From our blog itRosary
"Argentine is an Italian who speaks Spanish". Have you ever heard this phrase? They say it is attributed to the well-known Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. Italy and Argentina. Two nations divided by the ocean, yet so close. Today I want to talk to you about the feeling that many Italians have feel like home when they visit my country.
Argentina through the eyes of the Italians
Talking about the country where I was born will be some of these Italians who by chance or fortunately had the opportunity to get to know my land. Italians that I too have met, some in person and others through a screen, and who reflect sympathy, generosity and kindness that we Argentines perceive about Italian society when we visit our dear Italy.
"Argentina: a nice chat in front of a bonfire, with a good mate in hand and in the background 'Por una cabeza', by Carlos Gardel"
To pronounce this sentence is Francis Orange, a Roman photographer whom I had the opportunity to meet a few years ago while he was in Buenos Aires to present his photographic exhibition “Arancioni nel mondo”. “Argentina triggered a lightning strike as soon as I saw her. My first contact was with Buenos Aires. And it was love at first sight ”. Surely every region and city is different from the other. Difficult to generalize, however Fil rouge that unites everything is humanity and simplicity of many people's gestures e tranquillity of many places. I felt very comfortable everywhere ".
What do you like most about Argentina?
“Perhaps it is that I find humanity that here in Italy (at least in the big cities) has been lost. It is difficult to say what the two countries have in common. I think theirs is intrinsic to the Argentines "To be Italian". Maybe it unites us the way of speaking and gesturing. In Italy there is a city that more than others is similar to Buenos Aires, and it is Napoli. There is a vitality and an energy that I find very similar, a very strong artistic and musical vitality. I don't think it's a coincidence that Maradona he felt comfortable there ".
"Argentina is the country of the heart"
Since 2017, when he made his first tour, the Sardinian pianist Julius Biddau he was able to attend Argentina regularly. “Since then I have been back every year. A tour was also scheduled for 2020, but unfortunately we had to postpone due to the pandemic ”. Giulio defines Argentina as a beautiful country, "with a great nature and wonderful, helpful and generous people. In Argentina I feel a bit at home ”. He too shares the thought of Francesco: “the first time I arrived in Buenos Aires it seemed to me that I had landed in Naples. Timetables, customs, even very similar ways of doing things ".
A piece of Europe in Latin America
This is how the set designer and director defines Argentina Enzo de Camillis, who was able to set up a photographic exhibition a few years ago with 120 shots of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia on Pier Paolo Pasolini at the Borges Cultural Center. “Visiting this land means make a thousand trips in one and have the impression of crossing different countries moving from north to south and from east to west. AND the country of the most delicious meat there is (it is even defined as the tastiest in the world). Especially when accompanied by a good glass of wine from the vineyards of Mendoza: it is paradise that sits at the table with you ".
The football passion
“Argentina is Maradona's country, so here the football it is practically one religion. Watching a match in Argentina is a unique experience, especially if it is one of the toughest derbies in the world: the match between two legendary teams, the Boca Juniors, and River Plate, in one of the most peculiar stadiums on the planet, la Bombonera”, Says Enzo.
"Feel at home"
This is confirmed by the writer and journalist George Ballario. “It's not a rhetorical or convenient answer, it's just the feeling I felt both times I've been there. I've traveled around the world enough, but it has never happened to me to find so much familiarity in a foreign country. I have found many similarities, right in the lifestyle: from the way of dressing to food, from habits to passions and also in culture and free time. Even in the English Language: there are many words of Italian derivation ".
Italy overturned
“A feeling that I have often experienced is that of being in some kind of Parallel Italy stops in time thirty or forty years ago ”, says Giorgio. But he says it as a compliment, because it reminds him of the Italy he knew when he was a kid: “less globalized, less frenetic, less consumerist, more liveable and more human”. Giorgio adheres to Enzo's thought: "it is undoubtedly the most European country in Latin America. And it is also a kind of overturned Italy placed there at the end of the world, as he says Papa Francesco".
We may be far from our dear Italy, but I assure you that thanks to many Italians who in the past centuries have come right here, "at the end of the world", to seek a better life, today we have Italian culture at your fingertips and more alive than ever. We are proud of our Italian ancestors and we carry the Italianness like a banner in our Argentine blood.
