The Last Italian: Portrait of a People

Eschewing the romanticism of many guidebooks, Murray, the New Yorker 's Rome correspondent, views his mother's native land with affection tempered by awareness of Italia's foibles. He argues that despite a rise in pollution, traffic congestion, crime and drug abuse--due to the transformation of Italy in the last decades from an agricultural to an industrial society--the people's irreverent, resourceful, witty character remains largely unchanged. A Roman restaurant owner's pride in the quality of his fare is matched by that of Fiat empire builder Gianni Agnelli, and it is echoed overseas by the ``last Italian,'' an elderly member of San Francisco's Italian community. Murray also evokes the jubilation of thousands of Venetians who circle the lagoon in an armada of small craft in a daylong celebration of their city. (June)