Frequently Asked Questions - Part 1

Happy Monday! I'm completely settled back into Cortina life now AND Ryan and I are settled into a brand new apartment, but more on that later in the week. I thought it would be fun to do a little mini-series for the month of October - I've noticed that when people at home in the US find out that Ryan and I live in Italy, there are four questions they always ask during the conversation that follows. So this October, I'm going to answer one question a week...

...first up: how do you like living in Italy?

I LOVE living in Italy, are you kidding me?! Next question.

Kidding, kidding.

Really, what's not to love about Italy? As I've mentioned many, many times before: you can eat pasta for lunch, you can drink Prosecco at 11 am (I don't, but I'm just saying you CAN), there are the most delicious cappuccinos in the world...Beyond the food (if you can even get beyond the food), you have the mountains if you want them, the beach if you like that, busy cities or teeny towns. There are ancient ruins, the most elaborate churches and enough museums and villas to last you for years. If you go far enough North you can speak German, if you go far enough South you can do nothing! There is the nicest leather, the best gelato, and it turns out that it was actually the Italians who invented batteries. And the typewriter!

Aside from the country as a whole, Ryan and I are living in our own little piece of Italy which we love for the people we've met and the friends we've made; for the fact that we can walk down to the pasticceria in the morning for a warm brioche and to the cafe in the evening for a quiet aperitivo.We love that we're both doing something that we love. We love our little apartments, love Christmas in Cortina and love that satisfied feeling you get when you figure out how to use the washing machine or the heater.

As Americans, living in Italy allows us to embrace a slightly different (understatement) way of life and the new cultures and traditions that comes along with it. It teaches us something new every day and always keeps us on our toes. It lets us think about things in a different way and see the world in a new light.

Of course it's hard sometimes to be so far away from our families and friends. We hate missing birthdays, weddings, holidays...we crave real Mexican food and hate the panicked feeling you get when an Italian asks you a question WAY too fast. We wonder WHY the grocery store can't be open on Sunday when I've forgotten to buy milk and WHY everything takes so long to get done - and then we sit back, gaze at the beautiful views and think about how lucky we are to live in Italy.