The Hills Are Alive

This is an outdated photo - from a trip I took to the hills outside Bologna about a month ago - but I never got the chance to put it up. The Bolognese hills are beautiful and there are lots of different public parks for residents. On warm days, everyone packs a blanket and leaves the city. The weird thing about the photo above is that you can see an open laptop, which often implies that there's some kind of internet connection available. I cannot possibly believe this, as internet at home is still very much a luxury here. It would be wonderfully ironic if wireless was available in the hills outside Bologna when it's barely found within people's homes.

Here are some more photos from Florence:


This is the view from the top of the cathedral. And below is the view from inside the dome.


I learn new things all the time about the way Italian culture relates to Catholicism. Obviously religion is very important here. This weekend, 7 days before Easter, stores are changing their hours so that shoppers can have as much time to get things done before (apparently) the city shuts down. From the chaos in the supermarket you'd think that the apocalypse was coming. (Not joking.) However, the entertaining thing is that sometimes people make religion-related comments that seem incredibly bizarre.

On Wednesday I was in the car with a coworker, going to another office. To make conversation, he asked me which men I found attractive at Coop. (This may seem inappropriate, but compared to most of the conversation topics that take place there, it's absolutely benign.) After stalling for a bit, I named a guy named Nicola, who's generally known to be the only good-looking man in the entire company. (Nicola's daughter is named Emma, which is proof that he's smart AND good-looking.)

Anyway, my coworker's nonchalant response: Yes, women find Nicola handsome because he looks like Jesus.
Uh, I don't think that Nicola looks like Jesus at all. I mean, I don't actually know what Jesus looks like - but the Jesus depicted in Italian paintings does not resemble Nicola. According to my coworker, he used to have long hair, which made him even more Jesus-like. I was sort of stunned throughout this part of the conversation. Is Jesus the ideal of some beauty standard that I don't know about? I would be very interested to find out.

And as always Andrea has something surprising to add during his English lesson. He's a big fan of a comedian named Beppe Grillo, who is very anti-establishment. One of Beppe Grillo's many accomplishments is that he has pressured the European Union to pressure the Italian government into lowering cell phone fees here. Beppe Grillo is also a big fan of environmental conservation. Apparently Andrea's mind was blown a few weeks ago at a show in which Beppe Grillo introduced the Italian people to this little innovation. Imagine someone trying to explain what the cup is without having the language skills to do so. Well, eventually we figured out what Andrea was trying to tell me about and I informed him that I know lots of people who use it (which is true). The final frontier of environmental awareness! Andrea's girlfriend plans to join the club. So much education takes place during Andrea's English lessons!

Here's a photo of Rosa and me during my family's visit.