Italians behaving really, really badly. Again.

First, Sarah Weinman has a good summary of this whole sorry story, which you might want to read first so you don’t get confused. I’ll wait while you go do that.

So there you go. It’s not enough that women are getting napolied by an Italian American Republican in South Dakota. Or that Antonin Scalia napolied the whole country after the 2000 election. In case there’s any doubt about how bad we Italians can be, the Perugian officials involved in the (long and unsuccessful) hunt for the serial killer Il mostro di Firenze just couldn’t resist the temptation. They had to arrest and interrogate Douglas Preston. An American journalist. Somebody with lots of friends in the media. So you know, not only were they behaving badly, they were being really stupid. They thought they could intimidate him. They thought they could act big and mean and shake their fingers in his face and that he’d come back to the States cowed, and keep the whole thing to himself.

Dumb. Very dumb.

At least Preston got away; Mario Spezi is still there, and in real peril.

When Italians behave really badly, nobody is safe, not even (or especially not) other Italians. Preston could come home; Spezi is already home, and he’s stuck.