Closing Thoughts

Before I begin this last reflection, I'd like to announce that "the car" has finally been removed. We don't know when exactly this happened because we've been taking a different route to work this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But today, we drifted back to our old route just out of habit and noticed that in place of "the car" was just a shadow of dust...

Anyway, yesterday I mentioned the laid-back lifestyle here in Italy, and this leads me to some thoughts.

Italy is commonly stereotyped as being a disorganized place, and to an outsider, things certainly do seem so. Take the streets, for example. Street signs don't seem to be so helpful, parking spots are only seldom designated with painted lines, people drive in a seemingly reckless manner and traffic lights are only a suggestion, and hardly anyone pays for the subway. For someone who doesn't live here, things certainly get confusing.

But for the Italians, things often work better for them like this. Like for parking spots... cars come in all different sizes, so why paint fixed-size parking spots? As I have shown in some pictures on this blog, it seems like people here parallel park as tightly as possible, which makes room for letting more cars park. We have also been told that the auto accident rate here is very low. While the drivers may not seem to follow the rules, this just means they're always aware. It's just like walking down a hallway - if there is more traffic, you're more careful... one doesn't need signs to tell them how not to crash into people. Even the police don't really care if one doesn't follow all the traffic signals. And in the same way, perhaps they don't need signs directing them where to go because - well - they don't need them.

Anyway, I believe that learning to understand these cultural differences is something that you can't get from a short vacation - it really takes a few months living somewhere to do so. And I think this cultural awareness is important both in gaining a greater appreciation for the different lifestyles of people everywhere, as well as improving our own lifestyles.

Well, it's been great blogging this summer (and may I add that this is my 50th post from Europe?), and we'll have to see what happens to it after I come back - but I'm not sure if I'll have anything interesting left to write about!

Tomorrow morning, Fernando and Kristen are leaving for a grand tour of Italy, since they're staying here for another week. I'll probably check out the Queen's Palace downtown, then take it easy for the rest of the day before heading back to New Jersey on Sunday.

Thanks for reading!

Jason