The Sweet Life Was Never Sweet
On Fellini, the Renaissance, and what "Made in Italy" actually means
This piece is a perspective from an observant man — one who has just experienced a very fraction of time at the heart of Lombardy for months, and that is more than enough for me to have fallen in love with ‘Italy’.
Even now, while I’m writing this, the song humming in the background is Cano-canoë by Mme. Mick Micheyl; and yet I can remember everything I experienced from Italy — from Milan to Rimini — all clearly. One impression still lingering in my mind, influencing my character and my taste no matter where I go.
Whenever people think of Italy, undeniably, ‘food’, ‘coffee’, and maybe ‘aperitivo’ are probably the visuals that occur in their mind. And I must say — there is certainly a charm to the country, wherever the city is.
However, in my eyesight — when it comes to Italy — there is so much more than the culinary culture, or even the aesthetic of fashion and art.
“A civilization that chose lived texture over abstract coherence.”
That is what I believe acts as the connective web across all the visuals of Roman cuisine, Milanese fashion, Florentine art, and Neapolitan street life.
All of it created the spell and charm so called ‘La Dolce Vita’ — and ironically used by Fellini as a satirical expression of a decadent society in his iconic film, reflecting the shallowness of an endless pursuit of hedonism within Roman high society. Which, these days, many on social media still use as the same kind of buzzword for the same purpose: to tap into the romanticism of the aesthetic without knowing the ‘Why’ behind the sweet life that they cherish from Italian culture.
Again, I was not Italian-born, and I am far from having lived in the place for more than a year — and that is perhaps why I can see exactly what makes the idea of ‘Made in Italy’ — everything from street, architecture, design, drink, clothing, art — so alluring, so beautiful to immerse oneself in.
The thing is — there is a way to appreciate and integrate with Italian beauty without leaning into spectacle, or clinging to surface.
And it all starts by looking back to the period so called….
The Renaissance.
