Allora

Today was a rainy day but in the mid afternoon cleared up.  I looked up the weather for the upcoming week and it is supposed to be sunny which is great considering it is already approaching the month of November.  My favorite and most common word I hear in Italian is “allora.”  On paper the word looks much more boring than it actually sounds.  The Italians have a special way of say it and it sounds like beautiful eloquent word.  I hear this word multiple times a day and it has differing meaning in different context.  It means look here, ok, how about, and other variations of those words.  The word can also be used as a filler between words.  I like to walk around my apartment and when I see a roommate I just say allora because it is such a pretty word.  I think it is by far my favorite Italian word.  I have ended the section on Italy in the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I now know why it is a national best seller.  Actually, I think Oprah is the one that made it famous by announcing it as her book of the month.  But anyway, the way she writes is captivating and kept my attention page after page.  It was really cool how I knew exactly where she lived and all of the names of the piazzas that she describes.  I plan to go to the pizza restaurant that she describes that is located in Naples which is only about an hour train ride from here.  If the best pizza comes from Italy and best pizza in Italy comes from this restaurant in Naples then I dare say that this must be the best pizza in the WORLD!  I really am enjoying the main plot of the book how she gets out of a divorce and goes on a quest to Italy to find pleasure and India to find devotion.  She thinks that a balance of those two will give her a peace of mind. 

One of my favorite parts of the Italy part was the way she described the Italian people because it is so true!  Italians are known for “bel far niente” which means the beauty of doing nothing.  The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated.  The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing the higher your life accomplishment.  Another saying that applied to Italians is “l’arte d’arrangiarsi” which means the art of making something out of nothing.  I think living in Italy I have come to learn how to embrace this saying.  Sometimes when it comes to dinner time my roommates and I look in the fridge and realize all we have is eggs, maybe a few pieces of turkey and tomatoes.  Somehow we are able to combine our ingredients and make a delicious meal and sit around the table for a couple of hours talking.  In order to get to school I have to go through some small streets in Trastevere that is filled with apartment buildings.  Along all the balconies and stretching from one balcony to the other is laundry lines with clothes of different colors and design.  I like to play a game and try to guess who is living in the house based on the clothes.  There is one thing for sure the Italian clothes are not as big as Americans! 

Another part in the chapter about Italy that I found particularly interesting was when Elizabeth Gilbert talked about the tendencies of American pleasure.  Her argument is that America is an entertainment-seeking nation opposed to a pleasure-seeking nation.  I find this interesting because I always seem to associate pleasure with entertainment but I feel I may have conformed to this idea.  In the book, she goes to Italy to find pleasure in learning Italian.  She then goes on to argue that Americans work harder, longer, and more stressful days than anyone else in the world.  Everyone has heard about the quote about the overstressed executive who goes on vacation but cannot relax. However, we seem to like it.  This is what caused us a sense of fulfillment.  I would counter argue her point and say this brings us a sense of conformity, acceptance and praise which in turn brings us fulfillment.  But if this is truly making Americans happy why change?  Isn’t happiness an ultimate goal?  Thus going back to the concept of pleasure.  I then feel a little conflicted because I have been learning a great deal in my developmental economics class.  What entitles me to over indulge in food and feel this pleasure when there are alarming statistics worldwide.  I have learned the World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving.  Over 4 million will die this year.  Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people.  What makes one worth worthy of overindulgence of pleasure?  This is an issue that is tough to grasp and for now all I can do is be thankful.  The tourist season here in Rome is beginning to finally be a little slower.  I have seen many people wearing Giants t-shirts around in honor of the World Series I assume.  I am off to my next class for the day.  Ciao!