L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano H ave you ever w o n d e r e d why Italy is divided into regions? Of course, our regioni are not that different from "coun- ties," but it's interesting to see why and how they were created. Italy was first divided into administrative areas at the t i m e o f t h e f i r s t R o m a n Emperor, the glorious A u g u s t u s , who spl it the peninsula in eleven regions, each indicated by a number rather than a name: some of them looked a lot like our m o d e r n r e g i o n s , o t h e r s … w e l l , n o t s o m u c h . T a k e Northern Italy, for example, m o r e p r e c i s e l y t h e a r e a a b o v e a n d a r o u n d t h e P o River: today, we count eight r e g i o n s , P i e m o n t e , V a l l e d'Aosta, Liguria, Lombardia, Veneto, Trentino Alto-Adige, Friuli Venezia-Giulia and Emilia Romagna. Back then, though, there were only two: the IX (9 th ) on the West, going from Valle d'Aosta to the Adda River, and the X (10 th ), from the Adda River to the Adriatic Sea. N o w , a c c o r d i n g t o l i n - g u i s t s , t h e w o r d r e g i o n e , "region," comes from the Latin verb regere, which means to lead or govern, but Augustus' regiones didn't h a v e a n y t h i n g t o d o w i t h administration and, while today's Italian regions have specific decisional powers over their own territory, their ancient Roman version did not. Likely, they had been created to facilitate tax col- lection and census. A f t e r t h e f a l l o f t h e Western Roman Empire in 4 7 6 A D , t h e M i d d l e A g e s b e g a n a n d A u g u s t u s ' provinces disappeared: from t h e n u n t i l t h e I t a l i a n Unification, Italy was to be d i v i d e d i n i n d e p e n d e n t states, duchies, signorie, and carved up to please foreign powers – hello, Spain, France and Habsburg Empire. I n 1 8 6 1 , C e s a r e C o r r e n t i , a j u r i s t , a n d Pietro Maestri, a medical doctor, sat down at a table in Milan and pretty much drew today's regions on a map: their idea was that of making of these geo-cultural entities, based largely on historical borders and heritage ties, administrative hubs to facili- tate the ruling of our newly c r e a t e d u n i f i e d c o u n t r y . O f f i c i a l l y , h o w e v e r , o n l y provinces and communes existed, at least until 1948, three years after the end of W o r l d W a r T w o , w h e n regioni where officially insti- t u t e d i n t h e C o s t i t u z i o n e della Repubblica. Back then, though, there were only eigh- teen and not twenty, as we are used to today: Molise and Friuli Venezia-Giulia were granted regional status in 1963, becoming the youngest r e g i o n s i n t h e c o u n t r y . R e g i o n s , h o w e v e r , d i d n ' t have any administrative and political power until 1970. Today, five of Italy's twen- ty regions have a statuto spe- ciale, a special status that grants them more autonomy when compared to the oth- ers: Valle d'Aosta, Trentino A l t o - A d i g e a n d F r i u l i Venezia-Giulia obtained it in name of their particular lin- guistic characteristics (Valle d'Aosta and Trentino Alto- Adige are bilingual, Friuli Venezia-Giulia counts signifi- cant linguistic minorities), Sicilia and Sardegna because they are islands. The regioni a statuto speciale have sever- al administrative and fiscal advantages, including the right to keep all or part of the taxes paid by their residents i n t h e r e g i o n , i n s t e a d o f sending them to the central a d m i n i s t r a t i o n i n R o m e . They also have significant d e c i s i o n a l p o w e r w h e n i t comes to the regulation and administration of education, healthcare and transports. The first region of this kind to be instituted was Sicilia, just after the end of the war in 1946; the last was Friuli Venezia-Giulia, in 1963. I n t e r e s t i n g l y , a l l c o m - munes in the country, pro- vided their territory lies near a bordering region, have the right to move from a region to another. Since 2000, there were more that 30 local ref- erendums where local citi- zens were asked if they want- ed to become part of another region, but in more than a half of these cases, people just decided they were happy to remain where they were. In fact, since their official administrative creation, only a handful of communes com- pleted the long and cumber- some procedure to"move" from a region to another, including seven villages of the Alta Valmarecchia (from Marche to Emilia-Romagna) and Sappada (from Veneto to Friuli Venezia-Giulia). O ur word of the d a y , p i g n o l o ( p i h - ñ o - l o ) c o m e s f r o m t h e w o r d pigna, or pine cone, which in turn is a cousin of the Latin pinea, the feminine of pineus, pine. In Italian, we use it to denote some- o n e w h o i s v e r y p r e c i s e a n d m e t i c u l o u s , a l m o s t f a s t i d i o u s l y s o , j u s t t h e way in English you use the words "pedantic," "fussy," b u t a l s o " r i g o r o u s , " "meticulous," or "scrupu- lous." Quando si tratta di lavoro, è veramente pigno- lo ("when it comes to his job, he's really rigorous"), but also è così pignolo da r i s u l t a r e i n s o p p o r t a b i l e ( " h e i s s o p e d a n t i c h e becomes unbearable"). Pignolo is the archaic version of pinolo, or pine n u t , b u t h o w d i d w e g o from those little, tasty – and expensive – nuts to fussy people? Well, to find out we need to look at the pine nuts and the way they fit into the pine cone: they are stuck into it just like King Arthur's sword in the s t o n e o r – a n d h e r e ' s where our pignolo comes into the picture – just like fussy people are stuck into their own ideas and obses- sion for precision. P i g n o l o i s q u i t e c o m - mon in Italian, definitely more than the verb that originated from it, pigno- leggiare, which means act- i n g l i k e a p i g n o l o . However, you're likely to hear the noun pignolag- gine (or pignoleria) every n o w a n d t h e n , i n s e n - tences like il mio capo è conosciuto per la sua pig- n o l a g g i n e ( " m y b o s s i s k n o w n f o r b e i n g v e r y meticulous"). Last but not least, pig- nolo is also the name of a famous grape variety from Friuli and of a type of olive tree. Ci mette molto a fare i compiti: è veramente pig- nolo! It takes him ages to do his homework, he is very meticulous. Q u a n d o s i t r a t t a d i conti, è meglio essere pig- noli When it comes to bills, better be rigorous. Detesto la pignoleria: per me è segno di igno- ranza! I hate pedantry: I think it's a sign of ignorance! LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Word of the Day: pignolo – because everything must be perfect! Italian Curiosities: why is Italy divided into regions? Italy has 20 regions (Photo: KateChe/Dreamstime) © Stokkete | Dreamstime.com

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