Top comment – because of the insight it gives

This comment was posted by L. Gatt, who has lived in Italy for many years.

There is audio to this picture. It’s on some Italian websites.

Renzi passed a comment about Muscat’s tie which bears the colour of the Fiorentina football team.

It was a gift from Renzi to Muscat. Normally people place that kind of gift on a shelf – not wear it a press conference.

These two get along for a very simple reason. Renzi has an immeasurable ego. Muscat is totally insecure and is star struck even by the likes of Renzi, before whom he feels inferior.

Renzi loves the fact that Muscat revers him and gets all fidgety and embarrassed around him, and that he speaks to him in broken Italian rather than English.

Renzi’s attitude towards Muscat is the typical familiarity and ridicule that Italians and particularly Florentines reserve for those they do not esteem.

He took “Moose Cut” to eat at the local trattoria. That is not the usual treatment reserved for a respected head of government. Contrary to popular belief, Italians are sticklers for formality and protocol.

Renzi addresses Obama and Merkel in the third person – which is a sign of respect amongst colleagues.

On the other hand he openly makes fun of “Moose Cut” who gets all flushed like a schoolgirl and shows off the Fiorentina tie which Renzi gave him. Poor Europe.