Recent Anecdotes

Sometimes when things happen to me, I start to blog about them in my head. I think for this last month or so, I will try to get as many of those random little moments of Italy life up here as I can, starting with this post. Since lately lists seem fun, I will go with that.

1) Sunscreen. I got some sun this weekend, in a couple places more than I'd have liked. I had some to use, but as a group we did very badly at supplying ourselves. Lucia (aka Georgetown) bought some for all of us to use the second day. I figured it was better to supply myself with some so I am not caught without it again, so I headed to the supermarket, where I buy all of my personal care products. Sure enough, it was on a special display, but I noticed something odd. Most of the sunscreen was in very low SPF. It also comes in 20, which I am not sure if I have ever seen in the US. There was a lot of 20 and a lot of 15, a little 30 and a couple things of 50 (but possibly only in a kind advertised as for children). I think I ended up getting a 30 bottle. As I stood there I found myself musing on what this might reveal about Italian culture as compared to American - or is it because, on average, we are paler than they are? It could be, or maybe they just don't care about the risks of skin cancer as much. After all, they don't seem to care about lung cancer...

2) This is from our trip to Maremma too. On Saturday afternoon, we stopped for sandwiches on our way to the beach, in a small town near the sea in Southern Tuscany. Picture us rolling into the (basically empty) place - 5 American girls replete with sunglasses, tank tops, shorts, skirts, and bathing suits underneath, and two more adult Italian women. I know we may have been a sight at the moment. So then we go to ascertain what the sandwich options are. For one, Megan doesn't eat meat so Lucia asked what she could have. Mozzarella and tomato, was the answer. Oh, lovely. Someone else wanted that too. Then another person ventured, "I'd like prosciutto but with mozzarella instead of fontina (as he'd listed as a choice)." "Oh, no, I can't do that. Pecorino yes, but not mozzarella. Mozzarella with tomato. Okay, two mozzarella and tomato." At this point, he disappeared into the back! 5 of us were left without having ordered, hoping he would come back to find out what we wanted too. Lucia talked to another of the workers there and she went to investigate for us. When he returned, he related that there was only enough mozzarella and/or tomato for two of those. Ah, a bit more clear now. So the rest of us had to work around that... I went with pecorino and prosciutto. Yum.

As we sat down to eat, they turned the light on. I told you it was empty. All 5 of us Americans got Coke of some type or another (regular, "light", and zero) and we were asked more than once if we were sure we didn't want glasses with them. I found myself wondering exactly how uncouth we seemed to them, drinking straight out of the can...

Lucia mentioned that at times it's just... different, in a small town as opposed to the city. She and her friend Paola were as confused as we were by the seemingly arbitrary limits of choice. Come to find out, it's not high tourist season yet and they only have so much in terms of supplies... ah ok. And the next day, at a similar type of place, we were again limited by the types and quantity of bread available. I wondered if we prevented anyone else from getting a sandwich later in the day.

3) One of my tutors here is basically a socialist, and sometimes it gets difficult for Neza and I to deal with his often off-topic pontificating. (Our class is about Italian unification and today we got to learn a bit about Bosnia and all about Spain. For example.) Today though, he put a recent Italian political event in pretty good perspective, at least in my mind. Basically, the not-so-beloved Berlusconi has been in the news for his statements about illegal immigration. Recently the Italian authorities turned back a boat full of illegal migrants from Libya without screening for asylum requests, leading to outcry from the Pope, the UN, and others. You can read all about it here. Anyway, Alvaro (our tutor) was referring to why they come and how no legal measures will keep them out so long as they are motivated by basic survival and lack of food. He put it this way - "In Africa, they don't have much, but they have TVs. And they see the commercials. They see an American, or German, or Canadian housewife whose problem at the supermarket is deciding whether to feed their dog chicken or beef. And then, where their cat will use the bathroom, 10 types of this and that and the other thing... and yet in Africa they are dealing with problems like civil war and starvation." He went on, but basically he was saying that as long as there exist such poverty and desperate situations, the problem won't go away. And Alvaro also seems pretty peeved that Berlusconi is using this rhetoric when Italians themselves were desperate immigrants in huge quantities in the not too distant past. Plus, Italians don't do the difficult and physically demanding jobs - Italian industry depends on immigrant labor - something that the news articles speak of as well.

I don't know, it's interesting. As an American I'm very aware of the nature of these debates, but what really sort of offended me about Berlusconi was his saying that Italy is not a multi-ethnic country and shouldn't be one. Thinking of it, I guess that makes sense, coming from America, land of the melting pot.

Sometimes the opinions of Alvaro and others can verge on a bit outlandish, but at least they give me the opportunity to reflect on the world and what I believe - and a chance to understand what non-Americans think.

4) I did my presentation, and it went well, yay! It gave me a chance to pat myself on the back for the relative ease with which the language came to me, even in front of a group (albeit a small one).

5) Before the presentation, I was talking with Eva and with the Italians in my class, and the conversation went to pastries and gelato and food. Typical (in a good way!). It was nice to relate to them about good and bad gelato, etc. My recent visitors have made me quite the expert. Also, one of them verified that I was American and asked where I was from, causing Valentina (I happen to know her name and she is nice) to exclaim once more over how she would love to visit Washington DC. (I always say, from Connecticut but university is in Washington DC.) Also on la Ruota della Fortuna today, the trip prize was to New York. The man who won said he'd never been to the other side of the ocean before. Moments like that just reinforce for me that the exotic is not inherent in any one place or another - the exotic is the unknown, the difficult to reach, the far away. A trip to NYC is exotic for them, a trip to Chianti Country in Tuscany is exotic for us. The history and beauty of Florence fascinates me at times, and Valentina would think it was incredibly cool to visit the city that I've lived in for two years and will for one more (though I can't blame her, it's a great place!).

6) Today I succeeded at snapping up a couple of readings for my upcoming church art history exam. I know that may sound sort of banal to you, but trust me, when you've spent hours at la Biblioteca Nazionale and ended up with "we don't have this book" - you'll feel pretty great too, when you actually do procure things. I am so glad that libraries in the US are better than La Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence...

7) Tomorrow I am off to meet up with my grandparents and their friends David and Rhonda. I will take the train to get closer to where they've rented a villa, and they'll pick me up using their rental car. I know they've been to San Gimignano while I was busy, and maybe Siena as well. With them I will hopefully get to Volterra and the Chianti region. I feel really lucky that their visit can afford me the opportunity to visit some of the less accessible parts of Tuscany!

Hopefully you've enjoyed this somewhat random glimpse at life lately. A presto!