Italy and the Mediterranean

1. Italy and the Mediterranean An Italian saying goes: “sposabagnata, sposafortunata” (Wet bride is lucky bride.) It is exclaimed when it rains during a wedding ceremony. The relation between Italy and her sea is indeed a wet marriage. Italy is a gift of the Mediterranean. Her climate and military history are hinged upon the “the sea among lands”, as translated from the Latin word “Mediterranean”. The sea was an easy vector for those in search of new resources. The shores of Italy provided fertile lands and safe harbors. Indeed one must be cautious in singing the myth of Italy as the “Garden of Europe”, “the country where lemons bloom”, “Campania Felix” as there is a reality of harshness of the mountainous Italian soil! (A topic for a future blog). The blog of today is dedicated to the marriage between Italy and the Mediterranean. Oh yes! Venice claimed to be the legitimate spouse and with a lofty annual ceremony she reiterates her mystical union with city. The Doge symbolically tosses a precious ring into the water every year. However, many other important cities of Italy feel the same gratitude towards the Sea. Some now viewed as important urban settlements, like Naples (“new city” in Ancient Greek, funded by Greeks), Genoa, Bari, Palermo, Salerno, Catania, Messina, Livorno. Others are now tourist destinations, as Amalfi, Positano, San Remo, Taormina, Cortona, and Otranto. While some cities have disappeared like Selinunte, Talamone, and Paestum, but their magnificent remnants testify a glorious past. Those that lived in Italy from prehistory (generically called “Italics”) mingled with Greeks, Phoenician, Celts, and Etruscans. Rome unified all these groups. During the Roman Empire thousands of subjects came to Italy from the provinces. (The first Jewish community outside Israel is Roman, much earlier than the Diaspora.) At the fall of the empire, throngs of Germanic populations occupied Italy, blending with the natives. In the centuries, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans (who landed in Sicily before England) came and stayed. Thanks to her position in the middle of the best thoroughfare of the pre-modern era, Italy remained the hub of the trades between the West and East; the richest country in Europe. She lost her economic supremacy with the newly discovered Atlantic routes in the XVI century. Interestingly enough, the discoveries were made mostly by Italians at the service of foreign powers. Those sailors inaugurated a long standing tradition of Italians who became expatriates in order to receive the considerations they did not enjoy in their mother country. Movie suggestion (not if your favorite cinema is Hollywood style, though): The Earth Trembles, by Luchino Visconti.