MBNMS & Genoa Aquarium Collaboration

Local Color

I have been asked by folks to compile some of my thoughts, views, impressions, etc about working here in Italy.  So, with no basic priority, here are those thoughts, views, impressions, etc.

Bill

Working AT the Genoa Aquarium

When I have talked to people here in Italy, I tell them I am working at the Genoa Aquarium on this assignment. I make it clear I do not work for the aquarium but that they are giving me a desk, internet access, colleagues to collaborate with etc.  The reaction I get must be what it is like if you tell people you work at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Everyone I have spoken to knows of the Genoa Aquarium and usually says Bello.  Sort of Nice place in this context. 

The comparisons to the Monterey Bay Aquarium dont stop there.  They are both progressive thinking aquariums, trying to be involved as much as they can afford with ocean conservation around their regions and trying to inspire ocean stewardship for the future.  They both are very interested in ensuring the marine protected areas near them are well managed too. 

Both aquariums have incredibly dedicated, most often young, and energetic staff.  They care about the oceans and they care about how to get messages to sink-in to visitors who may be there just to see the dolphins (Genoa Aquarium) or the sea otters (Monterey Bay Aquarium).  They are both run as businesses yet they both seem to realize it is more than just a business.

I have been impressed with the Genoa Aquariums interest in teaching its visitors about early ocean explorers.  It ties their travels in with what they saw.  How Darwin and his expeditions, which led to his publishing about natural selection and evolution, were carried out and what he and his crewmates observed.  The Genoa Aquarium has a new exhibit dedicated to the marine protected areas of Italy.  A tough story to tell, one that has chased away other aquariums, and an exhibit that the staff admits it wants to improve.  But, if you spend a summer day in the exhibit room, hundreds if not thousands of people pass through getting some message about why there are special marine protected areas in Italy and what the visitors can do to help protect them.  They also have a new exhibit about whales and whaling and the migration whales make around the world.  There is a component about humpback whales in Hawaii and on the west coast of the U.S.  They also have a segment about the well-known migration of grey whales between Alaska and Baja California.  When the whaling footage comes up, it is a powerful message.

With several of these exhibits I am exploring with the staff at the Genoa Aquarium how the national marine sanctuary program and the MBNMS in particular, can help.  I am in initial contact with Dr. Nancy Black who works on Monterey Bay to get some footage of Orcas hunting and eating grey whales.  There may be footage that the Humpback Whale NMS has that could augment the exhibit on whales.  And, we are exploring if signals from the four video cameras off Cannery Row in the MBNMS  part of the telepresence project with Mystic Aquarium  can be carried in the Genoa Aquariums exhibit on marine protected areas.  Separately, the boating outreach materials used by Save Our Shores in the MBNMS may be used by the Genoa Aquarium for its new project on boating being developed with the Italian Ministry of the Environment.   The linkages are many.

Okay, last thing on working at the Genoa Aquarium. I have been asked what a days commute is like.  Well, it is a lot more for me than in the past, which was a bout a 7 minute drive or 10 minute bike ride to my office from home.  Now, it is an hour and 15 minutes.  We live in Arenzano, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Genoa.  We have only one car, so I catch a ride to the Arenzano train station, catch a 40 minute local train to Genoa, and walk for about a mile to the Aquarium.  It aint bad and I get a little exercise each day, especially on the way home when I am late for a train and huffing up the hill to the train station.  The aquarium is in the historic old port of Genoa so the architecture is very interesting.  One of these days Im going to tip the guy playing accordion outside the University of Genoa.  The very next time hes playing a song I like.

Paying Beaches

In the first couple of months here, I have talked to my staff in Monterey a couple of times and sent them a few pictures. Some of them think I am obsessed with this incredibly foreign concept (to a Californian)  a paying beach. This is not your run of the mill, state park where you pay for parking but get access to a huge park. Rather, this is the need to pay to walk on the sand and toss down your towel.  In many parts of northern Italy, like Liguria, Toscana and Emilia Romagna (on the Adriatic coast) the local cities have leased sections of their town beach to companies that charge various prices for a beach chair, an umbrella, or just access to the beach and the pleasure of sitting on the sand.  All of those towns make sure there is still a free beach, spiaggia libera, but that is usually at the end of town, next to the stinky storm drain, and most often tiny. 

There is something missing too, on a paying beach.  There is very little chaos.  It is all quite controlled and organized.  Certainly too much chaos is troublesome.  Mind you I grew up with a bunch of brothers, thus I kind of like a little chaos when I go to the beach.  The umbrellas different colors and not in neat rows, a few sand castles along the waters edge, some volleyball/soccer, the pink guy who needs to get out of the sun  all this is what a day at the beach is about.  You get this with paying beaches, but the controlled organization takes something out of it.

The prices can be stunning (again, to a Californian who thinks a walk on the beach is a right), like up to $1,000 or more for a month.  That will get you an umbrella, two chairs and access for two.  Daily rates can easily reach $30 per day, which might only be the same as the price for two people to visit your favorite aquarium, but to just sit on the beach, it can feel like a lot.  Judging by the fact that most of the concessionaires appear full, it seems that most Italians, at least in Liguria, dont seem to mind the cost. 

There have been a few articles in the newspapers this summer about the high cost of going to the beach for a weekend, and how expensive the beach chair and umbrella are, the parking, a lunch, and a hotel room.  Coastal tourism is way down in Italy this summer, like 10%-15% below last year and it is being attributed to the higher costs, (and not to terrorist threats made against Italy).  Basically all the Italians I talked to say they prefer the free beaches and do not go to paying beaches.   But, someone is sitting under those umbrellas…..

So, now I come clean.  For several days in August, in the trendy Toscana beach town of Forte di Marmi, I was one of those sitting under the umbrella on the cushy beach chair.  I kept my stuff in a cabin, too, near the beach, and took a shower each day, and had an espresso too.  It was nice.  We went to visit some of my wifes cousins, who have a house in Forte di Marmi and who rent a few chairs at the beach each year.  It was really nice.  The town is beautiful, sort of Carmel on flat ground, with lovely houses (like Carmel, many of them second houses) and tall pine trees shading the streets.  Everyone in Forte di Marmi rides a bike to shop or get a newspaper or go to the beach.  It has the same temperature as Carmel in the summer, 35-40 degrees.  It is just that Forte di Marmi uses the centigrade scale whereas Carmel uses Fahrenheit.  Just joking there Carmel. 

I guess it comes down to this. If all you know are beaches for which one needs to pay to cross them and to put down a towel, then it is an understandable way to spend a vacation.  The comfort and cleanliness are definitely more enjoyable than the crowded, often trash-strewn, public beaches.

But, I would recommend to any city, to any local or state government, to never go there.  Dont go down that slippery slope of renting out your beaches.  Put in parking meters first, if you need the money.  Keep the beaches free.

My staff is right, I am obsessed about these paying beaches.

Da Food and Da Vino

Okay, so here is the deal.  Everyones first word association with Italy is probably good food.  I can attest to that.

This summer though I have begun to realize that Italy, or at least Liguria, is overrun with good food that begins with the letter P.  Pesto, Proscuitto, Pesce and Pesca.  That is, pesto, proscuitto (cured ham), fish and peaches.  The town we live in, Arenzano, is awash with peaches.  Big, juicy and cheap.  I think they all get picked when ripe so you get a face full of juice with the first bite. 

Proscuitto is not for everyone, but it is for me.  It costs a fortune in the United States, but the average proscuitto and cheese sandwich here in Italy costs about $3.50 but has about $10 worth proscuitto if it were bought in the U.S.  Proscuitto is a red, cured ham that is best if from Parma, which is where most of it comes from. Much better than bologna (which is named for a town next to Parma).

The fish is pretty good, including fish I would never eat back home, based on how they look. Why not be picky in Monterey when the salmon is so danged good.  Gotta love home-grown, wild, organic salmon.  I have yet to even see a salmon in a fish market here in Italy, and I doubt I will buy one should I see one.

And everyone knows pesto.  It supposedly was invented here in Liguria.  My son and I have a plot of basil that grows well here.  Much better than what we have been able to do in Monterey  must the fact that the basil actually gets sun here in Arenzano!  So we have had a bit of home grown pesto too.

Notice I have not even mentioned Pizza and Pasta.  All Americans know about those, and given that I love both, I am happy at any restaurant. 

But, there is more good food here in Liguria, than the letter P.  Like, focaccia.  My family already knew I was a hog for focaccia  an oily, salty, bread-like, moist pizza crust, that comes with many toppings and is famous to Liguria.  I love the stuff.  Onion is my favorite, closely followed by rosemary. 

And, gelato.  The best gelato  Italian ice cream  is in Toscana, but we have found a very good gelateria in the next town over, Cogoleto. Mint, stracciatella and banana are my favorite; mint, cream and pistacchio are my sons.  My wife just steals from us both.

As for American food, if there is such a thing, Italy has not reciprocated with a love for American food.  In the supermarket, we have found hamburger buns, and the Italian ketchup is okay.  The local supermarket also carries flour tortillas and passable salsa, but it is like buying Italian proscuitto in the US  too much!  So, to really get our fix on cibo Americano, I hit up the commissary at the U.S. Embassy in Rome when I was there for some meetings.  We now have a huge Jiff peanut butter and some real maple syrup.  So, the true pleasures of American food are now in our pantry.

As for wine, when you like everything that crosses your tongue, you arent much of a critic.  That is the case with me.  We drink a lot of wine, because that is just what you do here.  We found a locals supermarket that has very good wine for 2 or 3 euro.  We load up each time we go.  We went wine tasting in a castle in Piemonte recently, and it may have been the setting, but it all tasted great to me.  So I bought a bunch there too. 

Okay, I have one wine tip  Barbera.  It is a red wine made, or best when made, from grapes grown in Piemonte.  It is light, goes with anything, and has less bite then Chianti, my past favorite.  There, given that I am a life long beer drinker, that is my analysis of Barbera.  Buy a bottle at a wine shop near you.

First Impressions  The first few weeks

Having been to Italy several times in the past, I somewhat knew what to expect about living here, the food, how people drive, the basics that anyone gets after a few weeks vacation here in Italy. There have been a vast array of experiences in the first few weeks that, even knowing to expect them, my wife and I were nonetheless caught off guard. Those things all have resulted from the Italian flair for bureaucracy.  Even though my wife is Italian and well steeped in her own culture, even she has been baffled and at times angry at the bureaucratic nightmares we have faced. 

For instance?  Well, how about the app. $2,500 the shipping company (subcontracted by the US Postal Service) wanted to charge us for tax and customs duty on our own stuff we mailed to Italy from Monterey.  The company clears boxes through customs and saw that we had insured our things with the US Postal Service for the replacement value.  So, they charged us sales tax (20%) and then customs duty (12%) on the insured value for each box.  For three weeks, they would not tell us how they calculated what we owed, rather they just kept insisting on our paying these huge sums, which we did not have.  So, my wife, who once thought of being a lawyer, went to work.  Final assessment after many calls each day for three weeks, we settled on 200 euro (about $240) for the first box, and nothing for the others. 

What else?  I have had to get a permesso di sigiorno (sort of a residence permit) from the local police as part of my visa.  However, the local police wanted nothing to do with it, rather they kept sending me to Genoa to immigration headquarters.  I have been there four times in two weeks, including standing in line for 6.5 hours on a 90 degree Sunday to get a ticket to come back later that week for my permit.  They finally gave it to me in early July, based on some negotiating we had to do, despite the fact we had exactly the documents they said I needed.  Then, they told us I had to come back in early September and do it all over again.  No reason could be offered.  I have extreme pity for the immigrants here in Italy (and anywhere) for whom this is their life and for whom a grumpy immigration officer can ruin much more than just their day.  There is a huge El Salvadoran community here and many other Latin American immigrants are coming to Genoa.  I could easily have been in line at immigration in Los Angeles but for the fact that Italian was the language of necessity, not English.

We had trouble getting a phone line installed in our house. After trying with the phone company for two weeks, all of a sudden we had a breakthrough.  The local guys contracted by the national phone company decided they would just install the line, even though they were supposed to wait until the neighborhood system was upgraded in a month.  Just like that, a couple of nice guys later, and 6 weeks after coming to Italy we have a phone and dsl for internet.

And so, that is the way it goes in Italy.  A small number of people making rules and demanding compliance, even though they can not explain the rationale for the rules.  And, basically the rest of the country, as well as many who make the rules, spend their time ignoring the rules.  Instead of creating more and better compliance programs, Italians chiefly make more rules.  Things happen when you know or find someone who decides to make it happen for you.  The longer you explain the box you are in, and kindly ask for help, the more likely you are to convince that person to help.

Driving between cities along the coast of Liguria, where we live, you can see the love for rules, and the even greater passion to break them, in the way most Italians park to go to the beach.   There are always far too few parking spaces for the number that want to go to the beach, especially in Liguria which is very steep and hence the developed areas are narrow.  All the cities are awash in parking signs and use different colors to denote rules for different parking spaces.  Yet, you can tell the few cities that enforce the parking rules, because you do not see double parking, you do not see cars parked on the sidewalks, you do not see cards parked in the bus stops.  The rest have all of these things, and many more creative parking strategies.  If you pull into a town and see all the parked cars obeying the signs, take heed, they actually write tickets and tow cars.

Given these somewhat negative first impressions, I have had others too, like all these hassles cant last forever, and once they get worked out this assignment will be a pretty educational, interesting and hopefully fun experience.