L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano T oday, most Euro- p e a n c o u n t r i e s s h a r e t h e s a m e c u r r e n c y , t h e e u r o . I a m o l d enough to remember lire and the pain of having to change money at the airport when you were traveling: honestly, I am happy those days are gone. What many people may not realize is that, centuries before the euro was even con- ceived, the Old Continent had already shared common cur- rencies, and they came from Italy, more precisely, from Florence, Venice, and Genoa. We're talking about the fiori- n o , t h e z e c c h i n o , a n d the genovino respectively. Florence's fiorino was first coined in 1252, after the Bat- tle of Montalcino, in which the city had fought against S i e n a . T h e n a m e , w h i c h means "little flower," comes from the lily – the symbol of the city itself – which was engraved on one face of the coin. On the other, the effigy of Saint John the Baptist, Florence's patron saint. The Florentine fiorino was the first gold coin to be intro- duced after old Roman cur- rency had been replaced by C h a r l e m a g n e . T h e g r e a t F r a n k i s h l e a d e r h a d embraced silver, rather than gold, to make money across his empire, because gold was essential to keep trading with the East: the role of gold in East- West tr ading was so s t r o n g b a c k i n t h o s e c e n - turies that gold coins were called bisanti, from the name o f t h e E a s t e r n R o m a n Empire's capital, Byzantium. But in the late 12th and early 1 3 t h c e n t u r i e s , w e s t e r n Europe's trading with North- ern Africa, a land rich in gold, increased, and we returned to the old gold currency for internal commerce, as well. So, right in the middle of the 13th century, when beau- tiful Florence was governed by podestà Filippo Ugoni, the fiorino was introduced. He weighed about 3.5 grams, or just under 0.15 oz, and w a s e n t i r e l y m a d e i n 2 4 - carat gold. Fiorini were a game-changer because they s o o n b e c a m e c o m m o n l y accepted across Europe, and they enabled you to trade everywhere, from Sicily to England. But why, you may ask? In the end, Europe back then was far from being unit- ed… Well, the answer is rela- tively simple, and it all came down to Florence's financial power and commercial rele- vance in the Old Continent in those centuries when virtual- ly every region of Europe held economic liaisons with the Tuscan town. Florence was also a key player in the birth and devel- opment of the banking sys- tem, which certainly influ- enced the rest of Europe's attitude towards the com- mercial strength of its cur- rency. Think about the way today, for instance, you can trade a bit everywhere in the w o r l d w i t h U S d o l l a r s , because of the economic and political importance of the States: Florence was just like that, back then. Some 23 years ago, when t h e e u r o w a s i n t r o d u c e d across the EU, we Europeans were keen to hail our com- mon currency as the newest symbol of continental unity, without thinking that, 800 years earlier, we had already experienced a similar situa- tion, with Italian coins! It i s n ' t q u i t e t h e s a m e , o f course, because we today do n o t o n l y s h a r e c o m m o n money, but also social and political structures, and we e n j o y a l e v e l o f f r e e d o m w h e n t r a v e l i n g t h a t w e r e unknown – and inconceiv- able – back in the Middle Ages. Yet, Florence's fiori- n o r e m a i n s a s i g n i f i c a n t example of the level of free- dom and open-mindedness our beautiful continent -and country – already had back then. But the fiorino wasn't the only example of such a trend. Other currencies were also commonly accepted across the continent, for the very same reasons: the economic strength of the cities those coins came from, and the h i g h l e v e l a n d q u a l i t y o f trade between them and the rest of Europe. Crucially, these cities were i n I t a l y , t o o : V e n i c e and Genoa. Venice's zecchi- no and Genoa's genovino w e r e a s c o m m o n a n d a s p o w e r f u l i n t r a d i n g a s the fiorino. The genovino began circu- lating in 1252, only ten years after the fiorino; the zecchi- n o , w h i c h w a s k n o w n a s d u c a t o d ' o r o u n t i l t h e mid-16th century, was intro- duced four decades later, in 1285. It is thanks to the fiorino, the zecchino, and the gen- ovino's solidity - Antonio P a t u e l l i , p r e s i d e n t o f the Associazione Bancar- ia Italiana, declared some years ago to Paolo Giacomin of Il Fatto Quotidiano - that Renaissance economy flour- ished and Europe enjoyed such a long time of prosperi- ty. I f y o u c o m p a r e i t t o o t h e r w o r d s o f o u r b e a u t i f u l l a n g u a g e , altroché (al-troh-kai) i s a r e l a t i v e l y n e w entry in our vocabulary, as its earlier attestations are found sometimes before 1909. This adverb, which is the u n i o n o f t w o w o r d s , a l t r o and che, is especially used in familiar language to show you firmly and strongly agree with or really like something, as in the phrases altroché se mi piace il tiramisù! ("you bet I like tiramisù!") or altroché se s t o s t u d i a n d o p e r l'esame! ("you bet I'm study- ing for the exam"). Y o u m a y f i n d i t s p e l l e d b o t h w i t h o r w i t h o u t a n accent: altroché or altroche, a lthough we have the impres- sion the accented version is more common! One situation when you can easily find altroché is when you speak about food! How often have you heard an Ital- ian friend answering like this, when asked if they enjoyed their meal: altroché se ho mangiato bene! ("you bet I ate well!"). Altroché, as you can see, it always appears in sentences with a strong emphasis on the speaker's feelings and opinions, and it is always fol- l o w e d b y a n e x c l a m a t i o n mark, either at the end of the whole sentence (altroché se verrò alla festa! "You bet I am coming to the party!"), or straight after altroché, as in altroché! Verrò alla festa con piacere ("You bet! I'm coming to the party 100%). W h e n i t c o m e s t o i t s translation in English, we u s e d t h e e x p r e s s i o n " y o u bet!" but you could also opt for "of course" which is just as good! - Altroché se ho compra- to i biglietti per il concerto! - Of course I bought the tickets for the concert! - Se ho visto la finale del mondiale? Altroché! - Did I see the world cup finals? You bet I did! - A l t r o c h é s e m i mancherai! - Of course I'll miss you! LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Word of the day: altroché – the perfect word to show you believe in it! Italian curiosities: did you know that Italy gave to Europe its first common currency? A gold fiorino, showing Florence's lily (Photo: A1977/Dreamstime) © Volodymyr Melnyk | Dreamstime.com

• Cover