Published in ILLUMINATION·Mar 19Member-onlyA Moving Experience: PediCURE in SarajevoBy the time I landed in Sarajevo, I was a nervous wreck. …Sarajevo5 min readSarajevo5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Mar 17Member-onlyA Moving Experience: The High Stress of Safety AbroadOne of the disheartening things about returning to places in Europe where one has lived for decades — not years, mind you, but DECADES — is that no one wants to deal with Americans anymore. By “no one,” I specifically mean European banks. It started with FATCA in 2010 and…Italy5 min readItaly5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Mar 11Member-onlyA Moving Experience: Monte-Carlo on foot, drinking caffé“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” goes the saying. The more things change, the more they remain the same. That is halfway true of Monaco, where I had lived throughout the 1990s but had not revisited for almost a decade. The weather on the Côte d’Azur was perfect…Monte Carlo5 min readMonte Carlo5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Feb 18Member-onlyA Moving Experience: The Lifecycle of a CoatA wardrobe is in constant flux. When you change jobs, lifestyles, climates, and countries, you should rethink the clothes in your closet. This is especially true when you are moving TO or FROM a country like Italy, arguably the most clothes-conscious country in the world. My lesson came early when…USA5 min readUSA5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Feb 13Member-onlyA Moving Experience: The Disappearance of Can DoItalians have always admired American logic, rationality, organization, and ability to Get Things Done. They may see in the US a culture and lifestyle inferior to their own, but they respect the Can Do attitude across the ocean. …USA5 min readUSA5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Jan 18Member-onlyA MOVING EXPERIENCE: SHINGLE WELL SHOCKI was living in Italy when a friend stateside uttered the world “shingles. Shingles? Wasn’t that something from an 19thth century Dickensonian novel? So old-fashioned: surely no one gets shingles in this day and age. Except that my friend had gotten it, twice, and emphasized how unpleasant it was. It’s…USA3 min readUSA3 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Jan 17Member-onlySee Naples and LIVEThe first time I visited Naples, I had not heard the expression, “Vedi Napoli e poi muori.” It wouldn’t have made sense to me anyway, not as Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe intended when he immortalized the saying in 1786. Back then, Naples was at the height of its Renaissance glory…Naples3 min readNaples3 min read
Dec 18, 2022Member-onlyA Moving Experience: Bah, humbug. The American DreamOnce upon a time, Europeans — not all but many — looked across the ocean to the American Dream with admiration and envy. Americans were more pragmatic, more positive, more energetic, more upbeat, and more honest. None of the dangling cigarette cynicism of the Italian intellectual, the entrenched ennui of…Irs5 min readIrs5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Dec 11, 2022Member-onlyA Moving Experience: Officer Krupke and the Call Center Blame GameOne thing that call centers in Italy and the US have in common — the reps you speak to are most likely NOT located in Italy or the US. One difference is that Italian call centers state explicitly that “the person you will speak with is in Albania, say, or…USA4 min readUSA4 min read
Dec 5, 2022Member-onlyA Moving Experience: The Agony of American Auto-mated InsuranceOf the MANY aspects of American life that have changed since I last lived in the US, one of the more dramatic is the change in auto insurance. That difference was pounded home when we had a little fender-bender in early November. A young man, rushing home, sideswiped our car…Auto Insurance6 min readAuto Insurance6 min read
