Not every expat enjoys living in Italy. Lots of blogs emphasize the negatives, just to save your soul in case your vision of pulling up stakes and moving to Italy is clouded by a romantic idea lacking in concrete realism or, worse yet, money to pay the ungodly electricity bill. So it’s good every once in a while to read about someone whose expectations have been met and maybe exceeded by moving to the boot.
Ashley Bartner thinks like I do. (I mean about Italy; I doubt she thinks of naked and uninhibited hotties like I do during the occasional spare moment.)
Ms. Bartner has recently unleashed a list of 50 Things I’ve Learned Living in Italy which I find to be spot on when draped like a living grid over my own experience. Some are so profound I felt compelled to comment.
Pancetta & porchetta are the best things on earth – What can one say? (Most likely, as a friend from high school used to say when, for example, an imaginary invitation to an orgy with the cheerleader squad was proffered, “Not only yes, but hell yes!”
Caribineri jokes in Italy are like blonde jokes in America – You could become fluent in Italian by listening solely to your neighbor’s Caribineri jokes. That’s right, the stupid Caribineri are you, making the most basic errors in Italian that cause Italians to screw up their faces in expressions of disbelief they don’t normally use outside of badly refereed soccer matches.
Italians love festivals! And they do it right! They celebrate EVERYTHING! – This is one of the great things you live in Italy for. You go to the Bigiolo Bean Festival because you can’t believe people drive for days to get to this wide spot in the road to feast on beans for God sakes but then you realize you’re there because, unlike at America’s pot luck church dinners, which some small time Italian Sagre resemble, there’s not a ton of people sitting around salivating over vegetables encased in lime jello; the food is actually tasty and doesn’t rot your teeth.
Just because it is a nice restaurant don’t be surprised if the bathroom consists of just a hole in the floor – Well, ok, there is that. But it’s a porcelain lined hole, and some would say it’s more sanitary…
Always have coffee & something sweet for unexpected drop-ins – I am always amazed at what your digestive tract can experience by dropping in on someone at any time. I mean, we’ve had three course meals within minutes of ending up at someone’s house on a random errand. There’s always wine, even if the people who offer it to you have given it up years ago.
Energy in all forms is crazy expensive – You knew this had to end on a downer, didn’t you? Well, I can tell you, if you’re an expat or an Italian staying in your second home, your energy bills will be inflated by so much (by law) it will make your head spin. I’m thinking about this at this moment because the first thing I’m going to do upon arriving at my house in the Lunigiana in April is have a pellet stove installed.
I love living here – Echo that. See, I just couldn’t end on a downer.
See the whole list: 50 Things I’ve Learned Living in Italy