Not the real Italy
Sir: I feel sorry for Lisa Hilton (‘La dolce vita is a myth’, 8 November). Milan is not really Italy: the Romans called the region Cisalpine Gaul, and all those years governed by Austria have made it like a Northern European town: with atrocious weather and a work ethic unusual in the rest of the country.
Here in Umbria Italians eat out of doors most summer days (the reason they don’t in Milan is because it is either foggy or dense with mosquitoes). Good wine is £1 a litre, plonk a bit less, and yet you never see drunken youths fighting and puking. The police don’t harass the law-abiding citizen, there are almost no CCTV cameras outside football grounds, and the councils don’t hide cameras in the rubbish bins.
There is a different rhythm to life in Italy (certainly true with the postal service) and to enjoy the place you have to accept it. Here people do meet and talk in the squares, making their evening passeggiata, and my loggia is dappled even in November. It’s fairly dolce.
Tim Hedges
Panicale, Italy
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