Why I fell in love with Italia #2: La diversitá!

A part of Italia. 

         It’s kind of ironic that one of my favorite things in Italia is something that most of Italians despise (you don't have an idea of the things I've heard in people fighting over regioni).

         I’m talking about… la diversitá! The diversity… in terms of culture and habits.

       In fact the difference between north, center and south (let’s divide it this way) is so big that in the first moments you can just find it strange, but you’ll need to travel more through the country to see how profound it really is.

        I’m not saying this because someone told me, but because I saw it with my own eyes. I lived it. I know, I know. Even in Portugal we have differences from north to south. I guess we have it in every country. But Italia is a really big country (even bigger when compared to Portugal). So it is not so strange to find such diverse ways of thinking and acting. For example, people from south regions tend to be more open and friendly immediately. They just talk to you as if you were friends for a long time. This doesn’t mean that people from north regions are not nice. Because they are! But in the first impact they are more quiet and reserved. It’s like they’re acting with guidelines from a “How to be polite” book, when southerners are more like explosive and not caring so much about it. It’s obvious that I’m dealing with some general ideas here… and not every people acts the same way! From different perspectives, both can be lovely. Depends on you too. What I can say is that in every region I’ve been, in every situation that I needed help, every italiano that I’ve asked something... decided to help me in his own way. So – this one is for you italians – you are a really, really nice people. I have to take a bow! Especially to that old lady that helped me here in Forlì in my first weeks when my bike basket fell down with all my supermarket shopping. She automatically came to help me. <3 Sorry but I had to say this. Grazie, grazie, grazie!

Trieste (left) and Napoli (right). Can you spot the differences?

Let's continue! The way they eat, the language, the way they express themselves, the geography, the architecture, colors, tastes. It’s all so different, really, that I could write an entire book on that. It’s like: you can take all the diversity in Portugal and multiply it per 50x.

                Historical this can be explained easily. Portugal is a country with more or less 9 centuries of union (as Portugal itself, let’s say), while Italia is really young in comparison. Only 150 years (approximately) since the country became the united Italia. Not so long ago, they were still fighting each other over power (in a Game of Thrones style...), divided within the republics (or city-state) of Firenze, Venezia, Milano, etc… and also in a war with the Pope (yes, I read that Machiavelli book, ok?). Sooo… they still have a long way to travel if they want to reach our point of… unity. But… should they change?

                I think not. Apart from some political parties that want to win independency over regions (!), I find this awesome! This is a cultural treasure. From art to architecture, from a way of doing pizza to a musical style, it’s amazing to travel to cities like Trieste (north) and Napoli (south) and find them so diverse from each other. In a way that it makes you keep thinking on how can you love so much, at the same time, such different realities. 

A foto of Forlì, just because I love my city!