italian thinking

i have been travelling europe for the past 13 days. i have seen a lot. i have thought a lot of bloggable thoughts. i am too tired and sunburned to recount them all, but here are a few about italy.

one. i love italy. not because its perfect, but because of all its little idiosyncracies and imperfections. the sheer insanity of the roads and driving. the dozens of near death experiences being inside and outside of a vehicle. the bad customer service in nice restaurants but the quaint hospitality of the street fruit vendors. the buildings and their inviting colors and artistic decay. the people, alternatively stylish and smug, and endearing and normal.

two: the gelateria on every corner. michael wanting gelato at every possible moment.

three: the sun and sky and clouds only slightly different from those in california, but still begging me to try to capture them with my camera.

four: ciao! as hello and goodbye

five: having pasta and pizza every night for dinner. yummy.

six: the history. the thousands of years of life and trauma and beauty and triumph this place has seen.

seven. the epicness of the coastline.... again looks slightly like ca coastline, but totally different. listening to *we live in a beautiful world* being sung out over the waters as we ride the ferry home from little positano.

eight: the little side streets in every city, every one of them looks as though a romantic moment is about to occur, or like an old woman will come out to sweep her steps and invite you in to have dinner or that a photograph is about to be taken to give that street eternal posterity.

nine: trains and windows and trees and perspectives and views. falling asleep to the ipod with the murmur of the train full of young italians on holiday laughing and joking. learning english from a nice teenage boy who felt bad for me trying to pronounce things correctly.

ten: cinque terra. every last detail of it.


thats all for now. more soon with pictures.