"I almost didn't recognize my daughter when I first saw her. It had been 45 days since she left the US to study abroad in Rome. She met me outside her Italian dorm, wearing a flowy beige dress and olive-colored satchel, embracing an Italian vibe. She mentioned she had gone to an Italian secondhand market to find her new threads. As they say, "When in Rome.""
"My arrival in Rome was overwhelming. It all started when my husband, younger daughter, and I landed in Rome after a brutal red-eye flight at 6 a.m., which, to us, still felt like midnight. After about five seconds of considering taking public transportation from our hotel, our jet-lagged brains decided that was well above our pay grade. In hindsight, that was the right call, as my daughter later showed us how to navigate the system. Let's just say an engineering degree is probably necessary."
"I quickly realized that not only was she an expert at navigating this city, but she was also growing into herself as an adult. After briefing us on the essentials of Italian culture - like how dinner typically starts at 8:30 pm, not 6 pm - my daughter moved on to the most critical lesson: identifying the tourist traps. If you're wondering how to spot an inauthentic restaurant, the giveaway is a laminated menu with photos. She said it's a food culture scarlet letter."
A parent arrived in Rome after a red-eye flight and reunited with a daughter who had been studying abroad for 45 days. The daughter appeared transformed and embraced an Italian style, having shopped at a secondhand market and wearing a flowy beige dress and olive-colored satchel. The family initially struggled to find the dorm and navigate the city, but the daughter demonstrated expertise in city navigation and transit. She explained Italian cultural norms such as later dinner times and taught how to identify tourist-trap restaurants, warning that laminated menus with photos signal inauthenticity.
Read at Business Insider
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