Everyone in Oregon knows that our Springfield is the real one, because Matt Groening himself is an Oregonian. Having named several of the characters after his immediate family, and other characters after streets in Portland, it seems evident that he didn’t cast a wide net, and Springfield is certainly the kind of working class town…

This summer, we went to Oregon with my wife Ilenia’s parents. This was their second time in the US, but their first in Oregon. One of my favorite parts of Oregon to show people – especially Europeans – is the eastern part of the state. In most of Europe, you’re never very far away from…

You can often size up the major likes and dislikes about a place pretty quickly. Some of them are widely known – good food and bureaucracy in Italy, for instance. However, it takes a while living somewhere to start noticing the little annoyances or pleasant little things. One of the things that I still can’t…

Herein, I present a glimpse into the maw of Italian bureaucracy, as seen while attempting to register a domain name, welton.it, for my own use. It’s well known that in Italy there are so many laws and regulations that many people simply ignore them, and don’t look askance at others that, say, don’t pay their…

Despite having moved to Austria, both Ilenia and I still follow Italian news. Mostly it’s frustrating (corrupt politicians), or inane (where did the famous people go on vacation, and with who), but if you pay close attention, there are some things that are really odd, from time to time. Last week, a priest accused of…

We’re in the process of moving to Innsbruck, Austria, where my wife Ilenia found a job doing research at the university. It’s a beautiful city that’s not too big, and not too small, but unfortunately, “here be bridge trolls”. To the south of town on the autobahn leading to the Italian border is what is…

Yesterday I was on the phone with Fastweb, a broadband provider in Italy, when I heard what has to be the strangest hold music ever. Sort of a light, inoffensive, jazzy easy listening adult contemporary boredom piece typical of hold music, but with a twist – the song had a voice over that kept repeating,…

When I first started thinking about the idea of going to Europe, in high school, there was an urban legend that you could sell regular old Levi’s jeans, purchased at regular prices in the US, for exorbitant sums in Europe. No one I know ever tried it, and from what I’ve always seen, the clothes…

Padova isn’t a big, or particularly important city in Italy, but I still have a much greater feeling of “being somewhere” than in Eugene. Today I got a nice confirmation of that, out of the blue. I was running late for work, having gone to get a haircut and to the post office. It had…

One of the little things that I appreciate about Italy is barber shops. I’m not very picky about how I look, but it’s a pleasure to get a good haircut from someone that knows what they’re doing, and who gets to know you. Before Ilenia and I went to California in 2002, I went to…