Fatlo.af

In this part of my coverage of my trip through Italy and Switzerland, I’ll go through some of the cultural quirks and things that I came across. In some cases it’s funny, in a few others, sad. Mostly amusing.

The Culture

When Nicole and I were travelling around, the one sanctuary we had constantly was the hotel room. We could always retire to it and get out of either the constant barrage of a language we didn’t quite understand or just to recline and let our feet recover from what was more than likely another shopping excursion into the world of designer wear.

The problem with this was that while my sister and I are friends, talking with her constantly was not an ideal solution because we’d just get on each others nerves and while I’m much bigger than she is, she’s still my big sister and, as The Boy (Ben) will attest, the mere threat of the danger she can unleash when she’s been wronged will cause even the most furvent dictator to rethink his current course of actions.

So, the constant we relied upon was the television. Yes, we’re in another country experiencing other cultures and all that bollocks but at some point you need to catch up on the news and on something you’re used to, this is what the television did. The only problem with this is that if you’re on an italian based channel, everything (read: everything) that would normally be in english, is in italian. Now you might be thinking to yourself, gees, he’s in Italy and he expects things to be in english still? No, you need to pipe down and shut the fuck up because when you happen to flip through the channels to find, say, CSI playing and to your dismay you find it’s been dubbed in italian, you’re disappointed. Not because you enjoy CSI, but because your desire to just hear english for a moment has been taken from you. Snatched away, not unlike stealing from a helpless infant or Bill when he’s fallen on his back and can’t get up. Then, your hopes are heartened slightly by the thought that if there’s a channel that has english shows on it, there might be a channel which airs other shows in actual english. You start skipping through again, heart racing at the thought of hearing someone speaking english only to be disappointed again by the dubbing of another english TV series. The one highlight to this was the adverts for The Simpsons movie DVD, being in italian they’d show the spider-pig bit, except in italian it’s a bit different, it’s, wait for it, spider-pork. It’s far more amusing than it sounds.

Dubbing is so very common in Italy and even Switzerland, the only difference is that it’s mostly german instead of italian. At least here in Australia they have the decency to put subtitles on it so more than one culture can watch it.

So the one constant we craved was a disappointment, along with the english music video selection. I’ve heard Timbaland (with One Republic), Alicia Keys and Tokyo somethingorother that many fucking times I don’t ever want to hear or see anything of them ever again. Ooh, Duran Duran was getting some air time too but that was about it, 4 or 5 english artists repeated, constantly. It gets old. There was a shining light though, BBC World and CNN. One, if not both of those were shown in just about all the places we went so we got our daily updates of the World Economic Forum in Davos (which was just up the road from where we were in St. Moritz) to the latest in the american election, Indecision ’08 (thank you Jon Stewart). Even this we got sick of sometimes.

Travelling around Italy though, you can see some major differences in the people and the way businesses are operated. News stands out in the open brazenly sell hardcore pornography along with the monthly magazines and daily newspapers or breakfasts can consist of coffee as well as a stiff port or red wine, very rarely food.

Even seeing things like small football pitches everywhere is a difference, we have aussie rules/cricket ovals here but there they have small and large pitches everywhere. You can see how ingrained the game is in their culture. AFL may have a big following in the US and the UK but I doubt it will ever see the light of day in Italy.

The Landscape

What can I say, it’s beautiful. Going on the train from Tirano up the almost 2000 metres to St. Moritz was amazing. It is by far the most breathtaking land I have ever seen. It’s covered by a white velvet of death for the unprepared, but from the train it was easy to be taken in by its beauty. With the sun setting as we climbed, the backdrop of the red sky through the breaks in the mountains in the distance with the frozen lakes and pastures below, it’s something that you have to see to believe.

Rome was ok, it’s another big city really. To be fair though, we didn’t get out of Rome so I can’t judge the locale fairly but from the top of the Vatican’s cupola I could see the old Rome – where we were staying – and the new Rome (purely relative) and by comparison, the rising smog off the industry in the old Rome and the relatively serene, idyllic housing array in the new Rome were a stark contrast.

Florence was the most beautiful, even it’s considered new as the old Florence resides up on the nearby hillside from centuries ago. We managed to get out into the countryside for a bit, funnily enough to go shopping, and there’s an incredible amount of farmland in use. Lots of agriculture and old-school italian stereotypes in place. I still want to head down to Sorrento or Napoli as they’re closer to the coast and I’m sure during summer they’d be fantastic.

Milan was another bigger city, as I’ve discussed, but along with Florence and Rome, monuments were everywhere. If italians can do one thing right, it’s the construction of huge stone things, mostly religious. Who would have thought the church could have so much influence on a country. Surprising, I know.

From the Fontana Di Trevi, Pantheon, Circus Maximus, Colloseum and of course the Vatican, to Constantines Arch, Piazza Navone, Piazza Di Spagna, Piazza this, Piazza that. They’re fucken everywhere, Piazza’s are the simple way of filling a blank, unusable space. Concrete the fucken thing and call it a piazza, done.

Switzerland was different, in St. Moritz there were no monuments, not in the strictest sense anyway. Monuments to money perhaps, but not religion. The Audi dealership with the very expensive cars, the many, many jewellers and places like the Kulm and Carlton Hotels were amazing just for the heavily furred patrons the large limosines decanted to the front door. Zurich had more art galleries than I’ve ever seen anywhere but by the same token, more Apple stores than anywhere too. It’s a very business, cultural centre. Coincidentally, probably the same reason why a lot of banks have their head office here.

The lack of tax probably helps too.

Well that brings me conveniently to the end of this set. I am now looking toward either a) getting another fix of snowboarding soon or b) going back to the UK or to one of the many, many other destinations that are on my list. The world holds too many things in it to ever be bored.