18 May “Home is where I want to be”
When you are visiting a foreign country, you are simply just visiting it. It doesn’t even have to be a country, it can be a city just a few hours away. You arrive at the city, look around in awe and wonder, visit some sites, take naps, and then head home. What about the people though? Yes, there are other travelers that are mimicking your actions and movements, and then there are the people who live there.
I often think about this when I am home going to the Strip District to do my grocery shopping. I get disgruntled with the visitors that are taking their time, wandering around and looking at all there is to see. I’m just trying to get my freaking grocery’s. I want them to just move. How is that any different from when we are visiting countries? When we went to the market around the corner from our apartments here in Florence, we were going to get the experience of something that we never had before. We were slowly strolling around, admiring the fresh cheeses and produce in jaw-dropping amazement. How many of those people were there doing there daily grocery shopping, muttering under there breath for the annoying out-of-towners to get out of there freaking way, just as I am in the Strip District.
These places are not simply pretty things to look at. People have lives here. They wake up every morning and walk those streets. They see that view of the Duomo on a daily basis to and from work. That person that you passed on the street on your way to go climb the Duomo and see the exotic city of Florence was on their way to pick up their kid from school. This place is someones home.
The other thing to think about is if they see the amazement in their home city. I know that I have an amazing view from my home of downtown Pittsburgh. The entire city is laid out before me, the warm colors of the sunset reflecting off of the buildings, and the tug boats pushing their huge flat beds of coal along the river. All of this I can see from my living room, but I see it everyday. The first year or so I thought it was the most beautiful view and I thought I was so lucky. Then after a few years I don’t even notice it anymore. Is it the same with the people here in Florence? Maybe when they first moved here they thought to themselves “WOW I live in Florence, the beautiful Italian city, I can walk by the Duomo on my way to work, gosh I am so luck”. Then after a few years they are shoving and elbowing through the packs of tourists in front of the Duomo on their way to work mumbling “Yeah its a huge piece of artsy marble move people I’m late”. I assume it cannot always be that way though. They must have those days, or moments where they stop and look around and realize where they are living and how amazing that is. I know that sometimes I stop and look out the living room window at my city with the sunset and the tug boats and think ” home is where I want to be”.
