My first experience with Italy is that it’s incredible. The landscape somewhat reminds me of the west coast of the US around the California coast. The food is amazing and I’m really enjoying the environment. What particularly struck me is just how old the place is, particularly in Rome. The apartment buildings we are staying in easily could have been built before the US was even founded as a country and there are buildings here that predate even the discovery of the Americas. During the trip I hope to observe the culture and environment with new friends on the trip. Things generally seem to be a bit smaller here than in the us. I guess there is such a giant gap between the time when things were built and the land available to build things. The US is very much built around cars so things are more spread out. You can drive for a long time without seeing any form of town but in Italy throughout the countryside there are lots of little villages that are only 15 minutes from each other. Because things are so old they have been repurposed many different times and ways. The apartment we are in is clearly not its initial layout. It has been reworked and reworked over and over by different people who have lived here. That is not really the case in the US the buildings are often more purpose built. The cars are also very different from the US. They are often smaller and cars that would seem comically small here are normal sized and the large cars would be average in the US. That goes along with the earlier point about things being generally smaller. Meals tend to take far longer here as well. We have had several meals that lasted 3 hours which would be an insane amount of time to spend on a meal in the US.
