Leziones
After one week in Firenze, here are some things I have learned:
Italians really love their bicycles and vespas, even tiny children and very old ladies ride on the backs or fronts or wherever they can fit. This morning I saw an entire family perched on their tiny scooter.
They love these forms of transportation almost as much as they love their cell phones, tight jeans, fancy sunglasses, thick black eyeliner, cheesy American television, incredibly high heels on cobbled streets and ironic tshirts printed in english. But the tshirts are seldom ironic, mostly nonsensical, and often misspelled.
Geckos make great pest control in museums.
No matter how hard to try to speak the language, if you have blond hair and blue eyes Italians will speak to you in English.
If you don’t shave for a week, one can easily start to smell like an old Italian man.
Strangers playing Italian guitar on ponte vecchio while the sun sets its warmth over the Arno is one of the sweetest sounds.
The vocal intonations of American teenage girls is one of the most grating sounds.
Seventeenth century homoerotica is hot.
Target and Walmart epitomize what is wrong with America and I miss them both deeply.
When you are hungry and homesick its good to eat a big plate of scrambled eggs mixed with prosciutto and creamy asiago cheese.
I like poetry.
Wine can cost $4 a bottle and still be really good.
It is a precious luxury to have internet access at home.
I’m not as tough as I like to think I am.
Things rarely turn out like you expected.
September 15th, 2005 at 10:31 am
Bonjourno!
I’ve been reading, and loving your blogs, and I just realized that I could comment if I wanted (I don’t use Friendster much). I have two thoughts for you that came to me from my own European travels: 1. By the end of your trip you will realize that while you may not be as tough as you thought you were, you will be stronger than you ever gave yourself credit for. I bet the toughest people in the world would get lonely being so far from home, surrounded by a language that’s not innate to them and a culture that truly is “foreign.” It takes a strong person, however, to have the guts to even do it in the first place. 2. Nothing ever turns out like you expected - it turns out even better in the end. That’s what makes life such a wonderful adventure.
I know everything you’re feeling right now, everything you’re seeing (the high heels on the cobble stones blew my mind, too). The sound of the guitars as I walk down Ponte Vecchio, the smells, the food, the wine, the fountains - you may feel worlds away sometimes, but you are not alone.