President Obama, please restore freedom even in this socialist country

A while ago I went to a dinner with one of my dearest friends here in Italy, here name is Anya, Russian, here in Italy alone to have the money for her and her family in Saint Petersburg. As me she is in Turin (Italy) since 2000, working and now trying to have the citizenship (and we will talk about how this country is managing the immigration here).
At the end of the dinner, pleasant as usual, mixture of Italian cheese and salted cakes, Russian "pasta", red wine and icecream he told some more tales about URSS and the way the socialism has fallen. She told us about an happy country, where all had the possibility to have something, all had the right to study, work, live and have a house. Socialism has fallen because there has come a day where they have seen that outside the country there was a world more free. As a big factory URSS has given services to the people and information, the correct one, the one that says that they are living in the best possible world. And the day they have discovered there was something else, all the marvellous colors of the capitalism has come out and the story we know has come.
After that dinner I have thought about Italy, this summer the state has provided vouchers to go on vacation (just because the right to vacation is democratic), the work allocation in Italy seems lower than other countries not because there is work to provide but because there is somenting namend "cassa integrazione" where the state provided a sort of subsidy to the employees that stay at home. This Cassa Integrazione was initially limited mainly to the metal worker manufacturers, now even in some regions this is available for closing companies, for crisis in specific economy fields.
Last winter there has come one of the worst shame in this "democratic" country, the Social Card, the way to provide another subsidy by a credit card, to beg 40 euros a month.
Most of the channels in TV says that this is the best country, that the crisis is over, that we are better surviving above all. But the right to to demonstrate is finishing, the victims of the earthquake in L'Aquila has been stopped by the police. We have to read what really happen in the country by Internet because televisions serves the power. Today is the "No berlusconi day" 2 by Il popolo viola and no TV is showing anything (the day has not ended right???).
The same television of Russia, east Germany before the wall fell. Is it socialism? So seems to be it. It is out of doubt that this is the worst politics ever seen, meanwhile all are focused on the Monte-Carlo house and all is complaining that the economy development minister is missing, the prime minister, that is substituting him, is signing contracts to better gain commitment in him companies. And there is a lot more to say and I will come across to it.
Coverage, words not actions! The mirage of freedom to tell us that it is all right. Seems so that socialism of the past.
Maybe because the politics in Italy worth nothing, administration worth nothing. Words worth nothing, so blind to do not recognize the that this stupid administration is doing what is criticizing. All countries in the world have problems, but do we have to wait the people to step roads for riots? Do we have to wait for the prime minister to destroy the country to stay out of the jail?
Julia, I guess there is going to be a day you are going to see the president, ask him to keep an eye over Italy too.

Potatoes gattò

This dish is pronounced "Gattò di patate" the Italian version of the French Gateau. I did it this evening because of one of the first days of autumn and because our little Eva has gone, one of our cats, sick of a cancer. A dish to warm the weather and the heart. Good with a red wine, not so fresh and a fennel salad with Italian dress (oil, salt and vinegar).

I have found this image in internet and just like the
one I put in the dish.

I have prepared it like this. Boil a kg (2.20 pounds) of potatoes in salted water (40 minutes in a normal cooking, 20 minutes pressure cooking). Once they are done, cool them in water and remove the peel) cut them in pieces. Turn on the oven set at 200°C (392°F). Squeeze the potatoes in a bowl by a vegetable mill. Add to it two eggs, 50gr (0.11 pounds) of parmesan) and mix with a wood spoon. Vigorously, mix vigorously, to tell the potatoes that has to better blend and become a cream. Add a mozzarella in little cubes, smoked scamorza and and spicy provolone, all in litthe cubes. Add and adjust with salt and nutmeg.
Put your finger in it, taste the flavour! You must have confidence with the food you are cooking, that potatoes have to know that you want to do something special and they have to know you are loving them, you are about ti sink your teeth in the nature, the rays of the sun that made them grow.
Put butter in a casserole and bread it (you may find a paper casseroles at the supermarket, it is the same and you do not have to clean a pan afterward!).
Set the mixture in the pan, cover with some curls of butter and dust with some more parmesan to cover. The time for 20 minutes in the oven comes and the heat has to down, after this time turn the heat on top to better create the crust and it is done.
Here we are, my favourite, tasty and with no meat in it! Done in one hour!
I like it even cool.

What do you think?

"Dolce far niente" is dead...

http://torinodailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/05/turin-skyline.html

... or it has to be some somewhere in the long boot named Italy. Not where I am, in the north west where I live and work. I am a workaholic man that stays in the office around 10 hours a day and has lot more to finish at home, because, in spite of this Italian politicians that worth nothing we have to move on. This "Dolce far niente" that you (Julia) mention in your superficial film may be in the deep south where there the occupation is so low to make it a cultural sense.

About sense, the common of one is that Italy is a place of small villages, of common rednecks that work in the country all day and spend the rest of it in the Osteria? I guess not. The Italy of the "Dolce vita"? Maybe, 40 years ago.

There is one thing absolutely true, cuisine. Something that sometimes takes its time to prepare a dish and some others is quick. We will begin by the recipes, a personal journey on how to cook in Italian and spare time and maybe all the rest. Like all the other countries in the world. And eat healthy! Here is a picture of the village I live in, Torino, the 2006 Olympic Games Capital. Julia, there is not only Rome right?