First of all, it goes beyond a loose interpretation of the traffic laws or the tax code. \u201cFurbizia<\/em>\u201d (sneakiness) is often applauded as an enviable trait in nearly any situation. Individuals are praised for discovering and exploiting loopholes. Or better still, the motto is, \u201cIt\u2019s only illegal if you get caught.\u201d Even then, a good furbacchione<\/em> is equally skilled at explaining his (mis)deeds, once revealed, so that they appear to be virtuous rather than dishonest.<\/p>\n Being \u201cfurbo<\/em>\u201d means preferring tricks and unfair shortcuts when charged with a laborious task. Nothing uniquely Italian about that. But here\u2019s the main difference that separates the Italian version of this behavior from sneakiness in other cultures: the \u201cfurbo<\/em>\u201d is proud of his actions, whereas in other countries, people do their best to conceal dishonest\u00a0acts. What\u2019s more, the furbo<\/em> looks down upon folks\u00a0who do actually things the proper (legal) way, chastising them for being na\u00efve and stupid.<\/p>\n More puzzling still is that these types of characters are often celebrated by other people around them as being smart and clever; someone who knows how to circumvent \u201cnuisances\u201d and \u201cobstacles;\u201d in other words, \u201claws.\u201d The rest of us are categorized as saps or dullards.<\/p>\n Therefore it\u2019s important to understand that in Italy, being furbo<\/em> has both positive and negative connotations. In fact, some people might define\u00a0this trait\u00a0as sly\/sneaky (negative), while others would call it clever\/astute (positive). It can also depend on the situation, of course. More on this subtle distinction later…<\/p>\n Even in calcio<\/em> (soccer) there is a certain pride in bending the rules with things like \u201cdiving\u201d in order to draw a penalty from your opponent. It is considered an integral part of the game in Italian soccer, and not frowned upon as it is in other countries.<\/p>\n In an article on CNN\u2019s website<\/a>, one calciatore<\/em> who has played professional soccer in both Italy and England even wrote a book on the subject, called \u201cThe Italian Job.\u201d In his book, the former Chelsea striker Gianluca Vialli enlists the words of none other than Machiavelli to clarify this phenomenon.<\/p>\n \u201cMachiavelli would have applauded a successful dive to win a penalty if it is decisive and the player gets away with it. He would also have pointed out, however, that diving to win a penalty is something to be done rarely but with full conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n While soccer provides a nicely packaged clear example, to really witness the height of what can be accomplished by fubizia<\/em>, we must look at the political stage. And at the forefront of this stage stands the clown\/entrepreneur\/politician, Silvio Berlusconi. Not only has his furbizia<\/em> gained him the highest office in the country, Prime Minister, but also two encores! Incredibile, amici!<\/em><\/p>\n You might think that Berlusconi has really achieved some great things with his way of the furbo<\/em>. And you\u2019d be quite right. But he had an excellent teacher who showed him what could be accomplished if you\u2019re able to disconnect entirely from accountability and reason. Of course I\u2019m referring to the late Bettino Craxi.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t recount the long, painful account of Craxi\u2019s sins against his Patria<\/em>, but suffice to say that he redefined the scale on which furbizia<\/em> can be practiced for personal gain. He bilked billions of tax dollars from the public coffers, and then when caught red-handed, claimed that he had done nothing wrong. He justified his actions by saying that \u201ceverybody else is doing it, too,\u201d and that \u201ccorruption is a necessity of a democracy.\u201d Meanwhile, he and his court of \u201cmidgets and dancers\u201d enjoyed a lavish lifestyle that was visibly way above what they should have been able to afford on their official salaries.<\/p>\n And yet Craxi never apologized. Instead he\u00a0escaped\u00a0to Tunisia with his billions of ill-gotten lire<\/em>, and accepted the protection of his friend and dictator Ben Ali. Worth noting is that Tunisia is a country that has no extradition agreement with Italy. There he died in the year 2,000, furbo<\/em> to the bitter end.<\/p>\n For my personal experience, I\u2019ve been the fesso<\/em>\u2014the na\u00efve victim of a furbo<\/em>\u2014more than once. Of course, there are the usual rip-offs, like the time a Palermo taxi driver charged me 20 Euros to go 10 blocks. Then there was the instance when I bought a kilo of porchetta<\/em> at the butcher shop, only to get the package home and find that 50% of the weight was comprised of the intact snout of the filthy animal. (Fortunately, my Sicilian sister-in-law was on hand to march back to the store and literally throw the slimy organ in the butcher\u2019s face.)<\/p>\n These are the daily annoying encounters with this attitude, but on a grander scale the consequences have serious ill-effects on the economy and the social environment. Everybody thinks only of him\/herself first without giving a moment\u2019s thought to the greater good.<\/p>\n Avoiding taxes means that the government will need to increase the tax rate the next time around to make up for the shortage. This starts a vicious cycle of more people evading taxes because they\u2019ve become too financially burdensome, and then this leads to the next increase in taxes. So on and so forth.<\/p>\n The culture of the furbo<\/em> is gateway to criminality, whether it’s small\u00a0infractions, or something more nefarious like the Mafia. In this environment, other people don\u2019t even denounce crimes for fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n But even in lesser situations, the same\u00a0attitude is common; not so much out of fear, but just because the average person feels obliged to mind their own business so that nobody can complain about them, or call them a rat.<\/p>\n OK, perhaps I\u2019ve focused too much on the negative interpretation of being \u201cfurbo<\/em>.\u201d As I said, there are positive sides to it. For one thing, if I had carefully watched the taxi\u2019s meter and then threatened to report him, the driver likely would have backpedaled\u2014and maybe even waived the fare completely to keep me quiet. In that (imaginary) scenario, I<\/em> would have been the furbo<\/em> one (in a good way) for being more clever than him. And I would have been praised for it, too.<\/p>\n But if we really want a clearer answer about what it means to be furbo<\/em>, let\u2019s ask a few Italians who are better acquainted with this pervasive cultural trait than me.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sly one (furbo) is always in a place that he has not earned for his skills, but rather for his ability to pretend to have them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Giuseppe Prezzolini, The Code of Italian Life, 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThat cunning (furbizia) is a subservient characteristic, and never an elegant one, is the only fundamental political discovery that millions of Italians have yet to realize<\/em>.<\/p>\n Michele Serra, La Repubblica, 2006<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cIt is the archetype of the Italian who knows how to \u201cget by.\u201d It is the pride of cunning (furbizia) unpunished, and it is still with us today. Sometimes he calls himself an alderman, or becomes the director of something or another. He almost always carries his suit jacket and drives a nice car. He changes the region where he lives, his work, his political party; but he does not change his habits. It’s fascinating and tragic, like many Italian masks.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Beppe Severgnini, La testa degli italiani, 2005<\/strong><\/p>\n And you also can check out what my COSI friends have to say about the “art” of being furbo<\/em>.<\/p>\n Surviving in Italy: The Italian Art of Being Sly<\/a><\/p>\n The Unwilling Expat: Italy’s Cheating Heart<\/a><\/p>\n An Englishman in Italy: Furbizia<\/a><\/p>\n Girl in Florence: Why Being Furbo in Italy is Anything but Cool<\/a><\/p>\n Sex, Lies, & Nutella:\u00a0Tourists Beware: Fighting Furbizia in Italy<\/a><\/p>\n Married to Italy:\u00a0Furbizia – blessing or burden?<\/a><\/p>\n“Diving”\u00a0isn’t just a water sport<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"diving-football\"](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/diving-football.png\")
Politics as usual<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"90-gradi\"](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/90-gradi-300x260.jpg\")
His creativity in bending the rules is impressive. He\u2019s done it all, from changing existing laws to retroactively legalize past acts of criminal behavior, to appointing his mistresses to the cabinet. He even managed to have commercial air traffic rerouted in Milan because the planes would have been too noisy for a development he was planning.<\/p>\nWhat does it mean to be furbo<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""The](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Caravaggio_The_Cardsharps-300x216.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"addiopizzo\"](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/addiopizzo.png\")
I should also mention that the younger generations are finally seeing things from a different perspective. They are much less tolerant of this attitude, and have even formed organization such as AddioPizzo in Sicily<\/a> (saying \u201cNO!\u201d to paying the pizzo<\/em>, \u201cprotection money,\u201d and renouncing the culture of omert\u00e1<\/em>, the Sicilian code of silence, of not speaking up to denounce Mafiosi.)<\/p>\n