The Axis allies were not... the best of bedfellows. Nevertheless, in summing up the Italians to [his son] Manfred, Rommel made a not ungenerous and refreshingly un-German remark. "Certainly they are no good at war," he said. "But one must not judge everyone in the world only by his qualities as a soldier: otherwise we should have no civilisation."
--German General Erwin Rommel, quoted in Rommel, the Desert Fox (1950), by Desmond Young
...Italian words made me laugh in delight. I started referring to my cell phone as il mio telefonino ("my teensy little telephone"). I became one of those annoying people who always say: "Ciao!" Just speaking these words made me feel sexy and happy.
--From Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia (2006), by Elizabeth Gilbert (1969-)
Do you know the Italian photographer Penati? He sort of floated into our lives like a strange cloud....
An Italian friend told me the most marvelous story about Penati. Apparently, everyone in Turin, in Milan, was crazy about his photographs of children. Once, he was asked by a very social Milanese family to photograph their children....
Penati said, "All right; if you want me to photograph your children, I've got to be totally and completely alone with them."
The family protested. They said, "Somebody must be there. The phone will ring; there will be parcels dropped off from the market. And, after all, we have to eat."
He said, "No, it's impossible. If people are going to be around, I can't photograph the children."
They said, "Well, you've got to make one exception. We insist that the governess stay. We absolutely insist!"
So he said, "All right, I'll come in at nine in the morning, and no one else is to come in until five."
So the family and household went out then...They finally returned about half past five. Quiet. Quiet as anything. They pushed open the door. All the children were sitting on the floor eating huge bowls, like basins, of ice cream, and there were cakes everywhere. And the governess was completely nude on the sofa being photographed by Penati!
--Diana Vreeland in D.V. (1984) with George Plimpton
Present-day life is polluted at the roots. Man has put himself in the place of trees and animals and has polluted the air, has blocked free space. Worse can happen. The sad and active animal could discover other forces and press them into his service. There is a threat of this kind in the air. It will be followed by a great gain...in the number of humans. Every square meter will be occupied by a man. Who will cure us of the lack of air and of space? Merely thinking of it, I am suffocated!
....Perhaps, through an unheard-of catastrophe produced by devices, we will return to health. When poison gases no longer suffice, an ordinary man, in the secrecy of a room in this world, will invent an incomparable explosive, compared to which the explosives currently in existence will be considered harmless toys. And another man, also ordinary, but a bit sicker than others, will steal this explosive and will climb up at the center of the earth, to set it on the spot where it can have the maximum effect. There will be an enormous explosion that no one will hear, and the earth, once again a nebula, will wander through the heavens, freed of parasites and sickness.
--The final words of The Conscience of Zeno (pub. 1923), by Italo Svevo (pseudonym of Ettore Schmitz) (1861-1928), translated by William Weaver
