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Beltrami is a thoughtful and articulate exponent of the Ticino culture that straddles the frontier between Europe's Germanic north and Mediterranean south. "The Ticino experience could serve as a good example of European integration for our neighbors," he says. "We come from an Italian culture, but we consider Germanic Switzerland our partner par excellence. We are a tiny minority — only 383,000 people, the size of a Milan suburb — but the German and French-speaking regions respect us because they realize it's important for Switzerland to remain together. When the European Union speaks of subsidiarity — doing as much as possible at the local level — that's exactly the way we do things here."
Despite their links to the Swiss confederation, Beltrami explains, the Ticinesi people feel strong affinities with their Italian brothers and sisters. "We have always lived in osmosis with the Italians," he says. "Many Italians work here. They have the same formation, the same way of seeing things. Ticino culture is really Lombard culture. The cooking is Lombard." Yet the Ticinesi have a different national identity from the Italians, Beltrami continues. "The Italians have an original national history. There were the Romans, the Etruscans, their traditional literature, painting, architecture. That makes for a very strong identity. We share in all that, but indirectly and in a less intense way."
Though Ticino fits comfortably into a confederation with the German and French Swiss, the region is not ready to link up with institutional Europe. "We're against it today," says Beltrami. "The bureaucratic aspects make us hesitate. We're not anxious to be a minority within a minority. It's hard enough making our voice heard in Berne. Can you imagine what it would be like in Brussels?"
NEXT: A taste of life on the Swiss-Italian Lake Maggiore
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