It is sunny and 55 degrees sitting on the fountain edge in Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence. It is the Sunday of the agricultural market, and most of the vendors are farmers or booths selling local farm products, from flowers to olive oil to various bottled sauces and fresh-grown produce. There are also sellers of Parmigiana and Sicilian cheeses, different kinds of bread, balsamic vinegar from Modena, herb-dyed fabrics, hand-made shoes, various ceramic vases and dishes, as well as wooden puzzles. Since the weather here has been rainy for weeks, everyone seems to be happy to get outside and shop.
There is the usual mixture of locals, a few tourists, and American exchange students, mostly young women. The students are notable, often in tank tops and light sweaters while the Italians are dressed as if the weather was as cold as when I left the Berkshires a week ago. My apartment, in an old stone palazzo built by Michelozzo for a branch of the Medici’s, was very cold when I first arrived. It took two days to warm up even though we have excellent heating. You can easily understand why so many Renaissance and Victorian heroines died of consumption, since it would have been impossible to warm up the rooms with just fireplaces (think of Mimi, Antonia, and Violeta in operas alone).
It is the slow season here, and the hotels and restaurants are not full. The political issues here revolve around Giorgia Meloni, the right-wing, ex-fascist party member who is smart, tactical, and has wrapped Trump around her finger. She is anti-immigrant but understands that Italy has a declining birth rate and needs a regular supply of workers. She and her party are now attempting to amend the Constitution to allow a new method to select judges and prosecutors. A referendum will be voted on in late March.
Judges and prosecutors are currently selected together through a merit-based system, but Meloni wants to separate them. Under her proposal, the ruling party would select many judges—rather than relying on merit—while others would be chosen by lottery. The legislation is exceedingly complex and had initial public support, but that has now declined as people understand that this is a power grab to end the independence of the judiciary. The association of jurists has come out against the legislation, saying it would compromise judicial independence. The currents system of numerous appeals and impossibly long waits for trials has rendered the court system here to be almost unworkable. Delays run into years for even the simplest cases. A change is needed, but not this one, according to my Italian friends. Over the years, when I have had clients doing business within Italy with any company, I have always insisted that the two parties contractually agree to have any disputes adjudicated by a court or a trade association located outside of the country and not under Italian law.
Italians are fascinated by Trump. Tuscany is very liberal, but even my more conservative friends here and in Sicily and Milan cannot understand why he continually changes his policies on a daily basis. A good personal example was my attempt to import some art into the U.S. from Italy over the last year. For years before Trump took office, there was an international agreement that 100-year-old art would not be subject to a tariff. Then my exporter told me that, once Trump was elected, he placed a 10 percent tariff on all Italian exports, with no exceptions. We waited. A few months after that, Trump apparently raised that tariff to 15 percent. (I say apparently because there was never a formal announcement.) We continued to wait. Then, two months ago, for some reason, the tariff on 100-year-old art was miraculously removed. I finally had the art sent last week. Think about the inability of anyone associated with my transaction to plan whether to acquire anything in Italy, the cost to ship, the question of where to manufacture anything (frames), what would be any additional tariff costs, etc., etc. The impediments to trade and the detriments to both economies are obvious. It has affected everyone in Italy from manufacturers to retail stores that cater to tourists.
It is safe to say that most Italians agree that Trump’s self-proclaimed racism and his hatred of women, the LGBTQ community, and anyone he disagrees with is appalling and has damaged him in the eyes of the world. They cannot understand why he would publish something like the depictions of the Obamas as apes, since the only political purpose would be to energize his base and would in no way advance whatever agenda he has. They have little respect for his intelligence and governance but do not believe most Americans are similarly prejudiced.
They are currently worried about America starting a war against Iran, which even Netanyahu agrees would have horrible consequences for Israel as it continues to violates every aspect of Trump’s ceasefire proposal and regularly assaults Gaza and not so surreptitiously prepares to reacquire the strip to incorporate it into an enlarged Israel. Italians are not naive and realize that even though all the hostages are now returned, Israel has still not destroyed Hamas, has not gained complete security from attacks, and continues to insist that neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas will be part of any government in Gaza. Anti-Israel sentiment is strong because of the situation in Gaza, and most are convinced that Israel will legally claim all of Gaza as soon as possible, which will be when Trump’s proposed peace plan collapses in a heap.
The main conversations around the Olympics have been about how the crowds cheered the American athletes at the opening ceremony and then immediately booed Vance when he arrived. Trump apparently could not understand this, saying Vance was never booed in the U.S. He was obviously unaware of the demonstrations in Italy opposing the presence of ICE agents in the country for alleged “security reasons.” Vance later met with Meloni and praised Italy and America’s “shared values.” I think most Italians would have questioned exactly what those values were.
