The phrase has been imported from the English language because there is no Italian equivalent. Its meaning, however, has been graphically illustrated from Rome to Milan throughout the summer.
“Binge drinking,” a vice more commonly associated with British tourists, has become a national controversy in a country that has traditionally taken a moderate approach to alcohol.
Police were this weekend patrolling historic piazzas in Rome to enforce a summer ban on drinking alcohol in the streets, put into effect after months of drunken mob scenes.
“This is a huge step forward, backed all the way by Romans,” said Dino Gasperini, the city official who masterminded the ban. “Drinking in the street is just not part of Roman culture.”
A government study this year revealed that nine out of 10 young Italians were drinking at weekends and said that achieving a state of drunkenness was the goal for two thirds of boys and a third of girls. That was enough to convince Milan city council to land parents with 900 euro fines if their children were caught drunk in public.
In Rome this weekend, the normally chaotic Campo de’ Fiori was unseasonably calm, save for a few teenagers surreptitiously sucking on straws poked into plastic beakers, out of sight of two parked police cars.
“What has changed in Italy is that my father would not have let me back in the house if I was drunk,” said policeman Massimiliano Benedetti, 45, on patrol in the quiet Piazza Trilussa, the square known for its gushing fountain, river views and, until recently, wild party atmosphere thanks to revelers spilling out of the nearby bars.
Michele Sorice, a sociologist at Rome’s Luiss University, said the crackdown was a response to a fundamental shift in Italian society.
“For the first time, the link between drinking and sitting down to eat with the family in Italy has been severed,” he said. “Add to that the discovery of spirits by the very young. My students tell me I am old-fashioned because I like a pint, not shots.”
Alcoholism in Italy is not the sole preserve of the young: Overall rates have tripled since 1996. Moreover, scores of new pubs opening over the past decade have targeted Italian teenagers with cheap alcohol deals.
“Young men see losing control as a way of living a life of excess, just as their fathers saw fast driving,” Sorice said.
The Italian language has no word for “hangover” or “pub crawl,” but six organized crawls now wind their way around Rome on a nightly basis.
Last week Patrick, an 18-year-old waiter, was looking unsteady on his feet during one tour, chanting “Beer! Beer!” and downing drinks at a pace more normally associated with British tourists.
“This pub crawling is great and could take off among Italians once they find out about it,” he said.
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