Insider’s perspective on hidden Italy
Choice for foreigners. Should it be?
John Hooper says he is often a little puzzled by Italy.
“It’s a country that seems to be all on the surface, but actually a lot of things are hidden,” says Hooper, author of The Italians, a cultural study of the country published by Viking in January. “That can be at times sinister, but it can also be fascinating and rewarding, if you go off the beaten track.”
That is why Hooper, 65, thinks life is too short for tourist traps. Many people, he says, tend to prioritize Italy’s famous sites over its more sincere side, when in fact they should do the opposite.
Hooper, who lives and works in Rome as a journalist for The Economist and The Guardian, recently gave some cultural and culinary advice for travelers wanting to see Italy from an insider’s perspective. Following are edited excerpts from a conversation with Hooper.
You mention Puglia in your book as a recently popular destination for tourists.
Basilicata. Its tourist industry is almost nonexistent, and yet in many ways it’s as beautiful as Tuscany. The people are very welcoming. When you’re down there the roads are very poor, so it can take a long time to get around from one place to another. But if you do, it’s really worth it.
Pasta is such a go-to food
The Italian food with which they’re familiar is southern Italian food because immigrants have tended to come from Campania, Sicily and so on. People are not prepared for the meat-heavy diet that you get in places like Emilia, around Bologna. Or the equally meat- and game-heavy diet that you get in places like Umbria and Tuscany. There’s certainly much more variety than people realize.
Italians love to talk about food, right?
People become incredibly engaged in these conversations. Just recently — I was on the third floor, and I heard two people getting into the lift. And I thought: My God, there’s a terrible row going on. And as the lift drew closer to my floor, I heard “onion” and “bacon” and so on, and I realized it was an argument about pancetta.
What are faux pas to avoid with how you dress?
Even dressed,
if you’re being casually smartly dressed helps. Otherwise people will be inclined to look down on you. Appearances count for a lot in Italy. If people dress in a slobbish way, they can expect the kind of treatment that is accorded to slobs.
What would be your first response if someone said: “I’m going to Italy next week. What should I do?”
Go to Venice. There’s just nowhere like it. Don’t expect the cuisine to be anything like what you imagine Italian cuisine to be. It’s a legume-based cuisine, and you find small aquatic creatures fried in batter and pickled dishes, and goodness knows what else. Drink wines from the area. Don’t go to Venice, order Chianti and expect that you’re going to get something good. Order wine from the Veneto.
Try to get as far away as you can from Piazza San Marco. Look for areas of the city where Venetians still live. In parts of Cannaregio, you can walk a number of streets and not come across a tourist.