Leaning Tower of Debt - to History

It seemed like I would never meet an Italian who was entrepreneurial in a BIG way.

Seems like most everyone I come in contact with in my day-to-day life in Florence has a Small Business, Smallish Personal and Financial Goals, a Defeated Before I Try aura. Lots of excuses, or complaints, or arguments why things will never change.

Fatalistic even. This is life. I’m living, so things are fine.
“Come sta?” I ask one Florence card shop owner in rare confidence of my basic Italian. She looks up slowly from her book, and replies, “Bene, bene. È quasi tempo di siesta!” referring to the fast-approaching siesta hour, when most businesses close for two or three hours.

A few weeks ago, three friends and I stayed at an Umbrian B&B compound with luxury appointments and breakfast, noteworthy landscaping and a divine pool above Lake Trasimeno. The owner, Nadine, who grew up in Interlaken, Switzerland, clearly has a vision and passion.

But then she mentioned that her Italian husband, whom she met while a student at university in Perugia, worked during the week as a meter money collector, emptying coins from machines in towns near and far. “It is boring, but it is a job,” Nadine says, with a shrug.

This entrepreneurial inertia in Italy has been perplexing to me, the American.

Extraordinary Academic Experiences

The Miami University class I am teaching in Florence, Italy, this summer - Journalism 350 Reporting on European Culture and Travel - already has had its share of extraordinary speakers.

Nick Verreos, the L.A.-based principal of the Nikolaki design house and a beloved Project Runway reality TV contestant, visited for two days earlier this month.

The feisty Verreos accompanied the 22 students to the Polimoda International Institute of Fashion Design and Marketing for an insider look at the role of fashion in Italian business and culture. Then he inspired them with a talk about his own life and business.

The following week, Noah Charney, an expert on global art crime, talked to Miami students about organized crime's role in the theft and trafficking of art pieces. He's been the subject of two New York Times pieces; find a profile here.

Now comes word that Rachel Donadio has accepted an invitation to speak to Miami journalism students here. Donadio is the Rome-based New York Times/International Herald Tribune correspondent. The class already has reveled in her reporting on media mogul cum Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his alleged sex scandals, especially a recent piece when Libyan leader Muammar el-Quaddafi came to visit.

And in the days before she visits, journalism students will get an insider view of the Catholic church's role in present Italian society from local religious figures.

Wish I could take credit for these incredible visitors to an already unusual journalism class. But most of this was brainstormed by Miami Florence Program Director Mark Bernheim, who conceived and has run this summer workshop for many years.

Bravo, Mark Bernheim! Would that all journalists could rub elbows with such interesting figures in a six-week span. This journalist has rarely had such luck.