Day 14, Italy

More notes. Can’t really write blog posts (unless I write them ahead of time) because our “high speed Internet” (HAHA) fluctuates so unpredictably. Like 435 Kbps one second and 0 the next. Ugh. But. Not complaining. It’s still better than no ‘net at all. And our family isn’t suffering from it — in fact things are happening pretty much the way we expected. Already we feel closer to each other than before. That’s a great blessing!! Isolation has its perks!

And we’re not actually as isolated as we thought — had people over the day after we moved in — 3 co-workers and the wife of one of them. Then Friday we went out to eat out at their favorite arrosticini place (except we couldn’t have arrosticini because we were abstaining from meat, so we’ll have to go back sometime to try it)… yesterday we had one of our favorite people with us the whole day and again today for half a day. Tuesday will be dd-17′s 18th birthday. That should be fun. She’s asked for homemade tiramisu for dessert… and some creamy pasta for dinner… maybe I’ll add an antipasto platter…. and whatever else I can come up with.

I’m torn about this — it’s Lent and while I’m grateful for the opportunity to offer up things, e.g., this life of “doing without” …. there’s so much here that totally makes us feel spoiled. It’s hard to feel the sacrifice when you constantly are surrounded with blessings. I still have to figure this one out.

Let’s take food, for instance. How can one possibly feel deprived when even the cheapest generic extra virgin olive oil is still very, very rich and fruity? When good red wine is available at 2.99 Euro? (We haven’t bought any, but had a sip of our friends’ order. And our favorite produce is unbelievably affordable? Case in point: artichokes at 49 eurocents each, fennel at 1.49/kg, giant oranges and lemons (local) at 2+ euro/kg? Sigh. I suppose we could just *not* eat… Even eating leftovers is not much of a penance, like tomorrow I’m having what’s left of a salad from the market — radicchio, rice, corn, tomatoes, capers, carrots, tuna… it’s so yummy and fresh.

When your pleasures are simple, and it takes little to satisfy you, how do you find what it is that costs you something and hurts? I suggested jokingly to dd that perhaps the solution is to buy what’s expensive that we *don’t'* like — like McDonald’s food here where sandwiches are 3.90 – 5.90 euro… and therefore hurts the pocket… but that doesn’t make sense, does it?

Here at home I looked forward to doing without, and in some ways we are doing that, e.g., no dryer, so we hang our clothes outside, or by the radiator… the washer is so small it can only hold 1/4-1/3 of my US washer’s capacity… but then again we didn’t bring that many clothes so there’s not that much to wash… I don’t have my beloved pots and pans and what’s here are lightweight Teflon ones that I’d like to replace soon… but then again we don’t have to do much high heat cooking on them because most of the food here is best prepared the slow-food way… we’re stuck with Italian TV, no cable, but then we didn’t have cable in the US either, and Spongebob Squarepants actually looks okay when you don’t understand the dialogue. Plus we’re learning Italian slowly, bit by bit, everyday, so how can this be a deprivation… and since we don’t have much in the way of technology we’re learning to spend more time with each other, pleasantly.

I know that sounds silly considering we’re already homeschoolers and spend practically almost every hour of the day together, but even homeschoolers can fall into the tech trap (and other traps, such as overcommitment outside the home), that the improvement these days is apparent.

We’ve found two cozy churches — we’re probably going to stick with the one that’s 14 minutes away walking distance… and there doesn’t seem to be an English Mass anywhere near here, but today I think I got much from the homily which is probably 25% understandable to me. We end up talking about the homily right after Mass, checking with each other as to what we each understood — and in doing so we receive more fully the richness of the teaching, even if we only got it in bits and pieces… the sharing is what pushes it in, deeper.

By being here together, by ourselves, far from the things and people we’ve gotten used to, we are forging something that in many ways feels like a new alliance. Growing family is so much more purposeful and true in these circumstances. There are so mamy things we are thankful for. Lent this year, perhaps, is not so much the giving up of pleasures, as much as it is the development of a clearer perception of what gifts are. Here in Italy, away from our “regular world”, we have been given the gift of time, and clearly, the message is — don’t waste it.