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By Root 608 0

back off was in fact a very effective and aggressive move in defense of his own interests and showed his mastery of locally appreciated forms of wit, politeness, and consideration. The play of fear also has a moral basis; in describing these events to me the proprietor quoted a Roman proverb-paura non fare, paura non avere (if you don't create fear, you won't suffer fear); the inspector, he implied, simply got his just deserts. Last, but certainly not least, the proprietor's friendship with the carabinieri evidently weighed more heavily on the outcome, as did the masculine authority of the policemen, than the specific requirements of the law the inspector tried to apply.

What the carabinieri got out of it, beyond the satisfaction of winning a fight, is unclear. One can only imagine that they were treated to a great deal of coffee in the ensuing months and Romans would assume as a matter of course that "coffee" here was a metonym for more considerable favors). Coffee is a social drink; it is particularly the medium of reconciliation when, for example, two merchants start to quarrel and then decide that they would gain more advantages from settling their differences and sealing their accord over a companionable slurp of intense, boiling espresso while standing at the bar counter under the barman's knowing eye.

Coffee thus has many meanings. It can sometimes be a simple sign of hospitality and friendship. But there is no really reliable way for an observer to know what the offer of coffee really means at any given moment. The issue of bribery is especially sensitive and difficult to document. Its very essence consists in hints and nudges-invitations to coffee are ideal for the purpose-and is cloaked in elaborate courtesies; indeed, some locals, of the old school, consider petty rake-offs to policemen, for example, to arise from "a sense of courtesy" (un senso di cortesia), making them very hard to distinguish, if distinguish them we must, from the friendly gesture of an invitation to drink a quick coffee together. Remarking on his reduction of prices for police on the beat, a newspaper vendor remarked simply, "It's a small act of politeness [correttezza] that I perform." In short, these are ordinary social reciprocities.

The newsagent's assessment hardly corresponds to what a civic moralist would understand by "correctness," also called correttezza. Not at all coincidentally, coffee adjusted to a more amusing taste by the addition of a little liquor is called caffe corretto, literally meaning "corrected coffee"; local ideas of correction are more about adjusting to a social aesthetic than following some abstract code such as that implied by the ironic tone in which most Romans mention being politically correct ~politicamente corretto). Accepted standards of social civility take precedence over civic formality. Sometimes it is hard to draw a line between keeping friendly relations with the local representatives of law and order and gracefully yielding to an extortion considered to be normal and even socially justifiable.

To make matters still more complicated, those whose official job it is to dig up the evidence of bribery are often thought to be deeply implicated in it themselves. Drawing lines of clear definition between the morally corrupt and the socially imperative is a fool's errand. Petty bribery is commonly linked with the stereotype of southern culture and an absence of the social culture (cultura sociale) or civilization (civilta) of the more orderly north. That formula suggestively inverts the locals' usual understanding of what it means to be civil, which is all about politeness (cortesia, correttezza) and friendship (amicizia)-the very essence of which is the reciprocity of favors and gifts. The policeman comments on the amount of goods the vendor has piled outside his kiosk and the vendor replies, "I'll take care of it" (ci penso io), a genial but irreproachable indication that he has understood the nature of the transaction even as he makes a big show of tidying up; the fact of the matter is that he cannot