5-May-07
We boarded a northbound train with Ramona who was going to Rome, and said our goodbyes at Naples where our connection to Florence was waiting for us. The expensive but comfortable journey was very relaxing as beautiful landscapes of wooded, rolling hills provided a lush backdrop for my reflections, most of which revolved around how there seems to be a vital element of cohesion missing from Italian life. Never having been here before I don't know whether it was Berlousconi who ripped the guts out of Italian communities just as Thatcher did in England 20 years ago, or whether this has always been a nation of arrogant, self-obsessed individualists, of hot pants and cold shoulders, of aloof sneers and utter lack of a sense of brotherhood. After the all pervasive communal identity and warm-heartedness of Asia that has infused our journey from Russia all the way round to Greece it has been a shock to be somewhere where the men only care about their mothers and the women their husbands, and where children have learnt to swagger by age 4. This is not a universal phenomenon of course, we have met some lovely people and have always been treated very well, but in a general sense there does seem to be a sickness at the very heart of society. I guess it at least beats the totalitarian oppression of Iran but it is by no means a clear cut thing.
Passed through Rome: it was OK, looked just like Bath.
