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There were a bunch of stereotypes about living in Europe that I wanted to understand on my vacation.
Why are things cheaper over here?
Why do the Europeans seem to be working less than us?
Why do the Europeans seem to be enjoying life more than us?
Sure, houses and food and cars are cheaper than in the USA — but what was more interesting were the changes in daily life that you notice after a week or two.
The structure of our days began to change in wonderful ways.
For example, I had brought two Ipads with me to entertain the kids when they got bored — but we hardly used them. In the mornings after breakfast, my kids would jump into the swimming pool and play in the yard of our rental house.
Why? Probably because they couldn’t understand the Italian language channels on the TV, and because the Wi-Fi was slow enough that it was annoying to wait for videos on the Ipads. Outdoor living was the alternative. The doors and windows of the rental house were left open and they began to explore the yard methodically. They tried sword-fighting with sticks in the backyard, chasing unfamiliar bugs, and learning to play ping-pong while listening to Italian pop songs.
So my kids had basically unplugged from the grid and returned to nature after a few days. They wanted to visit new villages. They wanted to try new food. And we gave them journals with blank pages to record the names of the places they saw — and to draw pictures of the churches and mountains they encountered every day. That little trick kept them busy for hours in the back seat of the rental car as we toured Italy.
And because we were staying in the countryside and there were very few restaurants nearby, we began to shop in the local village stores and markets for our lunches and dinners. There was no one-stop supermarket fix.
Every village in Italy has a pasticceria — a small bakery for pastries and cakes. There’s also the macelleria for meats as well as the pescheria for fish. And don’t forget the panetteria for breads and the formaggeria for cheese. Not to mention the enoteca for wine.
And you learn very soon in Italy that you want to visit all of them.
