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Quote by Sari Gilbert

“For historical reasons – centuries spent as the subjects of warring city-states with the rule of law often taking a back seat to power politics and family loyalties – many Italians, especially those from points south, have little respect for the law and, seemingly, little understanding of its purpose, which is that of setting the boundaries for civil cohabitation.”

Quote by Sari Gilbert

Book:My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City
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My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City

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Sari Gilbert

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“In Italy, most laws are honored more in the breach than the observance. “Fatta la legge, trovato l’inganno”, goes one saying that means, “pass a law and we’ll find a way to get around it”. You don’t have to spend much time in Rome to realize that stop signs, and even red lights, are often disregarded, as are those reading “no parking or standing”, and even “one way”.”

RomeItalyDisobedienceItalian CultureItaliansNational CharacterNo LawIgnoring Rules
Book:My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City
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“Absenteeism runs rife, with too many unethical doctors willing to supply fake illness certificates. "My dentist was flummoxed when he was asked by a Finanza major to provide his wife with a (false) certificate claiming he’d been performing oral surgery on her on a day she had skipped work. But he did it. “What else could I do? I mean, I might need the guy for a favor sometime.”

ItalyItalian CultureItaliansNo LawIgnoring Rules
Book:My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City
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“A corrections box such as which appears in many top US or British papers to rectify misspellings, mistaken dates, faulty identifications and so forth, is generally unheard of here... Once I pointed out to Messagero night editor that the first edition he was putting out had misspelled the name of town where the US president was holding a summit. “Oh, no one will notice,” he shrugged rather than change it.”

JournalismItalyAttention To DetailJournalistic IntegrityItalian Culure
Book:My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City
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“...until recently Italian institutions were totally unresponsive to consumer needs and concerns, something most people knew, or sensed. Hence their passivity. Nowadays, fewer things seem to be guasti than in the past, but a lot of things that are supposed to work, don’t.”

ItalyPassivityItalian CultureUnresponsivePublic InstitutionsUnresponsiveness
Book:My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City
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“...the seemingly widespread conviction of many ordinary Italians that polite behavior such as standing in line is either a Nazi characteristic or a British folly, one that in any event has no real application to this country. Indeed, although things are now gradually changing, left to themselves many Italians appear constitutionally unable to stand in line. “Where do you think you are, in Bulgaria?” a well-dressed man once snarled at me when I protested that he had pushed ahead of me on the cashier’s line at a downtown café.”

ItalyPolitenessDisorganizedItalian CultureItaliansStanding In LineImpolitenessBritish Folly
Book:My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City
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