Italy trip highlights: First impressions

I better get blogging about the details of our Italy trip before I start to forget them…

Let me preface this post by saying that I know Italy well. I’ve spent approximately two and a half years in the country. Since moving away in 2005, I’ve gone back many times. But still, my perspective is ever-changing. My brain constantly compares places to each other, and the reference point keeps shifting as I move about. Things that used to be normal parts of life now strike me as odd. Take my first impressions from this most recent trip…

We flew into Rome. The airport was run-down, hot, and dirty, and it took what felt like an eternity to get our luggage. It seemed like we had arrived in a 3rd-world country. Well, 2nd world, at least. The impression did not improve as we made our way through dirty corridors with broken glass where advertisements would normally be, nor when we arrived at the airport’s train station and found an abandoned, graffiti-covered old train parked on one of the two functioning tracks. Having a few minutes to kill before a real train showed up, we wandered into the bar for a coffee.

The second the dark, thick espresso touched my lips, all was forgiven. So what if Swiss airports are modern and spotless? Who cares how efficient the Munich S-Bahns are? When has any other country produced anything so delicious in the history of the world? My mood was suddenly elated, and my mouth watered as I anticipated all the other flavors to come on this trip…