Today we have a "shopping strike" in Italy: nobody is supposed to buy pasta. Not only uncooked pasta, but the consumers are invited to stay away from the bars where it is usual for most Italians to have their morning
croissant and lunch, which is usually some kind of pasta. The consumer associations urge us to show our disapproval of the expected increase in the price of pasta, bread and milk this autumn. Italy is the country where the consumption of pasta is the highest in the world. An Italian cannot survive two consecutive days without eating his pasta. The Italian families have just survived the expensive shopping period for school materials these last weeks, and they had enough of the rumors and news about the price increase in their beloved pasta. I wonder if this strike will have any effect on the decisions of the government, I have my doubts..
By the way, I once made the longest pasta with a Norwegian friend in a longest pasta making competition (!) in Bergen, Norway. Look at the photo above (the girl on the left is me). And can you believe that this photo was on the front page of
Bergens Tidende, a daily Norwegian newspaper? And not only that, it was news that began on the front page and took half of the third page as well. In Norway there is something called "agurk nyheter", meaning "cucumber news", news that is quite stupid and unimportant but is published because it is summer time and the journalists do not have much to do. Yes, I was in a cucumber news article in Norway, with my longest pasta.... :-)
