I have decided to start a new feature called Vignettes which are observations or reflections on living in Italy.  I have a list of these observations and my aim is to share these with you in smaller bites than my other blogs. You will find Vignettes listed on the top menu as well.

Disclaimer: These are by no means a criticism of life in Italy but merely observations on how I perceive things to be different or interesting about living here.

The other night as I left to meet a friend for an aperitivo I found my street and the following one blocked by vans labelled Carabinieri.

Business as usual on my street

Surrounding the street entrances were the Carabinieri in full riot gear.  It is not that unusual to see this occurrence and as I surmised there was a political candidate in the area and the Carabinieri were prepared for possible protests. Personally I find it a bit disconcerting in this age of terrorism as often I do not know why there is such a show of force.  Deciding to take another route to meet my friend I came upon more vans, this time labelled Polizia. Armed and protected with their bullet-proof vests, they looked less militaristic than the Carabinieri but nonetheless formidable.

State Police

I had previously asked another friend what is the difference between the two of these groups and who would I call in an emergency, for example if I was robbed.  She said they were basically the same and I could call either.  And indeed there are 2 emergency numbers listed to call- 112 for the Carabinieri and 113 for the Polizia.

So as my friend and I sipped our drinks not far from these blockades with people going about life as usual, I asked her opinion on what was the difference between these two.  She basically said the same as my other friend but I was more persistent this time in trying to understand their roles.  She explained that the Carabinieri were part of the military whereas the polizia were under the State.  Ok, so still – who do you call for what?  She said either as well but she preferred the Carabinieri as she felt they were more professional in her opinion. And indeed I have observed that the Carabinieri look sharper when I see them, especially in their dress uniforms and they have more of a guarded appearance.

So I finally researched the police in Italy and found it to consist of multiple forces, 2 local and 5 national, with all being under the Ministry of the Interior except for the Carabinieri which is part of the armed forces of Italy. And Italy has the largest force in the European Union.

Basically you have the Carabinieri, which has a history pre-dating the Italian unification, and performs similar duties to the state police.  Carabinieri are considered more of an elite force and have been stationed in other countries such as Iraq. The state police, along with normal law enforcement duties, are also responsible for the roads, railways and airports.  For those readers of Donna Leon’s wonderful mystery books set in Venice this is the police you find located in the Questura and who also issue the prized residence permit that I hope to obtain next year. And then there is the local or municipal police that is relegated to traffic control and local regulations.

And let’s not leave out the Guarda di Finanza that is a military force but under the Ministry of Finance with police roles. They are in charge of things like tax evasions, financial fraud and smuggling.  And yes they are the ones who are supposed to stop you if you leave a store without a receipt for your purchase.

And all of these are identified by their uniforms and the color of the cars they drive that is nicely outlined on a website I discovered and learned that the light blue vans and cars I see are the state police and not the local police as I thought.

So now that I know all this information, my original question remains – “If there is something strange in the neighborhood, who ya gonna call?”  As a foreigner I think I would start with the state police and let them decide to call in the cavalry.

Carabinieri on patrol