Today we had our class "Food, Farming and a Sense of Place" and we spent our time exploring the market in Siena that is held every Wednesday morning. The sheer amount of different meats and cheeses was astonishing and that was before I saw all of the seafood, vegetables, fried foods, roasting chickens and kabobs - which I devoured. The beauty of the varying colors and textures and smells and tiny elderly people pushing me out of the way to get their food was wonderful. There is no such thing as a line in Italy; there is the first person and the mob behind them where you must push and shove to survive. The strangeness of men half my size and three times my age elbowing me in the ribcage is wearing off.
Yet with all of these romantic images of Italy, it makes me wonder: what really is my impact on Italy as a tourist and as an American? I learned in Thailand the importance of responsible tourism and those theories have me thinking here as well. The fun, food and goods I seek and how/when/where I seek them have a tremendous impact on their economy. This romanticized "other" that so many Americans seek when they travel, well is it really the version we have concocted in our novels and films? Or do we only experience the predetermined experience we seek? Its difficult living in this place, not just visiting, because I am straddling a line of two cultures. On one had, I want the sensation filled experience I have read about yet is that the true, authentic experience of Italy? And how does my being here affect Italy as a country, Siena as a city and Italians as people?
No comments:
Post a Comment