The XX Factor

Be Italian!

Do you ever feel like running away from it all? Do you sometimes wish you could dump the laundry, the dishes, or the morning commute and head off to the Trevi Fountains? Instead of sitting hunched over at your desk, can you picture yourself barefoot on the back of a Vespa, hair mussed up, zooming round the piazza on your way to an ice cream? Does Italian food and wine taste better in Sienna than Seattle? What is it about the sensuality of Italian life that appeals to so many women as they wake up to yet another gray day’s routine?

I’m wondering aloud, because in the past week I have had two pieces sent in by American women who headed to a change of scene in Italy. One went as a single student, the other as a married mother of two. I’ll be posting both pieces today and the life described in both of them made me long to hop on the next plane to Rome.

What do you think? Do you shout Viva Italia! Or does another country’s culture make your heart beat faster? Let me know at emma@thecomebackbook.com

Photograph of gondola by Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images.