Blog Flog

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Date: Sunday 27 November 2005
Title: Ramblings in Italy
URL: http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2005/11/ramblings-in-italy.html

Ug, I normal, LKH blockquote. I'm taking my sarcasm extra bitter this morning.

It's nice to know that she got the rambling part of this post right. So, let's skip to the juicy parts?

Rome was warmer than Milan. November is winter there, too. It's not usually much below forty, but that can still feel pretty cold if you've left your winter coat in the United States. We did what a lot of the Italians did; leather suit jacket, scarf, gloves. It was practically a uniform over there. Though more in Rome than Milan, because Milan gets colder.

Did someone fail geography? Did they? Hmm? I know that for some Americans, the rest of the world doesn't exist except for in fairy tales - but your basic atlas will tell you that yes, Italy is still in the Northern Hemisphere. Ergo, simple logic says Italians have winter in November too.

I hate to think of what'd happen if she wound up in Australia in December. In the middle of a heatwave, Christmas decorations everywhere and a mockery of snowy things to boot. Cuz that might just be freakish and wrong to someone who didn't know that Italy has winter in November too.

Clinging to the whole basic geography thing, Italy just happens to be in the Mediterranean - which is conveniently located near the equator. Which means, it's gonna be nice and toasty warm down near the boot tip. Basic Italian history 101 - Romans used to go to Naples for the winter because of the weather. Naples is located conveniently to the south of Rome. Milan is a little further north. Ergo, colder than Rome.

When we got back to the states people kept asking how sunny Italy was; I think most people forget that they have seasons, too.

*facepalm* Y'know, that should be a badge? "EUROPE HAS SEASONS TOO!"

Other than that - Dear America, what kinda crack are you on?

Aren't normal people meant to kinda know this stuff??? Why is it such a freaking huge surprise and discovery worthy of National Geographic???

We had one day free in Milan. We walked the streets. Because that's what you do in cities in Italy. You walk. A lot.

I wonder if either of them was solicited. Also, isn't this why travel places try to talk up those tours on the kitsch scooters and the like while in Italy? Narrow, crowded streets - cars bad. Though, after my mother's trip to Florence, Venice and Rome, she's learned that all traffic stops for nuns.

What we didn't know when we arrived in Milan was that Italians don't eat breakfast the way Americans do, and it was Sunday.

Yeah, um, Sunday? Most people are in church.

Do I really need to hit on the whole Italians aren't Americans thing? *gives self concussion on desk*

We finally made it to the Duomo. We actually sat in the pews at the back for part of the service. I don't know how to describe the experience. This is a place that people have been coming to worship Diety for centuries.

Just quickly - the Duomo? Florence, not Milan. Google can tell you this, as can Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter isn't just a psycho, he's educational too.

Okay, while LKH might be hip to the jive with all the cool kids, when in Rome (and the Duomo for that matter), the Deity is generally called God. Surely all the paintings and statues to the guy and all his homies kinda tells you that. It's the next best thing to having a label that says, "HELLO, MY NAME IS GOD."

Which seems funny when you round it all off with this:

There is a Mary altar to the side of the main area. It has some seats, but it also has a altar rail to kneel at, and to pray. In front of that railing is a huge area covered in white taper candles. They are for people's prayers, wishes, burning bright before the feet of the Mother of God. I know why people come to Mary so often. She just seems more approachable than the God that the church has made. She seems like someone who will listen and not judge. People need that. We need that feminine energy, as well that masculine power.

I'm torn between going, "Amen, power to the sisterhood, right on!" and just bitching that God needs to give people cookies. Cookies would get them over the whole nervous about approaching him for stuff. Cookies: if it works for the Dark Side, surely it can work pulling people back to church.

o.0

Comments

[sister-ananke.livejournal.com]

You'd think that LKH, being an ex-Catholic, would understand that The Virgin Mary is an intercessor, like any other saint. Not to mention that hideous thing where "I think of your God s male, so that must be the truth"...

Oh and feminine 'energy' but masculine 'power'...explains a lot really.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I will be the first American to agree that we are idiots. I really know very little about the rest of the world. Though, personally, whatever they taught me in school has been whisked out of my head by my own brain's intensely brutal clean-up system. If I don't use something for a period of 30 days or more, my brain deletes it. I don't know why, but that's how it is. Hell, 3 weeks is pushing it for a PIN or a phone number :/

But, to be fair, most other countries get a lot of American-made movies and books and stuff that explains our culture pretty well. We don't get the same from the rest of the world, so you've got the advantage there.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I would hate for people in other countries to think our movies and other media represent our culture accurately. Sometimes I wonder what alternate universe filmmakers live in.

Similarly, I'm not going to assume daily life in other countries is just like their soap operas or art films or cartoons, because that would be silly. I have met people who think Japan is JUST LIKE ANIME and I just boggle.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

Okay, people in other countries aren't going to assume we're all undercover agents and sluts, just from the movies. But getting movies and books from our country is definitely going to give them an edge in having a general idea of what American life is over us having an idea of what their lives are like.

And I'd say a non-American tourist visting here is going to have an easier time visting here than an American would travelling somewhere else. Hell, the only reason I know Europe has different electrical plugs is that I work in the hotel industry and we have adaptors for out of US visitors to use.

Then there are other things other countries are getting that we're not, such as slang. For instance, I had no idea Aussies used feral as a slang word, because how many Australian movies have I seen in my life? How many Aussie books have I read? None. But other countries are probably going to have an idea of the slang we use just from our movies and books.

I'm not saying other countries know us top to bottom and no one here knows anything about the rest of the world; I just find that Americans are less knowledgeable in general than most people from other countries, and I think it's because they get more of our culture than we do theirs.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

That is a point, though. We don't generally get bombarded with foreign films that tell us how others live. We do bombard the world with how we do it, though...even if it's in a Hollywood stylized idealized BS form.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

But...surely people want to know about the places they're going to before they get there? Google - not that hard. Travel guide, also not that hard.

So...it'd be natural to go look up stuff about Italy before you get there, and learn this stuff rather than wandering around the streets of Rome and suddenly discovering that yes, this is the Mediterranean.

Then again, I have to wonder - if it's not in a tv show, or a movie, does that make it not worth knowing? That's an idea that makes my head hurt - and I can't understand how a person can get through life by that kind of philosophy.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

That is true. Everytime my mother goes to visit some part of Europe (they save up and go every other year or every two years; something like that) they study up like crazy, and my mother buys 'learn the language' tapes so they get along much better while there. Heh, when she was teaching herself enough French to get by, I told her my HS French Teacher's Secret To Getting Decent French Out: Speak it in the worst, cheesiest French accent you can possibly muster.

And it works, too! *mentos thumb*

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

It's not really LKH's fault that most Americans don't know everything about Italy (I certainly haven't spend enough time studying a map of Italy to know the relative positions of Rome and Milan; most people don't memorize every major city in the world. I'm sure I know the geography of some parts of the world better than you do, for example, even if Italy's never been a big priority for me).

The last part about Mary and "Deity" is definitely wanktastic, though.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I freely admit to being completely ignorant on US geography. I know where NY, LA and Miami is - and after that, I need an atlas. It took me ages to A) find Michigan, and B) finally get the joke about it being "the mitten state" - US geography was never something we covered in social studies. European and Australasia, on the other hand, because that's our part of the globe and a big chunk of our heritage.

But the thing is, if I don't know something, I'm willing to go look it up - which is something that a lot of people just don't do these days. I totally don't get that. And it kinda weirds me out.

[tsula.livejournal.com]

Though, after my mother's trip to Florence, Venice and Rome, she's learned that all traffic stops for nuns.

That's because NO ONE wants to incur the wrath of the Brides of Christ! Especially the Italian ones... they're just ticking timebombs of repression-induced rage just waiting to go off. 9 years of Catholic school, I have the scars to prove it!

I'd hate to think what she'd have to say about Gubio, Italy. That little mountain village hasn't changed since the days of St. Francis of Asisi... well okay, there's electricity and running water now. Oh! and a telephone. It's a huge tourist attraction, that none of us Americans know about.

And we American's have finally learned that "Crack is whack!" And have moved on to Meth, manufactured by my great state of Oklahoma. It's part of the secret conspiracy of the Native American people, to get the pale faces hooked, steal all their monies and take back the land! *insert evil laugh track*

And yes, we Catholics are secretly Cultists of Mary. *nods ominously* We just throw "GOD" and his Scoobie Gang of righteous do-righters out there to throw the OTHER Christians off our scent. Nevermind the fact that Catholics were the original posse that was with the Jesus. Or that Martin Luther, who started the whole "Let's break off from the Church!" thing was convinced he had a demon possessing his bowels. Just THINK of the money you could have made off that man with holy water colonoscopies. And don't get me started on the Mormons, Adventists, and Seven Day Adventists.

Wow... my thoughts totally derailed from the original topic on that one.

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

As an almost-nun (obedience and health reasons kept me out) I have to say, I loved your post.

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

What we didn't know when we arrived in Milan was that Italians don't eat breakfast the way Americans do

They... don't?

I spent two weeks in Italy. Were my hosts hiding some deadly Italian breakfast secret from me the whole time?

Was that why they kept feeding me hard-boiled eggs?

[caramel-lunacy.livejournal.com]

actually, since Duomo is just one of the words for a cathedral, there are Duomos everywhere. Including Milan.
http://www.traveladventures.org/continents/europe/duomo01.shtml

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

I must take a moment here and stand up for America and Americans. I have no explanation for LKH's freakishness, but I've known 30 years worth of folks who understand the whole hemispheres concept, and more importantly, who freaking read up on where they're going before they leave the country. It's a crazy thing. :)

She's dumb.

Also, you *do* realize that she didn't write "Deity." She wrote "Diety." I'm pretty sure that's different.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

She wasn't that out of line, here, really. And most Americans may not know where it is or isn't warmest in Italy...

Hell, most of them don't know why people from around the mediterranean are a bit darker. (Therefore that it is a bit more south, and alot more warm than many other places.)And assume that Italians got hit by the Moorish invasions, as Spain did.

Too, if you're going to go pagan, there is a decided argument for Mary just being what Catholicism did to the pagan mother Goddess, along with the rest of the many things that they converted and subverted. *shrugs*.

However, go for it. LKH needs a bit of wankfesting.

-Dira-