Whenever roadworks appear in Italy they are never far behind: elderly men who gather to observe, comment and criticise, often with their hands clasped behind their backs.
After becoming a cultural phenomenon and the subject of books, blogs and articles, the name coined for the proactive pensioners, Umarell, has been officially listed in an Italian dictionary.
“These are men who are often told to leave home in the morning by their wives, who don’t want them in the way,” Danilo Masotti, an Italian writer who is credited with inventing the word in 2005, said. “Their first mission is to be the first in a queue — could be the supermarket, but doesn’t it matter. And they have a passion for roadworks.”
The word, which