Italianitá is the opposite of the American dream, it is the principle of looking back, indulging in the beauty of the past. Where in America „the best is yet to come“ in Italy one tends to be constantly reminded of the best already being accomplished. It is a rather conservative attitude but one that reminds us of the simple fact that not everything is getting better all the time. Has there ever been built something like the Pantheon or the city of Siena again? How come we still think we would have another Michelangelo, Shakespeare or Beethoven soon? I doubt it and I suppose most Italians doubt it too. Since people in Tuscany started to look for the future in the past some 750 years ago, calling it „rebirth“, Italians seem to have that unerring feel for tradition revisited. It can be detected in almost everything they do, be it a restoration of a wall or the interpretation of something as diverse as a pasta dish or a folk song. Thus in the world of art and architecture the essence of Italianitá could best be described as the aesthetic principle of decomposition.

Better do nothing than do the wrong thing !