Often I get comments from Italians that Americans do not eat well – processed food, Big Macs, artificial cheese, no vegetables, etc., and that nobody knows how to cook over there.  On one hand, I do admit that the American supermarket aisles are far more packed with processed fake foods, and yes, I know plenty of Americans who do not cook.  However this is not always the case, and it is certainly not the case in  my hometown of Seattle!

I read this great piece on things that Texas and Italy have in common, over at Bleeding Espresso as part of Michelle’s Gita Italiana.  It got me thinking of how well I was able to live in Seattle – even if it was more expensive than here – while maintaining the Italian lifestyle I love so much.  If you dream of being an expat in Italy, but have just not arrived at that moment yet, it’s well worth it (and healthy) to explore your own city and try to find ways to bring Italy to you.  Here are some ways to do so in Seattle.

The Market Culture. Anybody who has been to Seattle has been to the Pike Place Market.  There are plenty of farmers markets all over the city, but Pike Place is an icon of Seattle and is teeming with stalls selling fresh fish (and by the way, the pacific northwest has some amazing salmon), fruits and vegetables, flowers, local wines.  The area around the market is full of small, hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants, cafes, an Italian Grocer, wine shops.  When I would pine for Europe while living in Seattle, this is where I would go. A café au lait and a croissant at Le Panier while watching the market wake up in the morning?  Priceless.  When I lived in the First Hill neighborhood, almost downtown, I would walk to the market and get my produce there.

The Café Culture. Another thing Europeans commonly say about America is that our coffee is no good.  That’s because they have not been to Seattle!  And no, I am not talking about Starbucks.  I’m talking about smaller local businesses such as Caffe Vita, Caffe Umbria, Vivace and many more. These folks roast their own beans, and with Italian machinery, Seattle’s baristi (at cafes such as Senso Unico) will serve up some of the best espresso on that side of the pond.  The difference between Seattle cafes and Italian bars, however, is that in Seattle you are most likely to enjoy your coffee drink seated in a big cushy armchair as you work on your laptop (almost all Seattle cafes have wi-fi).

The Foodie Culture. We Seattlites love to eat.  And we love to cook.  And we cook well.  A lot of people have gardens and are able to get their ingredients right in the backyard.  Someone is always having friends over for dinner, and there is always creative use of local ingredients (such as our seafood).  We have a wine culture too (yes, our state has its own Wine Country, and you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted one of our floral merlots).  One great thing about Seattle being a port city, is how international it is.  You can find cuisine from all over the world – France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Vietnam, Argentina, Ethiopia and the list goes on.  Being an Italian food lover, I found it very easy to recreate my favorite recipes using the ingredients available to me in Seattle.  It’s a good life!

What does your hometown have in common with your adopted country?

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net. Not only can you read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers, it’s a great place to look for cheap phone cards.  Yes, I know, with the internet it’s easy to keep in touch.  But we expats also like a regular phone call every now and then!

As you may or may not kn0w, my friend Michelle over at Bleeding Espresso is on a little blog trip around Italy.  She’s actually in Calabria, and I know I really ought to make it over the “arch” to go visit her in the “toe”.  In the meantime, I am excited to be part of her “gita Italiana”.

See my piece on the Salento here!

“Oh Tina, you silly girl,” everybody at the table says, laughing, “that’s so cute that you think the common cold is caused by a (chuckle) virus. Ha ha ha ha ha. Everybody knows that you catch a cold from the cold! Ha ha ha ha ha! Virus!  Oh Tina, you are too much.”

“Oh Tina, you silly girl,” everybody at the table says, laughing, “that’s so cute that you think it doesn’t matter if you go outside right after you eat.  Chuckle chuckle, ha ha ha ha ha.  Everybody knows that if you go outside after a meal you get la congestione!”*

Six months later…. I’m on an air-conditioned shuttle bus, covering myself with a shawl, with a tummy ache, and frantically text-messaging a friend, “I ate lunch and then walked and then sat next to the air conditioning!  I think I have la congestione!”

*La congestione: an Italian phenomenon that takes place if you don’t allow for digestion to fully take place after you eat and go be where it’s cold, or go swimming, go where you might sweat from heat and make yourself cold, or really any sort of environment that has anything to do with being cold.  Apparently, it messes everything up as when you digest all your blood is concentrated on your digestive system.  When you go into a cold environment the blood distributes to the rest of your body to keep you warm and digestion is blocked.  Which is why you should always wear a scarf!  (…and you thought it was just for fashion didn’t you!)  As a bonus, you could also get the influenza (not to be confused with the common flu), which is an Italian flu-like phenomenon that lasts exactly two days.  Remember, cold is evil!

I’m not sure why it is, but I seem to come across a lot of people who have moved here with little or no awareness of exactly how to stay here legally.  Some are university students and are under the impression that their university has handled everything.  Others are adventurous souls who just picked up and moved here, and think they’ll figure it out as they go along.  Others accepted jobs from employers who simply said “oh, we’ll take care of it”.  While for EU citizens there is very little to worry about, if you’re not from the EU it’s not as simple as just showing up.   I know it’s the last thing you want to think about as you imagine yourself trotting down the streets of Florence or Rome on your way to meet a friend for an aperitivo, but just humor me for a minute and read this.  Here are a few things to consider if you would like to move to Italy.

1. Do your homework. I know your local university has had an exchange program with the Italian university for so many years, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to help you once you get to Italy.  Perhaps you’ve been offered a job, but it may not be wise to assume your employer actually plans on getting you a visa.  Even if they do, and even if your university does help its students, you would be wise to take the responsibility of doing as much research as you can.  One great place to start is Expats in Italy.

2.  Learn the difference between a visa and a permesso di soggiorno. It is very important to keep in mind that a visa simply gets you into the country.  To actually stay, you need to get your permesso di soggiorno, or stay permit.  The visa is important to have because it is sort of a springboard to get you started in the bureaucratic process of applying for your stay permit.  But that’s all it is.  When you have your visa in hand, remember that this is Italy and the paperwork is never done.  To get started on applying for your permesso, you can ask for help at your university or from your employer, or go to the post office where they have the application packages.  This is something that needs to be done within 8 days of entering Italy.  Again, the people on the forum at Expats in Italy are very helpful if you need to know more.  My friend Georgette at Insiders Abroad just posted a link to this very informative blog post dealing with just this sort of thing.

3. The magic number is 90. When you arrive as a tourist, you are allowed to stay 90 days.  But don’t assume that you can just hop the border every 90 days and keep staying.  It used to be so, but now you actually have to leave for 90 days as well.  That’s right – 90 days in and 90 days out.  And not just Italy.  You have to leave the entire Schengen area (which includes most of Europe) for 90 days.  Be very careful about abusing this rule.  I personally know people who have been caught overstaying their allotted 90 days and it was not pretty.  You could risk being banned from the entire zone for five years.

I don’t like to sound negative or discouraging, but it really perplexes me when people don’t do their research before coming over here.  Maybe I’m just obsessive-compulsive, but I would never move to another country, legally or not, without trying to learn as much as I can about how everything works.  It is completely your choice if and how you want to come to Italy, but no matter what path you choose, you will find that so many doors open for you if you just do your research before you move.  It’s worth it!

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net.  Do you have loved ones living in Italy?  You might want to click here to learn about cheap phone cards for keeping in touch. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

I remember a poem I learned as a child, by Christina Rossetti, called Who Has Seen the Wind? – in fact, I can still recite it:

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you:

But when the leaves hand trembling

The wind is passing thro’

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I:

But when the trees bow down their heads

The wind is passing by.

I wonder if there is a Southern Italian version involving the various winds that we have down here.  How do you make the phrase: “When your curls are extra curly and your patio is covered in Saharan dust it’s probably the Scirocco” rhyme?  Or “When, despite the warm weather and sun, the wind makes your skin shiver it’s probably the Tramontana and you’d do best to drive a ways and take a dip in the Ionian Sea”…?

Growing up in Seattle, I never knew the wind to have different names, only because it wasn’t part of our culture to speak of the wind in such a way.  As far as I was concerned, it was a language reserved for deep sea fishermen.  Here, however, people base their activities on the wind, and every wind from every direction has a name that everyone knows, rendering it exotic.  The Levante, the Tramontana, the Scirocco (my favorite), the Maestro, among others.  I can’t keep them straight!

The two winds I do know very well by now are the Scirocco from Africa (my apartment stays humid, and outside the wind is warm and pleasant, though at times so strong it’s a nuisance to my hair, which I just throw into a bun) and the Tramontana from the north (it’s a cool wind but that’s when we choose the Ionian Sea over the Adriatic and have the loveliest beach days).

It’s rather impressive to me that such importance is given to the wind.  It’s something I love about living in the Mediterranean – here, there is a connection with nature that seems truly ancient.  From the wind to the soil to the sea to the phases of the moon.

How do people relate to nature where you live?

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

Even Italy’s beauty and charm can become “lost” in the day to day goings on in life.  Between teaching tango, writing, translating and socializing, I’m “sempre di corso”.  Always on the run.  Rarely a minute to myself to just breathe.  So yes, even in Italy I can become stressed out and tired – albeit happy.  Once in a while, something happens that reminds me that I’m in ITALY and it makes my heart flutter.  Two things in particular:

The caffè on a sunny Sunday morning. Once in a while I enjoy leaving the house to get my coffee.  Since the weather is pleasant, if I’m in company I like to sit at one of the outdoor tables.  Italians who are in a hurry usually down a quick shot of espresso at the bar, but if I have the time I don’t mind paying the extra service charge for sitting down.  To me, it’s worth it: I get to people watch!  Being in the middle of the chaos of people sitting down (or getting up), talking over each other, ordering their coffee, while (very) well-dressed folks continue to strut by, is a true “Italy moment” for me.

The spectacular views. Okay, the whole world has spectacular views. But the views here remind me that miracles are possible.  Last week I was at lunch on the property of a friend who lives near the point where the Adriatic and the Ionian seas meet, and as I stood and looked at the panorama that lay before me, I began laughing.  When we think of things like this – Mediterranean water and sky so blue and clear – we tend to dismiss them as fantasies.  I realized, at that moment, that I am living the dream – that I can see things like this any time I want.  And only in Italy.  See for yourself:

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

I’m going to Lecce (in Puglia) a week from Monday.  Just to hang out, relax, maybe get some work done, dance some tango, and not be in Umbria or Tuscany (meaning, I need a change of scenery!).  Maybe I’ll travel.  Maybe I won’t.

These past few weeks have been full of serious reflection.  Not just connected to the fact that I’m settling in here in Italy, but also out of a desire to take care of my heart and make sure I’m happy from the inside.

I may not be responsible for how other people act or think or feel, but I AM responsible for my own actions/thoughts/feelings, and for the situations I choose to be in.  In fact, on the train from Florence the other week, it hit me that if I’m the one who is responsible for my happiness (and nobody else is), I can just decide to be happy!  Not that I wasn’t before, because I am a generally happy person.  But it’s a powerful realization.  And so I decided, on that train, to just be happy – consciously.  This has led to further reflection and further examination of my patterns in life.  Approaching these things from a positive viewpoint (as opposed to the common idea that we have to do all these things BEFORE being happy) has been very interesting and productive!  I feel refreshed and excited to move forward in life.  It’s kind of cool how the mind works.

So, I’m topping all of this off with a visit to a city that fascinates me.  I wish I had a better camera, but I’ll do my best with what I’ve got!

The other day I paid a visit to a lovely city called Florence, a city I have always loved.  I needed a little trip outside of Perugia, and I needed some time with American girlfriends.

I bought purple gloves, stood in front of the Duomo eating ice cream, had a great aperitivo with Georgette and friends, and stayed with the lovely Katie.  Saturday I had the first half of the day to myself to walk around the city and I later met up with Katie and Laura, who I’ve been wanting to meet for years, for lunch.  Spending all that time with other girls who are making their dreams come true was really a spirit lifter for me.  It reminded me of what I have accomplished, and it reminded me how nice friendship is.

Florence is beautiful and it was a lovely reunion (I giggled and said to her “You’re so beautiful” more than once during this visit), but I fear that she has some competition from Rome in my heart for #1 major Italian city.  I enjoy knowing that I live a train ride from either city.  And that reminds me: as the train from Florence got into Umbria and closer to Perugia, I felt so at home.  As I embraced my dear tango friends, it became even more apparent to me.  I’m glad and grateful.

Well, that was an interesting saga.

First, Infostrada made me wait a month, and every time we would try to call them, we either couldn’t get through, or my customer number didn’t exist.  And when we did get through and my customer number existed, they would hang up on us.  Finally, we found out that for whatever reason they had canceled my order on me.  Great.

So then I discovered Aria, which is kind of like Clearwire in the US.  I have to say, their customer service is amazing.  After my experience with Infostrada, it was so nice to have someone answer the phone, AND call me back at an agreed up on time to help me get an account with them.  Well, my Aria package arrived, and it turns out I have no signal where I live.  Luckily I have 10 days to cancel.

While I was waiting for all of this, I had the chance to try a loaner USB “internet key” from Tre, a cell phone company.  They gave me a 3-Euro SIM for it so I could try it out.  This gave me about three hours.  As soon as I tried it, I was convinced that this was a good service for me.  But since I had already ordered from Aria, I didn’t want to make any decisions just yet.

The other day I signed up with Tre, but there was a problem on a national level where they weren’t able to activate new contracts.  Luckily, they gave me a prepaid SIM to use in the meantime.  But then the new modem wasn’t compatible with my computer, which has quite the temper lately!

Of course, I realized the other day that Mercury was in retrograde, which may have something to do with it…

In the end, I happily write this from home.  I look up at the castle across the way and sigh with contentment.

I’m also very fortunate and really have nothing to complain about when I look at the big picture.

Click the image below to support Doctors Without Borders as they work to provide emergency relief in Haiti.

I’ve been living in my new apartment for about a month now and am very comfortable.  I was surprised when I didn’t have to wait for the gas, water and electricity to be turned on.   All it took was a phone call!  After all the stories I’ve heard about Italian utilities, this was something to be grateful for.

But I guess something had to give.

I ordered a phone and ADSL package right away, as I knew this could be a little more complicated and could take a while.  And boy is it taking a while!  I ordered it on the 6th of December, and still have nothing.  To the phone/internet company’s credit, they called me right away on my cell phone after I ordered, and sent a local technician to me in just a couple of days to get my phone line up and running.  Alas, there was little he could do.  See, my street name is confusing and easily leads people to think that I live in a particular fraction of Perugia, rather than Perugia itself.  So, the technician was from that fraction, and apparently can’t work in Perugia.  The technician was really nice and said they would take care of it for me, in terms of calling someone who actually operated in Perugia, and sending them my way.  I was content with this.  The good news is, he had a look around, and my apartment has a couple of phone outlets and there is already a physical phone line.  So at least there won’t be anything complicated to do in that regard.

But, nothing.  With Christmas around the corner I had a feeling it would be this way, so I just decided to live with it until the New Year.  Why swim upstream?  This week things should go back to normal in terms of business and we plan on making a few phone calls and getting all of this taken care of.  In the meantime, I’m using R’s office every day.  I thank him for his kindness and I hope he doesn’t get sick of me before long.

Not having internet at home has changed my work pace a bit, naturally.  My time is limited so I have to work a lot harder and faster (I need the internet to do research and check up on terms, etc., as well as to keep in touch with clients).  So I get the translations done and then while I’m at home with no internet, I proofread.  On one hand, it’s nice to get my work done and go home, but on the other hand, I want to work smarter, not harder.  But, that’s just the way it is right now.

Nights are lonely without the internet.  It’s amazing how much I rely on it.  I keep myself occupied, though: I read, write, sing, dance, bake cookies, and mop the floor.   Now that I have time (i.e. time not being used to surf the net) I clean the whole house almost every day.  But I’d rather be Skype-ing with relatives and friends in the US and Argentina, who are several hours behind me.  So hopefully this will get resolved soon.