About a month ago I went on my first trip to Italy!! Everything they say and have said is true! It was beautiful more than I could have imagined, the food was amazing and the people were super warm. Some situations which probably would be considered offensive/racist in N. America (such as random kids doing things like singing the asian jingle, i.e.
sounds like this, or teens dancing Gangnam style towards me in Rome) were mostly if anything hilarious and also interesting since I guess people in Europe really have a very superficial/lack of exposure to asian culture compared to the States and Canada (I think
Oprah recently had some similar experiences ). Some guy I spoke to in Naples knew all about the history of Chiang Kai-Shek and Taiwan and also pulled his eyes up diagonally with his fingers to describe the shape of my eyes all in the same conversation - I saw this more as his lack of English vocab than a conscious attempt to be rude, he was sincerely making an attempt to make a friendly conversation. Also, I thought it was really inspiring that they were so proud of their own culture and yet still intrigued and knew many things about mine. (Our tour group even got our tour guide to learn a few phrases of Chinese - and he had
excellent pronunciation!) I suppose you can't necessarily find perfection, there have to be SOME drawbacks, some flaws are beautiful after all.
I am going to pick up my processed film from my trip and my seoul trip todayyy!!! I'm excited..
For now a few phone photos (stereotype payback! mwahaha: Italy is just about pizza, pasta, shoes and Jesus/Mary!):
hipster pasta
This took me back to high school AP Art History - I was really psyched to see this sculpture in person!!
"Shoes were to die for"
Traditional super thin crust Napoli pizza
ceiling of one of the many church/cathedrals (I forgot which one!!)
Capri on the way to the Blue Grotto
An awesome piece by Japanese artist Hidetoshi Nagasawa at the MACRO gallery in Rome
An antique market in Sorrento
