While real battles rages in Europe’s east, in the west the culture wars crackle anew as the immediacy of the conflict in Ukraine recedes and continental capers of a lighter variety capture the spotlight. 

In the latest example of such, Rome’s undersecretary for culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, has sent Italian newspapers into a frenzy over recent comments he made that are either wildly outrageous or mildly amusing, depending on one’s point of view. 

As a friend of the late Silvio Berlusconi, the flap has served to refresh memories of the ex-premier’s infamous “bunga bunga” parties and stir a debate about free speech.

In remarks made at Rome’s MAXXI Museum of Contemporary Art last month Mr. Sgarbi, a former art critic, recounted a conversation he once had with Michel Houellebecq, the aging enfant terrible of modern French literature, in which the author made a vulgar reference to the prostate. 

Mr. Sgarbi repeated that reference in a 45-minute video that was subsequently reported by La Repubblica and other Italian newspapers. 

Yet what really fired up the Italian press was Mr. Sgarbi’s boast that he had slept with “at least 1,500 women” and bemoaned that fact that despite his outsize reputation Berlusconi’s corresponding track record, so to speak, was not as robust as his own. 

The claim was accompanied by some colorful references to other portions of the standard male anatomy that, in the parlance of the Internet, are “not safe for work.”

In response to the randy comments one Italian senator, Carlo Calenda, said in a tweet, “If your aim was to ‘shock bourgeoisie,’  you’ve picked the wrong century.”

Indeed in the 21st century, public comments construed as overtly sexist would likely not do wonders for one’s career on American shores. 

Italy’s culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, remarked that “freedom of thought, protected by our constitution, is sacrosanct but must never lapse into vulgarity.” He added that “respect for women is a constant in my life.”

Meanwhile dozens of the Italian museum’s staffers, reportedly mostly female, signed a letter of protest and the opposition Five Star party has called for Mr. Sgarbi to resign. 

Yet he avers he has no plans to do that. Mr. Sgarbi told the newspaper Corriere della Serra that to step down over the brouhaha would be “censorship, true fascism.”

He also doubled down on his rant, telling La Repubblica that the by now infamous videotaped conversation was “a performance between two actors. They asked me how many women I have slept with and I answered. It’s freedom of speech.” 

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean other controversies swirl. As travel continues to rebound from the pandemic years so too do tales of tourist rip offs, which tend to happen with greater frequency in popular holiday islands like Mykonos. 

The social media application TikTok, which Greece’s premier, Kyriakos Mistotakis, used with great aplomb ahead of his landslide victory at the polls last month, is also advertising the dark side of restaurants that price-gouge tourists. 

According to Greek reports, more than half a million TikTok users have already seen a video of a tourist who says she was charged $48 for a plate of pasta at Mykonos’s famed Scorpios beachfront  restaurant. 

At another eatery on the island, a couple was reportedly charged  $760 for a plate of lobster pasta and two smoothies. 

Recently the New York Times reported on the underside of a  recent building boom on Mykonos and the word on the Aegean street, so to speak, is that tourism is down this year from the same period last year as many tourists are put off by sometimes outrageously high prices. A similar trend is being observed at nearby Santorini. 

In the meantime Greece’s new minister of tourism, Olga Kefalogianni, stated this week that she will be prioritizing a more even distribution of tourist flows and revenues to destinations across the country. 

Some travel industry observers  point to factors like higher hotel room costs, the stubbornly high price of gas, and uncertainty related to the war in Ukraine as possible factors in keeping some tourists away from normally popular holiday spots this summer. 

Still, the viral accounts of things like lothario Italian cultural officials and waiters wading into the Mediterranean to serve cocktails underscore that weariness with war and high cost of living woes notwithstanding, summer in Europe is now in full swing.