Archive September 2008
Age before beauty
(09/19/2008)
by Michael DeMarco, St. Joseph’s University/Fairfield University in Florence
The beauty is older in Florence. New York is big but we never say it is beautiful. In fact, I can’t think of any American City known throughout the world as beautiful. Beverly hills might a place of beautiful people, but let’s be honest with ourselves—they’re made in china, Vero? Miami, maybe, but it is more widely known for the “beautiful” people that vacation there. We can’t take responsibility for the beautiful weather Miami is blessed with. I’m talking about natural classic beauty. I’m talking about humanistic beauty, what we can do.I was reading in the Piazza della Signoria, in the midst of those beautiful statues, when I came to this. But I did have the help of two fellow Americans. One guy was taking pictures and verbally expressing amazement to anyone who would listen. Then a woman started praising the works with the man.
“Its so amazing,” he said. “It’s like you can just come upon this as if it’s nothing.” I was sitting all the way on the right side of the wall, if you were facing the corridor from the middle of the Piazza. I looked up from my book and saw the beautiful sculpture of a nude woman high in the in the arms of a man. The two Americans started talking about her perfect figure and the definition of the man.
One of them said, “These will last forever.” That comment kicked me in the chest. I remembered immediately from an Accounting class long ago about a building is only an asset for 25 years, until is depreciates. Then I looked past the statue and the American. There I saw some fortress with a high tower probably 25 times older the average American skyscrapers.
It ‘s true you can walk around Florence or plop down in a piazza and just happen upon something beautiful. You can just happen on a beautiful Duomo, a beautiful old duomo. Florence allows its beauty to age, and get better before putting them under the knife. The cheese, the wine, everything you see in Florence is old, and beautiful.
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I Left Home on a Jet Plane
(09/16/2008)
by Michael DeMarco, St. Joseph’s University/Fairfield University in Florence
After trying to speak a foreign language in a foreign country, I realized how difficult it must be for immigrants trying to adjust and support themselves, and most importantly, their families, when they move from their motherland to a place far far away. It’s a walk in the park for me. My parents pay for everything. I don’t need a job. And even if I did I can only imagine the difficulty trying to articulate that I would need work, had a son, and a wife at home counting on me. I feel like Italians do respect me when and my efforts to try and order a calzone, ask for directions, and order del vino. But some part of them I feel must be thinking that I am just another drunk American student keeping the neighborhood up till four in the morning. So I try to speak the language more, say “per piacere” more than necessary, and always say “ciao.” My guess is that it might be even worse for someone from the Middle East trying to find work in America in this day and age. But I am lucky; I can get by with my limited knowledge of Italian and dress relatively similar compared to some Europeans. But now I feel that stigma all foreigners feel when traveling, or living abroad. Like most Americans my age, this is my first encounter with that feeling. If you’ve lived abroad you know what I’m talking about. The look when people break eye contact for a split second more, leaving you wondering what they are thinking of you, your clothes, your attempt to talk like them, your shoes, or maybe even a lack of respect that the locals always pay to each other.
But if I smile enough and ask the man working behind the gelato counter how he is or wish him a good night, I made a friend, and friends destroy stigmas for each other. If you don’t use your passport as an excuse to look down on the natives and get away with murder, you’ll make a friend, you’ll speak the same language.
So tonight, I am going to order a glass of Chianti and make a toast to all of us away from home.
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Archive September 2008
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