All Things Italian

We keep talking about how we need to start writing down all the little things that one notices on a daily basis when one is an American living in Italy. I think it's time to start writing it down. I'm sure there will be many addendums to this entry as these things continue to add up. There are, of course, many things that are good, some are bad, and some just make you go, "hmmm?"
 Here it goes....

1.  As Chris started to explain in his sheep entry, there are many farm fields everywhere around here. You need only go a few hundred meters  outside the city to find them. It's actually a striking thing when you first come here. I guess they don't have vast interior states in their country like Nebraska and Iowa where all farming is done. They do it everywhere. There is no "urban sprawl". It's actually really nice. Now that it's spring, every morning on the way to school, the kids watch the farmers plowing their fields. The down-side is, as Chris said, when they spread the fertilizer it's like being hit over the head with a board. The ripe odor hits your nose and you turn green and a bit dizzy. Luckily, it seems most of that has passed for now. Anyway, I'm convinced this agricultural zoning is at least partly why the food is so good. Talk about buying local!

2. Bicycles everywhere. The best is the old people on bikes. I tell you there are more seniors on bicycles than I thought possible and I'm willing to bet most of them have their original knees and hips too. When I run on Sunday morning, there are always a few women pulling their bikes into the church bike rack. These older women are always in skirts or dresses of course. Also, I'm not talking bicycling on a nice park path. I'm talking bicycling along roads that are 1 1/2 lanes wide with little Italian cars whizzing by, or heavy rush hour traffic around the city. I was trying to navigate this rush hour traffic at twilight the other day when a woman around the age of 70 in a black dress came right through two lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic and I had to hit the brakes. WHew. Also, there are plenty of serious cyclists too. Lately, there are many alone or in singles, but on the weekend it's not unusual to pass a large peloton coursing down the road.

3.  Recycling is a practice taken seriously. There are five different pick-ups for our house: carta - all paper and cardboard, plastica - all plastic and cans, vetro - glass, umido - all organic food waste, and secco - basically everything else. They come to get the umido twice a week and the other recyclables about every 3-4 weeks. Though they come for the secco every couple weeks, if you put it out more than about 5 times a YEAR, you will get charged. Yes, people take recycling seriously and I think it's smart. Chris got scolded yesterday at the gelateria because he threw away his half-eaten cone. You may think that the crazy part of the story is that Chris did not finish his whole gelato/cone and normally I would agree, but here, the point is that he threw it in the general secco trash instead of giving it to the lady to place in the umido trash.

4.  Security. All Italian houses have either thick wooden shutters covering their windows or metal shades/shutters that roll down. When you leave your house, you not only lock your doors, you batten down the hatches. Apparently, violent crime around here is at a much lower rate than the states, but theft is much higher. Everyone has gates, fences, or at least a short wall around their house with a locked gate, and then you have the shutters over every window, and many people also have bars over at least the windows on the lower or ground floors.

5.  Women and fashion. Yes, it's true that Italian women (and men) are serious about how they look. Want to spot an American with ease? Look for the woman in boot cut jeans. Italian women wear the tightest jeans and pants possible and usually with heels. I think there are few other places where you see a woman on a scooter with blue, suede 4 inch heeled boots. She was probably on her way to work. It's also very interesting to me how much of a significant export Italian women are. I suppose you can see it on a world view with the likes of Nicholas Sarkozy and George Clooney, but I can tell you the American service men who come through this town have found many an Italian woman to take home with them.When I mentioned this interesting phenomenon to my husband he remarked, "well, they are smokin' hot." That shouldn't bother me, right? I mean, he seemed to state it like it's a well-known fact that would be hard to dispute. Ok, I get it.

The Italian women enjoying the sun while their children and husbands hit the ski and sledding slopes.

Well, I think there are many other things to be added to this theme of "all things Italian." It will be a work in progress. This is a start. Ciao!