Retirement from that cushy U.S. lifestyle, and moving abroad to a walkable city, ditching the cars, walking everywhere, becoming quite self-sufficient on the excellent public transportation everywhere else, and adopting a balanced, self-care lifestyle, has been not only fun, and a good way to meet like-minded people, but also a good class in traveling economically and staying fit at the same time.
We decided upon retirement and moving abroad that we wanted to re-create the most memorable and most enjoyable time in our lives. That was when we moved to Chicago, I went to school, my wife worked, and we lived in a small apartment in the city and walked everywhere or used public transportation. We honestly couldn’t well afford anything else. When we ate out, we shared an entree and maybe had a glass of wine, but we were truly city folk.
This really resonated. Convenience is an addiction and I find when I'm in Italy I gain something from the 'inconvience' (all minus the a/c. I'm with you there haha.) Beautifully written!
The conventional wisdom in the U.S. is that the older you get the more easier you must take it. Grab a wheelchair exiting aircraft, or a cart to whisk you through the airport, avoid any stairs, etc. It's the opposite of what you should be doing as one ages, which is clear to anyone who has traveled through Asia and Europe witnessing how spry seniors are by comparison.
I am in the US visiting my family now after having made my home in Italy almost a year ago. I’m actually feeling that some of that convenience of America I initially missed is actually pretty inconvenient.
I have to get in the car and drive for nearly everything, sometimes multiple times a day like yesterday when I realized while making dinner that I forgot to buy lemons and had to go the store for the third time in one day. In Italy I can walk around the block and find at least two vendors that will have lemons.
It’s a lot harder here to find fresh food and I find myself driving to the bigger towns 15-20 minutes away in order to get better quality meats and vegetables and bread without a long list of ingredients that doesn’t come in a plastic bag.
I also miss walking everywhere. Luckily, my family lives in a small town with sidewalks and a tiny downtown area so I can walk to some places (the post office, dry cleaners, bank, etc.) but that’s not the norm and even then I feel like I have to go out of my way to get enough movement in throughout the day while it’s effortless in Italy.
I could go on and on about the other negatives of American conveniences but I do enjoy many of them while I am here. I love that glorious American AC (even though it’s often too cold in many places) and having different cuisines even in small towns (especially ones with cilantro which I love and haven’t yet seen in Italy). It’s nice getting bureaucratic tasks done efficiently and with ease and all in a single visit. That said, I much prefer “inconvenient Italy” over “convenient America”.
Maybe this is just a case of wanting what you don't have.
As a Japanese person, I've never really thought of the U.S. or Canada as especially convenient. If you need a car for almost everything, that doesn't feel very convenient from my perspective.
What I love about Europe is the opposite: the willingness to preserve history even when it's not the most practical choice. Sometimes it feels like Europeans would rather keep a 200-year-old way of life than bulldoze it in the name of convenience 😄
I’ll make one exception: air conditioning. Colpo d’aria (the fear that a draft makes you sick) be damned, that artificial breeze is a gift straight from God. Europe is simply wrong on this one.
they may be technically wrong about whatmakes AC bad but they right that AC is not good for them
It was AC that killed social life and community in American south - instead of sitting on a porch and ging for an evening stroll everyone stays inside eating junk food
Fair point, Dante. You're right that convenience didn't kill the walk; the car did. But walkability wasn't quite my claim. Or at least not the sole claim. The key phrase was "the same faces." Tokyo is as walkable and convenient as cities can get, but it still struggles with social isolation. Sociability that arises from repeated encounters tends to require small-scale and people who stay put, not just walkability. Italian towns, as inconvenient as they are, happen to have both.
That makes sense. However, I think my point is... it's also a mistake to romanticize oldness for its own sake. You can have AC, clothes dryers, new/renovated buildings without graffiti, cheap nuclear energy, an efficient digital first bureaucracy. These are flaws that are post rationalized as morally superior culture. For example, hate to say it, but France is just cleaner and more convenient than Italy, but obviously still very social and healthy.
However, beyond walkability, the secret sauce of Italy from my pov is the people, the "same faces" as you say. Italians are simply just nice people that suffer American fools a lot more than the aforementioned French. And that's worth a lot while we learn the ropes.
Likewise, in North America you can very much eat healthy food, live in a safe walkable community. But these are presented as luxury goods. It's not the default. It should be the default. Once upon a time, we had towns with Main Streets and social rituals. The lost dream of the white picket fence and not locking your doors. Now, in a faceless subdivision off an arterial "street" that is more like a highway with chain big box stores. Definitely not holding up this lifestyle as the best.
Well said, Dante. I think we land in the same ballpark. The slow lunch is worth keeping; the slow town hall isn’t. That’s a key distinction, and you drew it out.
I agree with a lot of this, but only up to a point. As far as walking vs. driving, it depends where you live. I lived in NYC for 8 years and wouldn’t dream of having a car there. I walked and took the subway everywhere. I only took taxis on rare occasions (mostly if I was going home alone late at night).
Now I live on the outskirts of Rome and need a car to get to the supermarket. (I guess I could walk there, but it would take me 35 minutes each way and I don’t want to do that when I’m loaded down with groceries.) My husband drives to work everyday because by the time his shift ends, the metro isn’t running anymore.
For me, convenience means having access to public transportation that actually works. So living in the American suburbs is out of the question. I’m grateful to live close to a metro stop so I can get to the center of Rome, but for most Romans who can’t afford to live in centro, a car or scooter is a necessity.
I've been in Italy (Florence & Naples) for 3 weeks now and agree with everything you said but the one thing I can't figure out is vegetables. Where are the vegetables?? If you don't like raw tomatoes you're screwed. I have to assume people are eating differently at home from what you can get at restaurants. Or maybe not. Maybe people here really just don't eat many vegetables.
AZ, that's correct: restaurant meals aren't representative of what people eat at home. Two things worth knowing, though. First, unlike in North America, sides aren't included with a main. They live on the Contorni menu, which is where most of the vegetables are hiding, and many places also have an Insalatone section, closer to the big-salad-as-a-meal idea. Second, in Tuscany and Naples specifically, there are plenty of vegetable-heavy dishes: anything with friarielli, cicoria, cavolo nero, scarola, zucchine alla scapece, artichokes in season, bean-based dishes like ribollita and pasta e fagioli, and, yes, the tomato classics too: pappa al pomodoro, parmigiana, panzanella. But you're not wrong on the surface: order a random primo and secondo every night, and you'll spend two weeks on pasta, pizza, meat, and baked goods wondering how this counts as a healthy diet.
Retirement from that cushy U.S. lifestyle, and moving abroad to a walkable city, ditching the cars, walking everywhere, becoming quite self-sufficient on the excellent public transportation everywhere else, and adopting a balanced, self-care lifestyle, has been not only fun, and a good way to meet like-minded people, but also a good class in traveling economically and staying fit at the same time.
Did the same…..in Brooklyn.
We decided upon retirement and moving abroad that we wanted to re-create the most memorable and most enjoyable time in our lives. That was when we moved to Chicago, I went to school, my wife worked, and we lived in a small apartment in the city and walked everywhere or used public transportation. We honestly couldn’t well afford anything else. When we ate out, we shared an entree and maybe had a glass of wine, but we were truly city folk.
If I had a partner, I would be tempted to do the same although my kids and grandkids tend to tether me here.
This really resonated. Convenience is an addiction and I find when I'm in Italy I gain something from the 'inconvience' (all minus the a/c. I'm with you there haha.) Beautifully written!
The conventional wisdom in the U.S. is that the older you get the more easier you must take it. Grab a wheelchair exiting aircraft, or a cart to whisk you through the airport, avoid any stairs, etc. It's the opposite of what you should be doing as one ages, which is clear to anyone who has traveled through Asia and Europe witnessing how spry seniors are by comparison.
I travelled for 8 months last year and did so much walking.
The most daily steps ever were one day in Paris.
Now I’m back in Baltimore and honestly annoyed that this city is not that walkable, especially for groceries.
Can’t wait to get back over there!
I am in the US visiting my family now after having made my home in Italy almost a year ago. I’m actually feeling that some of that convenience of America I initially missed is actually pretty inconvenient.
I have to get in the car and drive for nearly everything, sometimes multiple times a day like yesterday when I realized while making dinner that I forgot to buy lemons and had to go the store for the third time in one day. In Italy I can walk around the block and find at least two vendors that will have lemons.
It’s a lot harder here to find fresh food and I find myself driving to the bigger towns 15-20 minutes away in order to get better quality meats and vegetables and bread without a long list of ingredients that doesn’t come in a plastic bag.
I also miss walking everywhere. Luckily, my family lives in a small town with sidewalks and a tiny downtown area so I can walk to some places (the post office, dry cleaners, bank, etc.) but that’s not the norm and even then I feel like I have to go out of my way to get enough movement in throughout the day while it’s effortless in Italy.
I could go on and on about the other negatives of American conveniences but I do enjoy many of them while I am here. I love that glorious American AC (even though it’s often too cold in many places) and having different cuisines even in small towns (especially ones with cilantro which I love and haven’t yet seen in Italy). It’s nice getting bureaucratic tasks done efficiently and with ease and all in a single visit. That said, I much prefer “inconvenient Italy” over “convenient America”.
Maybe this is just a case of wanting what you don't have.
As a Japanese person, I've never really thought of the U.S. or Canada as especially convenient. If you need a car for almost everything, that doesn't feel very convenient from my perspective.
What I love about Europe is the opposite: the willingness to preserve history even when it's not the most practical choice. Sometimes it feels like Europeans would rather keep a 200-year-old way of life than bulldoze it in the name of convenience 😄
Honestly, that's what feels luxurious to me.
I’ll make one exception: air conditioning. Colpo d’aria (the fear that a draft makes you sick) be damned, that artificial breeze is a gift straight from God. Europe is simply wrong on this one.
they may be technically wrong about whatmakes AC bad but they right that AC is not good for them
It was AC that killed social life and community in American south - instead of sitting on a porch and ging for an evening stroll everyone stays inside eating junk food
Convenience and walkable streets aren't mutually exclusive. See: East Asia.
Fair point, Dante. You're right that convenience didn't kill the walk; the car did. But walkability wasn't quite my claim. Or at least not the sole claim. The key phrase was "the same faces." Tokyo is as walkable and convenient as cities can get, but it still struggles with social isolation. Sociability that arises from repeated encounters tends to require small-scale and people who stay put, not just walkability. Italian towns, as inconvenient as they are, happen to have both.
That makes sense. However, I think my point is... it's also a mistake to romanticize oldness for its own sake. You can have AC, clothes dryers, new/renovated buildings without graffiti, cheap nuclear energy, an efficient digital first bureaucracy. These are flaws that are post rationalized as morally superior culture. For example, hate to say it, but France is just cleaner and more convenient than Italy, but obviously still very social and healthy.
However, beyond walkability, the secret sauce of Italy from my pov is the people, the "same faces" as you say. Italians are simply just nice people that suffer American fools a lot more than the aforementioned French. And that's worth a lot while we learn the ropes.
Likewise, in North America you can very much eat healthy food, live in a safe walkable community. But these are presented as luxury goods. It's not the default. It should be the default. Once upon a time, we had towns with Main Streets and social rituals. The lost dream of the white picket fence and not locking your doors. Now, in a faceless subdivision off an arterial "street" that is more like a highway with chain big box stores. Definitely not holding up this lifestyle as the best.
Well said, Dante. I think we land in the same ballpark. The slow lunch is worth keeping; the slow town hall isn’t. That’s a key distinction, and you drew it out.
I love how walkable the places I visit in Italy are,the small vehicles,good food-I feel like life is more intentional there
And better prioritized - though often at the expense of convenience 😁
Yep we like having to walk in Europe. I like american convenience too but daily walks of 10k plus steps with hills is grest for you
Well done - really good observations on cultural difference . So important to acknowledge for both Italians and visitors
So well written! Agree 100%!
I agree with a lot of this, but only up to a point. As far as walking vs. driving, it depends where you live. I lived in NYC for 8 years and wouldn’t dream of having a car there. I walked and took the subway everywhere. I only took taxis on rare occasions (mostly if I was going home alone late at night).
Now I live on the outskirts of Rome and need a car to get to the supermarket. (I guess I could walk there, but it would take me 35 minutes each way and I don’t want to do that when I’m loaded down with groceries.) My husband drives to work everyday because by the time his shift ends, the metro isn’t running anymore.
For me, convenience means having access to public transportation that actually works. So living in the American suburbs is out of the question. I’m grateful to live close to a metro stop so I can get to the center of Rome, but for most Romans who can’t afford to live in centro, a car or scooter is a necessity.
I've been in Italy (Florence & Naples) for 3 weeks now and agree with everything you said but the one thing I can't figure out is vegetables. Where are the vegetables?? If you don't like raw tomatoes you're screwed. I have to assume people are eating differently at home from what you can get at restaurants. Or maybe not. Maybe people here really just don't eat many vegetables.
AZ, that's correct: restaurant meals aren't representative of what people eat at home. Two things worth knowing, though. First, unlike in North America, sides aren't included with a main. They live on the Contorni menu, which is where most of the vegetables are hiding, and many places also have an Insalatone section, closer to the big-salad-as-a-meal idea. Second, in Tuscany and Naples specifically, there are plenty of vegetable-heavy dishes: anything with friarielli, cicoria, cavolo nero, scarola, zucchine alla scapece, artichokes in season, bean-based dishes like ribollita and pasta e fagioli, and, yes, the tomato classics too: pappa al pomodoro, parmigiana, panzanella. But you're not wrong on the surface: order a random primo and secondo every night, and you'll spend two weeks on pasta, pizza, meat, and baked goods wondering how this counts as a healthy diet.
Inconvenience is… more interesting. 🥰
I've been back in the US for just over a month and I've already put on weight. I hate it here.