This morning’s online edition of La Repubblica brings the humorous announcement of a new soft drink that’s growing in popularity in the Eternal City. Called Vaffancola and flavored with coconut (the same small producer makes a classic cola version and one called “black” with licorice flavor added), we wonder if the drink is an homage to Beppe Grillo and his famous V-Days?
If you’ve not been keeping up with Italy’s numerous protests and political problems over the past year or so, here’s what you need to know to understand the relationship between this strangely named soda and Beppe Grillo: Grillo, an Italian activist, comedian, and actor, has declared war on crooked politics in Italy. As part of his spirited protest against corruption in Italian society, he writes one of the world’s most read blogs (in which he’s dubbed Berlusconi “the psycho-dwarf”) and last year, he declared the 8th of September to be a new unofficial Italian holiday called V-Day (Vaffanculo or “F*ck Off” Day), motivating some two million people in two hundred and twenty cities across Italy (and many abroad) to celebrate V-Day as an unofficial new national holiday.
Grillo’s purpose in staging the highly successful V-Day event was that of persuading Italians to sign a petition calling for the introduction of a Bill of Popular Initiative to remove members of the Italian Parliament who have criminal convictions of any kind from their office. (At present there are twenty-four convicted criminals currently serving as senators and representatives in the Italian parliament, or as Italian representatives in the European Parliament).
If you’re interested, it’s well worth reading Tom Mueller’s “Letter from Italy,” published in the New Yorker in Feburary 2008. Mueller calls Grillo “a distinctly Italian combination of Michael Moore and Stephen Colbert.” And, on these hot summer days in Rome, you’ll want to keep your eye out for a refreshing Vaffancola.
Photos by Paulo Siqueira/Franceschi .
