Italy: small & disorganized and yet enchanting.

We're just back from Italy after spending the last 25 days there, and as much as I complained about the heat and disorganization we experienced, I'm missing it already. We spent most of our time in the southern regions of Italy, around Rome and Nerano (just an hour south of Naples). The first thing we noticed was the complete lack of discount chain stores, as well as a lack of chain restaurants. The only North American fast food chain I saw was MacDonalds, and they had very few stores.

Here are a few somewhat-business related thoughts:

• Scalability of a such a small nation is a huge problem. Living in Canada, we understand the problem to a certain extent, but are still somewhat shielded because of our proximity to the US. So, it's not often that we have to pay $5 for a can of soda here, but then again, Italians don't have to endure shopping at Wal-Mart. Pick your poison.



• The mindset is almost completely opposite that of North Americans. Instead of "bigger is better", we learned that the best restaurants were small, family-run operations on side streets. The family-run hotels had consistently better service and breakfasts than the chains did. The streets were cramped and the cars even more so, which forces energy conservation. All of the sudden, our big cars, air conditioning units and clothes dryers don't seem so great.

So, aside the from the normal re-wiring your brain goes through when you go on vacation, we went far enough way for a long-enough time to force me to think about things from a different perspective. While it's hard to gain a true understanding of anything in 25 days, my recommendation for anyone planning a first visit to Italy is to make it at least that long. That way, you'll allow yourself enough time to learn to appreciate that famous Italian "zest-for-life".