Daily Archives: 5 October, 2011

An Italian view of the Knox/Sollecito Appeal result.

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There’s a programme on TV called Porta Porta. It’s like a discussion programme. F likes watching it but it usually goes on too late for me. Also, it’s quite difficult to follow (for me).

The night before last, they were covering the Kercher murder case/Knox/Sollecito appeal.

Last night, at the restaurant, we (F and I) had a discussion about the result of the appeal. I really wanted to understand why the Italians (and I am generalising here) think Knox and Sollecito are guilty and the appeal came out wrong.

Obviously, we are fed different biases by our media (TV, newspapers, etc.) and I understand that but here are the results of my little survey (of 1 person, I know that, but it’s the best I can do at the moment).

The problem seems to be, that if the result of the original trial was so certain, the Italians question how the appeal could have completely overturned the original result. F said that a woman on the show (that he respects) had said that either the judge in the first trial was sleeping or there is something wrong with the appeal.

I tried to say that the problem was with the DNA evidence (the way it was collected, analysed, etc.) – but this was ignored by F. I said I didn’t understand why the mobiles discarded in the garden weren’t checked for DNA as they had belonged to the two Italian girls also sharing the house. He told me they were Kercher’s phones. I need to check. [Update: I have checked. One belonged to one Italian flatmate – but she had lent it to Meredith. The other was Meredith’s UK phone]

He believes that the police did a good job (outside of Italy, of course, we feel that the police did a botched job at best). He believes that they are guilty (Knox and Sollecito).

But the main problem is that – the first trial having been so decisive on the guilt of the two, Italians fail to understand how it could be that an appeal could have completely overturned that. To them, something stinks. And, whilst it stinks, then the pair are still guilty.

I wonder if we’ll ever really know the truth.

Milleluci – restaurant or bar?

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“I’ll wait outside”, he says, “It’s very gay”

But he wouldn’t tell me over the FB chat. He waited until we were there.

We were using another Groupon coupon. For a restaurant called Milleluci. On FB chat I translated it as ‘a thousand lights’.

“Yes”, he said, “that’s correct but I’ll have to tell you later why it’s very gay”.

I got there first. It was very gay. There were gay people outside and when we got in, it was very gay.

It’s a bar and a restaurant – bar at the front and restaurant at the rear. It’s open from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m.

The service was great, especially as F did his usual and chatted to the waiter (maybe owner) about the restaurant and how fabulous it all was. Milleluci was some TV programme or something with Mina and some other singer. All very showy and very gay. It’s a restaurant that has memorabilia from that time (80s, I think). It’s red. And black. It has hand-painted red tables with a picture of an Italian diva of that time pasted on top. It has hand-made posters/pictures on the wall – again of the divas of that time. The music is also of that time.

There is a glitter-ball in the centre of the restaurant/bar. I suppose it’s mainly for the bar but WTF?

V and I used to go to this restaurant before, some years ago, before it became a very gay restaurant/bar. When it was run by some North Africans/Turkish people or something. Anyway, then they closed. Since then there have been a few restaurants and bars that have opened in it’s place ….. only to close within a year or so. The last I knew, it was a sushi restaurant – that was always empty.

And, now it’s Milleluci.

It’s a nice, trendy bar/restaurant. The waiter (or owner) was very nice. We had our plate of cold meats and salami to start with a prune/sausage/sage and something ‘thing’ that was lovely. We had a glass of prosecco as well. Then cold meats were nice. It came with a kind of onion marmalade that was also nice.

F chose some wine. It was good. The next course was a choice from their range of pasta, chalked up on a board. F had leek and something (which was really lovely) and I had the taglietelle with ragù (meat). I wish I had had F’s. Unfortunately, mine was not so brilliant and part of the pasta was dry and another part it had stuck together. But the taste was OK.

The main course was a choice of two meat dishes. I chose the costata (basically a chop) which came with potatoes. F, not liking meat, had one of their starters. Burrata I have mentioned before. I wish I had that too rather than my chop. Burrata is a kind of mozzerella. It is like having a soft, light butter but it is really divine. F’s was as good as I have tasted. Unfortunately, although my chop was cooked fine, it was tough. The potatoes would have been better if they had been a bit crispy – but they had a nice taste. The meat was nice tasting – it was a shame it was not such a good piece.

Then I had some chocolate thing, whilst F had their fruits-of-the-forest cheesecake. This was the only time I preferred my choice. Cheesecake, here, in Italy, I find too heavy.

We paid €20 for the wine. I suppose a meal with antipasto, secondo and sweet would have set you back about €25 per head – so, in the end, we would have paid €70-80 with the wine – but, obviously, we had more food than we would normally have.

It’s a nice, friendly place. We would (probably will) go there again but I will be more careful with my selection next time. Also, I won’t eat so much because now I am very fat.

In the end, they asked us to come to their one-year anniversary party, next Monday. Yes, they were very nice people. After all, they were gay and, as F said, “Gay people know how to treat their customers well”. It made me laugh …. inside, of course.

We talked about the Knox verdict and stuff as well. I will give you the results of my “survey” in the next post.