The Italy Files Part 1: Tuscany Revisited
Florence was fabulous! It was great for all the usual reasons - tastey food, divine coffee, nice weather, lovely people, incredible history, art, and architecture. We made some new discoveries too, but before I get into that I have to say it's hard to go back to a place you idealize in your memory, which I do with Tuscany.

The nice thing is that the place has not lost its effect on me. I was dazzled. But I was wistful at times too, remembering another magical time in my life. Thinking about the people I knew that I've lost track of and how so much time has passed. It's strange to be there as a tourist instead of a student/resident, knowing I'm only passing through (like so many thousands). I used to feel the place somehow belonged to me or that I belonged to it. I guess that's why I waited so long to go back.

One thing I remember very differently is traveling by overnight train. When I was a spry, 21-year-old I thought nothing of bunking up with 5 strangers in a tiny sleeping car and arrived at my destination rested and energized. At 33, not so much. Christoph and I had our own private cabin, but I don't think I got more than an hour or two of solid sleep. The cabin was cramped and shabby and there was nowhere to hang out or even sit comfortably. No dining car or anything. At some point in the middle of the night there was a lot of yelling in Italian, which was strangely comforting.


Once we got to Florence, I quickly forgot the rough journey because the city was so beautiful. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we stumbled around looking for a place to have a leisurely cappuccino, which is how we found Piazza Santo Spirito. With its leafy trees, fountain and simple church, it's an oasis from the tourist frenzy. In the evening, a cluster of lively bars became a gathering place for the locals, an artsy, student crowd. They were out strutting their stuff, as the Italians do so well, but in a relaxed, casal way. You could linger there for hours.


Another new discovery for me was Italy's passion for aperativi. I have to give credit to my friend Jul, who lived in the aperativo capital of Milan and clued me into this trend. The Lonely Planet even had a side-bar on it.

Around 6 or 7 pm, loads of stylie Italians pour into bars around the city for a pre-dinner cocktail. As with other food and drink, Italians have a pretty strict protocol for consuming aperativi and ordering such a beverage at the wrong hour, after dinner for instance, will cause the bartender and server great dismay, or so we were warned. We were careful to avoid that gaff.

Our best encounter with Florence's aperativo culture was at Negroni, a bar near the Arno river where the crowd spills out on the sidewalk and the free buffet, known as stuzzichini, is especially generous. Negroni is also the name of a tastey gin and Campari cocktail, and we had several rounds there. I also tried Cynar, a nice, dark brown bitter made from artichokes and served over ice (thanks again Jul!).

What I found most appealing though was the crowd. All kinds of people, not just hip young, singles, turned up at these places. Tourists blended easily with locals. A dapper man in his 70s chatting up the bartender fit in just as well as the fashionable young couple and the group of 40-something women on either side of us. It seemed there was room for everyone and that a community was connecting. What a nice way to live.

Moving abroad and being a foreigner has its difficult moments for sure, but it has many delights and pleasant surpises too. Here are a few things that I love about this place so far...

• Car-free living - Sounds a lot like carefree living, doesn't it? Well, it's close. Parking is a big, expensive hassle in Zurich and the the public transport rocks. The city is also very pedestrian-friendly, so who needs a car? There's something very freeing about living car-free. Gas prices? Who cares. Parking tickets? A thing of the past. Traffic? So sorry. The only wheels I want to own have pedals attached. Did I mention Christoph can walk to work in under 15 minutes? Or that you can reach the ski slopes by train in about an hour or two?
  
  
• Gourmet easter bunnies - The Swiss, as you may have heard, make very fine chocolate, so of course they don't mess around when it comes to Easter. The window displays at Sprungli, a big chocolate store here, litrally draw a crowd. I've never seen more tempting Easter bunnies in my life.
  
• Authentic Italian pizza - You see a theme developing here, don't you? It's all about the foooood. Some friends introduced us to a great little neighborhood pizza place our first week here called Scala. Nothing fancy about the place, but the pizza is so good it felt like I was back in Italia. We've gone back a few times and I always order the same thing, the Pizza Contadina with spicy salami, eggplant and onions. It's heaven.
  
• And that leads me to another great thing about Zurich -- a few hours on a train and you're actually in Italy. In fact, we're leaving for Italy tonight on the night train and will wake up in Florence at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. I haven't been there since I was an exchange student in Siena 12 years ago. Christoph has never been, so I'm excited to explore it with him and practice my Italiano, which is still much better than my Deutsch.
  

It sounds like a dream come true, doesn't it? Newlyweds on an overseas adventure. One year in Zurich, Switzerland before kids, mortgages, and all the things that scared us about getting married. We packed up our life in San Francisco and said goodbye to friends and family (and my job!), our heads filled with visions of powdery ski slopes, romantic train rides to Paris and a cosmopolitan European city to explore and call home.

Well, we arrived in March and in many ways it is a dream, but also a shock. The language (German with a twist), the weather (three feet of snow our first weekend), and the prices (sky high) have thrown me for a loop. Just everyday things, like operating a washing machine (don't forget that 19th step!) or a trip to the grocery store (what? you didn't weigh the bananas?) can prove a major challenge at first. Some days I feel clever and adventurous. But other days, when the lady at the cheese counter can't understand my German and the fact that most people I know and love are nine time zones away weighs heavily on my chest, I just feel like crying.

For my husband, who's a German native, life couldn't be easier. The guy is happy pretty much wherever you put him. But throw in good sausage, 22 varieties of muesli, and a 10 minute commute to work on foot, and he's on cloud nine.

For me, there have been and will be many highs and lows, and that's why I started this blog. To ponder the spectrum of experiences and share them with anyone who's interested. And really, no matter who we are, where we go or what we do, isn't that always worth doing? In fact, isn't it the whole point?