Back from Europe
Twelve days in Europe has revealed the following:
- Drinking good red wine with every dinner mellows you out
- Hanging in Italy and France during the World Cup is the only way to understand what soccer means to the rest of the world. My first night in Italy was the day of the USA versus Italy game
- We Americans are in an incredible fucking hurry
And it’s good to be home.
Regarding soccer, I couldn't agree more. I was in Sorrento during the USA-Italy match and the ratio of Italy to US fans was somewhere around 100:3 (and all the US fans were foreigners). It was certainly an interesting experience, but as passionate as the Italians are about soccer, I don't recall any times where either side's fans delivered an "in your face!"-style message (although some Italian fans did have airhorns). Sometimes, people who are extremely passionate about a particular team will be discourteous and rude to fans of another team (I hear about this happening, especially with regards to football, here in the States), but that was not the case.
As for being in a hurry, I notice that when the "Rushed Americans" comparison comes out, the examples are often in the way we balance work, life, and food. But what's a guy to do? I *like* eating while walking, taking lunch at my desk and eating breakfast at 11.
About Rushing Americans...
Please come and visit Milan or Turin and you'll change your mind for sure!
Too bad you didn't hang a few more days in Italy and France. That way you could have seen what going crazy about soccer really means.
Oddly enough, I noticed the opposite while recently in Italy. The Italians and the French seemed to not be able to queue to save their lives nor to give two turds about helping people out. This is in general, of course. There were quite a few Italians who were very nice and helpful as well.
Yeah...was in Florence when Italy finally won. Kinda wish we started in Florence then went to Rome instead:)
"We Americans are in an incredible fucking hurry"
No kidding. This was by far the biggest revelation that I took away from my visits to Europe... especially when trying to change money over in Italian banks! :-)
Of course, this is certainly not true of all Europeans, but seems to be more often than not, generally.
