I went into Whole Foods today because I occasionally like to pay an extra $5 for every item that Wal-Mart sells and I got a taste of nostalgia. I was in the diary aisle and saw yogurt drinks for the totally idiotic price of $4.59 and it took me back.
As I've discussed with anyone who will read or listen, living in Italy was really cool. There were rough parts - transit strikes, language barriers, and the smell of dog pee almost everywhere - but there were obviously wonderful parts. Big, wonderful things like train travel, proximity to cool places, history, art, generous people, great food, and others were just part of our lives. I'm not going to talk about those big things. I want to talk about the little things that I miss about being in Europe.
I'm starting with yogurt drinks.
This may seem silly, but you know those little Dannon drinkable yogurts? They're 6-8 ounces and come in 4-packs? They're tasty, but they're not exactly filling. You can also get Chobani Greek yogurt drinks - these things - for about $2 apiece. They're just a hair under 300ml in serving size. Fine for a snack, but that's about it. You get what I'm saying, right?
In Italy, regardless of the grocery store, you could get a 500ml or larger yogurt drink for less than 2 Euro. I don't know why that was the case, but it was the case. We had multiple instances where we would each buy a yogurt drink and then couldn't finish them because they were too big. We overfilled on yogurt drinks! Sure, they were the generic store-brand kind and were probably not as high-quality as something like Chobani, but I'll be damned if they weren't the most cost-effective, nourishing, energy-giving meal you could come up with on a day you were walking 12 miles around the city. I miss those yogurt drinks.
2nd thing? Cheese balls. Not these, although I guess I kind of miss those too. No, I'm talking about juicy, succulent, baseball-sized chunks of mozzarella that were produced just outside of town at some family's farm. These things - at the supermarket - would go for about $0.50 apiece. Buying one at an American grocery store would probably run $3-4 each.
For Easter we went to a student's home-town in southern Italy for a couple of nights. Easter is a big deal, so there was a huge family gathering at the farm where they produce olive oil and wine (side note, the best tasting olive oil and wine I've ever had in my life, with no exceptions). The spread, however, included a bowl about 3 feet in diameter that was just full of cheese balls. Plates of fresh salami, bread-products everywhere, cakes, preservative-free red wine that tasted like juice, and the mozzarella balls. I don't know if we've ever had a day with so much good food, and that includes our wedding that featured gelato, buckeyes, and BBQ. I could talk about that weekend for hours, but I won't. Yet. Instead, another thing I miss.
I miss street music. There's some of it in Cleveland, particularly when there's a home game for the Indians or Cavs, but it's not the same. In Milan there were people on the train about once a week performing something - violin, mini-keyboard, a cello (seriously, on a moving train) - and they were almost universally delightful to listen to. They would get chased off the train anytime a carabinieri officer came along (that was one of the seemingly 100 different police forces in Italy), but they'd be back after a minimal slap on the wrist.
Maybe it was just because of all the tourists, but you'd see musicians out and about regularly. I have a vague memory of an accordionist playing a lovely tune in a relatively hidden area of some city I can no longer identify. Does that happen in the States? It should. Street music is wonderful and should be encouraged. Art in general should be encouraged, but that's probably another topic for another time.
I miss stairs that seemed (and sometimes actually were) 1,000 years old. So many places just felt like they were stuck in time and then you'd see someone ride a 50 year old bicycle past while talking on their iPhone.
I miss how the stereotype is that Italians talk with their hands and sometimes you'd see people riding a bike, holding a phone in one hand and "talking" with the other hand while using exactly zero hands to steer their bike.
I miss the church bells two blocks from our apartment and the tune that I can only kind of remember.
I miss the guy at the discount grocery store who knew we were American so he would say "Hello! Good Morning!" no matter what time of day it was because he had a chance to practice his English.
I miss my one student's mother offering me food every time I arrived. I also miss helping that student do his math homework while dipping bread-treats into Nutella.
I miss perking up when someone on the train spoke in English.
I miss thinking "one day I'm gonna eat in that restaurant" about 30 different places and going to none of them because we were too busy eating at Luini and getting gelato.
There are a million more things I miss, but these are the ones in my head right now.
As I've discussed with anyone who will read or listen, living in Italy was really cool. There were rough parts - transit strikes, language barriers, and the smell of dog pee almost everywhere - but there were obviously wonderful parts. Big, wonderful things like train travel, proximity to cool places, history, art, generous people, great food, and others were just part of our lives. I'm not going to talk about those big things. I want to talk about the little things that I miss about being in Europe.
I'm starting with yogurt drinks.
This may seem silly, but you know those little Dannon drinkable yogurts? They're 6-8 ounces and come in 4-packs? They're tasty, but they're not exactly filling. You can also get Chobani Greek yogurt drinks - these things - for about $2 apiece. They're just a hair under 300ml in serving size. Fine for a snack, but that's about it. You get what I'm saying, right?
In Italy, regardless of the grocery store, you could get a 500ml or larger yogurt drink for less than 2 Euro. I don't know why that was the case, but it was the case. We had multiple instances where we would each buy a yogurt drink and then couldn't finish them because they were too big. We overfilled on yogurt drinks! Sure, they were the generic store-brand kind and were probably not as high-quality as something like Chobani, but I'll be damned if they weren't the most cost-effective, nourishing, energy-giving meal you could come up with on a day you were walking 12 miles around the city. I miss those yogurt drinks.
2nd thing? Cheese balls. Not these, although I guess I kind of miss those too. No, I'm talking about juicy, succulent, baseball-sized chunks of mozzarella that were produced just outside of town at some family's farm. These things - at the supermarket - would go for about $0.50 apiece. Buying one at an American grocery store would probably run $3-4 each.
For Easter we went to a student's home-town in southern Italy for a couple of nights. Easter is a big deal, so there was a huge family gathering at the farm where they produce olive oil and wine (side note, the best tasting olive oil and wine I've ever had in my life, with no exceptions). The spread, however, included a bowl about 3 feet in diameter that was just full of cheese balls. Plates of fresh salami, bread-products everywhere, cakes, preservative-free red wine that tasted like juice, and the mozzarella balls. I don't know if we've ever had a day with so much good food, and that includes our wedding that featured gelato, buckeyes, and BBQ. I could talk about that weekend for hours, but I won't. Yet. Instead, another thing I miss.
I miss street music. There's some of it in Cleveland, particularly when there's a home game for the Indians or Cavs, but it's not the same. In Milan there were people on the train about once a week performing something - violin, mini-keyboard, a cello (seriously, on a moving train) - and they were almost universally delightful to listen to. They would get chased off the train anytime a carabinieri officer came along (that was one of the seemingly 100 different police forces in Italy), but they'd be back after a minimal slap on the wrist.
Maybe it was just because of all the tourists, but you'd see musicians out and about regularly. I have a vague memory of an accordionist playing a lovely tune in a relatively hidden area of some city I can no longer identify. Does that happen in the States? It should. Street music is wonderful and should be encouraged. Art in general should be encouraged, but that's probably another topic for another time.
I miss stairs that seemed (and sometimes actually were) 1,000 years old. So many places just felt like they were stuck in time and then you'd see someone ride a 50 year old bicycle past while talking on their iPhone.
I miss how the stereotype is that Italians talk with their hands and sometimes you'd see people riding a bike, holding a phone in one hand and "talking" with the other hand while using exactly zero hands to steer their bike.
I miss the church bells two blocks from our apartment and the tune that I can only kind of remember.
I miss the guy at the discount grocery store who knew we were American so he would say "Hello! Good Morning!" no matter what time of day it was because he had a chance to practice his English.
I miss my one student's mother offering me food every time I arrived. I also miss helping that student do his math homework while dipping bread-treats into Nutella.
I miss perking up when someone on the train spoke in English.
I miss thinking "one day I'm gonna eat in that restaurant" about 30 different places and going to none of them because we were too busy eating at Luini and getting gelato.
There are a million more things I miss, but these are the ones in my head right now.
I love this post. I am currently an ITA student looking to move to Italy. My husband and I are older (think retirement) and want to live in Italy for a few years and I though I might do some teaching just to feel like I'm part of the community. You're very funny.
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