The Real Thing (October 1, 8, 15)

Every time I get on the plane for Italy, I'm a little nervous with all there is to figure out.  Should I change my money here or in the airport when I land?  ATM machine or one of the tellers in the booth behind the glass? Taxi or train into town?  The train is cheaper, but what if I get on the wrong one?  What if I have to ask somebody for help and I don't understand what they say?  Do you have to buy stamps at the post office and if you do, which line do you stand in?  And when I get there I hope it's not the really long one where everybody else seems to know each other already, like they've been standing there for days or entire generations, long enough to share a history that doesn't include me. 

When I travel, I'm always a little off balance, that uncomfortable, but exhilarating sensation of not knowing exactly where I'm going, when all the world is new and different for the two or three weeks of a vacation.  By the end, I'm tired, ready to come home where I can take life for granted and not have to think so much..

But what if you never go home?  America is a country of immigrants, the bravest of the brave who got up and left everything familiar for a possibility.  Surely they must get used to it after a while, reach the point where every day doesn't feel like the boat is still rocking under their feet.

My husband has been in this country since 1990 and Michele will never get used to it, not if he lives to be a hundred.  He can't remember what time Americans eat dinner, which is really annoying the 52nd time we are invited out and I have to explain.  Since he only watches Italian TV, references to Seinfeld or Friends go completely over his head.  When we attend the company picnic every year he always asks, "Are they sweet?" before he takes a spoon of baked beans because his people don't put sugar and pork in the same dish.  In order to master the concept of grass, he literally took notes and worked so hard at it he put the rest of the neighborhood to shame.  We don't know what we don't know until it's too late to go home again.

I'm not that brave, are you?

Something About That Italian Sun starts October 1 at the Taft Museum.  For 3 weekends in a row, from 2-4pm we will explore cultural differences from the safety of a class room. Real Italians will tell us about love the first week, how courtship works and marriage is different.  On the 8th of October, we look at travel  beyond the tourist attractions, up in the hills of Piemonte, side trips in the South around Pompeii, cycling adventures in the Lake Country, favorite spots shared by the people who grew up there.  Our last get together focuses on food, the philosophy of it and the ritual of a simple cup of coffee in daily life.  Each week we'll also sample different flavors of our favorite country: olive oil, cheeses, and artisan gelatos. Stay after school on the 8th and we'll throw in a free tarantella lesson.

Come find out what we Americans look like to the foreigner.  Come explore the mindset that is Italian.  Because the only way we will ever really understand who we are as Americans from Cincinnati, Ohio, east side or west, is when we travel. Life is infinite possibility, but unless we're brave enough to rock the boat, none of us are going anywhere.

For details and registration, click here.