Hymned by Pet Shop Boys, paninari dressed expensively, ate fast food, loved pop music – and some flirted with the far right. Now middle-aged, its scenesters explain its appeal
On a sultry June afternoon the tables of a snack bar in Foglizzo, a small town in northern Italy, fill up with a dozen men riding motorbikes and dressed in colourful apparel. It’s a gang of paninari: a quintessentially Italian, once-dominant youth subculture.
Today, paninari are well into their 50s, and the group we meet in Foglizzo, as the town was celebrating its yearly courgette festival, are no exception. But despite the grey hairs and extra pounds that come with age, they still look smart in their typical paninari outfits, sporting Timberland boots, cowboy style belts and flashy sunglasses.
