The dark side of a sun-drenched land

2014-04-07

ITALY - Italy: it is not a neighbouring country and yet it often feels like it is. But how well do we know that country and its people? Couldn't our knowledge of Italy and the Italians, almost seventy years after they emigrated en masse to our country, reach a little further?

Italians would be passionate and driven, but also noisy, superficial and chaotic. We reproach them for allowing organized crime to thrive for generations, but at the same time, we let ourselves be seduced by the 'romantic' image of the mafia that TV series and films present to us.

Through fifteen stories - about politics, religion, gastronomy, emigration and culture, among other things - Ine Roox compellingly paints a nuanced and varied picture of a country that deserves to be better known.

Ine Roox

Ine Roox (Bilzen, 1977) works since 2003 as a journalist for the Belgian daily De Standaard. At the foreign desk, she covers Africa, Southern Europe and Northern Ireland. She has a masters degree in translation (Lessius Hogeschool Antwerp, 1999) and…