My initial impression of Italy on this trip was that it was more urban than I imagined. When I imagined Italy I pictured a small town village with a rural population. I knew there were “big cities”, but it was hard for me to picture a big city outside the US. When I arrived in Rome I was very impressed with the infrastructure and highways immediately. When I got to the hotel it was strange how much this city seemed like it could be placed in a different city in the US. Everything seemed rather the same like the hotel and cars. Once I went around the city a little more I started to notice little cultural differences. There were so many people sitting outside enjoying their day. These might have been tourists or locals, but it was nice to see a slower pace of life not revolving around a job. I also noticed the Italians on the street are not as friendly as Texans. People seemed more on edge throughout the city. This changed as we traveled to Florence however. I believe that because Florence is a smaller city, the people are more relaxed in their day to day. I hope to gain a deeper understanding of Italian culture. The act of conducting business in another culture is so fascinating to me, so throughout my courses I hope to understand how someone could be successful in other countries. I also hope to gain a new perspective of how others live their life. I feel I have been pushed my entire life towards a more corporate lifestyle, but seeing how people live here is making that lifestyle seem very unnatural. I hope that living here may inspire a healthy work-life balance in my future. I think a main difference in Italy and America is the way people prioritize their life. This difference has made me question which way I want my work life balance to be. As I said before, I think America is orientated towards a corporate/9-5 lifestyle. This makes younger generations very ambitious and determined to work hard. I feel like there is not as big an emphasis like this in Italy. I am sure that people want to work hard, but it seems like they are okay taking breaks from work to chat with friends and family, and I am not sure some Americans could do that. This difference is really important to me, because I want to be able to have a mix of these cultural attributes in my life in the future.
