I would say that I don’t know enough people and I don’t have enough understanding of the nuances of the Italian political system to properly answer this question. However, many things that are considered liberal concepts in the U.S. are taken as a given here. For example, nationalized healthcare ensures that the entire Italian population has healthcare access and that out-of-pocket costs are limited. There aren’t debates about gun control because Italians don’t consider gun ownership to be an unfettered right.
While living in Italy, do you still consume a lot of American media (books, magazines, film/tv) or more Italian media?
We all get set in our ways, and I still enjoy reading the New York Times and the Washington Post most days, and when I arrived in Italy, I was already following mostly American and Indian accounts on social media. Slowly though, I’ve been following more Italian social media, and I try to read an article or two from the local paper in Italian every day to know what’s going on and for the language practice. My landlord gifted me a novel in Italian, and while it’s not particularly fine literature, I have been reading it to try to make the shift into more Italian and less English, for more exposure to both the language and the culture.
You mention calling the places you travel to your home and I was wondering if they do start to actually feel like home or if there is still a sense of being in a strange place?
Yes, absolutely. I would say that “home” is a very fluid concept and one that has the potential to expand if we allow it. I still refer to Iowa as home, despite not living there for more than 20 years.
