ira

Hi Scarlett
>...fresh baked bread! Pretty soon I will be driving all the way to Georgia to buy bread from you! <

BUY? I shall show you our town, let you ring the school bell, take you for gelato, make you drink sweet tea, pack you up some Pecan Pie, and give you some of my bread.

Southren Hospitality.

tuscanlifeedit

LoveItaly, it IS so sad. Sometimes I just want to cry. Our town has slipped into a horrid economic downturn and we are homogenized and beaten down, and a whole lot of other things I can think.

My in-laws NEVER eat in a restaurant that isn't a chain. We duck dinner with them for several reasons, but it is damn hard to eat in the Olive Garden when one's last dinner out was in an actual garden filled with olive trees!

The joy is that we do travel, and see and do and eat wonderful things, all the time.

Scarlett

LOL, be careful, ira, a car might pull up in your neighborhood with a brown dog sticking his head out the window and you will have to keep that promise!
Fresh bread and gelato are ok, but to ring the school bell! Can't wait!!

ira

Hi tuscan,

>...damn hard to eat in the Olive Garden ...<

In my part of the world Olive Garden is upscale.

LoveItaly

tuscanlifeedit. I understand. The small town that I was in during HS was precious. Now it is like what your are describing. Except the people out of this town have to drive down the freeway about 20 minutes to even get to an Olive Garden.

Where I live there is a slew of fast food and chain restaurants (of course there is, they are everywhere) but we also have, thank goodness, independently own cafes and restaurants in the downtown area.

I would eat out more IF I could eat as one is able to in Europe. I miss that so much.

Living in a depressed area is not fun.
I am glad you are able to travel. Take good care.

suze

I notice that Switzerland is much cleaner and better organized than Seattle (and Seattle's a pretty nice place to live!).

mikemo

I live in San Miguel de Allende several months a year.
I never want to leave.
Shortly, when my Dallas house is sold, I'll never have to.
M

joellynm

Public Transportation! Those of you who live in Los Angeles will know what I mean. I just returned from France, and the public transportation in Paris is so, so, civilized. I like LA, but what I would give to walk a block and jump on a metro train instead of having to traverse the freeways or congested city streets.

Also, I was having such "fromage frais" withdrawal symptoms that I'm trying to learn how to make it myself. It's the most wonderful, scrumptious delectable I've discovered, and they don't sell it here!

LoveItaly

joellynm, I don't live in LA, I live in the southern end of Sacramento Valley, and yes indeed I know exactly what you mean about public transportation (and our lack of it). Everytime we have a "Save the Air Day" I just shake my head wondering how???

Public transportation in Europe is soooo much better. Would, as I am sure a lot of us would, use it if we had it here but I don't think I will live to see that day.

Grandma

I live in New York city (Manhattan).. but when I came back from Istanbul and on a later trip, Cairo.... I felt like I was returning to a nice, pretty city in Pennsylvania (where I grew up.) Even so... just call me and say you have a ticket to either Istanbul or Cairo and I'll meet you at the airport!!

clevelandbrown

I remember after returning from a trip to Italy and Switzerland, my wife and I were waiting for a light to change and I looked across the street at a Catholic church (an old one, for the US) and realized how well built and attractive it was; I was certain if it were two hundred years older and in Italy, we would have been lined up to tour it.

On the other hand, I am really unhappy with the food here. Not that it isn't good, but that the portions are so huge, and I've been trained that it is an insult not to finish it all. Our local paper had an article about a chef opening a new restaurant; he initially planned to go for absolutely top quality, but smaller portions, and did poorly until he cut the quality a bit and enlarged the portions. I guess that is the American way.

ninasdream

cigalechanta - well said, now I too am longing to return to Provence.

I find I look at my own area as if I am still on vacation- at least for a few days, until the bubble bursts. I see things as if I were still toting around a camera, still have that friendly open smile, and look around a lot at details and architecture.

Count me in on the San Miguel de Allende info- I am looking for a return to Mexico, and a break from the euro.
[email protected]

Mary_Fran

I wonder if I'm the only one who often has the urge to kiss the ground when I come home, so grateful I live where I do. My overwhelming sense, returning to a US airport, is a sense of security, knowing that PEOPLE ARE WHAT THEY SEEM TO BE.

We recently returned from Spain, where my purse was lifted by a very clever thief while we dined at an outdoor restaurant, by a person who passed himself off as a waiter, inquiring as to whether we'd enjoyed our meal.

In a previous trip to Rome, a group of children swarmed me, and I scared them off before they could steal something from me. How can a society look the other way when children are brought up to steal?

Traveling in Europe, in Spain and Italy at least, you watch your back and your purse and expect to be conned if you let your guard down. That doesn't mean I won't go there in the future. I most definitely will.

But it does give me a sense of gratitude when I come home, and I, for one, feel safe again.

taggie

Mary Fran, count yourself lucky that you have not been robbed in your home country. The rotten things you describe happening to you in Spain and Rome happen to people in their hometowns every day. I'm glad you haven't let those unfortunate incidents put you off travelling. But you must live in a very small, secure community to not feel that you have to watch your back at home, ever.
As far as people seeming what they are, I don't think that's ever safe to assume. In my case, the lovely woman who chatted with me so nicely as she cleaned my rooms in a Salt Lake City hotel robbed me of my passport.

Mary_Fran

The poster asked if I viewed my town, city or country in a different light when I come home from a trip to Europe. I said what my experience was, which is that I am grateful that I live where I do. What's so difficult for you to understand about that?

taggie

And I was simply making the observation that you are luckier than many, because not everyone feels safe in their own cities, and the things you describe have happened to lots of people at home.
I also said how glad I was that your bad experiences hadn't put you off travelling. It wasn't meant to be an attack and I'm sorry you seem to have taken it that way.

ninasdream

topping- travelwoman & Nancy, I have begun reading up on San Miguel de Allende. Can you ofer any tips from your personal experience, where you stayed, how you got around- on foot, did you drive while there, where did you stay, eat? Thanks in advance.

llamalady

I'm so fortunate to live in a city that
has so much to offer in every way except
history and culture; both are impossible
to achieve in 150 years! However, all
the other amenities (clean air, ocean,
mountains, closeness to nature, terrific
restaurants) help me to appreciate 'my'
city. But as soon as I return I'm on
my way to planning the next sojourn in
rural France or Italy or ..........All
the glorious places that make me feel
truly alive. So - the best of all worlds.

ucsun

*starts to sob again* after 5 months of being back from rome and paris, i thought i was over it and then i run into this post...brings back all the pain, joy, laughter. i want to go back now. eventhough i live in Orange County (yes the OC), i can't wait to get out. never fails. you come back and can't wait to leave again. i guess the grass is always greener on the other side...or atleast the cheese is smellier.