Ciao!

Today, I’m gonna share a little bit of ‘vita quotidiana’…everyday living. Yesterday I shared how important recycling is here. But everyday usage of things is much more than just the trash. Things in general come in smaller packages, smaller portions, and use less energy.

Below, is our refrigerator. It’s pretty typical for Europe. The freezer is the bottom door. A lot of IKEA stuff here, so they are often hidden by cabinet fronts. You can see they are big-mini-fridge size by American standards, but Europeans tend to do small shopping every few days. Always picking up just a few days worth of say, fresh bread or drinks. There are no Sam’s, or Costco’s, or 96-packs of toilet paper here! And it really isn’t that hard to get used to. There are also no super stores here, no Targets or WalMarts, so everything is done at the local market or corner store. Groceries here don’t generally carry clothes and car parts and stuff, they carry groceries. And a limited choice, at that. You have cereal. Maybe two or three choices. Not an entire aisle. So that little corner market has everything you need in it’s tiny space, you just pick the only brand they have. But that’s normal here, and really, who needs twenty choices of freaking frosted flakes?

While I’m talking about groceries, check out the milk (yes, milk!) and soda below! The Coke bottle is a rarity here, an actual 20 oz. American size, for scale. Milk is shelf stable here. It comes in small cartons, not refrigerated, and in a six-pack usually. And it tastes just fine. You bring it home, stick it in the fridge, and it’s fine. Groceries don’t have four aisles of freezer cases, churning 24/7 with power usage. The Pepsi bottle is pretty representative of drinks here. Coke is by far the most common drink here. Most restaurants ONLY serve original Coke. Not diet, not Dr Pepper, not anything else. Just original Coke. And the serving size is small. No super size, large, or 32 oz. sizes here. The groceries do sell Fanta Orange and Pepsi, if you’re lucky. But this small size is the norm.

Now the beer…it comes in Three-Packs. The groceries and gas stations sell alcohol here, and it’s almost all light beer. Finding a dark beer is next to impossible, much to Paul’s chagrin! Besides the three-packs, the groceries often sell single bottles.

Along with the warm milk, eggs are not kept cold. They are sold in small packs, below is a two-pack, but they also come in fours and sixes. They are generally on an end-cap near the bread section. They just need washed before you use them, as any American chicken person will tell you.

Before we leave the grocery store, check out this toilet paper! At first, I was like okaaayy…they are saving the cardboard, that’s cool, but how do I put it on the holder? Then I realized you push the center out, and it is it’s own little travel-pack of tissue! How cool is that? It even has a little label telling you to put it in your purse or car or take it camping! For some reason, I find the little cultural differences (almost) more interesting than the ancient sites here!

Another energy-saving, normal thing here is the laundry. Below, a typical washer. It’s tiny. I mean, like literally three pair of jeans, tiny. You have to do a small load almost every day. And dryers are very rare here. Everyone uses clotheslines or clotheshorses, the wire stands that you lay things on. Even in the fancier neighborhoods, you’ll see clothes strung out on balconies and yards, which Americans tend to think of as being a poor urban high-rise kind of thing. But it is the norm here. The washer says, from left to right, “fabric (cotton, synthetic, etc.)”, “spin speed”, “water temp (in Celsius)”, “start/pause”, and “power”. #ThanksGoogleTranslate #WeUseTidePodsHereToo #Yum

The windows in Italy are crazy, too! They don’t have screens. Anywhere. So you open the window and that’s it. Big, open, open. You would think that no screens would be unbearable because of bugs, but there really aren’t that many bugs here. We seem to be having a lot of mosquitoes at this particular place, but then, there is a garden right outside our door. There tends to be some sort of shutters, either wooden like these, that you reach out and grab, pull in, and latch tight. Or some newer places have these cool metal, roll down shutters, that have a rope in the wall next to the window. Below right, the windows have two settings. You can turn the handle one way, and the window swings open to the side. You can close it and turn the handle the other way, and it tilts in about six inches. Which is nice if it is raining or really hot and you just want some air flow. Some places have air conditioning, like our current apartment. Even so, it is a modern equivalent to a window a/c. A small wall unit controlled by remote. But many places don’t even have that, hence the big open windows. Many people just throw open their houses every night, then close the shutters up and keep the cool in while they are gone each day.

Paul and I are by far the largest people here. The stereotype of fat, shirtless Italian guys wearing speedos and gold chains might still be happening at the beaches here, but around town, we are definitely “not from around here”. Which is only made more apparent when we are buying groceries everyday. It’s the norm here, but as Americans shopping every day, we feel like we are just shoveling food in! The neighborhood vibe is still going strong in Europe, people walk everywhere, take their dogs everywhere (inside and out), talk to people they pass on the street, talk to their neighbors, sit on their porches and balconies and talk to strangers walking below. It is a very friendly, stranger-welcoming place, which is so odd to us as Americans. We have the personal space thing, sitting as far from each other as possible in a row of chairs, “All these spaces, and you sit right next to me?!?” and all that.

Chow for Now!