Italians like to wear their qualifications where everyone can see them. Accountants style themselves Ragioniere, architects are always Architetto, and so on. Corporate chieftains whose business successes have long since overshadowed their academic achievements hang on to the handle: so Fiat’s Gianni Agnelli was always l’Avvocato, Carlo De Benedetti is still l’Ingegnere. I used to be rather proud to receive letters addressed to “Egregio Dott. Hill”, when I worked in Milan, until I realised protocol dictated that every university graduate was a Dottore or Dottoressa.
意大利人喜歡把資質“穿在身上”，讓每個人都看得到。會計師的舉止行為讓人一望即知是會計師，建筑師走到哪都有建筑師的派頭，其他行業的人也是如此。一些企業老總，盡管他們在商業上的成就早已超過了在專業上的成就，還是喜歡掛一個專業頭銜。比如菲亞特(Fiat)老板吉亞尼?阿涅利(Gianni Agnelli)，永遠都被稱為“律師”(l'Avvocato)；又如卡洛?德貝內代蒂(Carlo De Benedetti)，仍然被稱為“工程師”。我在米蘭工作的時候，每次收到“致親愛的希爾博士”的來信都感到非常自豪，直到有一天，我發現，意大利的習俗是把有大學文憑的人都稱為博士。