The Italian Way
Travel to a foreign land, immerse yourself in another culture for six weeks, and see if you don’t come back changed.
Reenergized. And you try to hang onto that feeling – even when the life you left behind for weeks comes knocking. Custody issues. Work issues. Kid issues. New business issues.
It’s enough to drive you insane.
But you keep looking back to six glorious weeks where you lived the Italian life – be happy, eat well, don’t worry – and you remember that being happy is a state of mind.
I’ve vowed to bring a lot of the Italian Way back to the cover the American Way.
We’re going to eat better – the idea is called Slow Food, where you eat what’s fresh and what’s in season and you cook very simply. Processed foods? Out the door. No processed sugar. What a sugary snack? Have an apple.
We’re going to have lots of family time. No blue glare of the television to baby-sit the kids. We’re going to talk, play games, laugh. We’re going to drink tea at night and relax and talk.
We’re not going to get caught up in what she has, what he has. We are going to live within our means, we’re going to plan and do projects and make our house a home again.
We’re going to be strong in body. I lost more than 20 pounds in Italy, even with all the good food, and wine with every meal. We walked everywhere. We ate well. The pounds fell off. It’s such an easy concept – eat well, exercise and the results will come.
Reconnect with my faith. You can’t go to Catholic Central – the Vatican – without being changed. You see the history throughout Italy (I saw an urn that held John the Baptist’s right arm, a silver cross commissioned by Constantine that held a piece of the cross) and you can’t help but think you could do better in your own life.
Mostly, I’m not going to get up and hack for 15 minutes stressing out about work and life. On a regular day, I do more work than about three other people. If something doesn’t get done, I’m not going to sweat it. Tomorrow is another day. That goes with my life outside work. Every problem is solvable – and long as you are willing to work within what you can control, and realize what you can’t.
But the pressures are tough to beat. They are always lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce, wrap their tendrils into you and squeeze.
That’s what I’ve made a pact to stay with the Italian Way. I spent several hours on Saturday hunting down good foods – lots of Italian stuff like cheese, olive oil and salami. Fresh vegetables. Organic yogurt. Granola from Moore’s Flour Mill. It’s going to get better. Fresh eggs when I can find them. Better olive oil from down the road in Corning, where olive groves stretch for miles. Fresh beef, handmade cheeses.
I’m walking every day, exploring like I used to on the weekends. Snowshoeing, cycling, hiking, paddling. It’s all out there, I just can’t be so focused on nothing (and really, what problems last week turned out to be nothing) not to see what’s out there.
Different cultures change people in different ways. Italy awoke in me a better spirit.
How can you not want to hang onto that?
Reenergized. And you try to hang onto that feeling – even when the life you left behind for weeks comes knocking. Custody issues. Work issues. Kid issues. New business issues.
It’s enough to drive you insane.
But you keep looking back to six glorious weeks where you lived the Italian life – be happy, eat well, don’t worry – and you remember that being happy is a state of mind.
I’ve vowed to bring a lot of the Italian Way back to the cover the American Way.
We’re going to eat better – the idea is called Slow Food, where you eat what’s fresh and what’s in season and you cook very simply. Processed foods? Out the door. No processed sugar. What a sugary snack? Have an apple.
We’re going to have lots of family time. No blue glare of the television to baby-sit the kids. We’re going to talk, play games, laugh. We’re going to drink tea at night and relax and talk.
We’re not going to get caught up in what she has, what he has. We are going to live within our means, we’re going to plan and do projects and make our house a home again.
We’re going to be strong in body. I lost more than 20 pounds in Italy, even with all the good food, and wine with every meal. We walked everywhere. We ate well. The pounds fell off. It’s such an easy concept – eat well, exercise and the results will come.
Reconnect with my faith. You can’t go to Catholic Central – the Vatican – without being changed. You see the history throughout Italy (I saw an urn that held John the Baptist’s right arm, a silver cross commissioned by Constantine that held a piece of the cross) and you can’t help but think you could do better in your own life.
Mostly, I’m not going to get up and hack for 15 minutes stressing out about work and life. On a regular day, I do more work than about three other people. If something doesn’t get done, I’m not going to sweat it. Tomorrow is another day. That goes with my life outside work. Every problem is solvable – and long as you are willing to work within what you can control, and realize what you can’t.
But the pressures are tough to beat. They are always lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce, wrap their tendrils into you and squeeze.
That’s what I’ve made a pact to stay with the Italian Way. I spent several hours on Saturday hunting down good foods – lots of Italian stuff like cheese, olive oil and salami. Fresh vegetables. Organic yogurt. Granola from Moore’s Flour Mill. It’s going to get better. Fresh eggs when I can find them. Better olive oil from down the road in Corning, where olive groves stretch for miles. Fresh beef, handmade cheeses.
I’m walking every day, exploring like I used to on the weekends. Snowshoeing, cycling, hiking, paddling. It’s all out there, I just can’t be so focused on nothing (and really, what problems last week turned out to be nothing) not to see what’s out there.
Different cultures change people in different ways. Italy awoke in me a better spirit.
How can you not want to hang onto that?
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