What makes Italy Italy?

Why the country's unwritten rules matter as much as the written ones

Italy probably has more laws on its books than any other country in Europe.

There’s a law banning sand castles on one beach in Veneto. Another law, on Capri, prohibits people from wearing wooden clogs. Feeding pigeons or seagulls is illegal in Venice, goldfish bowls are banned in Rome, and a town near Naples even outlawed dying.

But I think the country’s unwritten rules are a lot more interesting than the written ones -- and just as important.

They’ve even become a sort of unofficial theme of The Italian Dispatch. By my count, around a third of the posts so far have touched on them in one way or another.

But one thing I haven’t written about as much is why this invisible rulebook is so important. Why should Italy residents, visitors, and would-be visitors care?

Peppino De Filippo and Totò at a coffee bar in the 1956 film La Banda degli onesti (The Band of Honest Men)

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