Every descendant agrees. Being Italian is…

Being Italian means being moved by the simplest things in the world. 

Every Italian descendant agrees. Being Italian is… much more than having citizenship, a genetic inheritance.

Being Italian means being hot-blooded. It's talking loudly and gesturing.

It's being emotional and systematic to the point of arguing with a child by hugging him.

Being Italian means knowing and loving our culture, our way, our art.

It's liking old things. And spending hours admiring a monument and imagining all the battles that took place there for centuries and a long time ago before we younger Italians existed.

Being Italian is more than loving pizza or al dente pasta. It's having a different way of eating without worrying about what other people might think, because the fact that we are Italian clears us of any bad impression they might have of our customs.

Being Italian means being moved by the simplest things in the world.

It's having your eyes wet with tears without knowing why. It is accepting the law of time and life, which gives us and takes away the gift of living. It's aging like a good wine and resting in the shade of a tree contemplating the horizon.

Being Italian means disagreeing and questioning our rights. It's fighting for justice. It’s being moved by the pain and suffering of others.

Being Italian means being condemned to feeling all kinds of emotions and feeling the pain of the world as if they were our own. It is bringing within oneself the injustice suffered by others. It's enjoying parties, dancing, noise, eating, children running and people arriving.

Being Italian means carrying in your veins the bright red blood like the red that is on the Italian flag and that makes the whole world shiver when they see it flutter.

And are you of Italian descent? Do you agree with this poem, adapted from Braz Gardini?

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