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…

Having grown up in Oregon, which is a nice place, but a long way from anywhere, one of the things that I really like about Italy is that it is very definitely somewhere, and it’s very close to a lot of other somewheres. It may no longer be the center of the world as in…

Last year, I asked Ilenia to marry me, and she said yes! I think if we knew what we know now, we might have considered running off to get married on some tropical isle, accompanied by a few good friends and relatives. Getting married in Italy is not easy for a foreigner, or at least…

Sometimes it’s the little differences that you notice. Sure, Venice is 40 kilometers down the road, and I ride my bike over roads originally built by the Romans on my way to work, but you get used to that to the point of almost forgetting about it. I’m talking about the little things that you…

After some sad news from home, I needed a bit of calm and quiet, and being a crisp, sunny February day, I took my bike and went for a ride in the Colli Euganei. It was a wonderful day out – although it hasn’t started to get warm yet, if spring isn’t in the air,…

One of my favorite traditions of Padova is getting together with friends in the early evening to drink “spritzes”, an aperitif made from fizzy water, white wine, and either aperol or campari (actual recipes change from bar to bar). While one may imbibe a spritz in most bars in Padova (and Venice), to do things…