When you think of Italy and Iran, their similarities may not be what immediately spring to mind. But finding myself accidentally living in Florence while writing a book on my homeland of Iran, I was surprised to discover that life in the Renaissance city reminded me of life in Iran. It started – as so many things do – with food: in the market I found the same joy and delight in the produce that each season yields as in Iran. The excitement that surrounds the first of the new olive oil here, for example, reminded me of the buzz around the arrival of fresh pistachios each October in Iran; the same passion for the delicious cornucopia of the earth as informs our attitude to food in Iran. My interactions with Italians had the same mixture of human warmth overlaying the formality of social relations as characterises our elaborate system of courtesy in Iran – the kindness and generosity of Italians to a stranger reminded me more than anything of home. And the all-important ritual of ‘making la bella figura’ here in Italy was a perfect translation of the Iranian obsession with ‘aberoo’ – something that I had found near-impossible to explain to my British friends. In short, I was inspired. And perhaps that’s why, five years later, I am still here.
Kamin Mohammadi will be giving a talk at the British Institute on December 11 at 6pm, entitled ‘Aberoo and La Bella Figura: some points of contact between Iranian and Italian culture’. See www.britishinstitute.it.
