooks write about. In fact, the whole city is one living expression of the early and middle Renaissance in architecture, its large public plazas pedestrianized, but even the outskirts well-kept. The pace of the city is comfortable: bicyclists move at a leisurely pace alongside cars and motorcycles that do the same. Bologna is home to the oldest university in Europe, a fact brought home by the sight of a young man and a young woman, both of whom wear the laurel crown honors graduates of one of the university's schools are given on graduation day. The city is grey and foggy in the winter, but with the advent of spring, the skies are clear and sunny. Manuel will complete his studies in ninety days. His apartment on one of Bologna's main shopping streets, a tiny two-and-a-half room garret has windows to Bologna's terracottaed roof in all directions. A lovely terrace provides a vision of rooftops and a comfortable place to eat in the warm months. The rent is six hundred fifty euros a month plus all utilities, making the total expense about eight hundred euros monthly. The rental is done on a four month basis, although Manuel could stay as long as eight years under the lease. He has put in a new bathroom and a new kitchen, doing all the work himself. He will either sell the kitchen to the landlord or take it with him and put it in storage, with the Italian Art Deco furniture he hopes to put in a house in the not too distant future. The question is, "What will the next ninety days bring?" His dream job would be as a brand manager or visual merchansier with an Itlian luxury jeweller or watchmarker or designer of fashion or housewares. His next best option would be the same, however, located elsewhere in Europe. His "safety" --the job he will have to take, if he cannot receive an offer from a luxury brand, is to work for a high-end designer of home furnishings, like "Arteimide", or "Poltrona Frau". This is related to the work he did before, interior design consulting. While pursuing his university degree, Manuel worked in the Czech Republic, assisting developers of old buldings converting them to apartments. He would design the layout and consult on the furnishings. It was interesting, but he wants to learn luxury brand management, with a view to creating his own luxury brand enterprise. The difficulty is that in Italy, getting a job often has more to do with who you know and who you are, than your talents. Every day Manuel has to do one thing to pursue a job in each of the three sectors open to him, in the hope that by June, he will have an offer. Personable, handsome and hard-working is not enough. Fancy people like him, but more as an adornment to a dinner party, than a potential employee for one of their companies. Turning the conversatio from social chatter to a networking opportunity is not for the faint-hearted. Aristocrats are well-versed in giving the brush-off to acquaintances they perceive to have overstepped the boundaries. Often they want gifts brought to them when Manuel accepts an invitation for drinks. This was made ridiculously clear when the mother of one of his friends, eyeing the beautiful Prada bag someone had on an earlier occasion brought their young hostess said, "Invite him again, so he can bring a bag for me!" The social cleavage is deep and difficult to surmount. Nothing seems to have changed much insofar as the old ways of doing business are concerned, and in not just the sphere of public corporations. The Vatican's public face, Cardinal Bertone, has been accused of being insufficiently vigilant against opportunistic "donors" using the Vatican bank to launder money; or against unscrupulous contractors who milk the Holy See when they do projects. Pope Benedict XVI has named the majority of the Cardinals eligible to vote at the next Papal Conclave; he is said to be in failing health, although a strenuous trip to the Caribbean is being planned. Meanwhile, the political class, breathing easier now that Italy's banks have been given three years of easy credut by the European Central Bank, are balking at Bank president Mario Monti's determination to see structural reorganization through. In Italy, just as the aristocratic class guards its prerogatives, so does the working: no one gives in. Will enough change happen in the next three years to avoid another, worse period of economic hardship? Magari, the Italians say. Roughly translated it is a word that means "May it be so.", and which often implies that it is wishful thinking to believe that it might.