So I guess I haven't asked before, but being from the San Francisco area, what's the makeup of your Italian community there? I know there are plenty, but do they tend to be from certain parts of Italy and are they recent or more distant generations?
Vino sfuso is great. A taxi driver in Florence turned me on to that whole concept. He was telling me about his upcoming weekend plans, that they were going to get wine, and that I probably had no idea what he was talking about. So he started to explain vino sfuso (I think he had a local term for it as well, can't remember). Something tells me the State of Maine would not like me filling people's jugs with my homemade wine, but man that'd be awesome to get going here.
The one thing I forced myself to do today was to go there. I don't know if it is the most beautiful local train stop in Europe, but it has chandeliers, beautiful pictures, extravagant mosaics, gorgeous lighting. Comparing this local train stop to, for example, to the train stop at Times Square or the Embarcadero in San Francisco isn't even fair. I was saying to myself, "This is Naples?" Five years ago, I would never had considered taking the local train.
If this came from anyone else, they'd have to convince me those pictures were from Naples. I haven't visited there in way too long, it seems. Maybe next year, as we're planning to stay in the south.
Finally, the south really is very different. It's hard to get to know northerners.
Fully agree.