I adore Italy
Jun. 8th, 2010 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwyThe first time I came to Europe, I came to Rome, and then Florence, and Pisa, and Venice. Italy will always be engrained in my mind as my first taste of Europe.
This is not to say that I don't still have in my sights becoming a fellow at Oxford someday. But if in the interim, I end up in Italy, I will not be unhappy. It's only this trip that I have realized how happy I am when I come to Italy. It is sunny. It is warm. I soak in all of this and it makes me energized. Solar powered Ary is solar powered, and when the some comes out, and it gets above 25C, I come alive. The feeling of sheer satisfaction, like a cat with its paws curled up underneath it in smugness, that I have while I am in Italy I'd never really noticed before now, but I have been happy ever since arriving here 19 hours ago.
Yup, I'm still awake, made it through dinner and plenty of glasses of wine (including sparkling red wine, which I've never had before, and can't say I recommend), dinner of fantastic coniglio arrosto (roast rabbit), tender, and succulent, and flavorful. I love that coming to live in Europe has allowed me to discover my love of rabbit.
It's funny, I feel like I should have expected to enjoy Italy as much as I do, given all it has going for it, but I've always had this prejudice against it. The stereotypical Italian is boisterous and greasy. I'm not a fan of oversocialization, and I can't stand grease, especially greasy hair. And yet, every time I come to Italy, even though it is, in many parts, clearly poor and clearly dirty, I am happy here. And all of the Italians I know -- who are not over boisterous, and in fact are often quite shy, and are not greasy at all -- they love their country more than any other nationality I know, including the French, which says a lot, given the French's view that there is no country other than France, there is no language other than French. (Of course, I am exaggerating. Wine allows for that.) But no other nationality I know of speaks of their country with such affection as the Italians do, or, I should say, their own region more than their country. It is hard not to love a country who has been spoken of with as much love as Italy has been among people I know. Part of what makes me appreciate being here is knowing that there are people back home who are envying me, Pietro me being in Bologna, Daniele me being in Genova. Their love for their hometowns makes me want to appreciate the opportunity that I have to be where I am, because I know that there are others who would cheerfully swap places with me. I hope that I can return home (and funny, home really is Amsterdam. In both this conference and the last, I have had people speak with surprise when they find out I am American. I guess I really have begun to lose the accent;![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fosveny and amkyb both commented, when we were in Australia, that I've lost the American accent some, that it's become muddled. But someone commented today when they heard me talk with love and affection of my home institute they assumed that I must be Dutch. Home is definitely not in the US any more, hasn't been for awhile.) and do justice to the opportunity that I have had to be here, in Bologna, and, later, in Genova.
It'd be worth putting up with the dirty cities and learning Italian (something which I have become convinced I need to do anyway, as lately all of the neat resources I have come across have been in Italian) and Joel's complaining about heat and humidity if I could live here. I never thought I'd end up feeling this way, but, yeah, I adore Italy.
This is not to say that I don't still have in my sights becoming a fellow at Oxford someday. But if in the interim, I end up in Italy, I will not be unhappy. It's only this trip that I have realized how happy I am when I come to Italy. It is sunny. It is warm. I soak in all of this and it makes me energized. Solar powered Ary is solar powered, and when the some comes out, and it gets above 25C, I come alive. The feeling of sheer satisfaction, like a cat with its paws curled up underneath it in smugness, that I have while I am in Italy I'd never really noticed before now, but I have been happy ever since arriving here 19 hours ago.
Yup, I'm still awake, made it through dinner and plenty of glasses of wine (including sparkling red wine, which I've never had before, and can't say I recommend), dinner of fantastic coniglio arrosto (roast rabbit), tender, and succulent, and flavorful. I love that coming to live in Europe has allowed me to discover my love of rabbit.
It's funny, I feel like I should have expected to enjoy Italy as much as I do, given all it has going for it, but I've always had this prejudice against it. The stereotypical Italian is boisterous and greasy. I'm not a fan of oversocialization, and I can't stand grease, especially greasy hair. And yet, every time I come to Italy, even though it is, in many parts, clearly poor and clearly dirty, I am happy here. And all of the Italians I know -- who are not over boisterous, and in fact are often quite shy, and are not greasy at all -- they love their country more than any other nationality I know, including the French, which says a lot, given the French's view that there is no country other than France, there is no language other than French. (Of course, I am exaggerating. Wine allows for that.) But no other nationality I know of speaks of their country with such affection as the Italians do, or, I should say, their own region more than their country. It is hard not to love a country who has been spoken of with as much love as Italy has been among people I know. Part of what makes me appreciate being here is knowing that there are people back home who are envying me, Pietro me being in Bologna, Daniele me being in Genova. Their love for their hometowns makes me want to appreciate the opportunity that I have to be where I am, because I know that there are others who would cheerfully swap places with me. I hope that I can return home (and funny, home really is Amsterdam. In both this conference and the last, I have had people speak with surprise when they find out I am American. I guess I really have begun to lose the accent;
fosveny and amkyb both commented, when we were in Australia, that I've lost the American accent some, that it's become muddled. But someone commented today when they heard me talk with love and affection of my home institute they assumed that I must be Dutch. Home is definitely not in the US any more, hasn't been for awhile.) and do justice to the opportunity that I have had to be here, in Bologna, and, later, in Genova.It'd be worth putting up with the dirty cities and learning Italian (something which I have become convinced I need to do anyway, as lately all of the neat resources I have come across have been in Italian) and Joel's complaining about heat and humidity if I could live here. I never thought I'd end up feeling this way, but, yeah, I adore Italy.
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Date: 2010-06-09 07:00 am (UTC)you know me and Florence. My favourite place outside Australia.
I have done a quick course in French and had vowed not to confuse with another language but, I am also, thinking I HAVE to learn Italian. I have at least 4 research books now that are in Italian. and google translate is not quite there...