<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nEating in Eataly<\/h2>\n
So there we were, an American and an Englishman surrounded by the very best of Italian products in an environment that, honestly, seemed more like an amusement park than a grocery market\/restaurant.\u00a0 Sure, there was a dizzying array of prosciutto, cheeses, pastas, wines, artisanal beers, and even household products.\u00a0 But there was also a rock band playing 80’s tunes translated into Italian, flashing lights, a twisting network of escalators in every direction, like some slow-speed roller coaster for shoppers.<\/p>\n
The question became, \u201cIs this the way out for Italy economically?\u00a0 To become a cleaned-up, sterilized version of itself?\u201d\u00a0 After all, Eataly is brand new to its namesake country. \u00a0The business found success abroad first, and then was brought back \u201chome.\u201d\u00a0 The result is something conspicuously less \u201cItalian,\u201d yet unquestionably a winning formula.<\/p>\n
The balance is a tricky one.\u00a0 How does Italy move forward, grow its economy, and provide a higher standard of living for its citizens without giving up the identity that made it so well-loved in the first place?\u00a0 If, by some miracle, Italy suddenly became organized, regimented, and \u201cby the book,\u201d then perhaps it wouldn’t be Italy anymore.\u00a0 It would be, well\u2026Germany.<\/p>\n
Alex certainly has a better sense of these topics than I do.\u00a0 For a deeper discussion of these subjects consult his website.\u00a0 And if you are really serious about understanding the real modern Italy, beyond the fantasies that we all like to hang onto, then consider becoming a member of his site.\u00a0 But this is the challenge for Italy today: to maximize the potential of its incredible resources, while slowing casting off the old mentality of nepotismo, furbizia, and to some degree, campanilismo.<\/p>\n
Thanks again to Alex Roe for taking time to discuss the many joys and woes of both Italy, and\u2026Eataly.\u00a0 Ciao!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wrote in my pre-trip post that I\u2019m going to be seeking out \u201cstories.\u201d\u00a0 More specifically, the stories that interest me involve people who are doing their best to make Italy a better place in their own way.\u00a0 The sort of folks that strive to celebrate all the things that made the \u201cOld Italy\u201d so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169,211,9,8],"tags":[384,214,496,61,215,212,77,63],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}