Double the Culture

Bergamo & Brescia finally get their moment in the spotlight

by Silvana Long, Travel Editor

It’s safe to say we all remember the moment the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Where you were, who you were with, the sudden burst of thoughts and emotions that the declaration thrust upon you. Suddenly confined to an inordinate amount of time at home, in between the blur of Netflix bingeing and Zoom meetings, I remember watching the news, incredulous of how severely the Lombardy region was affected by the pandemic, in particular two cities relatively unknown outside of Italy: Bergamoand Brescia.

Those hard-hitting scenes of countless trucks transporting an unspeakable drove of the dead to crematoriums in nearby cities—personally, it is one of those indelible moments forever etched in my reservoir of pandemic memories.

Those two cities which were put on the international map during a tragedy have fortunately risen from the ashes after three years and are jointly celebrating their title as Italian Cultural Capital this year.

The Italian Government awarded the honour to two cities united in their desire to “Grow Together” for the first time since the initiative launched in 2014.

Have Italian-Canadians Lost Faith?

by Sal Di Falco

Despite the accelerating secularization, catastrophism and digitized uncertainty of the current age, Roman Catholicism remains a common if not always unifying facet of Italian culture, both at home and abroad. Notwithstanding the self-inflicted setbacks and buffeting the Church has sustained during the past few decades, it maintains a religious monopoly in Italy and continues its cultural dominance in the life events of most Italians.

Given diminishing church attendance and intensifying superficiality and moral laxity, one wonders if the current incarnation of Italian Roman Catholicism is more of an identity feature, a cultural ornament, rather than something genuinely rooted in faith.

Of course, it’s difficult and somewhat foolhardy to generalize about a people’s faith, and perhaps in the end it doesn’t matter for Italians in Italy: the great churches will endure, the ceremonies will persist, even if reduced to a species of pseudopious kabuki. The Vatican will always be there, in the heart of Italy. But how does this apply to immigrant Italians, and in particular their children and grandchildren, removed from the embrace and reassuring continuity of a monolithic culture and language?

The story of Italians in Canada, for instance, has been intimately tied to their relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, and their relationship with it has shaped their identity, even in a new country.