100 good reasons to love Italy

1. Because we are smart when we don't become smart.
2. Because we are intuitive if we don't fall into superficiality.
3. Because we are immediate when we do not become impulsive.
4. Because we are unpredictable unless we become unreliable.
5. Because we are geniuses! No one is that good at turning a crisis into a party.
6. Because we are kind and capable of practicing good gestures (later, however, we will have difficulty transforming them into good behavior).
7. Because we have good taste. We instinctively know what is beautiful.
8. Because sometimes we overlap aesthetics with ethics. It's wrong, but there remains a spectacle nonetheless.
9. Because we are interesting. Tourists, businesspeople, Angela Merkel: with us there is no such thing as boredom.
10. Because the world looks at you. In Italy, they see you.
11. Because the city in the interior has a sentimental education (in the north).
12. Because life is a roller coaster (center).
13. Because the world is a colorful idea (in the south).
14. Because cities are crossed by stories and people.
15. Because Milan is our America, the land of opportunities.
16. For Trieste is the south of the north, the north of the south, the east of the west, and the west of the east.
17. Because Venice makes every tourist believe they are a poet.
18. Because Genoa smiles, showing its teeth at the sea.
19. Because Florence and Turin agreed.
20. Because Naples and Bari turn their backs on each other, but they respect each other.
21. Because the heat in Calabria is fragrant.
22. Because in Sicily, the shortest line between two points is an arabesque (thanks, Ennio Flaiano).
23. Because Sardinia has a big heart and great patience.
24. Because the ferry to Olbia is a late night trip.
25. Because like in the USA, there is a north and a south. Look for Rosella O'Hara in Matera. Maybe her name is Samantha but she exists.
26. Because the sky in Lombardy on some days is bluer than the team's shirt.
27. Because Lucia Mondella is sexier than a model (yesterday, today and forever).
28. Because our heads are in Europe, our bellies are in the wind and our feet are soaking in the sea.
29. Because it's hotter in summer, and colder in winter. This way, we can cool off, warm ourselves up and grieve.
30. Because the morning has Sapore di Mare (Gino Paoli), the evening has Azzurro (Celentano) and, finally, it has Una notte in Italia (Ivano Fossati).
31. Because we have lime trees in the gardens, pine trees in the mountains and poppies in the fields.
32. Because the Alps at a certain point remove the snow and the mountain becomes bare.
33. Because the VIPs have their places (where they rub shoulders with rich Russians), and all the other places are free for us.
34. Because there comes a time when we turn off our engines and our resentments.
35. Because football is a game (sometimes).
36. Because everyone has played football.
37. Because ice cream flavors come close to metaphysics (smurf, bitter, basil).
38. Because life moves by on trains (on regional trains, very slowly).
39. Because the dawn at airports looks like an organized nation.
40. Because not all outdoor shows are spectacular, but they are all outdoors.
41. Because at parties we also dance without being drunk.
42. Because in hotels we will immediately recognize who you are, and we will remember.
43. Because men and women work in restaurants, not robots.
44. For we have the sea, the mountains, the hills, the plains, the poetic cities, the fragrant islands, the turbulent rivers and the great lakes. Of course, we don't have the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall, but we are organizing.
45. Because the Italians were able to paint, sculpt, count, sing, act, decorate and “dress” life.
46. ​​Because we discovered America by chance.
47. Because Ancient Rome was powerful and modern Rome is fun.
48. Because in Milan we have “La Scala” of football, and the other one too.
49. Because we have the “Corriere della Sera” that marks the time of a story that follows.
50. Because families are hotels and restaurants, banks and insurance companies, daycare centers and nursing homes and they can resist family day.
51. Because Americans do psychoanalysis while we have dinner with our children.
52. Because at the table, we put bread, love and fantasy.
53. Because we teach the world how to eat. Maybe not to everyone, but to the French, the British and the Americans certainly yes.
54. Because we “cappuccinize” the planet and in Italy, no one is denied a coffee.
55. Because we invented pizza, the Vespa, the Fiat 500, the Olivetti Lettera 22 and the women's jacket. When we keep things simple, no one beats us.
56. Because many criticize us, but everyone copies us.
57. Because rural churches are better than some defenders of the faith.
58. Because Argentina is Italy's second power and sent us a great Pope and an excellent center forward.
59. Because we have the youngest head of government in Europe, and who knows what he's up to?
60. Because we have the oldest President, and we know how much he has done.
61. Because sometimes we reverse the flag (red on the left), but we love it.
62. Because we write laws that are so complicated that we sometimes forget to respect them.
63. Because we are tolerant of bandits and scoundrels, but we recognize them immediately.
64. Because we are self-critical, otherwise we become self-destructive.
65. Because we have the “Grande Bellezza” who won the Oscar and the little kindness that makes the world go round.
66. Because we have the national health service, the public school and the carabinieri.
67. Because we have doctors, nurses, teachers and police officers who work a lot for little.
68. Because there is always someone trying to encourage someone.
69. Because “la donna è mobile…” and so is the man; young people are not even mentioned. Long live the smartphone!
70. Because we only turn on the air conditioning when necessary.
71. Because we know how to think with our hands.
72. Because the fields never look boring.
73. Because where the valleys open onto the plain, someone has opened a factory that provides employment.
74. Because around Bologna and Modena, precise and romantic machines are being built.
75. Because Veneto is our Texas.
76. Because in Memphis they copied our coffee and pizza, but we manufactured the Jeep in Melfi.
77. Because at the University of Pavia, young people study under the magnolias and wisterias.
78. Because in every laboratory in the world there is a computer, a green plant and an Italian (however, sooner or later we want him back).
79. Because certain small towns near federal roads are so boring that they actually become cute.
80. Because walking in the city at night makes an interesting sound.
81. Because squares are living rooms and waiting rooms, markets and meetings, catwalks and gyms.
82. Because we have old houses that just need love and maintenance.
83. Because if you see someone with their arms crossed, they have an explanation. They're thinking: what are we going to do now?
84. Because we say “critical” but in the end we are not so critical.
85. Because we speak in English when we speak Italian (it's more trendy, baby).
86. Because we love to confuse those who judge us.
87. Because we know that judges are sometimes right.
88. Because we are attracted to exceptions, but sometimes we also remember the rules.
89. Because we are resilient, not resigned.
90. Because we are convinced that nothing is truly impossible (monogamous Berlusconi?).
91. Because we are all rivals, but in the end we support each other.
92. Because governing us is like leading a cat (but cats have more personality than sheep, we recognize).
93. Because the streets offer a display of faces. It's hard to feel different when there's no one else like you.
94. Because we have a sense of humor. We laugh at what doesn't exist.
95. Because nothing is stable if we exclude the provisional.
96. Because when we get discouraged, we immediately get revived
97. Because sometimes we are what others would like to be, but don't dare.
98. Because Italian women know.
99. Because Italy is full of young Italians and now it's their turn.
100. Because we smile, despite everything.

Originally published in Corriere della Sera
Translation: Aline Marques, Fernanda Scheid and Francesco Severgnini