Q: How fast can a snail move?

A: 10 times faster than you can get something done in Italy.

Marco, the eletricista, electrician arrived today to make the final hook-up for our high-speed internet connection in the studio (he arrived late we might add). It has only taken 10 years to make this incredible feat happen. Actually, that’s not fair, because we finally got wireless in the house 3 weeks ago. But, to our dismay, the signal couldn’t go through the stone walls of the studio. That is one of those anachronistic collisions between timeless construction and timely global communications. So, as a result, we decided to simply use the cable in the studio—no big deal.

When we stop to think about it, over the 10 years, there wasn’t anything that needed to happen that didn’t happen. Somehow, we were able to survive without high-speed internet access, and quite nicely.  Yes, it required some ingenuity, resourcefulness and a little more time, but now, looking back, we can’t imagine what we would have done differently with that time had we saved it.

This is perhaps one of the hardest lessons to learn in Italy, despite the fact that she is a very good teacher—how to allow life to happen rather than to make life happen. Everyone has their own pace when they walk, and we would characterize Italy as having a slow ambling kind of stroll where you stop and talk every few minutes. After a while, the pace settles in and starts to feel natural—sometimes even good.

So now we begin the arduous process of trying to pay Marco for his work, which could take weeks or even months. Wait a minute . . . we think we are beginning to really like this after all!