By Crista Carlson, AmeriCorps member at La Conner School District
As a longtime lover of Italian food, I could only imagine all of the delicious dishes I would be eating during my first trip to Italy. Even though I was devouring all kinds of pizza, pasta and tiramisu I still came home five pounds lighter and with more energy. Despite all of the delicious food Italians are surrounded with, I saw very few people who were overweight.
One of the key differences I noticed was in the way they did their shopping. Here in America or at least here in La Conner, we often head to Safeway for our weekly groceries and Costco for everything else. Instead Italians have daily markets which are filled with fresh produce to be used for that day’s meal. I also noticed most if not all walk to accomplish this daily task. If they do have a car, it is usually so tiny they really couldn’t put more than one bag of groceries in it anyway.
I concluded that meals were determined by foods available and foods available were determined by the region you lived in. Brilliant! Sorrento is famous for lemons and because of it lemons are used in everything. There are lemon noodles, lemon milk, lemon salad, lemon bread, lemon jelly and it all tastes delicious. There are lemons the size of a cantaloupe; something I didn’t even know was possible.
It was also hard to ignore how much the average Italian walked. Even if they did own a car, driving was not usually a daily activity. As many people know the cities are just not built for it. Venice is perhaps the ultimate example of this. There are no cars in Venice, only small alleys and bridges to cross every canal. Walking actually allows you to absorb more of the atmosphere and beauty around you, things I tend to miss while driving.
While traveling I never felt deprived. It just became the way it was, a way of life. I didn’t crave a midnight snack knowing that going to retrieve one could potentially involve a two-mile walk! Walking to get to places began to seem natural and easy.
After coming home I recognized how truly easy it is in America to overeat or become inactive. We have so many conveniences in our daily lives. We have cars to take us where we need to go instead of walking, we have escalators many times instead of stairs and we have 24 hour convenience stores and drive-throughs instead of fresh daily markets. I realized in order to keep those five pounds off, I would have to make a conscious effort. While I do love the convenience of my American ways, I might just incorporate a little bit of Italy into my lifestyle!
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