The Land Where Lemons Grow: The Story of Italy and Its Citrus Fruit

"This book is based on a nice idea: it’s telling the history of Italy through stories about the cultivation of citrus fruits in different regions. You find out about chinotto . This was an orange-based carbonated drink invented by the San Pellegrino drinks company in 1932. It was seen by the fascist government as an autarchic alternative to the American drinks that were gaining popularity in Europe. You learn about the Battle of Oranges in Ivrea, where every carnival thousands of people throw oranges at each other. It’s allegedly linked to the rebellion of a miller’s daughter against Baron Ranieri di Biandrate, a medieval feudal overlord, who expected to enjoy his ius primae noctis with her. It’s a very interesting book and very well woven together. What’s depressing is that even with its fruit and vegetables and its wealth of nature and biodiversity, we don’t have a real Green Party in Italy. No political party wins the election by speaking about the environment or defending our land. It’s a bit of a contradiction we should probably try to understand. We shouldn’t allow illegal housing, especially in southern Italy or the Amalfi coast, where you just build wherever you like and then there’s an amnesty and the house stays. We shouldn’t allow cruises to go to Venice . We need to protect what we have, but it’s a completely underrated topic. Politics is mostly about public finances nowadays, or maybe how to behave towards Ukraine. There is no room for nature, or how to defend our cultural heritage. Italy is the country in Europe with more concrete per person, more cars per person and the country where people use more water per person, probably because of poor planning. It’s sad. We need to find somebody with the courage to say, ‘Let’s remove some of the concrete and replace it with gardens and with trees.’ There has been no politician yet who was done that successfully. At the moment, there is enthusiasm about a politician called Elly Schlein. She’s left-leaning and the new secretary of the social democratic party. She’s from Italy but she went to school in Switzerland, and she has a girlfriend. So there is a bit of expectation about her. She seems to be very open-minded. When she was 17, she went to the US to campaign for Obama as a volunteer. It’s true that most people feel they are worse off since the euro was introduced more than 20 years ago. It’s not very popular. Italy used to devalue its currency to increase exports, and that’s no longer possible. But I don’t think an economy that relies on the devaluation of its own currency is a sound way of proceeding. Personally, I believe that Italy needs the European mindset. Without the European Union, there wouldn’t be the same protections for the environment or for consumers. One big problem we have in Italy is tax evasion. According to the latest data, just 4% of people are reporting more than 70,000 euros per year in income, which is not possible. Right now, the bulk of taxation is borne by employees. Small businesses and the self-employed continue to evade taxes , even though they introduced electronic invoicing four or five years ago. I think Italy has been the first country to introduce electronic invoicing for all transactions. That cut tax evasion dramatically and has improved the situation. Yes, I made an effort. You have two opposing characters. One is the flamboyant narcissistic Vincent D’Amont, who is the disgraced former mayor of Paris. He wants to make a comeback, so he devises the idea of a referendum— held via a social media platform—to unite Germany and France. He’s the champion of the anti-European ideas. He says he doesn’t want to keep subsidizing Eastern European countries. He says France and Germany have a history together—even if it’s a history of war. Together they have half of the GDP of Europe, and he wants to create a single country called Charlemagny. That’s one mindset. Then there is Miss Cliché, a political blogger from Italy, who now lives in Birmingham, in the UK. She has one of the most famous news blogs in Europe and she’s obsessed with fact-checking. She has the opposite mindset. She thinks we need to work together. No single European country has the clout to influence the world, especially as other countries get bigger. We need to promote European values, like gender equality, the rule of law, and the separation of church and state. I wanted to crystallize two different views of Europe in a book. Then the reader can choose. People like to vote for ‘villains’ nowadays—look at Trump and Berlusconi. Or Boris Johnson. He changed his mind on Brexit because he saw an opportunity for himself. I just read the book by David Cameron : they were chatting against Brexit and then, all of a sudden, Boris Johnson vanishes and, two days later, he’s the champion of Brexit. People like to vote for politicians, even when they know they’re opportunists or a bit shady. So some readers will prefer Vincent d’Amont to Miss Cliché’s stance. It’s up to them. I also tried to make the book funny. There’s a lot of action and many twists. I’m not going to spoil it."