My Town is Cooler Than Your Town

It just is, so let's accept it and move on.

This is kind of a wrap-up of the last 24-48 hours or so. It's probably going to be all over the place, so try and stay with me.

Drove around all Sunday afternoon in the countryside; getting lost, finding myself, lost again, back to Vicenza, repeat. The countryside here is amazing. It completely exceeds all expectations that I had for it. You know sometimes you enter into something with an idea in mind as too what it will be like? Then it happens and you think, "That wasn't anything that I thought it would be like." Well this is just the opposite. It's 20x better than I thought it would be. Of course, I've only been here nary a week, so I just might be in the "honeymoon" phase with Italy.

In my week here, I've noticed some things about Italians that I did not know. Specifically, some things about the way Italians dress that I did not know. For example, Italian women are crazy about cowboy boots. I should preface that with Italian designed cowboy boots. These aren't Justins or Tony Lamas; these are Italian fashion boots. But they basically look like girls' cowboy boots. They were them with dark hose and a skirt or shorts. Looks strange, but almost every other woman over here wears them. Another thing is the furry jacket hood for the men. Lots of guys have the super-furry hood on their coats. And typically the coat is a little short on them. It could not look more gay. But it's a hit here.

Another revelation came to me after I had some Italian pizza. I had the first one, and it was great. It was distinctly different from an American pizza, but it was very fresh and tasted great. The crust was thin and crispy, and the sauce was almost dry and chunky. Then I had another pizza at a different place. I expected it to be similar to the first, but maybe put together a little different. This one was very much like an American pizza; the crust was thicker, the sauce runny, it even had that layer of grease that you find on a New York style pizza. I was surprised at the departure from the other place that was just down the street. Surely, I thought, there was a regional norm to expect from your pizzeria. Apparently, there is not.