July 11, 2008
Each day I find that my eyes continue to try to take in all I see while my brain tries to make sense of it. Everywhere we look, there’s a new sight, a new picture to be taken—a beautiful old massive wooden door with hardware that looks ancient and used by thousands. Beautiful tiles running alongside a building with an old facade to match; a new church I haven’t seen before. I take in these sights while simultaneously the sounds of people talking, motorcycles zooming and then slowly, with grace and balance, an older woman rides her grocery laden bicycle down the cobblestone street as she chats on her cell phone. This is Italy and I am really here!
A couple times per week I tell Kim that I still haven’t taken in completely that we are really here. Soon it will be a month and it all remains quite new. Today’s discoveries included finding the library and locating the cemetery. Over the years, we always make it a point to visit the local cemetery and we have a large assortment of pictures from Prague to Cuba that I hope to someday organize. In any case after a long bike ride to a new part of town we did locate the cemetery but it was closed. We’ll have to save that for another day. Just in looking through the gates it looks very interesting and will be worthy of spending a good deal of time exploring.
The local library was a great find. It’s been modernized inside and appears very user friendly. My favorite part is that it’s air conditioned and has lots of different places to sit and read. They have a number of keep it quiet signs and everyone just goes about their business. One of the rooms is full of magazines from all over and we were delighted to find both English versions of Newsweek and Time magazines. Also, we found a section with English print books, many of which were classics. So, once the library we dragged to Alessandria in those suitcases is consumed, we’ll get a chance to catch up on our classics.
I also found it interesting to read the British London Times (sort of English!) and learn about some of their concerns and issues. The big lead article was about the great number of teens who are becoming more and more disenfranchised and joining violent gangs. The article was spurred by a recent knifing murder of a young sixteen year old boy and his death was another of too many this year. The big issues were how to reach these teens and try to address some of the core issues. As in the US, issues of poverty, racism, and education were addressed. These articles were surrounded by other stories regarding Iran, finance, slumping housing markets, high gasoline and food prices. The news here in Italy has been very similar. Here, for the equivalent for a gallon of gas, it’s around $12-14. I have been so struck by the similarities and how many of the stories are of world-wide concern with no real answers as to how to solve them. I doubt that I’ll find the answers tonight; it’s almost 2:30 AM here and I couldn’t sleep…thus the blog. But, I’d best try so I close for now.
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