A casual day in Firenze

Dear parents, friends, and well-wishers;

I am writing to regretfully inform you that I don't want to come back to the U.S. of A. It's not that I'm un-patriotic or high-falutin', I just think that I may vomit if I ever have to gaze upon another strip mall. You understand.

And while I love going to the park, I really don't think it can get better than picnicking with the girls at the edge of the Orvieto plateau on a lazy Sunday. I also can't imagine a picnic now without three bottles of wine (ahem, sparkling for the first course, white for secondi, and red for... the heck of it) and our puritanical American "no booze in parks" rules seem barbaric right now.

Everywhere I turn in the States I see a Wal-Mart or a McDonald's and I die a little inside. Everywhere I turn in Italy I see an elaborate Duomo dripping with gold fineries and brilliant frescos.

And American ceilings are positively boring.

The food, oh where do I begin? Sitting down for a three hour lunch is pretty spiffy, why are we in such a hurry? How are you supposed to finish your wine in half an hour? Also, instead of a bag of chips and a pop for snacks, I can walk down the street and grab some cinghale procuitto and pecorino cheese. (and wine)

Of course, I love mom and apple pie, but wouldn't she be just as happy if I called her "Mamma"? And honestly, I would trade every piece of apple pie I've ever had for more of this melon gelato.

Did I mention the ample scooter parking?

As an art lover, I find it barbaric that our cities are not adorned with brilliant marble and bronze sculptures. How are you supposed to pause in awe and quiet introspection if you're not surrounded by the works of the masters?

Billboards and skyscrapers are nice and all, but I think the sculptures win this round.

In closing:

U.S. "Time is money"

Italia "Let's stop for coffee"

U.S. "You can never be too rich or too thin"

Italia "Mangia! Mangia!"

U.S. "Life's hard and then you die"

Italia "La dolce vita"

I'm sure you'll understand.

Ciao!

P.S. I just figured out that I can use HTML code to format this blog, so I promise the trend of paragraph breaks will continue. I hate blocky paragraphs! But the Blogger website formatting was removing my spacing, no matter how hard I tried. So, hopefully, the problem is fixed. Someday I'll go back and fix the old posts, but today is not that day!