There are women (and even some men) here who spend every possible moment sunbathing at the beach – so much so that they’re skin takes on what I can only call an “overly cooked” look. We’re not talking a healthy glow, we’re talking full blown roast beef. Move over George Hamilton (does anyone remember who he is?).

But then, maybe I’m the only one who finds that unattractive.

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Maybe I’m way off base here, but I imagine it being a couple with children where one or both of the partners has been out of work for a while. I imagine them having gone through all of their savings and now, having reached the end of their rope, they’re forced to steal diapers and food in order to survive – or at least keep their children healthy.

We get lip service saying that things are getting better, that we’re getting over the economic crisis, but instead of hearing about more jobs being created I keep hearing about more people getting laid off. And, instead of hearing heartwarming stories, I hear heartbreaking stories like this one.

This isn’t limited to Italy though. Just today I heard from a friend whose daughter is in trouble because her husband has lost his job and now, not only do they have no health insurance, but they’re worried about paying the bills and the monthly rent.

But, the rich keep getting richer…..

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Laugh & Learn Smart Bounce & Spin Pony Fisher-Price
An active learning toy that interacts with the television using a wireless device that connects with the TV and delivering animated content. Mom chooses level of play and audio options. For 12 – 36 mos.

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The thing I’ve noticed is how in the states we expected everything to be already processed for us. We wanted our meat to be boneless with no fat on it and our shrimp to be already cleaned. I’m not quite sure why things got to that point.

Actually, by using food this way, we were missing out on a lot of flavor.

The other day I bought some pork “steaks” at the butcher that were cut from the neck of the pig. They were very marbled with fat, but the meat was extremely tender and they were delicious roasted over hot coals. In the states no one would have touched them, considering them an inferior cut of meat, without knowing what they missed.

Another example is shrimp. Judging from what I’ve seen in the past, the majority of people buy it already cleaned and most often frozen. But, if you cook the shrimp whole, with the head and shell still attached, it is a lot more flavorful. Try making a shrimp bisque with cleaned shrimp – it would have no flavor at all.

Stews, soups and gravies turn out much better if you wait to remove the bones until after it’s cooked.

So, what do they do in the states with all of the meat that is considered too bony or fatty? Maybe I don’t want to know.

This leads to other observations about processed foods too. Read the labels on that processed food. I think we miss out on a lot of nutrients that way. And also, why do meat products need added sugar or corn starch?

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Getting back to reading, which I’ve always enjoyed, made me think about the fact that I don’t see many people reading here. Back in the States, people carry books around with them whenever they think they may have to wait for something for longer than a couple of minutes. Many people take them with them to work and would read during their breaks.

Here I have never seen anyone take a book with them to the doctor’s office or on public transportation. And speaking of the doctor’s office, people rarely pick up the magazines that are there. They’d rather just sit and look at one another. When people are waiting among strangers they often just sit there – which makes me wonder what in the world they could possibly be thinking about. I would go absolutely crazy if I had to just sit there and stare into space.

When I went to the hospital I took a book with me, but I was probably the only one there who had one. O even brought me a magazine while I was there, but none of the other mothers seemed to even be interested. Now granted, there wasn’t all that much time to read, but still, I did manage to read that magazine.

There aren’t many book stores around either and the stores that do have books don’t carry a huge selection. That’s not to say that books aren’t sold. I’ve found a couple of very good websites here in Italy that actually even get the books to you within 24 hours (a record here) and one even offers books in English. So obviously someone reads.

Next time I have to wait somewhere I’m definitely taking a book with me. I wonder if people will look at me strangely….

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I’ll be honest, I don’t think the plan to “guarantee” that all Americans have health insurance (in other words, force everyone to buy insurance) is the right way to go. In my opinion, the right way to go is Universal health care.

Yes, I know, I could be labeled a (gasp, horror!) Socialist for these views. I like to think of it as putting what’s right for everyone ahead of what’s right for just the few.

People say that we don’t want the government running health care, because the free market system is more “efficient” and controls costs better. After all, the free market system is based on profit.

So, we want our health care to be profitable. What’s wrong with this picture?

Health care costs are paid by health insurance. Well, some of them are. If you’re lucky and can afford insurance that is – oh, and depending on your deductible and the percentage the insurance company is going to pay, etc.

Let’s think for a minute here. We all know that insurance companies are in it for the money, right? After all, every time you make a claim against your car insurance, the rate goes up. The same thing happens with your homeowner’s insurance. How many people have decided not to make a claim because they didn’t want their premium to increase? Instead they just pay the costs out of their pocket.

But, the health insurance companies can’t raise your premiums because they’re set for everyone for a year. This is probably a good thing or they’d be even higher than they already are. I can just imagine every time you go to the doctor they would be taking more money out of your paycheck. If you had a lot of health problems, by the end of the year you might actually have to pay your employer to let you work.

So, since they don’t raise your premiums with every claim, how do health insurance companies make profit then? There’s only one way and that is to deny health care – refuse to pay for that medical test or that operation. Obviously, you can basically forget about any form of preventative medicine. If the health insurance company sees that there’s no reason to have the test, they just refuse to pay for it.

When the question comes up – Is the operation critical to the patient’s health? We leave that decision to the health insurance company whose main goal is to increase profits. How do you increase profits? By decreasing spending. How do you decrease spending? Don’t pay for health care. It’s that simple.

Profit needs to be removed from health care so that doctors can do what’s right for their patients. Let them focus on what it is they have been trained to do rather than worry about understanding what each insurance company requires.

Then there are those who say, “I don’t want to spend my hard-earned money paying taxes for health care for lazy people who won’t work.”

It horrifies and angers me to hear so-called Christians give this argument.

First of all, the people who really suffer in this are the lower middle class who are working hard, making just enough money to get by and struggling for all their worth to be able to pay their bills. Then they get hit by a health problem and sometimes lose everything.

And what about all of those people who have lost their jobs because of the problems with the current economy? I guess they don’t deserve help either.

In other words, I guess only people who make above a certain amount of money “deserve” health care since they’re the only ones who can afford it.

There are a lot of “statistics” and “quotes” around that criticize the health care given in countries that do have a universal health care system. All of them focus on the negative side.

My challenge would be to talk to those of us who are expats in other countries that do have universal health care. I think you’ll find that very few of us would trade a universal health care system for a free market one.

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For example, people like to hold a glass of wine or beer up to their lips and then, when they make a move as if to drink it they say “oh no, you can’t have that”. It could also be a piece of cake or a hunk of meat that they can’t chew. It’s as if people want to see if they’ll go for it.

When people offer stuff to my son like that I get angry. It’s not because I think that they’re really going to give it to him, but because I don’t want Luigi to get upset and, really, I think it’s just plain mean.

Am I overreacting to something that’s supposed to be funny?

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Most weddings, at least in this neck of the woods, take place around 11 am. Before the wedding, however, everyone heads to either the bride or groom’s house where there is a big spread of sandwiches, appetizers and sweets. That’s also where you’ll get the white ribbon for your car and your bag of rice and confetti (ouch! Yes, the happy couple gets pelted with that.) Basically what we’re doing there is waiting for the bride or groom to get ready. They appear to a smattering of applause, all dressed up and ready to go, after having their picture taken.

Then, it’s off to the church. If the house is in town and not too far from the church, then the travel is done on foot with everyone following the bride or groom. There are no “wedding parties” with maids of honor, there’s just a witness (or two) for each side and a ring-bearer and flower girl. In fact, there often is no stately march down the aisle – many times, the bride goes in first and everyone else files in on her heels.

The ceremony is a full Catholic mass (assuming that the couple is Catholic) and afterwards everyone goes up to congratulate the bride and groom and their families. Of course, this is done just like communion in church is done over here. No organized lines or anything, it’s basically a free-for-all of people pushing their way through the crowd from all directions. Then you have to turn around and push your way back out again.

Once the auguri are given, then it’s off to the reception with everyone following the couple in their cars, joyously honking their horns. Often times the bride and groom have various joke blockades to get through – a log to saw, an aperitivo in the middle of the road, etc.

At this particular reception, we started off with an appetizer buffet outside: various little sandwiches, seafood, arrosticini, prosciutto, salami, cheese, fried finger food, fruit, etc. The wise person does not eat too much at the buffet since we then go inside to eat the main meal. We started with seafood: two antipasto, two primi, a secondo, then lemon sorbet to cleanse our palates, then it was on to the meat: an antipasto, primo and secondo followed by macedonia with ice cream and wedding cake.

There’s music in the background and some dancing in between courses, but nothing like in the states with our organized dances: father and the bride, mother and the groom, etc. People spend a lot of time walking outside in between courses too. (You have too – no one can sit still for that long.)

At the end of the wedding, when the cake is served, the bride and groom hand out bombonieri to all the guests, at which time the guests give them their gifts, mostly just a card with money in it (presumably enough to pay for their meal).

We left Saturday night at 10:30 pm, when they were just starting to serve coffee and liqueur. I understand there was to be another buffet afterwards, but Luigi was tired and we were ready to head home.

I won’t mention what condition my feet were in after a hot day of mostly sitting. Let’s just say, I had to take off my shoes to walk up the stairs to our apartment and the next day I spent some time with them elevated.

The wedding was beautiful though and everyone had a good time, especially the guys with the accordion who were singing traditional songs at the top of their lungs.

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Up until recently, the bugs that bothered me the most were spiders. Notice I said – up until recently.

It was the spring of 2006 and I had been here in Italy for two or three months. Since our apartment wasn’t ready yet (there was someone else living there until July), we were staying in a small temporary apartment.

One rainy night, I got up to go to the bathroom and,passing through the hallway, happened to look down the two steps that led to the front door. What I saw made me scream, “Che c%$*o è?”

While I was kind of proud of myself for not screaming it in English (after all, I was only here a short time), I was afraid my suspicions would be proven correct, and they were. When O came out of the bedroom and saw it, he picked up his slipper, smacked it very hard, opened the door and swept it outside. Then he turned and said, “it was a scorpion”.

I think my voice got a little high and screechy when a repeated, “a scorpion?”.

He assured me that they weren’t like scorpions in America. If they sting you it hurts, but it’s like a wasp sting since they’re not particularly venomous. Of course, I’ve decided not to test that theory.

I’ve gone almost three years without seeing another scorpion, but I’m wondering if the rain makes them come out. We’ve been having a very rainy spring after a couple of years of drought.

I was horrified the other night to see one on the wall by our garage. We’re on the fourth floor, so I don’t expect to see them in the house (oh please no!), but I wasn’t particularly happy when I saw it down there either.

This one was relatively small (about the length of my pinky finger), so the picture is a little fuzzy since I wasn’t getting any closer to it than absolutely necessary. The first one I saw? Well, let’s just say that I saw it from a distance of 4 meters without my glasses (I’m very nearsighted), in the dark (just outside streetlamps for illumination), and I already had a pretty good idea what it was before O confirmed my hypothesis.

Even though my astrological sign is Scorpio, I feel no affinity for these “little” buggers.

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Being the descendant of emigrants to America, he particularly wanted to show me an old book of poetry that included a poem about the Emigrants.

The book was old and the cover had long been torn off, but he keeps it safely tucked away in a box so that it doesn’t get ruined any further.

The poem was written around 1914 in semi-dialect, but no author was mentioned.

I’ve translated it as follows,

Whenever I think about those who emigrate to a new country, I am always amazed at those brave souls who, often with only a few dollars in their pockets and speaking only a couple of words of the language (if any), dare to try to start a new life elsewhere.

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