un po' di informazione

So it has been about three weeks since my last post, but school happened. Although I’m not as swamped with course work as I usually am at Middlebury, this country has poisoned me with laziness. During my weekend, I hardly even want to go out anymore, I just want to take naps. Amidst my period of sloth I have had a few adventures.

Chocolate lovers, be prepared for a taste of envy, as I went to the largest chocolate festival in Europe, “Eurochocolate 2008.” This was last weekend, as I was recovering from a cold. I traveled, like my trip to Rome, alone and unprepared. However, this time a large part of that unpreparedness was planed. While on my trip to Rome I carried several items of importance, for this trip I packed nothing. The major difference, however, is that on this trip I found a hotel and thus many, “provisions” were provided. It was fun, I ate a lot of chocolate, I bought a bit of chocolate, and the city in which it took place was really cool. It was a medieval city called, Perugia, built upon a hill with all these winding steps to go from place to place. It didn’t hold a candle to my trip to Rome, however. Rome has become for me the benchmark through which I measure all of my other experiences here in Italy. I’m anxious to go back though I don’t know what I’d do this time around.

Apropos of nothing, I realized that many of the details of Florence and greater Italy have thus far gone undescribed.



This is an Italian exit sign. They’re everywhere. Most of the time you see these exit signs in clusters, as though the one ten feet away would escape your attention.

Eye contact is used differently in Italy. It is far more intense. I can’t imagine what it would be like to travel here as a woman because guys will literally stare at you unflinchingly from the moment you cross their field of vision to the moment you leave it. Between guys, eye-contact is more a game of dominance and figuring out who’s, “the man,” the, “alpha male” whatever you want to call it. This happens in the U.S. too, but in Italy it happens with a frequency and an intensity that is difficult to put into words.

Most of Italy shuts down between noon and two-thirty. The shops empty. Students are chased out of the library and the computer lab at my school becomes vacant. People go home to make lunch and take a nap. While this can be inconvenient for people raised in our 7/11 convenience store, 24 hour Wal-Mart culture, I’ve learned to appreciate the value of a good nap.

The Italian language is one of complexity and balance. Unlike the English language, it is not particularly rich in words; however, it makes up for it with a richness of structure that is tongue-tying. Articles, nouns, and their accompanying adjectives all agree in gender and number, which is why it is not uncommon for you to hear a sentence in which most words end with the same vowel. This of course is a bit of an oversimplification that presupposes a minimal knowledge of the language; however, suffice it to say that the richness in structure means that everyone speaks the language differently. Not to mention the regional dialectical differences. There are many words in Italian that don’t have direct translations into English and when I talk to some of you on the phone I often find myself stuck, wanting to use a word in Italian, but knowing it would reach the ears of the uninitiated. In the end, Italian has more facility when expressing emotions or desires, whereas English is more useful in getting a point across and describing events in detail, and exactly in the manner that you intend.

Everyone smokes.

I see public displays of affection on the daily.

In the grocery store they charge extra for each bag you wish to use and only offer one, no matter how many groceries you have. You have to ask for any extra. There is no choice between paper or plastic.

The idea that everyone in this country speaks English is grossly exaggerated. There are plenty of people here who don’t speak English. Without knowledge of Italian, my experience here would be drastically different.

Italian T.V is funny in an, “I’m laughing at you, not with you” way. Basic cable has about 4 different types of MTV and the worst music from ten years ago is seemingly very popular.

Above the stove there is a gas valve that you have to turn on to send gas to the burner.

If I started a Hooters franchise in Italy I would have more money than I’d know what to do with.

I’ve seen some incredible pieces of art. All of them were religious. The Catholic Church was clearly some power here in Italy, although now that power is largely diminished.

I miss apple pie, peanut butter, Vermont maple syrup, and Ribeye steaks. You can’t get those things here. Now I know what Jared feels like eating only Subway Sandwiches as I eat only pasta.

My expensive sonic-care toothbrush is probably dead after plugging it in during my first week without a converter. I just used an adapter which fixes the hardware issue but does not convert the whopping 220 volts that comes out of the wall into the American standard of 110… Now I know... Now I have to brush my teeth the old-fashioned way.

The U.S dollar is steadily gaining in value versus the Euro, but I still had to pay the equivalent of 4 dollars American for a soft-drink yesterday.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to write more often, but next week is the start of midterms so I’m not making any promises.

From Italy, “Buona Giornata!”