I’m starting this post on the plane back to the U.S., after nearly three terrific weeks in Italy. Apparently, I am getting out in the nick of time, as temperatures in the 100s are predicted. Here are some random thoughts:
Using AI for good, not evil
Everyone is nervous about the implications of the AI world, and I’m sure those worries are justified. That said, it was a remarkably helpful tool that we used countless times every day for quick access to things like train schedules, carry-on regulations, bite-sized historical info, menu translations, trail descriptions, and the like. It was occasionally wrong, but only occasionally, and when it was, it would apologize nicely and correct itself, much more politely than the typical human does when they make a mistake.
This trip, I found a very personally meaningful use for AI. I gave up sugar almost 50 years ago, for no particular compelling reason, other than there was an anti-sugar, white-poison food fad at the time. I’m sure it’s been beneficial overall, but I miss it every day, especially when I’m in Italy, where the gelato is nearly irresistible. I allow myself an occasional artificially-sweetened treat, and every once in a blue moon, I can find gelato in Italy made without sugar. This quest always requires me to go to a promising looking shop, and say “Senza zucchero?” And they nearly always shake their heads no.
This time, Ben had the bright idea to ask AI where to find sugar-free gelato. In most of the towns, it said it was not available anywhere, and saved me the trouble of my forlorn quest. But in Milan, AI gave two options. One turned out to be wrong, but the other one had three flavors — unheard of! — and reader, I had all three.
Packing light
Even last year when I stayed in Italy for six weeks, I only took a carry-on. I hate being stuck at the airport carousel, waiting for my bag to arrive, and I need to be nimble hopping on and off subways, buses, and trains. My strategy is to always book at least one Airbnb midway through with a washer and a dryer, which is not a given in Italy where clotheslines are the norm.
I have the largest allowable carry-on, stuffed to the gills, and this trip, found I was not able to lift it into the overhead bins. While I was able to carry it up flights of stairs with a heavy pack on my back, it wasn’t pretty. So I have vowed to get myself a smaller bag and force myself to pack accordingly.
A few years ago, I started getting Facebook ads for 100% merino wool, with the claim that you could wear a garment for 100 straight days without washing it, and it wouldn’t get “stinky.” I was skeptical, but it turns out that the advertising claim is true — I had two merino t-shirts that I alternated for two plus weeks of temps in the high, muggy 90s, and they were totally unstinky, as well as much more comfortable than the other shirts I lugged around would have been. Plus, they are very lightweight and squish down to nothing.
So my next trip, which will be on my own in September so no help with lifting, I vow to bring a very small bag and just a few merino items, so I can walk miles and climb onto trains with ease. Can I have the discipline to do it? it? We’ll see.
Snoopy
A few years ago, I read a wonderful Ann Patchett essay about what a brilliant character Snoopy, of Peanuts, is, for his career as a writer (and many other things like supermarket cashier and World War I flying ace), his relationship with “the round-headed kid” whose name he can never remember, and his friendship with Woodstock, to name just a few.
Of course, I had read Peanuts as a kid, but hadn’t given it much thought in the intervening years. But after reading her essay, I paid attention when I came across it, which was more and more frequently, as Facebook, with its creepy ability to read our minds, started to put Snoopy cartoons in my feed, and then upped the ante by giving me Peanuts cartoons in Italian. What better way to practice a language?
Truth be told, I may have gone a bit overboard, with Snoopy sheets, bowls, dishes, trucker hat, beach towel, T-shirts, and luggage tags. But ducking into a souvenir stand to find something inexpensive to buy to break a 50-euro bill, my eyes landed on the perfect item, and I could not resist.
Gigi's Italia 