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Italian artist redefines cultural landscape of Bolzano

Cool is not the kind of adjective that you would normally associate with Bolzano, the scenic capital of Italy’s northern Alto Adige region.

Published: 11 March 2016 12:29 CET

Italian artist redefines cultural landscape of Bolzano

Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli with Letizia Ragaglia, director of Museion, director of Bolzano's Museion. Photo: Luca Meneghel

Until the end of the Second World War, the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and it’s best-known for its spectacular mountain scenery, speck and conservative political points of view.

But one of Italy’s most acclaimed artists, Francesco Vezzoli, is helping to reshape the cultural landscape of this historic town where German is spoken more often than Italian.

As a guest artist and curator he has given Bolzano’s modern art museum, Museion, a boost and a growing number of Italian and international art lovers are coming to see its small collection.

“I think Museion is so cool,” Vezzoli tells The Local.

“Apart from my contribution, it has a programme that has brought to Italy the works of very sophisticated artists, that you don’t find in the big museums which are forced to give space to more visible artists.”

Photo: Matteo Norzi

Established in 1985, Museion quickly developed a reputation for showcasing contemporary art in Italy and in the Alps region. In 2008 it moved to its striking new home, a cube-shaped modern building that is nothing like anything else in the historic town centre overlooking the Talvera River.

“It’s like a spaceship that landed in the middle of the night and the morning after everyone woke up and said ‘what’s there?’” says Vezzoli.

“What is so special about Museion is that it brings a specific edge to the cultural debate of Bolzano.”

Vezzoli, who comes from Brescia, is known for his cheeky approach to art and his sculpture, video and installations have given him a celebrity profile in the US and elsewhere.

His 2011 show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, “Sacrilegio,” featured images of weeping Madonnas and his provocative 2005 film “Trailer for the Remake of Gore Vidal’s Caligula” raised eyebrows. He made more headlines when he bought a deconsecrated church in the southern Italian town of Montegiordano and sought to ship it to the US for a show in New York in 2013.

At Museion Vezzoli is presenting his own sculpture, giving ancient artworks with his own quirky, comical twist. He is also curating another exhibition which juxtaposes works by modern artists with the frames from famous historical masterpieces by Raphael, Amedeo Modigliani and others.

“He has attracted new visitors, we have had a lot of visits,” says Letizia Ragaglia, director of Museion. “We work a lot with northern Europe – Germany, Austria and Switzerland. There’s been so much enthusiasm.”

Museion has more than 4,500 works in its collection and each year it invites a guest curator such as Vezzoli to produce a show based drawing on artists of his or her choice. In the summer months the glass façade on the back of the building is used to project a programme of artists’ videos.

“It impresses me that Museion has one of the most experimental programmes in Europe, but it is very small, “ says Vezzoli. “Today it is difficult to find such a sophisticated intellectual approach that is decentralized.”

Roberta Agosti, director of the local tourism board, says tourism is booming in Bolzano. She said the number of visitors rose 3 percent in 2015. More than 42 percent of tourists came from Italy an 40 percent from German-speaking countries, she said.

But Agosti said there is growing interest from Russia, France and Spain, particularly because of the attraction of the exhibitions at Museion and other museums.

“The number of visitors has increased and they are staying longer,” she tells Thelocal.it

“The lifestyle is Italian but the atmosphere is Nordic.”

By Josephine McKenna

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Ice to AC: Nine of the most common American misconceptions about Italy

It’s no secret that Americans love to visit Italy; the Washington Post predicted in December that the country would be Americans’ top foreign tourist destination for 2023, and the volume of US visitors who’ve arrived in Italy since then appears to have borne this out.

But while many Americans have a deep knowledge of – and love for – Italian culture, there are some surprisingly enduring myths about Italy that can be found in the USA specifically.

Some come close to the truth, while others fall wide of the mark.

There is no ice in Europe/Italian restaurants charge for ice

Fiction – Americans love ice, beverages are routinely served with it and refrigerators in the US often have some type of ice dispenser attached to the door.

But in Italy, ice is simply less prioritised. While ice in your drink will usually not cost you extra, you might need to specifically request it. Soft drinks in Italy are usually served without ice, so if you want your beverage iced, you need to request the drink con ghiaccio – with ice.

A classic Italian spritz should always come with ice. Photo by Tomasz Rynkiewicz on Unsplash

Italian homes don’t have dryers

Fact (mostly) – Tumble dryers do exist in Italy, but they’re rare. A survey published by Italy’s national statistics office (Istat) in 2014 found that just 3.3 percent of Italian households had one, whereas 96.2 percent had a washing machine and 39.3 percent a dishwasher.

Those washing lines strung with laundry hanging above the heads of passers by aren’t there just to create a quaint backdrop for photos – people make wide use of the abundant sun to air dry their clothes and sheets.

That does not mean that Italians in cities don’t occasionally use clothes dryers though if they’re in a rush; some might take items to a nearby laundromat.

McDonald’s is healthier in Italy

Fact (sort of) – McDonald’s uses different ingredients based on the country, and the Big Mac in Italy is (slightly) healthier than the one sold in the United States. It is slightly less calorific, with 509 kCal in contrast to the American Big Mac’s 540 kCal per 100g.

The Italian Big Mac also has less salt and fat, but it does not compare to the world’s healthiest Big Mac (found in Israel).

McDonald’s in Italy also uses EU-sourced ingredients, and the EU restricts the usage of additives and growth hormones. For example Azodicarbonamide which is used to bleach flour, is banned in the EU, but not in the United States, where McDonald’s was still using it as of 2016.

It is true, however, that you can buy beer in McDonald’s in Italy.

McDonald’s burgers are marginally healthy in Italy compared to the US. Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Italians drive small cars

Fiction (increasingly) – Think of Italian cars, and you might picture a classic Fiat 500 puttering around picturesque cobbled streets – but that’s all changing.

2021 was a historic year for the Italian automotive industry: the sale of SUVs surpassed those of medium-sized sedans for the first time, claiming 48 percent of the market share compared to the sedan’s 45 percent.

That may not match the US, where SUVs and pick-up trucks currently account for around 73 percent of vehicles sold, but it’s a huge increase from 2012, when SUVs made up just 17 percent of vehicle sales in Italy.

There are no free public toilets

Fact (mostly) – You will occasionally find an Italian town or city that offers some free public toilets. For the most part though, you’ll have to pay, including in train stations – and even paid public toilets are few and fair between.

Instead, you’re better off heading to one of the many caffe-bars found all over the country and paying for a euro for a bottle of water or a coffee so you can use their facilities – if you ask nicely, you might even be allowed to go for free.

Metro stations, supermarkets and grocery stores tend to not have any toilets at all, and neither will most clothing stores. One place you will find plenty of free public bathrooms, though, is a motorway service station.

Something that strikes many visitors to Italy as odd is the lack of seats on public toilets. Exactly why this is the case is debated, but there’s a general consensus that the phenomenon has rapidly accelerated in the past couple of decades.

A street sign at an antiques fair in Turin. Free toilets in Italy are few and far between. Photo by rashid khreiss on Unsplash

Italy doesn’t have air conditioning

Fact (sort of) – There’s not no air conditioning in Italy – in fact data from Italy’s national statistics office showed that one in two Italian households had AC in 2021.

It’s far less popular than in the US, though, where 90 percent of households have air conditioning. There’s still not much of a culture of AC in Italy, where many believe it will give you a colpo d’aria leading to at best a sore neck and at worst pneumonia – so even households that have a unit tend to use it sparingly.

If your hotel or Airbnb doesn’t specifically mention AC, you can assume it doesn’t have it.

Coca-Cola tastes different in Italy

Fact – While Coke is available almost everywhere in the world, the actual ingredients in Coca-Cola are different in some countries, which could lead some Coke connoisseurs to notice a difference in taste between the products in the US and those in the EU.

The biggest difference is the regular Coke – in the US this uses high fructose corn syrup while in Europe cane sugar is used to sweeten the product, resulting in a significant difference in taste.

You’re much more likely in Italy to come across Coca Zero, the zero-sugar version of Coca-Cola, than Coca-Coca Light, the European version of Diet Coke, which has always been hard to find and which some online sources say Italy stopped distributing altogether in 2022.

Coke in the US: different to its European counterparts. Photo by Cody Engel on Unsplash

You don’t need to tip

Fact – It’s not necessary to tip after a restaurant meal in Italy. However, this is a matter of personal choice and you are free to do so (tipping certainly won’t cause upset).

Diners do often leave some change after a particularly enjoyable meal. In terms of how much to give, some people round up a bill to include a tip, while others give what spare change they have.

Some people may also opt to tip other professionals as well, such as taxi drivers and cleaners, but again – this is optional and typically not a large quantity. In some apartment buildings, residents may give a Christmas card with money inside to the portiere (doorman) as a kind of annual tip.

All cars are stick shift

Mostly fact – In the United States, stick shift vehicles are becoming a thing of the past, but in Italy they are still very much being bought and driven.

As of 2018, around 20 percent of new cars sold in Italy were automatic – which is much higher than the less-than-one percent sold in the 1980s, but still a lot less than the US’s figure of 96 percent.

That said, around 70 percent of SUVs sold in Italy use automatic transition, so with the popularity of these larger vehicles on the rise, you can expect to see more automatics on Italian roads in the future.

What do you think? Have you noticed any other common beliefs or misconceptions about Italy in the US, or elsewhere? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

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