In 2010, I moved to Milan. I had already been to Italy several times but always as a tourist or within my family. During one year, I stayed with Erasmus people and observed the Italians from the outside. When I finished school, I started hanging out with Italians and even moved in with one. I suddenly discover another world… I changed from the icy girl that could not stand “the Italian noisy/maccho behaviour” to the girl actually enjoying everyday their "bizarreries". I decided that I should share my experience with non Italians.

This is how it starts….

NB: I would like to mention that even if sometimes I’m a bit sharp and sarcastic, it’s more a way of emphasizing how I ve been surprised by the difference of culture. Being not Italian, you will probably always be in a cultural learning process; but the only thing that I know, now that I'm back to France, each time I hear some Italians speaking, I think it's like singing and that they're performing a show, the show of living, which makes me immediately smile...

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

I. Mess is more (Sweden vs. Italy)



I recently travelled to Sweden and had to realize that however the country is so well organized, I love my Italian “casino” (mess). I always wanted to go to Sweden, cause I love the landscapes there, the architecture, the wood giving a comfy atmosphere, the design SO SO smart. But as one of my friend said once there: “it s as if I was living in a IKEA closet”. It’s kind of freaky. Everything that you would expect to enhance your day to day life has already been thought and is already there. I will only quote a few one:
-       a ice cream holder, so you can put it there while paying at the cash desk,
-       a door system limiting the flow to the bus, so you don’t get 15 persons at the same time jumping on the bus,
-       distributor of plastic bags in train so its so easy to get rid of the trash,
-        “slot machine “ giving you the rest of the coins so there is no mistake possible and probably no hands contact,  
-       ticket number for queuing everywhere,
-       or even the fact that they have been born with  a proactive/ problem solving attitude ( I apologies, there is no AC in the room, well would you like a fan ?, or do you want me to trash your ticket ?).
Everything is so clean, and comfy, in brief, the senses experience is so nice. Though when I arrived in Stockholm, I didn’t get this strange feeling I usually get when I fall in love with a city, like something completely not rational, talking to my emotional brain. I found the city cold and impersonal. I guess I prefer the mess which makes you hold your breath as in Barcelona, or NYC or even Milan.  It was funny that for somebody like me, with a 6 sigma background, pro org change, living for enhancement was not feeling at the end like in the perfect country to live. It was like finding the perfect guy and still, something that you don’t know, nothing rational though, were missing… I’d like to mention that when I went to Stockholm, I saw my Swedish friends that lived in Milan for one year, and they were just craving for turning back, they were saying that life was too boring there… I guess MESS IS MORE. 
And from now on I will enjoy Nordic Design from Italy via IKEA or H&M :-)
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