"Eat, Pray, Love"

I know that I said I wouldn't post anything new until we get back from Spain, but there is something I came across that I wanted to share. I also wanted to remember it forever, and this blog is as much a journal for us as it is updates for everyone else.

I'm currently reading a book for my Book Club titled "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's about a woman who spends a year living abroad to have an adventure and to try to get her life back on track. Her goal is to learn about food in Italy, religion in India, and the balance of the two in Indonesia. I was amazed at how much her experiences in Italy rang true to me and how much it mirrored the experience that Niraj and I are having over here! In particular, the following two excerpts really stood out, and I wanted to share.

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"I met a young Australian girl last week who was backpacking through Europe for the first time in her life. I gave her directions to the train station... When I heard her travel plans, I was stricken with a dumb spasm of jealousy, thinking I want to go to Slovenia! How come I never get to go anywhere? Now, to the innocent eye it might appear that I already am traveling. And longing to travel while you are already traveling is, I admit, a king of greedy madness... But the fact that this girl asked directions from me (clearly, in her mind, a civilian) suggests that I am not technically traveling in Rome, but living here. However temporary it may be, I am a civilian. When I ran into the girl, in fact, I was just on my way to pay my electricity bill, which is not something travelers worry about. Traveling-to-a-place energy and living-in-a-place energy are two fundamentally different energies, and something about meeting this Australian girl on her way to Slovenia just gave me such a jones to hit the road."

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"...I went to Bologna - a city so beautiful that I couldn't stop singing, the whole time I was there: 'My Bologna has a first name! It's P-R-E-T-T-Y.' Traditionally Bologna - with it's lovely brick architecture and famous wealth - has been called 'The Red, The Fat, and The Beautiful.' The food is definitely better here than in Rome, or maybe they just use more butter. Even the gelato in Bologna is better. The mushrooms here are like big tongues, and the prosciutto drapes over pizzas like a fine lace veil draping over a fancy lady's hat. And of course there is the Bolognese sauce, which laughs disdainfully at any other idea of a ragu. It occurs to me in Bologna that there is no equivalent in English for the term buon appetito. This is a pity, and also very telling. It occurs to me, too, that the train stops of Italy are a tour through the names of the world's most famous foods and wines: next stop, Parma... next stop, Bologna... next stop, approaching Montepulciano."

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So, there you have it... what could almost be a first-hand account of our time "living" in Bologna. Enough said!