Vox Pop: Maria Teresa from Italy

Age: 55

Country of origin: Italy

Country of residence: Italy

Profession: musician and music therapist

 

Q: How does the EU influence your day-to-day life?

A: The EU gives me the freedom to travel comfortably, without borders, without controls, without currency exchange.

 

Q: When you think about the EU, what is the first picture that comes to your mind?

A: A big choir singing “An die Freude” in the finale of Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven.

 

Q: End the sentence: “Twenty years from now the EU … “

A: …will be a cultural reference rather than a political and economic one.

 

Q: Choose three adjectives for the EU!

A: Open, supranational, tolerant.

 

Q: Explain the EU to an 8-year-old child (in elementary school) in one sentence.

A: The EU is like a French and a German guy drinking beer together, 100 years after they shot at each other in a trench warfare.

 

Q: If the EU was an animal, what would it be and why?

A: A horse: beautiful, wise, useful, a protagonist in European history ever since.

 

Q: Is there a dish (in your country) that describes Europe best, and why?

A: The tomato! In the salad, in the sauces, on the pizza, on the polenta… whole Europe recognises the red colour of Italian tomatoes.