On leaving Italy

The other day, as part of one of those insightful quizzes that only Facebook can offer to us, I publicly declared that Colombia and Italy are number one and two in my personal ranking of "best countries in the world". Some people could say that those choices are just another failed attempt of being funny through irony. No: I honestly think that the two only countries in which I have lived are among the best places in the world to live. 

To my surprise, two Italians reacted to the presence of Italy in my ranking. They wonder "why Italy?" This post is intended to answer that question. It also coincides with the fact that I am leaving Italy later this week, thus closing a very interesting period of my life. I am supposed to return for a few, busy weeks at the end of the year, so any concluding remarks about my life in Italy should be better stated now. 

Italy and Colombia share the fact that they are wonderful countries for everyone but their own citizens. I think it's human nature not to apprecciate what you have had for free for so long; to have a lot and still to complain about some missing part.  Consider the Italian case: the weather is excellent for the European context, people are suprisingly open and friendly, and the culture and food are outstanding. Italy has serious problems, of course, as every country in the world does.  Italy is well known for its corrupted public administration, infested of greedy, cynical politicians; a disease which has grown out of the indifference of ordinary citizens, who reject the situation but that unconciously promote it by doing nothing to change it. It is the Italian system which is wrong and needs urgent reforms, not the country at large, with all the good things it might have. 

There is then a subtle distinction between a country and the system that underlies it. It is common to confuse the two things and to misjudge the latter because of the shortcomings of the former. Such shortcomings seem as impossible to deal with, especially if you have never seen other systems, other visions of the world. Then you realize that a change is possible, that things can be done. By living in Italy I have been able to compare the only system I knew of with a different one. This was most useful to apprecciate the many good things in my own country, and to give its many shortcomings a right proportion. 

Everyone should have the experience of living abroad. (Notice that some vacation doesn't count as "living," in my opinion.) You become more tolerant, and learn to apprecciate new facets of life. I can tell that change in myself, as I can certainly perceive it in the Colombians living in other parts of Europe, as well as in my those Italian friends who have had the chance of living abroad. It's hard to explain, but they're different. For the Italians the effect of living abroad might be more significant: unlike other countries, in Italy you can live your whole life in the small town where you were born. The risk is that your perception of the world is very narrow; the feeling of being a foreigner can be unvaluable to open your perspectives. 

Now I am looking forward to experiencing the French society. I am in particular curious about how the fact of having lived in Italy might change my perception of it. And how my third-world mentality can accommodate to understand, assimilate, and apprecciate a new system. Stay tuned.