Dear reader,
The two days between my last post and this one have been fairly uneventful. In the absence of any new stories to share with you, I want to share instead what I have learned about the Italians’ opinions on America. Through a series of unconnected conversations and various stray comments, I’ve actually learned quite a bit about what “the beautiful country” thinks of “the land of the free.”
First, on a bus from Positano (a town very similar to Amalfi) I sat next to an Italian woman who works as a housekeeper in one of Positano’s many hotels. I struck up a conversation to practice my Italian. In the course of our conversation, I said, “Yes, America is…” then paused to think of the right word in Italian. Without missing a beat she inserted her own adjective: “rich.”
My professor, as I said in my last post, likes the way the United States is organized, being many states united by one central government. However, he is frustrated by President Trump’s recent decisions to isolate America from the EU. He wants Europe and America to be close allies.
The woman with whom I meet to practice Italian has been to New York much more than I have. She sees New York as “her city.” I believe this is related to the fact that she herself wants to be a “global citizen.”
The guide who gave us a tour of Amalfi said, half-jokingly, that we American students are too accustomed to the luxury of our home country to survive in Italy, a place where no one uses air conditioning and where walking up 600 stairs in a day is a matter of course. (Incidentally, the griping of some of my peers when they learned these facts may have proved him right.)
During our orientation at Sant’Anna, we were shown this comparison about Italian drinking habits versus American drinking habits (Keep in mind that this was a presentation given to college-aged students):
ITALY: Drinking age: 18. Preferred alcohol: wine. Limit: 1-2 glasses. Ever been drunk? Maybe once.
AMERICA: Drinking age “21”. Preferred alcohol: beer. Limit: what limit? Ever been drunk? Ha!
Finally, on my flight from Denver to Germany, I happened to sit next to an Italian couple, and we had a lovely conversation. They were flying back to Italy after a vacation to the U.S., and had many interesting observations to share. First, they were astonished by the sheer size of America. (America, a single country, is almost as large as all of Europe.) They were appalled by what passes for “Italian” cuisine (our pizza and pasta, for example). However, the husband professed his love for American steak and beef jerky. They were confused by the American sense of individuality. They were also confused by a phenomenon which I would call “commercial extroversion.” The salesmen with big smiles and enthusiastic handshakes, the store clerks and waiters hovering to make sure you have a great experience, the companies sending you surveys to rate your quality of service: all this was strange to them. (It is interesting that I have definitely experienced some of this, especially the hovering store clerks, in the stores in Sorrento.) They said that the Americans are “a young people” and the Italians are “an old people,” perhaps even too stuck in the past.
These conversations were all disconnected from one another, but putting them together paints an interesting picture. If I were to attempt a summary of Italians’ views toward America (truly a bold attempt, since I have been here for less than a month) this is what I would say: Italians see America as a wealthy country, a powerful country, and a country focused on the future. They see it as very different from their own country, which is almost drowning (or, like Venice, quite literally drowning) in history and tradition. And yet, many of them don’t want to be American. Even though their own country drives them crazy sometimes, they love it, and they are proud of its quirks.
And now, pictures! These are some miscellaneous ones that haven’t quite fit in any other post but which I think are interesting.
Thank you for reading. Until next time,
Beatrice