Hi, I’m Peter, and you’re reading Anywhere Italy. Our mission is to cover the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip, in person, one at a time. Come along for free, or pay to keep us on the road.
I am writing this post on the 20th of October. Last weekend there were riots in Milan and Turin and a few other cities. If you’ve seen the pictures of burning French streets, just FYI, something similar happened here too. It’s not France, thank God, the police handled it more or less promptly, but I got a lot of DMs from friends and family asking how I’m doing.
So this post won’t be about the current events, this is not a political blog. I’m writing for foreigners who slow travel in Italy, people considering a second home here, and people who want to move here for good. Unlike many Substack writers, I didn’t suddenly become a political commentator or a social justice warrior (depending which side they’re on). But I think we need to talk about the basics.
The format is different because the topic is different. It’s a FAQ, or a made-up interview, so you can follow it through the questions you probably have in your head.
I’ll try to be objective, but first, my POV. This is politics and this is a quickstart guide, so it’s only fair to tell you whom you’re getting it from. I’m educated and studied sociology and history, and I started my career as a political journalist and PR expert, so, yeah, I know a lot about world politics.
So, to cut it, I’m a liberal conservative. I have my own view of the world, and it matters more to me that you can have yours. The state can have an opinion but zero influence on what I believe, who I sleep with, whether I have kids, or where I spend my money. I’m a capitalist, and I’m very allergic to any form of socialism, because I read more Adam Smith than Marx at university (unlike most Western students), and I grew up in an ex-commie country. I’m Catholic and culturally conservative, and I keep that for myself: no crusades, you do you, I do me. And I believe in local politics more than national politics, which makes Italy a very comfortable country to live in, as you’ll see.
Now the questions.
Should you care about Italian politics at all?
Fair question. If you’re visiting, even as a slow traveler, no. Who cares, really. Italy is not a place where you get shot or mugged or need to check if you’re in a warzone before you come. Even with a second home here, not much. Check for strikes and marches, because they’ll affect your logistics, not your opinions.
But when you live here, yes. Most Italian problems will be your problems too, at least at the level where you talk to Italians and want to be respectful and well-mannered in the conversation. Don’t be an ignorant expat, please.
Where should I focus?
Locally. I’d say this about any country: your mayor and your local council have more influence on your daily life than anyone in the capital, regardless of what the news tells you. If you’re from the US you know this. Federal laws are nice and whatever, but who in Dallas cares about DC? Same vibe here.
How can I engage locally?
If you’re an EU citizen and a resident, you vote in local elections, every five years or less (see later). You get a mayor and a council. If you’re from outside the EU, you vote nowhere until you get the passport, and then you vote nationally too. Either way, joining local charities, groups, or NGOs is free and open to anyone.
NGOs, groups, charities?
Oh yeah baby, it’s big in Italy. Local, organised, regulated communities doing the same things for hundreds of years, most of them with deep roots in the Catholic Church. Charities for the old, the sick, the disabled. Ambulance operators, fire brigades, mountain rescue, unarmed neighbourhood watch. The state runs its own versions too, and funds many of the civil ones, but almost everything has a civil version that is deeper, more inclusive, and mostly free.
I haven’t started with any of them yet, sadly, no time, but I’m considering animal welfare, visiting shelters. It’s also a great way to learn Italian and meet locals. This is where you can actually help or influence the greater picture.
Any other hundred-year traditions in politics?
Ok, short political history of Italy. Let’s cut to the fun stuff: fascism and communism. Italy as a nation is new, and as a republic newer. The country was born in 1861, when the Savoy kingdom (Piedmont and Sardinia, capital Turin) took the rest of the peninsula with some help from the French. The pope lost his own state in the process and refused to recognise the new one for almost seventy years. Before that, Italy was a handful of kingdoms plus the Papal States.
Fascism was not the first mass movement, the Socialists were, and Mussolini started out as one of them. Not many people know this, and certainly, present-day socialists don’t like to admit it. But fascism was the first to take the state, in 1922, and the king let it happen in public: he appointed Mussolini and later signed the race laws. We all know how that ended.
From the roots of the original communist ideals, and as an answer to fascism, came the partisan movement, mostly communist. They fought the Germans and the fascists, helped the Allies, and liberated Italy. Italy had the strongest partisan movement in Europe, and because of it the country came out of the war without too much moral judgment, despite spending most of it on the Axis side. In 1946 Italy voted on king or republic. The republic won, 54 to 46, which was the king’s punishment for the Duce. The Savoy men were only allowed back into the country in 2002. So the republic has partisan roots, and for forty years the Italian Communist Party was the biggest in the West, but never governed once.
Because guess what: the intellectual elite is left, as in everywhere, but the people are traditional, so for forty years the Christian Democrats ran the country. Then in 1992 a corruption scandal wiped them out (plus a Mafia trial against their most powerful man, Andreotti, and a secret masonic lodge, P2, in the background, look it up, amazing story), and Silvio Berlusconi filled the hole for twenty years. After him, a decade of technocrats and short-lived reformers. Since 2022, Giorgia Meloni, whose party descends from the post-fascist party of 1946. Four years in. That’s where we are. Elections are next year, 2027.
What is right and left in Italy?
Different from the US, different even from the UK. Nobody, on either side, questions the state: welfare, free healthcare, free education, as many services as the state can carry. Right means family, faith (Catholic, obviously), values, and small businesses. Left means freedom, ideals, and even more state spending.
In terms of parties, the spectrum looks like this, right to left, roughly where they stand in the polls:
Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia), Meloni’s party, around a quarter of the vote and the biggest by far: the provincial middle class, shopkeepers, the public employee who goes to mass, and most of the South.
The League (Lega), Salvini, once the Northern separatists, pretty much far right, now a national right-wing party at under 10: the Northern valleys, artisans and small factory owners, the countryside that’s afraid of migrants.
Forza Italia, what’s left of Berlusconi, also under 10, the pro-business, pro-Europe wing of the coalition: the economic elite, older professionals, Milan money and the Sicilian client networks.
Plus a new one on the far right (Futuro Nazionale), run by an ex-general (Vannacci), taking votes from Meloni: anti-woke, very far-right. That’s the governing side (well, Vannacci is not inside yet, but probably gets voted in on the next elections).
In the middle, two small parties, one run by a former prime minister (Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi) and one by a former minister (Azione, Carlo Calenda), around 3 percent each: the urban professional who finds both sides embarrassing. Not really relevant, to be honest.
On the left, the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD), the old communists merged with the old left Catholics, led by Elly Schlein, around 20: the city centres, teachers, graduates, and the pensioners of the old red belt in Emilia and Tuscany. They are a somewhat classic left party with Catholic faith mixed in, because this is Italy.
The Five Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle), born as an anti-everything protest party fifteen years ago, now a left party under Giuseppe Conte, around 12: the South again, the unemployed and anyone on a short-term contract, and everyone who got the basic income the Five Stars introduced in 2019 and Meloni cancelled.
And a green-left alliance (Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra), a merger of the Greens and the hard left, around 6: the students, the pro-Palestine marches, the anti-everything activists. Not liberal in my sense of the word, woke in yours. The only party that would call last weekend’s rioters victims.
Based on my POV, I’m an easy guess.
Is it true Italy has ten governments a year?
It’s a running joke across Europe that the Italian government collapses every second month, and there’s some truth in it. Since 1946 Italy has had almost seventy governments, one every 14 months on average. But they are mostly the same side with a reshuffled coalition, so don’t expect a full swing every year.
As said, none of them question the fundamentals, they just shift the emphasis. Four years without a collapse, which is where we are now, is news here.
Who’s the president then?
Not Meloni. The prime minister runs the government. The president runs the referee’s whistle. Sergio Mattarella, as of today, a Sicilian whose brother was shot by the Mafia while governor of Sicily, has held the job since 2015, elected not by the people but by Parliament, for seven years, twice. He appoints the prime minister, dissolves Parliament, signs or refuses to sign laws, and in practice decides whether there are early elections. That’s why Meloni keeps saying she won’t go early: it isn’t her call. He also picks the technocrat when the politicians fail, which is how Italy got Monti and Draghi.
He is the most trusted man in the country by a mile, says almost nothing, and when he does, both sides shut up for a day. If you only learn one name after your mayor’s, learn his. Sergio Mattarella. He keeps the music going.
Note to Europeans who also have both: Italy sits halfway between France, where the president runs the show, and Germany, where nobody knows the president’s name, not even me, who’s into politics. But, to be fair, it’s kinda hard to know anyone from Germany since Merkel, sorry Germans. :)
Is immigration a problem in Italy?
It is, but it’s a European challenge that Italy gets a big share of, being connected to North Africa by sea and somewhat by history (several of those countries were Italian colonies, still not a comfortable topic here). Lampedusa, south of Sicily, has the reception camps, and the government has a deal with Albania to process some arrivals there.
That said, it’s not as big as the news or the politicians tell you. I’d say 30 percent of the problem is real, and 70 percent is a scapegoat for the fact that Italy has no real economic growth and people are losing their way of life in prices and jobs.
But the 30 percent is there, and only the right (Forza, Fratelli, Lega, and Futuro) answers it properly. Because, frankly, it’s mostly crime (culturally foreign people behave less well locally than culturally local people, who would have thought), some welfare, and some people who are here illegally and should be deported anyway.
What’s sad is that almost nobody talks about the good news in immigration. Romanians, Albanians and the rest of the Balkans and Eastern Europe are a net win for Italy: integrated, paying taxes, working, and making the place richer. There are also very generous relocation packages. and tax deals for Westerners who want to live here, venture something up, or just spending their golden years in Italy.
I’m an immigrant in Italy. I also believe that immigration is a net-positive win for any country if it is controlled and monitored, and favors skilled and culturally receptive individuals. It makes a country diverse, colorful, and the economy needs hands. Personally I think everyone should just copy what Australia does in this, they are kinda on the right track.
Change of subject: where is the Catholic Church?
Yeah, so it’s The Topic here, since the Vatican isn’t in Berlin or Paris, but in Rome. It’s kinda hard to ignore this topic here. The Catholic Church is everywhere in Italy, but it is also nowhere. The Christian Democrats were literally the Church’s party for 40 years, and since 1994 the Church has no party but it has the strongest lobbying force.
The deal with the state dates from 1929, (Mussolini did it), got revised in 1984. TLDR version: Catholicism is no longer the state religion, but you still tick a box on your tax return sending 0.8 percent of your income tax to a church of your choice, and the Catholics get most of it, obviously, including the share of everyone who didn’t tick anything. That’s about a billion a year. Religion class in school is optional and almost everyone takes it. Churches are community places here, I wouldn’t say they are always full, but they aren’t empty either. Also, most local civil groups are either indirectly connected to the Church or directly supported by it.
But, this is where it gets interesting. Unlike in countries like the US, if you have faith and you support the Church, you can value classic liberalism. Multiple referendums were lost by the Church: divorce is legal since 1974, abortion since 1981. So, the Church can’t win an election, but it also can’t lose the culture. The holidays, the saints’ days most towns shut down for, the schools, the hospitals, the charities, it’s all Church, directly or indirectly.
The current Pope is American, by the way, and so far it seems, he is trying to modernize the Church, at least in communication. Italians are still getting used to it.
I wear a cross and have a rosary in my pocket. Not sure if I need to say more on this topic.
Speaking of Church: gay rights, women’s rights, the rest?
Tolerant in person, conservative in law. No gay marriage, but civil union is legal since 2016. No adoption for same-sex couples, and since 2024 surrogacy is a crime even if you do it abroad. Almost no one blinks at a gay couple in a Turin bar. And there are obvious gay bars, gay parties, and even gay beaches. But, this “there is a gay this and that” separation is real and practiced.
Women: as said above, divorce and abortion are legal, and on paper everyone is equal. In practice, Italy has one of the lowest female employment rates in Europe, and the first female prime minister (Meloni) insists on being called “il presidente,” masculine.
Also, personal note: when I picked up my public health insurance and submitted my personal taxes, my wife was simply put under my income and insurance. She needed me in order to get her own papers. Literally no one asked what she does, a simple “she’s my wife” was enough. To me this was a telltale sign of a conservative society, and I’m coming from Hungary, a similarly conservative society, where this is not an issue, everyone has their own paper-backed income and health insurance. I remember Sophia rolled her eyes, but then said, “cool, less red tape to fill out, I don’t care.” OK.
Drugs: cannabis technically illegal, practically ignored in small amounts. Guns: hard to get, nobody wants them. Easier to get for hunting, by the way, Italians are big on hunting. Speech: you can say almost anything, but apologising for fascism is a crime on the books, enforced about once a decade.
I personally think most of these rules and rights should be more liberal, and the majority of young, educated Italians think this way.
What is PACE and why so many Palestinian flags?
The rainbow flag with PACE is not about LGBTQ, but pacifism. Originally a product of the 2003 Iraq war, still part of many balconies. Italy’s pacifism is in the constitution, and it is one of the very few things the Catholics and the communists always agreed on. Most Italians are against any form of war.
That said, Italy has one of the largest armies in Europe, many military companies supplying the world with arms, and you’ve heard of most Italian small arms makers, Beretta, Benelli and the rest. Italy also hosts one of the largest American military presences in Europe, and more American nuclear bombs than any other European country. Aviano and the bases in Sicily are fundamental for any conflict in North Africa and the Middle East, for NATO and the US alike. The current government supports Ukraine in its war, and keeps its distance from the American war with Iran. Israel, well… that’s a grey area.
Speaking of Israel, the Palestinian flag. Partially it’s the same idea as PACE, and it is popular because of the situation in the Middle East. Partially only, because the country has a longstanding habit of siding with the Arabs that goes back to the Christian Democrats’ oil politics in the 70s.
Italy has no oil and no gas, so after the war it went to buy them from people the Americans and British weren’t talking to. The state oil company (ENI) offered Arab producers a better split than the Anglo-American majors, its founder (Enrico Mattei) died in a plane crash that nobody believes was an accident, and the Christian Democrats kept the line for decades: friends with Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, whoever had a pipeline. In the seventies this went further than oil. The governments of the time are widely believed to have made a quiet deal with the Palestinian groups: no attacks on Italian soil, in exchange for looking the other way. In 1985, Italy refused to hand a Palestinian hijacker to the Americans at a Sicilian air base with US and Italian soldiers pointing guns at each other.
The left inherited the sympathy. The right inherited the pipelines. Most people waving the flag have no idea about any of this. I said Israel is a grey area… The government is officially a friend: Meloni’s party has always been close to Israel, Italy didn’t follow France and Britain in recognising a Palestinian state last year, and the arms deals continue. There is harsh talk against Israel from Rome, but that’s mostly playing the circus for the voters, because the majority of the civilian population is siding with Palestine in this. Also, since Trump, there is an ever-growing grudge against the USA in the public, so Israel fits that picture too.
I’m a pacifist, but, I believe there are times when pacifism is a luxury.
Back on safer topics: why are there so many strikes and marches here?
I personally get this question a lot from Americans and honestly, no offense, but you guys over the Pond don’t have marches and strikes? Not talking about riots, just simple “I believe in this” walks with signs held up high. The strikes I get, you love your work, why stop. But for real, puns aside, it’s kinda normal in Europe.
Most European cities are simply built for this: the center is walkable, most government buildings are in the center, and most centers have big squares. This is how Europeans tend to correct their governments on a daily basis: we tell them on the streets that we are happy or not with some stuff. It’s a common practice.
The strikes aren’t an Italian specialty either (France and Belgium are the mastergurus of this game), but here’s how it works locally. The right to strike (sciopero) is in the constitution, and there are three big union federations (CISL, the Catholics, CGIL, biggest, the ex-commies, now left, UIL, smallest, socialist), plus a swarm of small ones, any of which can call one.
Strikes are almost always sectoral, trains or schools or local buses, almost always on a Friday, and almost always announced ten days ahead by law. There is a government website listing every strike in the country, and the radio reads it with the weather. Local transport keeps running in guaranteed hours, roughly morning and evening rush, so you can still get to work, you just can’t get home for lunch. A “general strike,” the big one when all big 3 unions call it, happens once or twice a year and is a civic holiday with slogans.
I think both of these institutions are awesome and fundamental parts of any democracy. If you don’t have unions, you can hardly call yourself a free society. And remember, I’m a capitalist saying this.
If marches are fine, how come you have riots?
That was a short pause on safe topics, I guess. So, why are Milan, Turin, and France burning these days? Good question. First, touch grass: not everything you see on the internet is true, especially on X. In Italy, a few thousand people marched safely and in order, and a couple of hundred rioted. France is a different question, but not all of France is burning either.
Second, riots have a long tradition here. Antifascist groups turn streets into chaos, and now and then right-wing groups show up just to kick some antifascists. This is a European tradition too, kinda normal. In Italy it’s definitely normal in Bologna, Turin and Milan, where these groups are organised communities and turn almost every civilised march into a riot.
The police have a role, and the role depends on the country. In Britain they watch, and let the chaos happen in an orderly way. In France they arrive very late and hit hard, and the streets still reorder themselves every season. In Italy the police are active participants, which means riot police, tear gas and batons. Most of the horrible scenes you saw from Turin and Milan happened in the hours before the police arrived in full force. Then the streets got cleaned up, literally.
What’s new in October 2026 is that the usual suspects went home early. The ones who smashed Milan and Turin were underage teens, organised on TikTok, Italian-born and second-generation immigrants, from the suburbs, no collective, no leadership, no ideals beyond vandalism and theft. The march was about the cost of living, usual left-wing stuff, kinda boring to be honest, hence only a few thousand people. The riot came after and had nothing to do with it. They looted sneakers, smashed shops and stole beer. 80% of the arrests were minors. Go figure.
Will it happen again? Probably. These kids are self-organised and hardened by years of locals calling them “maranza,” a word you’ll hear within a month of arriving. It’s a real problem with no answer. For you, it happens in the main cities and their main squares, so it’s easy to avoid. My entire neighbourhood in Turin was quiet during the riots.
I even passed the march that Saturday, a super normal thing to see on a weekend. I didn’t know about it, nor could I read what it was about, but I looked at the people and knew: OK, a leftie thing, Palestine flag here, PACE there, yawn, usual, a few hundred folks. Two police vans on the side of the piazza, I saw a police dude wildly flirting with one of the protester girls. Everyone else was walking, shopping, eating, having their day, nobody cared.
We went on towards Cit Turin, a nice area of art nouveau buildings, but the way passed a main train station (Porta Susa), one that connects Turin with the small towns around it. There we saw kids in hoodies already grouping up and heading for the centre. For them, the cost of living was about not being able to afford Nike sneakers, and I’m pretty sure they can’t name the continent Palestine is on, or recognise its flag.
As much as I think marches and strikes are amazing, violence is not an opinion.
Do Italians blame expats and tourists for anything?
Some do. This might be the most controversial answer in the piece, so I left it for the end. Three categories: tourist, expat, immigrant.
Tourist: most of my readers. You’re a guest. Don’t mess with food orders, don’t climb historic landmarks, don’t vomit off the vaporetto. But can you be blamed for local problems? No. You can’t influence them, locals can. You’re spending time and money here. Do it in an orderly fashion and don’t make the front pages.
Expat, slow traveler, second-home owner: Italians call you straniero. This was my stage for years. It’s a waiting room: you’re either here temporarily or on your way to becoming a resident. You still can’t vote, you still can’t do anything about local problems. A bit more is expected of you, mostly the language, but honestly, you’re a glorified tourist. Be nice, that’s about it.
Immigrant, resident: this is me now. You pay taxes here, your kids go to the local school, you have a home, maybe your work is here. This is the only stage where you carry some responsibility, because, as an EU citizen, you can vote for your mayor. National elections need the passport: four years of residence for EU citizens like me, ten for everyone else, as far as I know. In about three years we’ll have ours.
I’m a special flower. My work is online, my wife’s too, so my Italian is worse than it should be. Economically we’re disconnected from the local problems: home and car owned outright, no debt, income entirely global. Our only real contact with the Italian economy is our accountant, who has a small panic attack every time she sees a Stripe invoice without the five hundred pages of local red tape attached. We’re improving.
That’s how you should feel here. How Italians feel about you is another question, and I only have my own experience. The bad first.
My AI bot posts my pieces to Facebook and Threads and flags me when a thread blows up. It’s usually Italians arguing about what a wealthy expat could possibly know about Italy. That sentiment is out there. And there’s a newer trend of blaming expats for pushing prices up, imported from Lisbon and Barcelona. The left blames the people who arrive with money, the right blames the people who arrive with nothing. Universities teach more Marx than Adam Smith, and this is what it looks like. Boring, but growing.
It’s also almost entirely online. Touch grass and Italians are the warmest people on this planet. I’ve had zero issues with locals in all my years here, the opposite: an oddly wide welcome, mostly from people with nothing to gain by helping me. And I’m from Hungary, where the locals are among the grumpiest on earth, so this took some getting used to.
One last thing. A local lady argued with me under one of my posts on Threads. A normal middle-aged Italian lady, runs a bar in a popular Umbrian town I won’t name. Tourists pay big bills but can’t behave, Coca-Cola with the wine, bolognese in Umbria. She prefers Italians and is considering a “no tourists” sign on the door. Less money, she knows, but. And who am I to talk, a rich expat, blablabla.
Are there idiot tourists? Yes. Should hospitality workers have more resilience? Also yes. Is a “no tourists” sign economic suicide in a region that needs more of them (Umbria is nowhere near as popular as Tuscany)? Yes, a very visible one. Is it her business to do what she wants with? Of course, who cares, you can hang yourself all you want, by all means. But don’t come back to me crying when domestic tourists can’t pay your margins, and sure as hell don’t blame expats who are more willingly pay higher prices at the bar next to you, which has zero “no tourists” signs.
If you run into this kind of person, do the only sensible thing: ignore, block, report, move on. Easier said than done, I know. Mine was months ago and I still remember it word for word.
Remember who can actually be blamed for anything: the people who can influence policy. Not you. The locals, who either voted for today’s consequences or let their politicians do it. It’s always easier to blame expats or migrants than to touch a public sector that handles half of everything this country earns.
Let’s close this post with a proper class of economics, shall we. About 3.3 million public employees, and I’m not touching schools, hospitals, universities, police or military, there’s a national consensus to keep them, me included.
Add another 0.5 million in companies that are listed in Milan and still run by political appointees, because the Treasury kept the chairs when it sold the shares (looking at you, ENI, Enel, Leonardo, Poste, the railways). That’s nearly 4 million, one in six of everyone who works.
Now add 16 million pensioners. 20 million people whose main monthly income comes from the state, against 24 million who work. That’s the honest version of “half the country.” And this is just the surface, because a sizeable part of private companies are also working for the state (so they are dependent from it), which also means they are not competing and innovating, etc. Oh, yeah, you might not see this honestly printed in Italian papers…
No wonder nothing got built in twenty years. No wonder there’s no growth in any figure. No wonder educated Italians leave. But sure, it’s random expat Jennifer’s fault, the one person putting money in, cleanly, neatly, without questions. Let’s blame her.
So that’s about it. This post is still too long, but I don’t want to edit it further. For most of my readers, the “you shouldn’t care at all” is enough, to be frank. But some of you want to engage in discussions with locals (who love to talk about politics by the way), and this piece helps you to get up to speed. Treat it as it is: a quickstart, a collection of prompts to learn more.
I wanted to include crime, police, and the mafia in this piece, but realized that it is not strictly about politics, and it is one of the most search-driven topics anyway which I have written nothing about, so I’ll do it next time.
PS: I don’t know the source of the cover picture of this post but it shows the young Sergio Mattarela. He looks super cool.