Gomorra

From Piazza Bologna, instead of taking the metro or the bus, I can walk south along Viale delle Provincie, and turn into Viale Ippocrate, towards La Sapienza university. It was along here that I found a small bookstore, as I had hoped.

Perhaps most bookstores are this way; all good ones at least. There is a more or less elderly man squashed behind the counter, and books surround us from every angle. "Us" is just the two of us, because there is scarcely room for more. When I explain (in Italian) that I'm looking for a book (in Italian) which I can use to help myself learn Italian, his single raised eyebrow tells me I'm at the wrong kind of bookstore. The children's store is elsewhere!

But we chat. I'm Australian, I tell him, and I'm studying Italian nearby. He appreciates how the Australians he comes across here enjoy soaking up the local culture, the language and the life. Our conversation then metamorphed into a discourse on chinese immigration in Rome over the past five to ten years, and its unfortunate contemporaneity with economic difficulties in Italy. The increased population here, he said, was pushing up the demand and hence the price of food, petrol etc. I pointed out that in Australia, where there was a large influx of foreigners after the second world war, the situation was less tense, probably because Australia has space, resources and a need for a larger population. And also because the influx has very much stabilised due to the xenophobia of recent Australian governments. It is in fact a sensitive issue in Rome that foreigners would "take over" an area (in this case he was referring to the area around Piazza Vittorio, an ancient area of Rome, perhaps as old as Rome itself) by purchasing shops and houses in the area. In Australia, of course, this is nothing new or surprising - witness Victoria Street in Melbourne for instance.

The lively man from the bookstore concludes that perhaps Italians should travel more, and be more open to new cultures. Moreover, he concludes that maybe I can have a go at reading one of his books and he recommends to me a very interesting one - "Gomorra" - which is an account of the Napolitana version of organised crime, the Camorra. The book has also been adapted as a highly acclaimed film just released here which I hope to see soon. Let's hope I can understand at least a few words, armed with my little dictionary! Wish me luck, because the man from the bookstore told me to come back when I'd made some progress so we can talk more!