Good food and wine, no air conditioning or ice in the drinks, these are some of things that come to mind when you think about Italy. But the country is a whole lot more than these general (and accurate) stereotypes. This summer, I spent a month in the Lombardia region of Italy as part of a Group Study Exchange for the Rotary Club. The intentions of the trip were for me and my fellow group members to experience the Italian culture and institutions, observe how our careers are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas. Mission accomplished. As you can imagine, you can learn a lot about a foreign place by being embedded in it for four weeks. And in Italy there is so much to learn, the history, the culture, the language. Heck, the country’s recorded history is a couple of thousand years older than ours. When you are there, they talk in millennia, while we talk in decades. But besides the history, I found some other differences between the Italian lifestyle and that of Americans.

One of the first things you notice in Europe is that everything is smaller. The saying goes that everything is bigger in Texas; well that adage can also describe the entire United States. On the opposite side of that, it can be said that everything is smaller in Europe. The cars are smaller, the beds are smaller, the showers are smaller, and the people are smaller. The only things that are really consistently bigger than the American counterpart are the churches, which are huge (and old). The size of the cars is one of the first things you notice after arriving at the airport. The cars are tiny, but are driven fast; real fast. There is not a lot of slow acceleration and deceleration in Italy. Even though most cars are manual transmission five speeds, most drivers only went two speeds, stop and fast. The cars are all round in shape and fuel efficient. You don’t come across many SUVs, large sedans, or trucks. Even their delivery trucks are small and curved. The Italians take pride in their driving. Many of our Rotarian hosts loved to dash in and out around the small roads in their Fiats and Audis. Despite their diminutive status, the cars in Europe have something that American cars are not blessed with, high speed limits. On several occasions, Italian drivers would remark on how American cars are equipped with these big engines, but are straddled by low speed limits (and automatic engines).

Another thing you notice while on the road in Italy is that the drivers are a little crazy. If you have ever been to Rome or Milan, that is something you will come home raving about in addition to the Coliseum and La Scala. The cars and scooters are everywhere and they all seem to be inches away from crashing into one another. But being there a month allows you to dig deeper into the driving frenzy. I have come to learn that the drivers in Italy are crazy, but universally courteous. There seems to be some written or unwritten rules of the road and most Italians seem obligated to follow it. Most slow cars keep to the right, yield to the appropriate vehicles, and are respectful of their fellow road mates. Despite spending hours a day in Italian cars that were constantly tailgating, cutting people off, and acting like a Mario Cart video game, I only remember one driver getting frustrated. This was also the only time I remember the horn being used and an obscenity being released. At least I think it was an obscenity. Unfortunately, my control of the Italian language did not improve that much in one month. If the driver would have counted to ten I would have been able to comprehend, but I was only able to pick up a few choice curse words on my trip, and these were not used in this instance. Also, if you think Italian driving is unorthodox and anarchistic, you should see how they park.

It is ironic that Italians like to drive fast, since they are never really in a rush to be anywhere. Time waits for Italians. Every day we had a schedule to be picked up by a particular Rotary club of that region and sometimes it was two or three clubs a day. We would always ask, “What time should we be ready?”, “What time will you be picking us up?” The answer always seemed like a suggestion rather than a definitive timeline, “Sometime around 9 ‘til 11…”, “What time would you like to be picked up?” At first this caught us off guard, because we didn’t want to be late or offend our hosts, but we soon got the hang of the flexible schedules and went along with the flow. You know what they say, “When in Rome… do as the Romans do.” We never actually made it to Rome on this trip, but the adage still applies here.

On my previous trips to Italy I was with a tourist in tourist locations and surrounded by Americans. This time around I was with real Italians. I knew going in that Italians have long meals that can last beyond 2-3 hours. However, it took me a long time to adjust to the times in which they ate. Living in America my whole life, my body has been trained to eat lunch at around 11:30 or noon and dinner around 7 with a snack or two in between. The only real snacking we did was eating gelato or drinking an appertivo. Most lunches began sometime after 1 o’clock and I can’t remember a dinner starting earlier than 8:30pm. If you figure in the 2-3 hours it takes to eat an Italian meal, we were typically still eating our dinner at 11 o’clock. This was a little difficult to get used to and hard on my every growling (and growing) American stomach. But after a week or two of this, I just made sure I carried some good Italian snacks with me wherever we went. I kept it in my man purse which would have gotten me ridiculed in America, but made me right at home in Italy. I have to go with the Italians on this one. A man purse really comes in handy. You can use it to hold snacks, your camera, notebooks, water bottle, wine bottle etc. I think women have had the right idea all this time. What can you actually put in a wallet that you can’t keep in your pocket?

Besides the man purse, there was something else I liked about Italy and something that the US should consider; there are not a lot of pennies or nickels around the country (or rather the one cent and 5 cent euro equivalent). The Europe Union does produce these coins, but you just don’t come across many or get many in your day to day transactions. I learned the reason for this is that, the tax is included in the price of the items you buy. What a great and simple concept. If something is marked 5 euros it will cost you 5 euros. Not only does that make it easier on the consumer, it also makes the need for the smaller coins to exist. This is something the US government should take a closer look at duplicating. I don’t think it will take a Ph.D. in mathematics to figure out how to include the tax in the price of an item. Don’t worry, the government will still get paid, but the consumer does not have to worry about dealing with pennies, nickels, and dimes. Think of the money the US can save if it is able to reduce the production of these unwanted coins. It already costs more to produce a penny than that it is actually worth.

So from cars to coins, there are many things about Italy that you don’t quite find in America and that is what makes traveling so much fun. If I wanted to drive around in a big car, sleep in a big bed, and fill my pocket with loose change, I could just travel to any town USA. But if you want to see life on a smaller and simpler scale, take a trip to Italy and see history in the past and present. And I didn’t even get around to the bidet and the squat toilet.