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Ah, Italy. It is nice to be somewhere where I feel more comfortable. I joked before that I always question whether I would want to live in places I visit. THIS is a place I could live for a little while.
I love this town. It is many of the things that I missed in Russia along with some things I didn’t even notice until I got here.
* People are friendly. They smile and greet you as you walk down the street. No pushing, no shoving. One guy approached me and I was concerned for a second. I suddenly realized he noticed my camera out and was simply asking if I wanted him to take my picture.
* It is safe. I stopped on the corner and hit an ATM machine and never worried about the “rowdy” kids behind me (although to be fair, I DID decline the guy who wanted to take my picture because you just never know).
* The rowdy kids are having fun, but they aren’t smoking and drinking beer (although to be fair, there WERE three guys on the bench in the piazza this morning drinking a beer at 10:00 AM)
* It is clean. No liter. No piles of dirt on the sidewalks you are walking on. No graffiti. The posters are all in “poster places” not just slapped up on anything and everything. In fact, the one construction fence I saw during my walk last night had ART WORK on it. Everything in it’s place.
* It is QUIET. The only noise other than people talking is the occasional bus. None of the constant rumble of traffic that I had in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In fact, I have seen far more bicycles than cars here (although to be fair, I think my hotel is sitting in a restricted travel district and you CAN'T bring cars into it).
* I could eat outside! Last night for dinner I decided to sit in my hotel’s café which sits right on Piazza Walthar (the city’s central square). I watched the world go by and loved it. Kids on bikes, parents pushing baby carriages. Couples and tourists out for a walk.
* I actually was interested in eating again. Don't get me wrong, I liked most of my food in Russia, but I was ready for a change. Tonight’s meal was simple but more like what I would cook myself.
* It is significantly cooler. I actually put on my sweater when I went out to church and was glad I had it when I sat for dinner. This morning I neglected to grab one and I regretted it later.
Ok, a lot of this is simply circumstances. I moved from a town of 20 million to a town of 20 thousand??? I could have done that within Russia and had several of these things would have happened. However, this is my kind of town. I could easily move here for a few months!
My hosts here at Bolzano have been very friendly and receptive during my first day here. We have met for the majority of the day with faculty and students alike (this despite the fact that there is some kind of local holiday going on today and the University is closed as are almost all the shops and restaurants in town). It is cloudy and has even rained a few times, but that is good on a day when I have to be inside anyways. It is my sincere hope that on Wednesday the weather turns nice again so I can hike up into the mountains surrounding the town (or better yet, that I can take the chair lift UP the mountains and hike back down!).
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Doris
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Ah, Italy!
Yes, Italy does sound more like my kind of place than Russia. I can see you sitting outside a cafe with a beer in hand enjoying dinner! Have a pizza for us. Love Aunt Doris