DO YOU KNOW HOW ITALY WAS MADE?

A clue? The answer is ... by the dreams,  ideals, passion, courage, sacrifice and  blood. Where have all of them gone now? Not the blood, of course. That's something I can gladly do without. But what about the Italians' dreams, ideals, passion, courage?

Italy turns 150 today. Happy birthday, my beautiful spoilt , offended country. Pity I have to use the past tense to say you WERE great. A great country, esteemed and admired all. Do we have to go back to the Renaissance for that admiration? Even then, there were divisions and violent clashes. So, what? We still had so much to teach and offer to the rest of the world. We WERE a great country of great men like Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raffaello, Tiziano, Caravaggio (not in the right order, I know)

For those great men, there are  many people loving Italy still nowadays, for its wonderful patrimony of Art and natural Beauty. I'm sure of that, I'm among those many. I deeply love Italy. But it is like loving a brainless, shallow,  beautiful woman. You get bored after the first moment of overwhelming passion.
Sadly,  there are people who say they don't want to join the rest of us in celebrating our country's b-day (they even dream a secession),  most of them living in the North, and  a gloomy minority in the South.

I usually avoid writing about politics, and I want to go on like this. It makes me crazily depressed. Politics, I mean.
So to celebrate the day in which Italy, as it is now,  was born from the sacrifice and struggle of Garibaldi and his men, from the ideas and  political strategies of Mazzini and Cavour, I want to find Italians to admire in the present. Brave Italian people, who dedicate/d their lives to the dream of a better world. Politicians? None.

1. A doctor, GINO STRADA

A journalist, TIZIANO TERZANI

Two magistrates, PAOLO BORSELLINO and GIOVANNI FALCONE

A young writer, ROBERTO SAVIANO

An actor and director, ROBERTO BENIGNI

There are many others, I'm sure. Working hard because Italy may be different one day. Better. Much better than it is now. Men and women doing their jobs and fullfilling their tasks, doing always their best, despite the little money, they little respect, the little recognition they get. They are my Italy, the one I can deeply love.

Happy150th birthday, Italy.