the best gossip

I recently wrote about how I entertained myself with the magazine Story, but the real gossip fun can be found in Italy. As soon as I set foot on the ground, I race to a giornalaio to train my Italian and legitimately indulge in the gossip magazines. My all-time favorite is Chi. Because, like so many things, gossiping in Italian is so much nicer. And here's why.

• The women. They are so incredibly precise just as you want them. Just a bit too much filler in the lips, a bit too long with the straightener, a bit too often visited the breast doctor. Some I actually know from Chi. They are in there every week, you see. Michelle Hunziker, let's say the Wendy van Dijk of Italy, is always in there when I buy it. And Elisabetta Gregoraci was also a regular feature in Chi. She was the love of Flavio Briatore (you know, the Formula 1 boss who was with Heidi Klum until she caught him playing doctor with his neighbor girl) and they also had a son. This week I read that they are divorced, but luckily she was reunited with her sister. Because she certainly wanted nothing to do with that creep Flavio.
• The gays. For such a conservative country as Italy (when I tell people that we are not married, they look at me as if I said I roast freshly born kittens over the barbecue, they are that shocked) they are incredibly advanced in their acceptance of gays. Chi presented paparazzi photos this week of Stefano Gabbana who was caught with his new love on the Amalfi coast. And a few pages further, I saw another gay couple being incredibly intimate and scantily dressed with each other.
• They don't make it prettier than it is. I saw a report about a rich Italian enjoying his retirement on his new yacht. At his feet is his loyal dog. That, yes, I saw it right, is just humping against his lower leg. Entertaining stuff, in short, that Chi. And it is of course especially great for your Italian. When I'm done with it, do you want it?