I took my first vacation time of my career last week, flying to Rome for a much needed vacation. I found a great deal, and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I spent about 7 days in Rome with a 2 day side trip to Florence.
By the end of the week, I was saturated by beauty, becoming numb to the abundant Italian eye-candy. Their culture puts an extreme emphasis on the aesthetics, la bella figura. Art museums there are full of masterpieces; even simple, out of way churches, would be considered behemoths of marble in other countries; and the people themselves look like they walked out of a magazine and on to the metro. The saturation caused me to change the way I looked at the beautiful world around me. Walking through and art museum, I found many great artworks to be bland and uninspired. Only world famous works like Michelangelo’s David could take my breath away. While strolling through churches with marvelous mosaics and marble, instead of standing in awe of the magnificent frescoes on the wall, I stood in pain, focusing on the soreness in my feet. These smaller churches simply could not compare to the size and scale of St. Peter’s Basilica at Vatican City.
Similarly, the food was indescribably good. Suffice it to say, everything lived up to the hype. The freshness and quality of the food was incomparable. The fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese, and bread that I bought at the market was bursting with flavor, making it easy to understand how the restaurants could make such great food.
The tiny effort I put in to my appearance became glaringly obvious to me. Walking around in short and old T-shirts amongst a nation of cover models made me question my lifestyle and fashion choices. I am a guy who has sported the same hair style for more than a decade. Maybe more like 1.5. I’m not even sure any more. I stopped in a shop at the airport to kill some time, and while browsing sunglasses, I was not sure which were for men and which were for women. Are they unisex now? How can one tell? As I stood there trying not to look foolish as I browsed the eye-wear, I realized that I needed a makeover. I know the queer eye guys don’t do that any more, but maybe they can come out of retirement for a straight guy with no fashion sense.
In the engineering world, appearance receives very little notice. It is not uncommon to see such travesties as white socks with dress shoes and slacks. Some people look like they go out of there way to look unfashionable, but I would like to distance myself from the stereotype of engineer. Perhaps it’s time to finally start worrying about the superficial.
The food aspect is worth considering as well. I do fairly well here, eating a lot of “fresh” fruits and vegetables. When I say fresh, I mean I bought them raw at the grocery store. After eating truly fresh food though, I think I need to seek out farmers markets for fresh produce. Partially green bananas and prepackaged tomatoes just don’t seem good enough any more.
I love traveling because it changes me. Thrusting myself into another culture and perspective forces a reevaluation of life as I know it. When I see other people who live life in a different mindset, I like to adjust, fine tuning my own outlook on life.
This is not to say that everything about Italian culture is fabulous. I got frustrated at times by the hours of operation on many of their shops. Many small places opened late, closed for 2-3 hours at lunch, and then shut down early in the evening. I think they were open about 5-6 hours a day. It became inconvenient. It is easy to shrug such problems off as a traveler, but it gave me a greater appreciation for the most convenient place on earth, America.
So will I turn into an Italian supermodel who only eats the freshest of foods? Probably not. I’ll probably gradually slip back into the status quo of American culture. Frankly, I’m not too worried about it. It doesn’t diminish the fun and excitement of exploring and experiencing a different way of life.
