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Back from Italy

Hello all. I just got back from Italy last night. Still trying to adjust to the 6 hour time difference. Italy is truly a great place. Other than the fact that it seemed like a lot of people smoke there, I think in general, people are a lot healthier there. I think a huge part of that can be attributed to the diet. First of all, let me just say that Italian food here is actually Italian-American. There is a pretty big difference. I went 3 weeks without eating junk food. Why? There just wasn’t any option to eat junk food. Food portions at restaurants also were about 1/2 the size of the portions at most restaurants in the US. All of the food was extremely fresh and not processed to death. To be honest, I think over 50% of the diet there consists of bread. Italy has wonderful bread. It makes you wonder how the Italians can eat so much of it and still be so slim and fit looking. It’s not whole grain and gross either. It’s very good tasting white bread. It’s miles from most of the crap bread here that that’s processed to the point that it hardly even resembles bread anymore.

Even the bad stuff like Coke seemed to be different. First of all, the serving sizes are way way smaller. I didn’t see any single serving larger than a 12 oz bottle. Even the cans are smaller, and the crazy thing was that they tasted great, but unlike the soda here, I never actually finished one. I would drink about 1/2 or more and just be satisfied, and maybe I was just imagining things, but it seems like the coke here just has something in it that gives me this kind of unquenchable thirst for more.

I can only speak for the small part of Italy that I visited, but I think in general, Europeans are a lot further ahead than the US in a lot of things. The thing that really shocks me the most now is how much people in the US complain about paying $3 per gallon for gas. After seeing the prices in Italy, I am very thankful that we only pay around 1/2 what most Europeans do. It really seems unfair. I am not just realizing this, but I feel a lot stronger about it now.

I’m now thoroughly unimpressed with our so called “fuel efficient” hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid. Give me a Smart car that gets 60 mpg without even messing around with an electric motor. Seriously. I don’t understand what the obsession is with huge cars here. After spending 3 weeks in Italy, a Honda Civic looks about as big as a Cadillac.

Well, all I have to say is Viva Italia! It was really a great experience.

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