E per te

is a song by Jovanotti.
An italian artist.
It's quite a good song and
the first time I heard it was in
my 102 Italian class.
It means "Is for You"

Well, it seems like a lot of Italy is for me.
Let us start with the food.

It is simply amazing.
and i'm not exaggerating.
i'll admit, some places suck.
like, Brioso in Clemson, SC
is better.
but other places,
there's just no comparisson.
And one such place is
Vivoli.

Now, on one of our eating excursions
early on,
because we were still on the hunt
of a grocery store,
me and my roommates went out to eat
at a restaurant in a side alley.
Overall experience, bad.

The server clearly didn't think highly of
us stopping by his establishment.
The pork chop was dry.
the Lasagna was amazing though.
and we did meet two very entertaining Australians.

These two were visiting Italy from Melbourne
and soon enough we got into a lively chat with
the colorful characters from down under.

The lady began a ballad of their love story.
How they had met and dated in high school,
and the man gave her a gold ring
then promptly broke her heart
and dumped her.
They both seemingly moved on
only to find each other 50 years later in life.
At this point in time they ditched their lives
and began again with each other.

Lovely story, non?
but I have to say the best thing the
Australians gave us was where
to find the best gelato in the city.
They claimed they had been there
every night since arriving.
So, later that evening we went looking
for the elusive Vivoli.

Down the street and
take a right onto a back alley
and you're there.

when you walk in,
its seems like a normal
gelato stand.
UNTIL, you look around.
Then you notice something is wrong.

Where are the cameras?
the flip flops?
the tacky "I LOVE ITALIA" shirts?
Where are the americans and tourists?

This is how good this place is.
Its all Italians.
and select few of us
outsiders that have stumbled upon the place.

I would definitely say that
Vivoli is for me.

As i'm finding out,
much of Italy is for me.
The fanaticism of soccer
the art of the cuisine
the beauty of the streets
but i can't just focus on myself
especially since much of my time
is spent thinking about
others.

Of course,
all over the place I see things
that remind me of other people.
So here is my little segment of

e per te.

is for you.

Let's start out with family,
shall we?

First off,
every time I look up at the sky
i think of my father.
Dadu would love this weather.
Its been absolutely gorgeous.
With cool, perfect mornings
for running and walking "the pack"

My mother would love it here.
There's a church on every single corner.
Not to mention,
all the lovely religious history and
paintings and such
scattered across Firenze.
and she would definitely love
buying me things at all the stalls
along the way :]

The art, history, and
just about every aspect of
this marvelous city remind me of
my darling elder sister.
and i'm sure we'll get into plenty
of mischeif when she comes to
visit in Thanksgiving.

Now, I'll have to stop here.
Because although I'm in a foreign land,
and everything around me is so different,
and sometimes overwhelming,
these same differences
are constantly reminding me of people
and places back home.

And I could go on forever,
listing every dear friend
and every single detail
of my new life abroad
that reminds me of them
... but it is getting late.
and I'm a bit tired.

so I'll leave it as this,
as the singer on the
ponte vecchio put it
last night:

e per te.
è per te tutta questa città
è per te ogni cosa che c'è

for you less italian inclined:

is for you.
is for you throughout this city
is for you everything you need

thank you jovanotti.
you give me hope that
i might yet find  what i need
in this city:

the good kind of chicken ramen.