The Hindu Business Line : Of beauty and balding men

Rome, Nov. 9 “Normally, Canadian women are so fat … they eat hamburgers and hot dogs … but you are so different, so slim … almost like a European woman.”

This is Michele Bungaro, a journalist and communications chief for a big Italian consortium promoting olive oil across the world. We are a group of international journalists visiting the region of Puglia, famous for its olive oil production, and Bungaro is a typical Italian man rooting for the most beautiful woman in the group … Isabelle Huot from Canada.

In our group of 12, ten are women and all of us can’t help feasting our eyes on the handsome Italian men we find all over the place. At the Rome airport, as we are being transferred by the bus to the aircraft, none of the women miss the striking look-alike of Tom Cruise. Whether it is your taxi driver, concierge at the hotel or a policeman on the street, they are all very good looking, the young and old alike.

Maria, our Greek colleague, soon divulges the secret of their great looks. “Oh, Italian men take such good care of themselves … they are all the time working out in the gym, and take only a soup or salad for dinner.”

‘takes 10 minutes’

But then, why are so many of them sporting cleanly shaven heads. Is that the latest fashion statement, one wonders. “Oh no,” laughs Bungaro, 47, and having a cleanly shaved head himself. “I shave my head because I was losing hair, and who wants to look bald,” he shrugs.

So how often does he go to the parlour to get his head shaved? “Oh, I can’t afford that! I do it at home everyday … it takes about 10 minutes, and I don’t use any shaving foam, only water.”

So what do young Italian women think of their gorgeous men, and more important, their flirting tendencies? Simona, our tour guide, does not mince words. “Oh they are all awful, they are mama’s boys… in Italian, we call them ‘mamone’. As for their looking so good, it’s awful if you live with them. In the morning it’s not funny when the guy doesn’t come out of the bathroom as he is staring at the mirror and beautifying himself for an hour!”

At the Piazz Spagna in Rome, you can find all the fashion brands, from Gucci to Prada, and you can at least feast your eyes on the window displays. While black is clearly the fashion statement of the moment, we are stunned by the riot of colours, and the elegance and style, whether it is stocks or stockings or ties or scarves, the beautiful displays take your breath away and tempt you to enter the glittering stores.

The sun is out after a spell of rain and it looks as though the entire city of Rome has come out to celebrate. The Metro is so packed that you could easily have been in the suburban network of Mumbai. You have to be very very careful, as the “eternal city” is famous for its pickpocketers.

Cafes & pizzas

But once you get out of the station and step onto the narrow cobbled streets, the charm of the place overwhelms you. With the clouds having disappeared, tables of little cafes and pizzerias are out, and even though Marryam, the food specialist in our group, turns up her nose, Chitra, my other Indian colleague, and I root for the pizza, and it is delicious… light on cheese and with an amazingly thin crust. The red house wine is a perfect accompaniment!

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Of beauty and balding men