July 24, 2020

Just, simply, this.

Juicy green olives and salty peanuts and potato chips and a crisp glass of white wine as you watch the condensation start to drip down because, yes, it is piena estate (midsummer) and your wine will stay cold for approximately 90 seconds.
These are some simple tiny predictable joys that make me fall just a little bit more in love with Italy. I like traditions. I spent a good amount of years whilst living here gently poking fun at the insane amount of rules that the Italians have around eating and drinking.

Now, they’ve become one of my favorite parts of the culture. Some of the rules and traditions still don’t make sense to me, and yet I follow them anyway. It’s comforting. I like knowing there will be snacks with my aperitivo. I like little details and I appreciate that the Italians happen to be pretty damn fond of them too. It’s a little silly to get profound about a plate of olives and some peanuts but these are the little things that weave into the landscape of everything I love about living here. I cannot express in words how my deeply I appreciate the tiny predictable things in this oh so unpredictable world we currently live in.