Framing the World a Bit Differently

I've been in Italy a little more than a month and I'm beginning to settle in. The cultural differences here are a bit like looking at the world through a new pair of glasses. The way we view things is still mostly the same, but these glasses don't sit quite the same way; they frame the world a bit differently, and maybe the lenses take a different tint when standing in the sun. Here is a collection of some of the most striking differences I've noticed between the US and Italy.

Hitting the books

Right now we're wrapping up a two-month period for the students of the University of Pisa. When they return, they’ll have to deal with one more month of exams in September before the school year picks up again. Interestingly, there is never a set date or time when students must take their finals. They choose any time in June, July, or September. Students can even elect to take an exam a year or more after they took their course! Exams are generally oral though they can also include a written component.

During their academic year, Italian students spend a lot more time in class than us. I debated educational methods with an Italian biomedical engineer: though I can’t imagine successfully synthesizing my engineering lessons without the p-sets that teach me how to apply what’s been taught in class, he was entirely of the opinion that in-class discussion is the optimal way to acquire an engineering education. Italian students do not have to deal with weekly p-sets, papers, or lovely lab reports. The concept, all too familiar at MIT, of all-nighters and sleep deprivation is completely foreign to them (literally!).

The importance of eating well

Here, a significant portion of daily life is devoted to food. Dinner alone can easily take a three-hour bite out of the evening. Whether their interest in eating led to the wonderful cuisine, or the cuisine to the interest, the stereotype holds: everything tastes better in Italy. Still, Italians have some habits that are tough to get used to. Take the meal times: Lunch does not start before 1pm, no matter how much my stomach might be rumbling by noon. Dinner often won’t get underway until 9pm (and when you have to commit three hours to the meal but still wake up at 6am, you may need to pre-game it with a late afternoon siesta). Italians also don’t load one plate with everything they intend to eat. They take their antipasto, then a first course, a second course, and finally coffee—which Italians drink in shot glasses at any time, day or night— and a dessert… which brings us to one of my favorite topics: Italian gelato. Words escape me. So far, these flavors have been the most memorable:

• Coco (coconut… one of my 2 favorite flavors for anything, ever and it’s so common here… Sadly, Italians have yet to be introduced to my other favorite flavor: pumpkin)
• Pompelmo (grapefruit)
• Frutti di bosco (mixed berries, an Italian specialty from what I gather)
• Bacio (chocolate hazelnut, literally “kiss”)
• Pignoli (pine nut)
• Bailey’s

What they’re missing:

1. Root beer—and consequently root beer floats

2. Fresh fruit juice. This one is beyond me. How could people with such a commitment to good food not sell any form of not-from-concentrate orange juice with pulp in a local supermarket?

3. Bagels. Despite all the amazing bread to be found in Italy, this specialty is entirely missing. The classically New York-style Jewish delis that I so love are nowhere to be found.

4. Peanut butter. Actually, you can find this in the local supermarket, but they only sell one brand and it’s only available in creamy. Furthermore, my roommates had never heard of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (prompting my youtube search of the peanut butter jelly time song. Good times.) This also means this culture has been deprived of my daily sustenance: peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I’ve been trying to adopt more Italian eating habits (later meals, different diet), but cutting these out of my routine has been a real sacrifice.

Getting from Point A to Point B

Italian streets just aren’t designed for modern vehicles. At least, not in the American sense. Vespas are as popular here as the stereotypes portray them to be, and smart cars are all the rage. The public transportation system in Pisa is not amazing—there’s no subway here—but the buses run regularly enough and are always fairly full. Sometimes a bus driver forgets to close the doors after a stop, or the bus decides to stop closing the doors on its own. It's always a funny surprise to be seated, or better yet standing, next to an open door and suddenly realize that you're no longer at a stand-still. Renting a car is also a possibility—one I may even look into after my international driver’s license is delivered next week!—but first, the challenge: in Italy, people only drive stick-shift. Fortunately, my lab mentor has offered to help me. And finally, one last tidbit: Who rides a bike in Italy? Answer: everyone. Men in suits, ladies in heels, young kids, old people, yes, anyone and everyone.

Smoking: a national past-time

So we’ve all heard Europeans smoke more, okay. But the dedication some Italians show to their addiction is really quite remarkable. I’ve seen Italians who step out of a restaurant between courses to light up, who lean out of trains when they stop at a station to get in a few puffs, and even some who ride their bikes one-handedly in order to get in their morning cigarette on the way to work. I’m impressed.

Working to live instead of living to work

Perhaps the most surprising element of life here in Italy is the amount of vacation and time off. As my lab mentor told me, in August, Italy closes. Yes, apart from the tourism industry, the country shuts down. We ran out of 10ml pipettes: too bad, the Italian company selling them won’t make any more shipments until September. As a college student, of course I assumed this vacation concept didn’t apply to me. But no, I was told I too am expected to take my two to three weeks of vacation. In fact, despite my protests, I cannot enter a laboratory during the week of Monday, August 11 through Friday, August 15. (August 15 is Ferragosto, the Italian national holiday.)

Weekends and evenings are also fairly sacred. There is no such thing as returning to lab to finish an experiment after dinner, and with the exception of some Saturday mornings, no one will work during the weekend. Of course this lifestyle could end up growing on me. I’ve had a lot more time for reading, picking up some side hobbies, and exploring Italy on weekends. Given that I recently learned my roommate owns a sewing machine, I’m also now on the hunt for a really good fabric store… this may require a trip to Milan sometime soon…