It's a joy to have a good Internet connection. We're in Milano and I'm killing time till we go out to dinner. There's a lot of noise outside -- sounds like drunken sports fans -- and a fair amount of traffic noise, raised from the mundane by the clang-clang-clang of the trolley bells every now and then. A lot like being at home, overlooking First Avenue, just at a lower floor.
With this time to think about the places we've been, the people we've met and the wines we've drunk, it's inevitable that a recessively introspective person like myself deconstruct and analyse my experiences. If you have a similarly boring nature, do read on.
My first observation, which will lead to an anecdotally supported generalization, is that Italians are really quite provincial. Which is surprising given their geography and their proximity to a slew of other languages and cultures. When you get out there, you'd better speak Italian. Even many of the people who are assigned to escort you around speak English in a very broken way or not at all.
"Ha! Are you Americans any less provincial? Do you speak a lot of languages?" No and no. But in the wine world, no one in Virginia is betting their life on exports to Italy or anywhere else. And you can always find a Panera or someplace like that for Wi-Fi access in the States, which is highly unusual in Italy.
Their image of America and its people is full of contradictions, of course. The USA is stupendous, exciting, great, especially New York and San Francisco. It's also a hellhole of racism and poverty, we are imperialist destroyers of innocent indigenous cultures and, worst of all, we Americans don't know shit about living or eating well. We all eat frozen dinners at 6 and drink cappuccino into the evening. We are uncouth and hopelessly naive in the ways of the world.
I think that's quite wrong, even if the electorate has plenty of members who believe in the Literal Word of God. (News flash: It's OK to stone cheating wives and daughters to death! However, James Dobson is still debating how literally we should take the food proscriptions of Leviticus. I'll get word to you when I read it in Grit.)
Another striking thing is that while many wine folk here portray themselves as simple farmers (contadini) and -- of course, this is pretty much de rigueur wherever you go in the world entire -- defenders of the terroir and ancient wine-making tradition, they drive around in expensive cars and live in rather large villas. Most of their fellow Italians are driving something a lot smaller and cheaper and more beat up and they live in cramped apartments. These guys are doing all right. Better off than some other people I could name. (Hint: Me.)
Well, I should shut up before I foment an international incident -- I mean between Arkansas and New York -- so I bid you all a fond adieu.
Can't wait to see you back in the hellhole of impoverishment and racism!
By the way, I applied to be an Au Pair this summer in Tuscany---- I AM SO EXCITED!!!!
Posted by: Lisa Qiu | February 13, 2008 at 04:23 PM
Terry -I could explain why Italian farmers do not speak english yet can acquire, over numerous generations, a cascina that will be here 400 years from now and can afford to drive a Mercedes 500E.
I can also explain why the same possibility for an American is highly improbable but this would cut to the core of what our society values today and I would be considered "too negative."
It is all about what we, as a culture, value. Strangely this ties into what Alder wrote about on marketing, labels, cute names and the likes. All I can say is "... That's Hot ..."
Posted by: David | February 13, 2008 at 07:12 PM