Corso Porta Nuova, Opera and Carabinieri

Corso Porta Nuova

Living on Corso Porta Nuova was exhilarating. In just a few minutes I could be on Piazza Bra, a central location in Verona.  From there I could take several pedestrian streets to meet friends for a cafe, a passagiata or window shopping.  One of the major pedestrian streets was Via Giuseppe Mazzini (famous journalist, politician and activist for the unification of Italy). There are probably scores of streets named after him all over Italy.

Piazza Bra with the Roman Arena where operas are held in the summer.

Via Mazzini with tourists.

I took Via Mazzini to wend my way to a ballet class several mornings a week. American tour busses dropped off their tourists on the piazza and they followed their guide down Via Mazzini towards Romeo and Juliet’s balcony - a trumped up, disneyland sort of spot for tourists: La Casa di Giulietta. Sometimes I would enter into conversation with the folks from the homeland.  Other times I would walk among them incognito listening to their conversations in espionage mode.  I had a silly, superior feeling of being a “native” among these American foreigners!

Juliet Capulet

Juliet's balcony.

On summer evenings the Corso was bumper-to bumper buses, cars and scooters on their way to the Arena to attend the Opera La Scala.  People came from all over Europe in luxury coaches.  The Dutch and the Germans would motor down, see the opera and head back home immediately. Our apartment was not air-conditioned. We had all the windows open on warm nights.  Oh là là! When the opera was over at midnight or one in the morning, the traffic noise was ear-splitting.

View of the arena on a summer's night in opera season.

Sometimes we people-watched from the balcony.  There was always something happening.  Once I saw a woman in a small, red car being stopped by the polizia.  You need to realize that people in Italy are a lot less impressed with governmental authority.   This woman reached over and rolled up all the windows of her car.  Then she pushed down the locks on the doors.  When the policeman knocked on the windows she wouldn’t look at him.  He walked around to the other side and tried to get in.  She blew her horn and shouted something at him.  Eventually, he climbed on the hood of the car and screamed at her while banging on the windshield.  We were all laughing.  It was like a comedy act right there on the street.

Driving a car in Italy.

Another time I was with a friend picking up our daughters from school.  My friend triple-parked, left the car and we walked inside.  I was feeling a little nervous about her parking job.  But she assured me all would be well.  When we emerged from the school with the girls, a policeman was writing out a ticket.  My friend ripped it out of his hands, dropped it to the ground and stamped on it.  She yelled, “Mi scusi, signor vigile, I had to pick up my daughter.  You have no right to give a ticket to a mother doing her job.”

The policeman was dumbfounded and walked away.  How about trying that with a Chicago cop?

Pretty cool police car - a Lamborghini!

There are various levels of police in Italy depending on their jurisdiction:  municipal, provincial or national.  There is even a Guardia di Finanza in charge of financial and economic issues;  think tax evasion, fraud and anti-mafia issues.  The carabinieri is a military corps with police duties.  They are called in as riot police.  For whatever reason, they are the butt of a whole series of jokes; think “Blond jokes.”

This picture would feed into carabinieri humor!

Here's two translated carabinieri jokes:

Q. How do you burn a Carabiniere’s ear off?    

A. Call him while he’s ironing

"Maresciallo (station commander) calls the appuntato (low level officer).

"Appuntato, have a look at the car's turning signals and check if they work."

"Maresciallo, they work. No, they don't. Yes, they do. No, they don't. Yes, they do…”