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Midterm Reflection.
December 19 marks six-months in Sicily. With the original plan to maintain my ex-pat status for at least one year, I think six-months is an appropriate amount of time to pour myself a long drink, sit back and reflect. However, instead of a "think piece" waxing on Life in Italy as Beautiful and Sweet (Benigni and Fellini committed five hours of film to that), I thought I would share some of the jottings in my journals that never made it to my web wall of fame. So, below. Find reflection on the three C's, they are important to all of us, but most coveted by the Italians. Coffee, Cell Phones and Cars. Coffee. It is a perplexing question, "why is Italian coffee so much better than the rest?" Is it the beans, the water, the machines? Italy doesn't have the "terroir" to grow coffee - all the beans are imported. The Mediterranean Sea unites three continents and borders more than 20 countries - its waters are shared by all. The espresso machines behind the bar are publicly available. So, what is it? I don't know. Breakfast, maybe? The Italians don't eat breakfast - they drink a shot of espresso, standing up at the bar in a cafe. They follow the coffee by mounting their Vespas, jerking themselves back into traffic and sucking the diesel fumes straight to the office. At the office, Italians don't wash down a powdered sugar jelly donut with a 16 oz cup of Double-D French Vanilla. They spin the wheels of bureaucracy for one hour and twenty minutes (or so), say, "fughedaboutit" and head to another bar for their second cup of coffee. The Italians consume 120 million cups of espresso a day. There are only 58 million people in the country. And 14.5 million are under the age of 15. Not to say that the youth of Italy are not drinking coffee, they are, but for argument's sake we'll discount the youth. Which leaves us with 43.5 million people consuming almost 3 cups of espresso a day. Dunkin Donuts sells 2.8 million cups of coffee per day. Starbucks, 3.7 million. Combined that is 6.5 million "tall, frappuccino's with vanilla syrup blended creme" in white paper cups. If an "espresso" is six cups short of the sheer volume of an American coffee, Italian "bars" are still out selling Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts combined, 3 to 1. But I wouldn't wish any American the system shock and cardiac if they were to consume six Italian coffees in one sitting. Because, as my friends in Sicily say, "coffee in America is aqua nera." Translation, "black water." Cell Phone Nation. Chirp-chirp. Chirp-chirp. Chirp-chirp. The muffled sound of a cell phone getting louder as it rings through denim. Eyes dart. Chirp-chirp. With gunslinger's quickness and dexterity, a gruff hand plunges into a pocket. A feminine hand slides into a pocket-book. Five fingers slide into a breast pocket. Phones are extracted, flipped open and placed to the ear. A single motion with fluidity, grace and pride. Cell phones are the ranking accessories this Fall fashion season, as they were last Spring and are sure to top the charts again next year. There are 58 million people living in Italy. And there are 56 million cell phones. Pronto. Pronto. PRONTO. The Italians have a wonderful way of raising their voice when they talk on the phone, as if they are screaming into an aluminum can connected to a string attached to a distant person's ear. With one less hand to animate their speech, the voice punctuates the conversation. Watching an Italian drive a manual automobile and talk on the phone is even more impressive. The phone rings, the right hand clutches the phone to the ear. The left hand remains gently on the wheel and crosses the body when shifting gears. The voice challenges the grinding of the transmission and you arrive safely at your destination, pronto. Cars. Italians love their cars. Italy has the highest per capita car ownership in the world. There are 33 million cars on the roadways. That is 1 car for every 1.7 people. However, Italians love their cars small. Not just Ferrari, Lamborghini or Maserati small, the Italians love the Panda. The Fiat Panda is a toaster on wheels. And 58 jury members from 22 countries named the Panda "European Car of the Year in 2004." They said it was cheap, cheerful and actually smaller than it looks. However, these judges must have been on a closed track somewhere on the Formula 1 circuit and have never seen a family of four road tripping in a Panda. Four people will fit snugly, five if the mother just had a baby. The baby will ride on the mother's lap in the passenger seat. Two kids will work their way from the back seats to the front and back again without disturbing their father who is yelling into his cell phone, smoking a cigarette and shifting gears. Parking. "Lesson #4," the young Calabrese commands my attention. "What about Lessons, #1, 2 and 3?" "Don't worry about them, they are not important." Lesson #4, parking. When the car is parked with the left front tire on the curb and the tail at a 45 degree angle to the sidewalk, the position is good. "How can this be good," I ask. It is simple. "We are in front of the supermarket, no?" Bonus "C" - CIA. The CIA's "World Factbook" on the web is home to tons of useful information about every country in the world. Before I left for Italy in June, I filled my notebooks with some highlights....
Let Us Gather in Legions
Post 18 - December'05 Back to home...
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