American Top Ten

This is my top ten list of things I missed while we lived in Italy.

10. Being able to use more than one large appliance at the same time.
We didn't have enough power in the house to use the dishwasher, oven or washing machine at the same time, so doing laundry and the dishes took twice as long as it would normally take. If we forgot and tried to bake something while trying to wash the clothes or the dishes we would blow a fuse. It was sooooo frustrating.

9. Our Car
Going grocery shopping with two boys on the bus was terrible. We didn't have enough arm space or strength to carry all the food home in one trip so we had to go shopping more than once a week. NOT FUN!

8. Carpeted Floors
They only have wood or tile floors, so tummy time with a baby is not good. Sam hit his head so many times I finally gave up and didn't do tummy time, which is why he scoots instead of crawls.

7. Food that is not "Italian"
We once told a friend that we were missing all the different kinds of food we can get back home. Carlo said that they eat a lot of different kinds of food. "We eat food from Bologna, Naples, and Genova." Any kind of food that wasn't Italian was over priced, greasy and bland.

6. Ice cubes
Italians prefer their water luke warm, so they don't do ice. We found some ice cube trays when we first arrived but they broke after one use so we didn't bother after that.

5. The Clean Air Act
I've grown to have a new hatred for smoking. People would light up then bend over and breath into my children's faces. I really hate smoking.

4. Sidewalks without poop
Many Italians never clean up after their dogs. Our opinion is that dogs don't belong in a city where there is no grass. Squish...'nuf said.

3. Gallons of Milk
They only sell liters of milk. One liter costs the same as a gallon, but you go through them so much faster. Try

2. Cheddar Cheese.
We were informed that Cheddar is not real cheese because it's yellow not white. So Italy does not sell it. (however we found some white cheddar at Sam's Club and we are sorely tempted to send it to Italy and say "It's white....is it cheese now?")

1. The Internet
It would have cost us over $100 to get internet in our apartment for the year, so we had to do everything at the school. I couldn't even call home without going to the school.

Life is just more Convenient here in the good old US of A. We enjoyed our life in Italy and I will forever be grateful to our friends in the Bologna Ward, but there are always things you miss from home.

PS- I didn't have enough numbers to mention how grateful I am for our clothes dryer. It takes about two days to dry your clothes in Italy. So it's nice to be back in a country where my towels are warm and fluffy when dry.