Lesson 1: We live ’picture-perfect’ California lives, buta one year journey outside our collective comfort zones, to struggle against new obstacles and to challenge ourselves in new and exciting ways, can be incredibly refreshing.
- Life is simpler with fewer choices
- Once you are an outsider you will have empathy for the outsiders you encounter
- Italians are warm, welcoming, witty and wise, and to borrow a joke I heard recently —always look like they just had sex
- They don’t judge their wine by how much it costs
- Soccer is still for boys
- If you gain too much weight, you can’t fit in the shower
- Cigarettes are still a big business
- There’s no shortage of confidence and bravado - even an old Italian crossing guard thinks he has a shot at your wife
- Meals are not to be ‘worked on’, but savored over hours of discussion
- I saw more old people in a day than I do in a year at home
- Dressing nicely isn’t just for special events
- Everything works, but only part of the time