Entertainment

Italians don’t wait for nightfall to be entertained. For them it's enough to snatch a chair at an outdoor cafe, order a cynar and watch the world cruise by. For lazier types in smaller towns there are walls to lean on to look down on old men playing bowls on dusty turfs. Others, from the pubescent upwards, are preoccupied with revving up vespas and stalking women.

When it cornes to night‑time the smaller towns, much like Philadelphia, Pa., switch off the lights and turn on the tube. Only in the center cities of our regions and along the fun packed rivieras of the Adriatic, and the Amalfi and Ligurian coasts, does the pulse beat faster and the blond get warmer.

If your thing is strobe lights, music at a sustained crescendo, wild, way‑out garb and a dance floor as contracted as the value of the lira, you'll find plenty of discotheques in your style. There are also honkytonk joints à la Your Father's Moustache in Boston. Best of the bunch are the Red Garter, Florence, and Red Banjo, Rome.

Nightclubbing attracts the well‑heeled who can absorb the shock of admission tabs. Floor shows include striptease, feathered and sequined shapely dancing girls and folk, Neapolitan and popular songs. Hostesses prowl the bar stools, nibbling ears and whispering endearments to men on late night passes. Best time to arrive is about midnight when Cinderella's gone home and pumpkins turn into partygoers.

There are as many sucker joints as there are prostitutes off Via Roma in Naples. Most are found in the eastern port cities of Genoa and Naples. Touts collaring wandering tourists in adjacent streets offer young girls as a bonus for buying the first drink. Lonely sailors and horny landlubbers with more money than sense keep these places afloat.

Italy probably has more bars than England has pubs. Yet they are a world apart. The Italian bar doubles as a cafe and Entertainment quite a few commodities are sold from magazines to biscuits. They are generally lackluster and attract the less affluent in for ‑a quick birra or to sip slowly from a cup of espresso coffee while watching television.

Cinemas are extremely well‑patronized with an average of four showings daily However, unless you speak Italian you will have to hunt out the few cinemas, such as Pasquino and Tiffany in Rome, which show movies in the original language. Films are dubbed and there are no sub‑titles at all. Incidentally, if your image of Italy is of a circumscribed Catholic community, you are in for quite a few revelations. Many of the films cater to the permissive society. The pre‑showing publicity is equally candid.

A country that produced Goldoni and Pirandello is naturally strong on theater but you will have a language problem here. One English‑language group stages high‑quality modern theater in the crypt of the American Church of St. Paul Within the Walls, Rome. But there are also regular visiting theater groups from Rumania, France and other countries.

The classically‑minded will find much to choose from the number of concerts. Many municipally‑sponsored concerts are held in the richly‑decorated salas of the medieval and Renaissance palaces which turns these evenings into spectacles rather than entertainment strictly for highbrows. Music is generally of a very high standard and Italian composers are favored for the program.

Opera cuts across all artificial barriers and is a form of entertainment that strikes a chord in many Italians. They are consequently a highly discriminating audience which demands, and nearly always gets, excellent performances. Evening dress and dark lounge suits are mandatory for first night performances, except for ticket‑holders to the galleries. You should book as soon as possible as tickets are quickly snatched up by the locals and others driving in from the provinces.

The only casinos outside of Venice are at Campione d'Italia, Como, at San Remo, near the French border, and at St. Vincent in the Valley of Aosta. In Venice, the swank, marble casino opens on the Lido in the summer months. Men must wear jackets to get into the chandeliered and carpeted extravaganza, but ties are not necessary. In the winter, the croupiers and management take the vaporetti down the Grand Canal and re‑open at the older premises in the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi (where Wagner died). You lose before you place your first bet as the entrance fee. Admission, limited to persons 21 and over with identity cards, entitles you to play roulette, trente et quarante, pontoon, craps and baccarat. Minimum and maximum bets allowed are entirely at the discretion of the management and are posted up near the tables. There's a nightclub with strip shows on the premises.

Venice also leads the rest of Italy in entertaining you with bands. In tune with the heady atmosphere of this romantic city, the bands of the Florian, Quadri and Lavena Caffes serenade with tangos, waltzes and themes from movies (Lara's theme is top favorite). Elsewhere in Italy you may have to wait for one of the folkloristic festas to hear the local band and then it's more an occasion for admiring the colorful uniforms than for listening to the tubas and trumpets.