This morning as I took my daily walk to Bar Roma for my morning cup of tea and free Wi-Fi hit, I was warmly greeted as always by two of Soriano’s local characters, Franco & Enrico.

These two elderly gentlemen are only two of many locals who “hangout” at the local bars & caffés in Soriano, chatting about the weather, taking in the day to day goings on and greeting locals and strangers alike.

However, today I was surprised to get an overly excited greeting, with whispers of “vieni qui, vieni qui” (Come Here, Come Here).  As I moved closer, Franco reached into his jacket pocket and produced an envelope, I just thought he’d received a note from a long lost relative in Australia, the US or UK and he wanted me to translate it.

But when he opened the envelope and pulled out the little card with the maple leaf on it, his eyes glistened, his face beamed and his smile grew broad.  He was proudly showing me the special little card sent to him by one of the CDV guests from last year’s vacations.

Carolanne and her father, John, spent a week in Soriano, not just as your typical tourist, but embracing our little town of Soriano, it’s culture and character and it’s local characters.

Most mornings they would arrive at Bar Roma earlier than the other guests and would take their time to sit and chat with the locals in their broken Italian, the locals politely smiling and nodding and not really understanding every word, but connected by the efforts made by both to communicate.

Sitting with the locals and taking it all in was enough for Carolanne and John to start their days off in the most wonderful of ways.

Just as they started my day off today!  To have had such an enthusiastic greeting this morning and to see these two wonderful elderly gentlemen proudly showing their cards to anyone who passed by inspired me to write this quick blog post to make a point of reminding all that CDV is not just another tour company, it’s a family of locals who welcome strangers with open hearts and arms and create lasting memories and friendships.

I am so grateful to Michael and Paola and the whole CDV team to be a part of this, to be able to chat with new friends via Facebook and keep up with their lives long after their return home from Soriano is such a wonderful gift.

Thank you, Michael, Paola, Carla, Rita, Spartaco, Rocky, Pierina, Sergio, Antonio, all the local Sorianese connected to CDV and all the wonderful CDV ospiti over the past couple of years that my family and I have been privileged to be a small part of your Italian experience.

Grazie mille and we look forward to continuing to keep in touch and hope that one day we’ll see you all again back in Soriano!

Baci

Peta

On day one of every cooking vacation we offer, there is a little talk with all of the newly arriving guests.  We go over the things that they can expect, and should not expect.  We discus the plans for the days ahead, and we go over some of the more common cultural faux-pas that guests can avoid as we try to integrate them into Italian culture for their brief time with us.

One of the items on the list that seems to get more resistance than others is that of doggie bags.  It just isn’t done in Italy, and once you understand Italian food culture, you will completely understand why.

Food is Sacred Art

It doesn’t matter if you are eating in the smallest Trattoria or the finest restaurant in the city.  The chef in the kitchen is an artist.  There is no line cook back in the kitchen throwing canned sauce over pre-cooked pasta.  The chef is creating the dish you ordered for you. Your dish is served, not to your liking, but to the liking of the chef.  In other words, this is the chef’s masterpiece,   and he knows how it is to be prepared.  He knows how it is to be cooked, and he knows how it is to be served.  You cannot say your meat is undercooked, because the chef cooked it properly, and he knows better than you.  It is YOU who does not know how to eat properly.  You would not ask for extra sauce, because the proper amount of sauce was used, and you would not send back what you perceive as a cold dish, because you clearly don’t know what temperature this dish must be served at.

Furthermore, telling a chef his food is less than perfect is like telling a mother her child is ugly.  Even a waiter would not normally ask you if your food is good… because the food IS good, of course… and I generally agree.

I know, it sounds like awful service…. really, I used to feel that way.  But it isn’t.  It is art.  The chef put passion into the food, and from his perspective, if you don’t appreciate it, you don’t deserve it.  You must take your mindset away from the American concept of ‘Customer-Focus’ and accept that in Italy, the customer is not right… the food is right.  This is why Italian food in Italy is so incredible.  Someone prepared it with true loving care… really!

You usually won’t see a dish come out that looks like a work of art — you know, the creative swirling drizzle of balsamic vinegar over a neatly stacked arrangement of geometric food shapes…  No, it is pure art of flavor that will arrive.  Each ingredient blended perfectly, cooked precisely, and portioned with care, such that your senses go into overdrive.  And to change that delicate balance by cooking it more, adding extra sauce, or whatever…  well, it would ruin the entire experience.  Really!

While They Were Creating Perfect Recipes, We Were Swinging From Trees

Did I say that food is sacred?  Let me rephrase:  Italian food is sacred, and Italians feel a true sense of pity for the rest of the world, because we are all starving for lack of a decent meal.  No, I’m not kidding.  Furthermore, there is a way to prepare Italian food, a way to eat it, a place to eat it, and a time to eat various dishes.  The combination is something not to be messed with.  So if you are in Italy and Italians talk to you about food (they will), remember the point of view they are coming from:  You are one step removed from the starving children in Africa, and God has graced you with the opportunity to finally have some real food in your life.  Praise be to God.

L’America e Bella, Ma La Fame!

Whenever Italians travel abroad, upon their return you can pretty much guarantee what the first words out of their mouths will be when asked how the trip was.  They all start by uttering these words:  Era bello, ma LA FAME!!!  (It was beautiful, but THE HUNGER!!!).  They then continue for quite some time describing just how awful the food was, how hungry they were, everything they did in their quest for a decent meal, etc.  This invariably segues into a discussion about the pity they feel for those poor people that live there and have to eat that awful food.  How can they possibly eat that junk?  Who knows?  Only then will they actually discuss where they had been.  That is how important food is to an Italian.

I have had people tell put their hand on my shoulder, telling me how fortunate I am to have an Italian wife to cook for me at home.  Of course, I would otherwise starve.  I have had people look at me with a confused daze when discussing various ethnic cuisines, only to finally fire off the most important question of all: What on earth do those people feed their poor children????  After all, they wouldn’t dare give that garbage to an innocent  child, would they?

Food Shall Not Touch Food

Perhaps this will help drive the concept home a bit:  Whether you are eating in a proper restaurant or a roadside truckstop in Italy, food is divided into courses.  Your salad has its own dish.  Your pasta has its dish, your meat has it’s dish, and so on.  You will never, never, never see salad, pasta and meat on the same plate.  To any Italian, that is utterly disgusting, and those of us that find that normal are little more than barely evolved barbarians.  Why?  Because flavors should not mix.  My pasta will be ruined if it comes in contact with the salad!

This is also why food won’t come out together.  Appetizers, 1st Course, 2nd Course, Dessert.  If your meat and pasta come out together, your meat will be cold by the time you finish your pasta.  RUINED!  You could not eat them together, because that would ruin the balance of flavors, of course.  This brings me back to the chef knowing better than you, see?  What do YOU know about the complexities of preparation and delivery?  He is the master and you are a consumer!

Dare Not Argue

You may disagree with these points because you have a different perspective, but this is a cultural reality, and as such, it is right when visiting that culture.  Should you try to sway others into thinking that what the customer wants, the customer should get, any self-respecting Italian will invariably pull out their smoking-gun evidence that proves their point.  Go to any country in the world and drive down the street.  Count the ethnic restaurants and you will always see more Italian restaurants than any other.  Therefore, Italian food is the most appreciated food in the world.  That means they are right.  And I agree!

So What Does a Doggie Bag Say?

Well, knowing what you know now….  how do you think a chef would feel if he knew you wanted to bunch the leftover food into a box, take it home, put it in the fridge, then microwave it the next day?  Or worse… GIVE IT TO YOUR DOG????  For the love of God, this is sacrilege! The pasta will be soggy, the sauce will be mushy and soaked in, ACK!!!  What an offense!  You may as well tell him you will be putting the food in your car’s gas tank!

Face it, the food was prepared to be eaten right there, not warmed up later in a microwave.  To reheat the food later would be offensive to the food itself… It just isn’t done.  So the concept of taking food home in a doggy bag just doesn’t exist, except in the very touristy places.  You can ask, of course.  Tourists do ask, but the concept is utterly foreign.  You may as well ask a waiter nail your leftovers to the wall and paint them.

So please… when in Italy, don’t ask for a doggie bag.

We use a ton of Italian words in English.  More than many might think.  Just walk into a Starbucks, and you will probably walk out with something called a ‘LATTE‘ (Be careful asking for it in Italy, since all you will get is milk), and if it was a large, you will have asked for ‘VENTI‘, and you may have a bag with some ‘PANINI‘ as well.
How many time have you said ‘CIAO‘, even though you may have thought it was spelled CHOW?
At the OPERA, might you you yell BRAVO?  OK, all pretty obvious, but the list is actually almost endless!  Magnifico, crescendo, alto, bello/bella, etc.

But how about Italian use of English? Actually, there have been English words used commonly in Italian for ages, but recently it has really picked up, to the point that some call it ANGLITALIANO.  The Italian answer to Spanglish or Chinglish.  There is even a group dedicated on erase it from use, most appropriately called The Dante Alighieri Society.

How many English words exist in Anglitaliano?  Who knows?  But I listed those I could think of, and did about 5 minutes of googlage to see what I could put together.  Have a look.  The words in GREEN are English words that would be commonly understood by many Italians that don’t think they speak a word of English!

OKAY, this WEEKEND I used my COMPUTER and MODEM to go ONLINE to TEST my WEBCAM and EMAIL on the INTERNET with my new ROUTER.  The SERVER SOFTWARE asked for a PASSWORD, then made me DOWNLOAD a FILE.  Perhaps I lack the KNOW-HOW.

Later, I listened to an ALBUM with MUSIC by a BOY BAND, then a CD with BLUES, HIP HOP, GRIND, CORE, some POP STAR, JAZZ and a HIT by a ROCK BAND, but there was a BLACK OUT. WOW!

So I took off my BLUE JEANS and wore a SMOKING. I looked COOL, so went to a SINGLES BAR in a HOTEL that was full of SEXY women and had a COCKTAIL with the MANAGER who called me MISTER. She was BEAUTIFUL, with great MAKEUP and an EXTRA-LARGE T-SHIRT.   She was truly a BEAUTY with a great NEW LOOK.  I saw my EX with her BOYFRIEND who clearly found a BABYSITTER that night..  They deserve their PRIVACY, so I said BYE BYE and went to a PARTY.  Sadly, everyone was a SNOB. I began to feel the STRESS. I had a DRINK, then left for a CLUB to see a BAND I am a FAN of that plays DARK music.  The PERFORMANCE was SOLD OUT.. every TICKET!

Fortunately, I had a VOUCHER, so the STAFF let me in. OH YEAH! After the SHOW, there was a SUPER DEEJAY that had clearly been DOPING, and is probably on WELFARE.

Later I was hungry, so I got on my SCOOTER and went to a PUB, but I couldn’t decide between a HOT DOG, SANDWICH or a HAMBURGER, so ended up having a SNACK of  CRACKERSwhile watching some SPORT on the TV, followed by a TALK SHOW, a FILM, and a REALITY SHOW.

The following day, I went to the gym to do some SPINNING, JOGGING (or FOOTING) and BODY BUILDING before playing some TENNIS. Later, I took a car with lots of SEX APPEAL and a big STICKER for a TEST DRIVE, but it broke down at the STOP, and smelled of GAS. Maybe it was all the SMOG?  So I had to take it to the GARAGE.  Finally, after a little SHOPPING, I had a PICNIC for lunch with my BUSINESS PARTNER who shared some GOSSIP and NEWS about a friend with a HANDICAP that became a KILLER by giving someone’s PACEMAKER a SHOCK.  I thought about it and simply replied: NO COMMENT. It’s not a SCOOP, and has nothing to do with our PARTNERSHIP.  All I wanted was a BRIEFING and possible BRAINSTORMING about a new LOCATION for our BOOK SHOP, as well as our BUDGET and new SLOGAN. You know, a MARKETING MEETING.

That night I went to a BED AND BREAKFAST that was really nothing more than a LOFT with a BIG OPEN SPACE, instead of a RESORT.  After all, that is the latest TREND.  I read a FICTION, and went to sleep. GOOD NIGHT!

So how many “Anglitaliano” words can be drummed up in a single blog post?  Who knows?  Maybe this one is the LEADER and breaks a RECORD?

Traveling to Italy, some visitors notice various oddities about Italian culture that seem to defy explanation.  Some are rooted in the socio-political history of the country, some are rooted in religious tradition, and others… the ones that are often the most seemingly nonsensical,  grew out of old wives tales.

One that has frustrated me for years is how Italians fear the dreaded ‘cold in your stomach’ and the almost-as-tragic ’draft’ (colpo d’aria).  It can kill you, and the causes are many.  Did he swim too soon after having eaten?  Did he have a cold beverage on a hot day?  Did she leave the house with wet hair?  Did he sleep in an air conditioned room?  All of these things are sufficient for most self-respecting Italians to shrug and utter the word ‘Beh’ while hearing your fate, signaling to all within earshot that everyone is in agreement:  Whatever happened to you, you were asking for it!

A Californian Might Cramp Up

When I was growing up in Los Angeles, our mothers loosely passed own a twenty minute rule.  It was the amount of time we must wait before jumping back in the ocean or pool after having eaten lunch.  They worried that we might get a cramp, which could actually be a big deal in the cold Pacific Ocean with its strong currents.  Some of my friends had no such rule, while others had as much as a one hour rule.  Whatever it was, it was never respected, and never enforced.

Is there any validity to the rule?  I really cannot say.  But I am a person who spent years of his life going to the beach practically every day.  I’ve never seen it.  Not once.  And if it is going to happen, the cold Pacific waters would be the perfect place. Keep in mind that I am not talking about someone getting pulled down in the cold current.  This is something completely different.

Sound The Alarm!  They Are Swimming At 2PM!

Italians have their own ‘when to swim after you eat’ rule, and they take is very seriously.  The general rule is 2 1/2 hours.  Let’s say that slowly: TWO-AND-ONE-HALF-HOURS.  Children are raised with this rule, not being told that they risk a little cramp.  No, they risk the killer of thousands.  The Cold In The Stomach. You can get it.. and you can die!   Mothers obey the law.  Fathers live by it, Doctors defend it, and lifeguards at the beach may actually defend you from it.

This may not seem like such a big deal, but think about it like this:  You take your family on a vacation to the beach. The kids are excited.  Each day you wake up at 8:00 AM.  You have a bite to eat at 9AM, and head to the beach.  The clock starts.  The kids had food, so they are trapped by the sand, looking at the water until 11:30AM.  Lunch is at 1:00PM, so you need to start heading back by 12:30PM.  You finish lunch by 2:00PM.  The clock starts again, meaning no water until 4:30 PM.  If the kids are lucky, mom and dad may give them another hour in the water.  If not, they may deem the air too cold for swimming by that time.  Fear of the cold in the stomach means that the kids only got 1 or 2 hours in the water.  But at least they are alive, right?

While my wife is Italian, she quickly learned of the deception she had grown up with after moving to the states.  Still, we always spent our summers in Italy.  One day at the beach, our child jumped in the water at about 2:00 PM.  Almost instantly, a lifeguard started running, as if to save her.  She cannot swim now.  It is too soon after lunch! Don’t you know she will catch the cold her her stomach?  Paola went on to say that she hadn’t had any lunch, but it didn’t matter.  It would seem that since the collective of Italy had just eaten, she could somehow catch the cold in her stomach by proxy.  We have seen it countless times.  If we are swimming at a time that doesn’t sync up correctly with cold-free times, people look at us as though we are from Mars.

Five Out of Five Doctors Agree

I’ve spoken with Italian doctors over and over, and they talk about all the medical evidence for the 2 1/2 hour rule.  In order to properly digest, we need X amount of time, and going into the water will cause the digestion to cease, thereby causing a — blah blah blah blah blah — you can die.  Each and every time I look at them and ask how it is that in my country of 300 million people, more than 20,000 kilometers of beaches, and over 10 million swimming pools, we have no such rule?  Are our doctors idiots?  Are we misdiagnosing thousands of people?  Was that jellyfish sting I got out at Zuma Beach really a symptom of the cold in my stomach?  Invariably they look at me in disbelief.  Somehow I must be misinformed, because this is a serious condition.

And Then It Hit Her… She Had Been Living a Lie

Wanna have some fun?  Take a visiting Italian to the beach, and don’t forget to bring a video camera.  Years ago we had an 18 year old girl named Catia visiting us from Italy.  One day we all went to Raging Waters, a water park just outside of Los Angeles.  We all spent the morning having a blast, and around 1:00 we had some sandwiches for lunch.  Our toddler daughter wolfed it down, and was chomping at the bit to get back in the water.  Paola and I did the same.  As we went back toward the water, we looked back and saw Catia holding back where we had been eating.  She said she didn’t feel like going back in.  We knew what was going on, of course.

We went on to explain that we had no such rule here, but she kept shaking her head in disbelief.  All the doctors say it, after all. Why would they if it were untrue?  Everyone knows this!  We finally gave up and said “Look at all of those people.  By this time, all of them have had something to eat.  Do you see anyone screaming in agony?  Do you see an ambulance anywhere?  We’re going back in the water, and if you want, you can stay here with your belief.”

We proceeded to go back into the water.  After about ten minutes we saw her edging closer and closer with a look of utter confusion on her face.  You could see her looking around, noticing that people were, in fact, not dropping like flies.  Finally she got to the edge of the water, and actually dipped her toe in, then quickly pulled back.  It was as though getting the toe wet would be the ultimate test.  She was still alive.  Then she walked in to her ankles.  Still alive.  Knees.  Still alive.  Waist deep.  Still alive.  By the time she was fully in the water, she had an expression that I’ll never forget.  She had been living a lie.  She went on to enjoy the rest of the day.

On the way home that evening, she was in absolute shock.  How was this possible?  When she went back to Italy, she told people. Naturally, people told her she had just been lucky to have survived that time, but I’m pretty sure she was now cured.

There Are Easier Ways To Get Killed By The Cold

I’ve been going on about swimming, but if you want, there are far more efficient ways to off yourself.

Beware of Ice

You will find while traveling in Italy, you will not get ice in your beverage, with few exceptions.  Nowadays, the ice in your drink rule has been relaxed, but you will still see it in more remote villages.  The belief is that, especially on a hot day, ice in your beverage will cause it to get too cold.  When the super-cooled liquid comes in contact with your warm stomach, you will have caught the cold in your stomach, as if you had been swimming after having eaten.  I have had people refuse to give me ice for this reason… out of concern for me!  What I have never been able to grasp is why the same person that would refuse me ice would happily serve me a Gelato (Ice Cream) or Granita (Essentially a Slurpee).  In some twisted reasoning, that is somehow different?

Cover Your Children

In a practice that I believe borders on child abuse, you will find that many Italian mothers believe that they must always dress their children in warm clothing, even in blistering summer heat.  Go to Rome on a 95 degree day, and you will see women pushing strollers with toddlers that are dressed for winter.  Their stomachs must be completely covered to protect them from the cold in the stomach, and the rest of their body (especially the neck) must be protected from the draft.  That same mother will then hop in the car and let her toddler roam free with no car seat, and no seat belt.  Perhaps all of the extra clothing will protect them in a crash?

Air Conditioning Fa Male

Now we are getting away from the cold in your stomach, and into the realm of the ‘draft’.  Air conditioning is gaining more and more popularity in Italy, but when we remodeled our house ten years ago, we were the first in our area to have it.  Growing up in Southern California, I never knew life without central air.  But when I first liven in Italy, it was prohibitively expensive.   People used to say that they didn’t have a/c because ‘fa male’, meaning it is bad for you.  Falling prices have made it popular, so it appears that they meant to say ‘it is bad for your wallet’.  Anyhow, Having air conditioning is one thing.  Using it… well, that is quite another thing.

Air conditioning produces cold air.  As long as you are moving around, apparently you are fine.  But at night, when you are laying still, you have a problem. The warmer the ambient temperature without the a/c, the worse the problem.  The cold air will come in contact with you (pray to God it is not your stomach!), and you will get the  ’colpo d’aria’.. the draft.  While not likely to kill you, you are certain to wake with temporary paralysis that can last days.  You will likely suffer from a bad case of Bronchitis, and life will be utterly miserable.  Is it worth it?

Some will argue that you risk a similar fate if you turn on a fan or open the window, so take such risks a fair amount of caution .  Now try to imagine living life in the hot summer with no a/c and closed windows! Doesn’t suffocation ‘fa male’ ?   In fact, you will find a very small selection of ceiling fans in Italy!

Wet Hair At The Beach: OK!  Wet Hair At Home: Beware!

I used to own a motorcycle in Italy.  I would wake up in the morning, get showered, get ready, and ride into town. My hair would still be a little wet, since I have always had short hair. People would look at me as though I had been skydiving with a hefty bag as a parachute.  That crazy American!  He’s certainly going to get himself sick or die from the draft with wet hair!  So i would ask:  What do you do when you are at the beach?  When you have been swimming, do you run somewhere to blow dry your hair?  How on earth do you survive otherwise?  The universal response:  Beh, that’s different.  How?

“My daughter speaks perfect English. After all, she spent a month in England with a native family”. That was the quote that caused me to simply give up, and it speaks volumes about Italian culture and the denial so many of them live in.

It happened this past October. I was in a local barber shop in Soriano nel Cimino. The barber was telling me of the frustrations he had been experiencing as he tried to communicate with the American tourists that t=started coming over the past few years. They would come into the shop, looking for a haircut, but he had difficulty communicating with them. After all, he doesn’t speak a word of English, and it certainly helps to know what kind of cut your customer desires.

I certainly understood, and promptly offered to help him. I explained that I would create a list of common (and not so common) terms that a barber would need to use, along with their Italian translations. He could simply give the sheet of paper to customers and solve most of his problems. I had done similar things for local restaurants, an ice cream stand, etc.

Imagine my surprise when he declined the offer. He explained that he had been asking his daughter to do such a list for him, but she lives far away, is busy, and has had no time. He explained that his daughter had studied English in school, and was therefore fluent in English. I explained to him that while she may have excellent English skills, it was highly unlikely that she would have many barber shop terms in her vocabulary. After all, what are the chances that she learned ‘buzz cut’ or ‘mullet’ in her studies?
I continued to explain that he had an American sitting in the chair, and while his daughter may be fluent in English, it could never be at my level, since it is my mother tongue. Additionally, I was there, ready to help, and he had said that she had no time to help him.

That is when he delivered the line. His daughter speaks perfect English because she spent a month in England. At that point, it becomes clear that there is no sense in continuing, but it illustrates a reality in Italian culture.

As visitors travel Italy, they invariably notice that signs, menus, notices, etc. are translated so poorly that they are all but incomprehensible. This isn’t limited to barber shops and little local businesses. The problem exists in government, major corporations; just about anywhere you see English translations. You see it in airports, major hotels, government websites… everywhere!

It’s the pride. Why have a non-Italian do a translation when we have a daughter, or a cousin, or a friend who claims to speak perfect English? It may spill over into the belief that the native-English speaking person can’t possibly do as good a job because they may not understand the nuances of Italian. I really don’t know.

Here is another great example: Soriano nel Cimino’s tourist board has a website, of course. Have a look at their home page . If that isn’t enough, keep digging on the site and try to read it. The kicker here is that for two years I have been offering to fix it for them… for free. I even went so far as to re-translate the site for them, and e-mail them a list of the mistakes with the changes they need to make. That was more than a year ago. I have explained to them in person why “The lucky hilly position” makes no sense in English. I explained how “the ideal place where to spend” is grammatically offensive. Did they change it? Why not? Nobody will tell, but I think it might hurt someone’s pride, so it is better to live in denial.

OK, I just felt like venting. I’m done for now.

Wow… I’ve been away from Italy now for a total of 3 and a half months. That is the longest stretch in more than 2 years. When I am in the states, I’m not immersed in the wonders of Italian culture, so material for the blog is hard to come by.

Anyhow, the other day Paola and I had the great pleasure of meeting a group of Floridians with whom I converse on a very popular message forum called ‘SlowTrav’, a website dedicated to travelers that understand and appreciate the concept of soaking in a culture when you visit, rather than racing by monuments to get it all in. On this forum, Italy is by far the most popular destination and subject of discussion.

The group included people from all over Florida. We started the evening in Winter Park (Orlando’s version of Rodeo Drive) at a wine bar where we all got to know one another, then proceeded to Rocco’s Grille, and Italian restaurant run by a couple from Sicily, with Northern Italian accents (I never got the story behind that one). The food was fantastic, the people were even more fantastic, and we had some great laughs as we all got to know one another.

Among the people in the group were Cecilia, who had stayed with us in Soriano just a few months ago; Jan, who we will be seeing this summer in Italy; Doug and Judith who put it all together; Gail & Howard, who have one leg in Umbria, and one leg in the US (but I’m not allowed to tell you where in Umbria); Tom & Judy (who live everyone’s dream of spending six months a year motor-homing through Europe – Check out the blog here); Ann & Pat from Jax, ‘Cracker’ & Tommy, Jim & Wendy, Lou & Kathy, and oh boy… too many names for one evening, so if I didn’t mention you, please leave a comment on this post and yell at me!
We had a great time, and I am most certain that it the first of many gatherings of its kind.

We’ve been renting homes to travelers for over a  year now, and I’ve noticed two distinct groups of people: ‘Italy first-timers’ and ‘Italian culture chasers’.  In all honesty, some, albeit very few, of the first-timers truly resemble the culture chasers. 

The ‘first-timers’ are the people that have finally made it to Italy for the first time.  They have been dreaming about it for years, and have seen ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’  a few times, having decided that enough was enough… they are going!

While dreaming of that ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ experience, most of them have no hope whatsoever of actually experiencing anything of what that movie (or better, the book) is about.   They can’t help it.  They have the sights of Italy working against them.

What I mean to say is that on that first trip to Italy, most people have an overwhelming need to frame their trip with famous postcards.  After all, can you go to Italy and not see The Coliseum at least once ?  Can you skip the Vatican?  What about Venice, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, The Leaning Tower, the galleries of Florence? 

For the love of God, how can you be in Italy and not see these things?  I understand… I really do!  If I were to visit Agra, India, no matter what wonders you might have in store for me, I will have to at least see the Taj Mahal in person once.  Could I go to Egypt without seeing the Pyramids?  Of course not. 

However, you can’t have it all unless you are spending a month or twenty in Italy. All of the postcard sights are engulfed in and surrounded by a multi-billion dollar tourist industry that consumes their surroundings, having long since snuffed out the ‘Tuscan Sun’ we see in the movies.

So the ‘first-timers’ get to Italy and want to see it all and do it all. The problem is that there is just so much. They try to cram in as much in as possible and wind up rushing everywhere… never having the time to really soak the place in.  You really can’t have ‘La Dolce Vita’ while standing in line to visit monuments.

It’s OK, though.   After that first trip, you get it all out of your system and had a great time doing it. You are now free and clear to come back to Italy and actually experience the ‘Tuscan Sun’…  which brings me to the second group.
The ‘Italian culture chasers’ have been here before.  They saw the Coliseum, so it is behind them.  They fall into two sub-groups of their own:  ‘Second Timers’ and ‘Regulars’.

The ‘Second Timers’ made a decision the first time they were here.  Between places on their checklists, they kept noting how they want to come back and see this or that.  By the end of their trip, they felt as though they desperately needed more time to take it more slowly and take the culture in.  While they had a great time, they realized that they really missed out on something special.  So they come back and really experience the Italian culture for the first time.  Now that they have all of the monuments in their past, they can really understand what makes this place so truly amazing. They are seeing Italy for the first time.

‘The Regulars’ are third-timers and up.  This is really pretty easy, since once you have had the ‘Second Timer’ experience;  you are more or less hooked.  It should be classified as a drug.

I speak from experience, because while I rent homes and organize tours, I didn’t start doing so until roughly my 40th trip to Italy.  I have collectively spent roughly 5 years of my life in Italy, and the list of amazing things I have not seen or experienced is still significantly larger than those that I have seen or experienced.  It is truly an amazing place.

My point is, for those of you that have only been once, come back for a first time and take it slow.  You will almost certainly find yourself hooked.

Some people travel to Italy, see the sights, eat the food, and go home thinking they experienced Italian culture.  In reality, the vast majority of these people only experienced a tiny fraction of the amazing culture that Italy offers.  You cannot experience the true Italy from a traditional tour, or by visiting the standard tourist destinations like Rome, Tuscany, Venice, etc. 

To really experience Italian culture and beauty, you have to get off the beaten path, away from all of the tourist traps.

The problem for most people is that they either don’t know how or where to go, or that the adventure of getting in a car and just driving is just too overwhelming.  CultureDiscovery.com provides the adventure , while helping remove all of the unknown for you. 

Soriano nel Cimino is a stunning small medieval Italian village of roughly 8,000 people that is largely undiscovered, while being strategically located within a short drive to the best Italy has to offer.  In ancient times, its castle was the summer Vatican.