Italy Notes

by Jack Hoeschler

March 19, 1987 – Florence, Italy

We have now been in Italy for 2 ½ weeks and I have trouble writing my impressions because Italy, as Greece, is so close to the US in outlook and appearance. The differences come in the obvious things that don’t require or deserve comment by me. We have always said that we like to travel in Mexico because it is such a foreign country. That idea is reconfirmed by our stay in Europe – it is really quite familiar and not “foreign” at all. The attitudes which motivate the people and the economy are much the same as in the US. I am now re-reading Luigi Barzino’s The Italians which was written in 1964 to try to see how things have changed over 25 years and to try to sensitize myself more to the differences in culture.

The main differences we notice between Italy and home are the differences in scale of most things. The cars, roads, sidewalks, and streets are smaller. The stores and quantities of goods in a package are smaller. The supermarket has yet to arrive in Florence. The biggest supermarket we have found would barely qualify for the term in the Twin Cities.mThe consequence of this is that there are numerous specialty shops in the neighborhood selling meat, milk, cheese and vegetables. It is all very friendly but time consuming since you can only buy milk in quart bottles, bread gets stale after a day and must be bought daily (of course, it tastes far superior to American store-bought bread). The refrigerator is a 3/4 size model (as are most) and therefore you can’t store much in advance.

The existence of hundreds of small (1,000 sq. ft.) stores makes the city very interesting to walk in. There are dozens of small women’s lingerie shops which can’t have more than 6 sizes in any one style. They are all quite stylish, however, and it is amazing that they can all make it.

The biggest problem for us is the long lunch hour taken by all stores and museums – from 1 to 3 or 3:30 daily. It spoils the tourists’ efficiency since many museums and churches don’t even open for the 3 to 6 or 7 afternoon session. We usually walk home and have lunch and read to each other from the Inferno or the Decameron. We seldom get the energy to go out again at 8. Likewise we don’t like the very late dinner hour (8 pm+) and usually eat at 6:30 as is our habit.

The air pollution in Italy is pretty bad. There are no catalytic converters on the cars (though they may require them next year) and there are no restrictions on bonfires. As a result, all of the farmers are burning the brush and grass in their fields and orchards with the result that visibility in the beautiful Tuscan hills is very poor. Everything is covered with a gray haze. Clearly, this is an area where they could greatly improve.

We have been renting cars on the weekends and taking day trips into the countryside on Saturday and Sunday. The first weekend we went to Ravenna with Claire Buchwald and her boyfriend who are studying at the University of Florence for the year. Ravenna is on the Adriatic coast and was the old imperial capital in the west after Rome was overrun by the Goths and Vandals. As a result, there are several churches there dating from the 6th century with wonderful mosaics in the Byzantine style. The town itself looks quite healthy and it deserves a repeat visit during the week when the stores will be open.

The next weekend we went to Lucca and Pisa on Saturday. This is in the opposite direction toward the Ligurian Sea. Pisa was substantially bombed during the war and there is not much else to see besides the tower, duomo, baptistry and cemetery. these are set apart in a nice, almost parklike setting. On the outer fringes of the park there is the world’s largest collection of curio vendors.